Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Mead Lovers Digest #1099
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1099, 15 May 2004
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1099 15 May 2004
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Price of honey (Michael Faul)
Moving honey (was Re: hitting pasteurization temp ) (Michael Faul)
Re: BJCP Mead Guidelines (Bill Wible)
Adventures in Mead Cuisine ("Dan McFeeley")
pH meter ("Vince Galet")
11th Annual BUZZ Off Home Brew Competition ("Christopher Clair")
banana mead? (myn@iyerfamily.net)
special occasion meads (myn@iyerfamily.net)
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com.
Use mead-request@talisman.com for [un]subscribe/admin requests.
Digest archives and FAQ are available at www.talisman.com/mead. There is
a searchable MLD archive at hubris.engin.umich.edu/Beer/Threads/Mead
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Price of honey
From: Michael Faul <mfaul@rabbitsfootmeadery.com>
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 16:49:41 -0700
Not to argue but the information you provide below is incorrect. It
should read something like this instead ;
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2002/NEW00831.html
The Chinese honey was being dumped (low prices) on the US market (not
dumped because of the contamination) and as a result of the illegal
'dumping and the contamination the honey was not allowed to be sold o
nthe US market.
anyway....
mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
> Subject: Price of honey
> Honey is high this year for a couple of reasons. China is a large supplier
> of "industrial" honey, and they shipped over a bunch that was contaminated
> with anti-biotics. This had to be dumped, and greatly lowered the supply.
>
> In addition, last summer sucked for honey production in many areas. Rainy,
> overcast days do not make for great honey production, and that's exactly
> what a large portion of the country experienced last summer. This made
> domestic production low, as well.
>
> I say pass the brew-shop by for honey, and look for a local apiary.
I agree. If you can find it. I unfortunatley need 10,000 lbs a year.
Mike
------------------------------
Subject: Moving honey (was Re: hitting pasteurization temp )
From: Michael Faul <mfaul@rabbitsfootmeadery.com>
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 16:52:32 -0700
>>Subject: Re: hitting pasteurization temp
>>From: Michael Faul <mfaul@rabbitsfootmeadery.com>
>>Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 17:05:18 -0700
>>
>>Or you could put 275 gals honey, 600 gallons of water in the brew kettle
>>and heat to 160, hold for 15 mins and pump through the heat exchanger at
>> 65Deg F
>>
>>Mike :-)
>
>
> Mike,
>
> You've got me wondering...
>
> In a microbrewery, it's usually manpower (and a shovel) that moves the grain
> from sacks or a large hopper into the crusher, and sometimes from the
> crusher into the mashtun, if the crusher doesn't feed into the mashtun. How
> do you move 275 gallons of honey from whatever storage facility you have for
> it, into your brew kettle? I'm guessing it's not by shovel! ;)
High viscocity eccentric worm gear pump. 5 gals per minute at 250psi
positive displacement.
I'll post pics later.
Mike
------------------------------
Subject: Re: BJCP Mead Guidelines
From: Bill Wible <wwible1@comcast.net>
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 19:57:23 -0400
>I have always held the opinion that mead shouldn't be like wine -- wine is
>too acidic, grassy, buttery, vegetal, pineappley, asparagus-like, etc.
If you're drinking wine that is buttery, vegetal, or asparagus-like,
you're drinking BAD wine.
I've said this many, many times. Mead is wine, honey wine. It is not
beer. I questioned early and often since passing the BJCP exam why
mead is even part of the BJCP style guidelines, which are for beer.
Jeez, sake is closer to beer than mead is, and the BJCP doesn't
have even have a category for that. So I still question the inclusion
of mead as a "style of beer". It is wine. Always was, always will be.
Bill
------------------------------
Subject: Adventures in Mead Cuisine
From: "Dan McFeeley" <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 11:11:47 -0500
My daughter, age 6, the budding chef. She's been watching
Emeril Lagasse's programs and got inspired. This morning
she proudly told me she had made up her own recipe, a
combination of chocolate chips and butter, melted together.
She and Mom had been dipping apple slices in it last night.
After I dropped her off at school this morning, I grabbed a
few strawberries at the local grocery store and a small bottle
of Port (I'm a third shift worker, so even though it's morning,
it's evening for me). Wow! This is really good stuff. The
strawberries, chocolate dip, and Port all come together in
wonderful ways.
Another venture, this one into mead cuisine, was with a mead
vinegar made by Chuck Wettergreen. Mead vinegars have been
described in the literature as having an especially good aroma
and flavor, and this vinegar certainly lived up to that reputation.
The tarragon sprig added an extra touch. Very nice, exceptional
flavor and aroma, some residual sweetness remaining from the
mead made this really unique.
The residual sweetness made it ideal for a marinade. I let a chicken
breast soak in that good mead vinegar for a good long time, seared
the chicken briefly in a pan, then let it simmer, covered, with the rest
of the marinade along with some minced shallot. Remove the chicken,
an added splash of traditional mead to deglaze the pan. The chicken
juices, mead marinade, and traditional mead shallot, simmered and
reduced, along with the minced shallot, made a wonderful sauce.
I had this on brown rice. A small salad rounded it off. My oh my,
that was good.
There it is! A very simple recipe, easy to prepare, and a truly
excellent meal.
Has anyone else found unique combinations of various meads,
melomels, metheglyns, etc.? How did they work together?
In a round about sort of way, talking about mead and food pairings
is also talking about mead "oenology." The tannins, acids, sweetness,
and various flavors of wine work together in particular ways with
particular foods. There are good reasons why my daughter's
chocolate recipe worked well with strawberries and Port, the
kind of reasons oenologists talk about. This is an unexplored
area in meadmaking, but looking at certain pairings of particular
meads with particular foods would help provide clues here.
How about it? Any other mead chefs out there?
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
------------------------------
Subject: pH meter
From: "Vince Galet" <vince@scubadiving.com>
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 13:37:55 -0400 (EDT)
Rick,
The good news is that apparently you got a real pH meter (not a gadget)
The bad news is that it is a little more demanding to use/maintain
1) it is critical to store in the solution otherwise you may damage your
probe
2) your pH "samples" are buffer solutions. They are pretty stable if not
contaminated by bacteria. You would know if they are off if your pH starts
drifting badly from what it is supposed to be (yet you will not notice
small changes). I can't give you a time estimate but I would not keep them
more than 6 months assuming good conditions.
3) You can use any (clean) container for your solution (preferably glass
or plastic). By definition, buffer solutions are not very sensitive to
dilution (much less than "regular" solutions) but they still are if you
dilute too much so you should use the solution as is - otherwise you may
be slightly off.
Note that for wine/mead/beer you don't need to be extremely precise (4.1
would be as good as 4.2) but it defeats the purpose of using a precise
instrument if it's to compromise the precision by biasing the calibration.
enjoy your new toy
Vince
------------------------------
Subject: 11th Annual BUZZ Off Home Brew Competition
From: "Christopher Clair" <buzz@netreach.net>
Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 19:45:24 -0400
For anyone trying to access our website to download forms, we are currently
down due to the problems with the Home Brew Digest servers. I do not know
when we will be back up. If you need forms, please email me at
buzz@netreach.net. Feel free to use any AHA approved forms for entry or
bottles. We will extend the drop off/mail in deadline at Brew By You ONLY
(no other sites) until Wed., May 19th. The mail in address is as follows :
- ------------------------------
Brew By You
20 Liberty Boulevard, Ste A-4
Malvern, PA 19355
610-644-6258
888-542-BREW (Toll Free)
610-644-6629 (Fax)
http://www.brewbyyou.net
- ------------------------------
We apologize for any problems thst this has caused. Good luck to everyone
who enters and if you are interested in judging or stewarding, please let me
know!
Christopher Clair
buzz@netreach.net
http://hbd.org/buzz
"The mouth of a perfectly happy man is filled with beer."
- - Ancient Egyptian Wisdom, 2200 B.C.
- -----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Clair [mailto:buzz@netreach.net]
Sent: Monday, April 05, 2004 7:17 PM
To: judge@synchro.com; post@hbd.org; techtalk1@aob.org
Subject: 11th Annual BUZZ Off Home Brew Competition
Brewers Unlimited Zany Zymurgists (BUZZ) is proud to announce that the 2004
BUZZ Off home brew competition will be held on Saturday, May 22nd at Iron
Hill Brewery & Restaurant in West Chester, PA. For another year we will be
a qualifying event for the prestigious Masters Championship of Amateur
Brewing (MCAB) as well as the Delaware Valley Homebrewer of the Year. All
BJCP recognized styles including meads and ciders are eligible for entry.
For complete details and forms, please visit the BUZZ web site at
http://hbd.org/buzz.
Entries will be accepted between April 26th and May 16th. For drop off and
mail in locations please refer to the BUZZ web site. Please, do not send
entries to Iron Hill.
BJCP Judges and stewards will be needed. If you are interested please
contact me or another committee member (contact information can be found on
the web site). All judges must be BJCP certified.
Good luck and cheers!
Christopher Clair
buzz@netreach.net
http://hbd.org/buzz
"The mouth of a perfectly happy man is filled with beer."
- - Ancient Egyptian Wisdom, 2200 B.C.
------------------------------
Subject: banana mead?
From: myn@iyerfamily.net
Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 12:40:46 -0700 (PDT)
Just wondering if anyone had ever made a banana mead,
and if so how it turned out.
Also, if you've made one you've liked, do you have a
recipe to share?
Thanks!
Melinda
------------------------------
Subject: special occasion meads
From: myn@iyerfamily.net
Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 12:42:37 -0700 (PDT)
My daughter's first birthday is coming up. To mark the
occasion, I had the idea of making a very special mead.
We could then open a bottle every year on her birthday.
Right now she's not old enough to enjoy it with us, but
she will be someday :)
Any suggestions for ultra-special mead recipes?
Melinda
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1099
*******************************
