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Mead Lovers Digest #1139
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1139, 15 November 2004
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1139 15 November 2004
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1138, 8 November 2004 (Aaron)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1138, 8 November 2004 ("Gary Yandle")
Slow Fermentation (SRNagley@aol.com)
Sweet Mead question ("robscott@freeshell.org")
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Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1138, 8 November 2004
From: Aaron <gumbyk@ureach.com>
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 23:54:36 -0500
> My personal feeling is that meadmaking is much in the "negative"
> era described by Mondavi, where honey is seen as a negative.
> Many guidelines for meadmaking tacitly assume honey as
> little more than a super saturated sugar solution, with flavor
> and aroma contributed by the floral source, but lacking in
> sufficient nutrients, acidic quality, buffering agents, ect.,
> and requiring technology to "rescue" the mead.
The nicest meads that I have made have been simply honey, water,
and yeast. It can be hard to bring out the subtle flavours of a
honey without leaving the mead cloyingly sweet, and that is
probably why I have seen very few 'simple meads' posted on this
forum. There is probably a belief that if you want a dry mead,
then there has to be another flavour to make up for the lack of
honey flavours. This is not so.
Has anyone done a comparison of what different honeys taste like
once fermented? Without anything else added (not even nutrients)?
It could prove to be an interesting exercise.
Aaron Marshall
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Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1138, 8 November 2004
From: "Gary Yandle" <llamahll@mindspring.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 07:01:31 -0700
Hello David,
I have used honey to prime my honey/wheat ales that I make. I make 5
gallons of ale at a time and when ready to be bottled I prime it with 1/2
cup of honey mixed and boiled in 2 cups of water. This recommended amount
comes from Charlie Papazian's book The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing page
174. I've have used this amount with very good results for ale but have not
tried it with making a sparkling mead. Perhaps others here on MLD will have
more experience with this subject and offer more insight.
Gary
> Subject: priming with honey
> From: David McDonald <davidmcd@gmail.com>
> Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 23:45:44 -0700
>
> I have a mead which is ready to bottle, and I'd like to prime it with
> honey, for carbonation. How much should I use, for a 5 gallon batch?
>
> Thanks,
> David
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Subject: Slow Fermentation
From: SRNagley@aol.com
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 21:03:43 +0000
This is my 1st post to the group. I have a problem that I???m sure other???s
have encountered.
I have made only a handful of meads over the last 5 years or so but
everytime I attempt to make a plain mead, I get very sluggish or stalled
fermentation. I???m really more of a homebrewer but enjoy meads and wine
also. My knowledge has come from a couple of articles in Zymurgy magazine
and I also have "The Complete Meadmaker" by Ken Schramm.
I have made several melomels that have fermented quickly and turned out OK,
but when I make a mead without any fruit, the ferment stalls or doesn???t
seem to start at all. I understand that honey needs additional nutrients
in order to ferment so, based on one of the articles in Zymurgy, I got
some specially formulated mead nutrient from The Beverage People (in
CA). I have used this along with additional nutients in some attempts,
all to no avail. Am I confined to making melomels only?
In the first mead I added the acid when starting the mead, but since
reading ???The Complete Meadmaker??? decided to hold off doing the acid
balancing until completion. ???That???s what I must be doing wrong??? I
thought. Apparently not as I???m stuck again. I have pitched 3 different
yeast over the course of 4 weeks since starting my latest mead and I keep
being encouraged by what appears to be activity, but the gravity hasn???t
moved but ~ 1 Brix in that time. I rehydrated the initial yeast pitched
(Cotes de Blanc ??? sp), made a starter using dry malt extract on the
second attempt (a champagne yeast) and just sprinkled the third yeast
(also a champagne) on the surface. I thought the temp might be a little
cool so I pumped up the heat to between 75 & 80 F.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Steve Nagley
Old Forge, Pa
------------------------------
Subject: Sweet Mead question
From: "robscott@freeshell.org" <robscott@freeshell.org>
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 22:46:08 +0000 (UTC)
Hi!
I recently made my first mead using Wyeast 3184 - Sweet Mead, with
Original Gravity of 1.1 as of August 15 and today it is 1.003, so
it has roughly 14% alc. by vol. and no significant sugar left -- that is,
it's not a "Sweet Mead" anymore.
It also tastes like piss. Could the 5 teaspoons of Yeast Nutrient (in 5
gallons must) be responsible since the N was likely in the form of urea?
It's honey from a local farm -- bees mainly foraged clover, alfalfa,
vegetable crop flowers, and wildflowers. Must was boiled. No pectic haze.
Strong opinions welcome.
Rob Scott
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1139
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