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Mead Lovers Digest #1160
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1160, 16 February 2005
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1160 16 February 2005
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Paradise Lost... ("Mark A. Salowitz")
Cheap Honey? (Alexandre Enkerli)
Bread Yeast (hillsofg)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1159, 12 February 2005 (Ken Vale)
Sweetening post-fermentation + bottle carbonation (Jeremy Janzen)
RE: orange mead and acidity ("Wout Klingens")
newbie info needed (Jeremy Bergsman)
Temperature Control ("Len Wenzel")
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
A searchable archive is available at www.gotmead.com/mead-research/mld
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Paradise Lost...
From: "Mark A. Salowitz" <belg@pheonix.org>
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 13:24:02 -0500
Well, if anyone remembers my recipe I sent out regarding "Heaven in a
Glass", I'm going to have comment that now it's something more of
"Paradise Lost". Over the holidays, a couple of my bottles have rather
violently ejected their corks... as fermentation restarted in the
bottles after some substantial time idle. Now, even my cool, 65 degree
basement is no protection. I walked downstairs to find one of my bottles
empty, the cork laying 20 feet away, and 3 bottles with at least 1/4"
migration which are now in the refridgerator on it's coldest setting.
I'm looking for some good, non-sulfide suggestions for how to offgas
these bottles so I don't have to worry about them, or get overly drunk
trying finish them off before they go pop... I've had one suggestion
that a horse syringe and needle inserted between the cork and the glass
to offgas it might help... but I have no idea of something like that is
available to the public.
Any ideas welcome, "been done before sucessfully" ones preferred. The
mead is still AWESOME and I'd like to preserve it.
Thanks all,
Mark Salowitz
------------------------------
Subject: Cheap Honey?
From: Alexandre Enkerli <aenkerli@indiana.edu>
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 14:28:32 -0500
Steve Ruch was saying Costco has clover honey at less than $10 for
6lbs. Is it a limited-time thing? Anyone checked somewhere else? By any
chance, would anyone know about similar prices in Canada (in the
2?3CAD/lbs. range)?
Been waiting for honey prices to go down... Does this mean part of the
supply problem is solved, at least for clover?
This could be very exciting!
AleX in South Bend
------------------------------
Subject: Bread Yeast
From: hillsofg <hillsofg@netvision.net.il>
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 22:43:22 +0300
The Gotmead forum has a recipe for "Ancient Orange Melomel" that uses
Fleishmann's and receives approval from all who have made it. I couldn't
resist such a counter-culture idea and made some too - it's only a
couple of weeks into secondary, but it looks and smells fine. Delicious,
in fact. I'm afraid to taste it yet because the author adamantly tells
you to leave it alone till done, several times, in the recipe(maybe
Something Weird will happen to me if I go against orders).
Miriam Kresh
www.hillsofgalilee.com
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1159, 12 February 2005
From: Ken Vale <kenvale@rogers.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 16:57:21 -0500
mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
>Subject: Subject: Re: Orange Juice Mead Lover's Digest #1157, 3 February 2005
>From: "Robert Keith Moore" <Rob@ineedachef.com>
>Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2005 16:14:40 -0800
>
>>his is what Acidex (or other acid reducing additives) is for.
>>Ken
>>
>>
>
>Ken
>Tell me more about this Acidex. Is this something you use a lot. Does it
>have a taste. Is it expensive. I have always avoided additives. I use water,
>juice, honey, and yeast. I have tried pectic enzyme and can not see any real
>reason to use it. The occasional burst of extra oxygen at the start is never
>a bad idea. I like the concept of purity and simplicity.
>I tried 5 gallons of Orange juice with a gallon of honey and Wyeast
>Bordeaux. It was so clear and the alcohol went to 17%. It smelled fruity and
>good. About 2 sips and you were almost doubling over with acid pain in your
>stomach. We split the batch and put it in a 12 gallon keg with more water
>and honey and still it was to much acid. No person that I spoke with
>mentioned an acid reducing product. Where were you when I needed you?
>
>Thanks,
>ROB
>
>
Likely I wasn't making mead... I've only been at it a few years, but
lots of questions and read lots of stuff. Acidex is a trade name for a
white powder (I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I'm sure it is a
Calcium Carbonate of some type) packaged and sold by Wine Kitz (which is
a Canadian chain of homebrew stores selling mostly wine kits). My first
encounter with a high acid mead involved some local wild grapes, which I
used to make a Pyment. Now I knew that they likely had a high acid
before I started and thus I tested them (I forget what the reading was)
and realised that I had to alter the acidity. I did dilute the must as
much as I could (given volume and taste concerns) and it was still to
high. I started doing some research into what could be used to reduce
acid (other than water), chalk (yes white chalk used on blackboards) was
suggested as was a number of products. I wanted to use Acidex as it was
not likely to alter the taste of the must (other stuff can add a chalk
or soapy taste to the must/wine), I went to the local stores and none of
them had anything. The Wine Kitz store said "we don't know when we will
be getting anymore in, our supplier doesn't have any." Yeah so in a
desperate move I added some Baking Soda to the must (boy did that fizz)
and well it reduced the acid all right; the problem being I didn't trust
the result after I read something about baking soda adding a salty taste
to the wine (after I had done it of course...). I ran into some other
problems with that batch (which resulted in me trying to make vinegar
out of a bottle of it, which also failed), courently I have two bottles
that have been aging for almost 2 years which I'm almost afraid to try...
Ken
(hmm... maybe I'll oen a bottle tonight)
------------------------------
Subject: Sweetening post-fermentation + bottle carbonation
From: Jeremy Janzen <jeremy.jj@sasktel.net>
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 13:56:04 -0600
Hi there. I'm making my first batch of mead in a few years. Its
basically a modified version of the Barkshack Gingermead (which I've had
great luck with years ago). The recipe is nearly identical, but with
approx 10 pounds honey used, + 2 pounds of quartered limes steeped in
the must, and then in the primary fermenter for the first week. I am
planning to bottle carbonate it.
Here is the problem/question: fermentation is slowing (now nearly 1
month in, gravity of 1.000) and the mead is almost totally clear. As
such, I tried a sample of the mead to test flavour. IMO it isn't sweet
enough - I probably shouldn't have added acid, considering the limes
(lesson learnt!). Anyway, I could sweeten it post-fermentation by
sulfiting and then adding small amounts of honey to taste; except by
sulfiting I will be killing yeast needed for bottle carbonation. And if
I don't sulfite, I'll run the risk of overcarbonation and bottle bombs.
I believe I read something in the digests about using an artificial
sweetener to solve this problem - something yeast cannot convert to
alcohol and c02. What I'm looking for is details about this process.
Which sweeteners to use; baseline amounts to start with; general
experiences with this type of post-fermentation artificial sweetening.
Thanks so much!
Jeremy
------------------------------
Subject: RE: orange mead and acidity
From: "Wout Klingens" <wcm.klingens@hetnet.nl>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 16:01:01 +0100
Hi, gang.
Ok, just this once. For old times' sake.
1. You do not use CaCO3 or Acidex on wine. You use on on must.
2. Acidex works on malic and tartaric acid.
3. Orange juice has a lot of citric.
4. Acidex and the like bind citric to substances which dissolves in mead.
They won't precipitate, making your mead salty, bitter, undrinkable.
5. You shoot for a must with a TA of about 8. It will lower after
fermentation is done *if* MLF occurs.
6. You do not want MLF in citric. It makes vinegar.
5. You look for pH *only* to buffer the pH during fermentation. It speeds up
things, but binds acids --> see above. So it has some drawbacks.
6. When *must* is too acidic, you mix can it with water. In mead you won't
have body problems.
7. If your *mead* turns out too acidic then blend it with an a mead lacking
acidity. Measure the TA first! End TA depends on the type of mead you are
making. There are data out there in books and on the internet.
Nuf said.
Greetings to the old gang. Still out here. With my own orchard nowadays!
Cheers,
Wout.
------------------------------
Subject: newbie info needed
From: Jeremy Bergsman <jeremy@bergsman.org>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 13:35:39 -0500
Hi,
I'm an experienced homebrewer trying to help a beekeeper friend start making
mead. We live near New Haven CT. I'd appreciate two suggestions:
1) a good, simple first recipe
2) where to get supplies. I have all the homebrewing-related stuff, but our
one semi-local shop doesn't seem to have mead stuff. Either a local place
we're missing or a good online place would be great.
Thanks.
- --
Jeremy Bergsman
jeremy@bergsman.org
http://bergsman.org
------------------------------
Subject: Temperature Control
From: "Len Wenzel" <len.wenzel@rogers.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 17:23:39 -0500
Recently I became a little concerned about a batch of beer I was brewing,
that it was too cold, and that the temperature had too large a variance
daytime/nighttime. The answer became fairly simple, I tried a heating pad,
wrapped around a towel, around my carboy. On high, (on a fairly low powered
heating pad) I was able to maintain a very stable 74 degrees, which seems
optimal for both brewing beer, or mead.
I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked. Fermentation, both
primary, and secondary, was very vigorous, and continuous, until the
available sugars were used. Taste seems first rate.
Has anyone else used something similar to making Meade? I am looking
forward to starting a batch of Meade, as soon as I get some more honey. I
guess I can't help but wonder why I didn't try this sooner, there have been
quite a few batches of both Meade, and beer, over the last few years;
that really could have used a heater, to provide a stable, optimal
temperature.
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1160
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