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Mead Lovers Digest #1150
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1150, 6 January 2005
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1150 6 January 2005
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
RE: Description and Tasting ("aboyce@mn.rr.com")
Ume Mead ("Paul Shouse")
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Subject: RE: Description and Tasting
From: "aboyce@mn.rr.com" <aboyce@mn.rr.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 12:54:47 -0500
Diane Kistner asked:
> I'm wondering if anyone has a way of determining by smelling what's coming
> out of the air lock how a mead is progressing. ... (I wasn't planning to
> rack it until two full weeks had gone by.)
I generally leave my meads in Primary for three months, and don't worry
about the aroma coming from the carboy. My experience has been that meads
don't ferment fast - after two weeks, my meads are still fermenting very
actively. I have never had a mead finish in under a month.
Do you use a hydrometer? That's how I tell if my meads are done. I like
to have my meads at around 1020 final gravity. If a hydrometer test yields
a higher gravity than that, and if the bubbles are still appearing in your
airlock every 3-5 seconds, I'd just let it go.
As my folks used to say: Anything worth having is worth waiting for!
- - Al
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Subject: Ume Mead
From: "Paul Shouse" <paul_shouse@kmug.org>
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 10:26:57 +0900
My Ume Mead was bottled about 12 weeks ago, and so I have just sampled a
bottle to see how it turned out.
First, the recipe: 3 kilograms of a generic dark wildflower honey, one
kilogram of small green ume (split) and brewing water to make 11 liters (three
gallons). Original gravity was 1084, and the pitch was Lalvin EC-1118 in a
honey starter. Japanese ume are used to make plum wine, among other things,
but are actually a type of apricot and are usually picked green.
This mead was an experiment from the start and was influenced heavily by the
contents of this digest. It was my first time using that honey, my first
fruited mead and the first time using Lalvin yeast. As always when trying
things out, I had many surprises. The first was how active the yeast was. It
began blowing foam out the airlock almost immediately and didn't slow down for
a week. The aroma blasting out of the airlock was intensely plummy. After 7
days the mead was racked into a secondary and topped with another kilogram of
honey. Two months later fermentation had slowed to a crawl, and since there
was still lots of fruit chunks in the bottom, I racked it into a tertiary and
topped it with brewing water. As always with high tolerance yeasts, the mead
tasted horrible at this point. One month later fermentation had stopped, but
the mead was still quite cloudy. I assumed this was a major case of pectin
haze and bottled anyway. Final gravity was 995.
Now, three months later the 'haze' has settled to the bottom revealing itself
as a fine non-clumping particulate. This mead requires careful handling and
decanting. The flavor is still unfinished and a bit yeasty harsh but still
quite good. It is very dry with just a hint of sweetness (exactly as I was
hoping it would be) and the flavor of the ume is becoming dominant. Altogether
it will be a fine mead this time next year.
What I learned: First, be much for careful about particulate from fruit. I
should have been more careful racking, used some form of fining perhaps
gelatin, and allowed the mead much more time to settle before bottling. I will
also freeze the fruit next time, and not split them. Adding fresh fruit to the
secondary might be and idea as well. Secondly, I am very happy with the
performance of the Lalvin yeast. It fermented so quickly and cleanly...... I
am used to multi-year fermentations. Four kilos of honey in three gallons
seems to be just about right with EC-1118 I plan to try other strains soon
starting RC-1212. Thirdly, I need bigger carboys and more bottles!
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1150
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