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Mead Lovers Digest #1203
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1203, 29 July 2005
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1203 29 July 2005
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Astringency problem ("J. Russ")
Re: Chocolate mead (David Houseman)
Re: Astringency problem (Charles Sifers)
Re: Hot Chocolate Mead (Talon McCormick)
2nd place mead recipe (Jack Stafford)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1202, 25 July 2005 (Chris Yate)
Bananas! (Patrick Devaney)
Lees in final product ("Trevor James")
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Subject: Re: Astringency problem
From: "J. Russ" <jruss@jaysbrewing.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 13:12:28 -0400
Dick Adams wrote:
Subject: Astringency problem
From: rdadams@smart.net (Dick Adams)
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 02:55:26 -0400 (EDT)
I brewed a braggot using 3-lbs each of DME, clover honey, and
sweet sorghum syrup. It is now six week old and in a secondary.
It has a nice aroma, but is very astringent. [too much syrup]
A review of the digest provided suggestions such as
1. Age and pray
2. Blend til you have a good compromise.
3. Clear with gelatins or egg whites.
4. Add a non-fermentable sweetner
It has to age at least a year so option #1 is already in effect.
Option #2 seems to me to be excessive work and unnecessary risk.
Option #3 seems to me to be too early to implement.
Option #4 looks good, but what are non-fermentable sweetners
and how much should be used?
Opinions appreciated.
Dick
............................................................................
Dick,
You might want to try polyclar instead of gelatin or egg whites. Polyclar
is reputed to reduce hop bitterness. I'm not sure if it would reduce your
astringency, but it's worth a shot.
Cheers,
Jay
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Chocolate mead
From: David Houseman <david.houseman@verizon.net>
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 12:38:35 -0500 (CDT)
I have made a very nice chocolate mead by adding Gharredali (sp?) chocolate
to a mead in secondary. The mead itself was a sweet mead. The Gharredali
(sp?) cholocate was a rich, dark, dutch (I believe) powder used in baking.
I made a syrup with this chocolate powder and warm water which I added
to the mead. After a month or so I racked this off and bottled it.
Very chocolate. I also had a raspberry mead and a medium chipolte mead.
Mixing these in various combinations yield some great flavors.
Dave Houseman
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Astringency problem
From: Charles Sifers <chazzone@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 12:44:07 -0500
On Jul 25, 2005, at 11:38 AM, mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
> Subject: Astringency problem
> From: rdadams@smart.net (Dick Adams)
> Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 02:55:26 -0400 (EDT)
>
> I brewed a braggot using 3-lbs each of DME, clover honey, and
> sweet sorghum syrup. It is now six week old and in a secondary.
> It has a nice aroma, but is very astringent. [too much syrup]
>
> A review of the digest provided suggestions such as
> 1. Age and pray
> 2. Blend til you have a good compromise.
> 3. Clear with gelatins or egg whites.
> 4. Add a non-fermentable sweetner
>
> It has to age at least a year so option #1 is already in effect.
> Option #2 seems to me to be excessive work and unnecessary risk.
> Option #3 seems to me to be too early to implement.
> Option #4 looks good, but what are non-fermentable sweetners
> and how much should be used?
>
> Opinions appreciated.
>
> Dick
>
I've made a lot of braggot (we call it viking soda-pop), and I can't
imagine aging it for a year. I'd reckon that the sorghum is the source
of your astringency. You didn't mention what hops you used, but they
could be contributing to the problem, as well.
Braggot is essentially beer, and should be treated as such for best
results. That means it should be drunk as fresh and early as possible.
Mine are all done by about 6 weeks, even when I made one with a
gravity approaching an imperial stout.
I'd recommend blending with another batch until it's drinkable, and if
you really want a good tasting braggot, forget the DME and do grains,
instead. DME will never give a full flavor profile.
- -zz
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Hot Chocolate Mead
From: Talon McCormick <nmccormick@earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 14:39:56 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
My wife and I use unsweetened baker's chocolate for our chocolate based
meads, etc and they all turn out fantastic!
Give that a try before you go to the extract and you might like what you get.
Talon.
------------------------------
Subject: 2nd place mead recipe
From: Jack Stafford <sunbus@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 20:14:21 -0700
The Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, CA has an annual
homebrewed beer and wine competition. This year
I earned another second place in the mead category.
Blackberry Melomel, still, yield 5 gallons.
16lb. Wildflower honey
9lb. Blackberries (whole, frozen)
35ml. Ale yeast (White Labs WLP001)
Heat three gallons of water to a boil. Add honey and
stir until mixed well. Add must to a plastic bucket
with blackberries. Top up to 5.5 gallons with cold
water and add yeast. Rack the liquid to glass during
the third week of fermentation at 70F. Bottle 11 months
later. Serve 16 months after bottling. OG 1.140 FG 1.054
- -Jack
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1202, 25 July 2005
From: Chris Yate <chrisyate@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 12:06:43 +0100
>=20
> Subject: Re: Hot Chocolate Mead
> From: rdadams@smart.net (Dick Adams)
> Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 12:18:15 -0400 (EDT)
>=20
> > Anybody out there made a mead with hot peppers and chocolate?
> > I am looking for a recipe. Thanks.
>=20
> I made a chocolate mead using Hersey's chocolate. It came out
> somewhat bland. =20
I'm not surprised. Hershey's chocolate is rubbish. Get some Green and
Blacks 70% cocoa chocolate - the real stuff. I've not tried making
chocolate mead, but if you're going to it's worth using decent quality
chocolate.
Chris
------------------------------
Subject: Bananas!
From: Patrick Devaney <damien777@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 10:01:56 -0700 (PDT)
Hi Everyone,
I've been requested to make a banana mead for next
summer. Anyone have good/bad experiences with
fermenting honey + bananas? Any tips? Any good
recepies? It's for a wedding :)
Thanks!
Patrick
------------------------------
Subject: Lees in final product
From: "Trevor James" <James@management.uottawa.ca>
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 16:47:04 -0400
First let me appologize for cross contanimation, but in reading
there are many beer brewers on this list as well as mead
brewers, so I am saving the time in looking up a beer list.
I have just finished my first batch of beer (and in Month 3 my
mead, and maple wine are looking very good), but the final
product has about 1tsp-1tbs of lees per standard bottle.
Since I would like to make sparkling mead using the same
finishing method (1 tsp corn sugar per bottle) I am wondering if
this is normal, or if I should have done something (or not done
something) to avoid this.
My first thoughts were
SG too high to bottle
I should have filtered
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
T. James
- --
james@management.uottawa.ca
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1203
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