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Mead Lovers Digest #1197
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1197, 6 July 2005
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1197 6 July 2005
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
rhodomel (Sharon Labchuk)
Re: Question about Chai Tea for Mead (Ken Vale)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1196, 4 July 2005 (Lazurus106@aol.com)
Re: Question about Chai Tea for Mead (Randy Goldberg MD)
Re: New Method of Monitoring Specific Gravity (Dick Adams)
Re: Buckwheat Mead (Dick Adams)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1196, 4 July 2005 (Chris Yate)
plastic carboys ("Kirk Hansen")
Hydrometers in Honey Must ("Dan McFeeley")
moving mead (Mike Grau)
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: rhodomel
From: Sharon Labchuk <slabchuk@isn.net>
Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 16:36:24 -0300
Does anyone have a recipe - preferably tried by someone somewhere and
recommended - for a rhodomel? The best roses in my area are blooming for
another week.
Sharon
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Question about Chai Tea for Mead
From: Ken Vale <kenvale@rogers.com>
Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 16:41:09 -0400
> Subject: Question about Chai Tea for Mead
> From: "Adam Boyle" <adamtboyle@hotmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 02 Jul 2005 16:53:57 -0500
>
> Fellow Mazers,
>
> I have been reading the archives for the past three years but have
> never gotten around to subscribing or posting until now. I just finished up
> a batch of braggot, that is wonderful, and am on to another endevor. While
> shopping I found a Chai tea mix and am planning to add it at bottling time.
> The recipe so far is just 12# of honey from my local beekeeper, water, Cotes
> des Blancs yeast. The Chai mix is black tea, cardimom, black pepper,
> ginger, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, organic cane sugar, honey, ginger
> juice, vanilla and citric acid.
> My question is this, the container says there are 16g sugar per
> serving. Eight servings per container, which makes 128g sugar per
> container. I was planning on adding two of these to a 5 gallon batch.
> Now,
> will this be enough sugar to carbonate my meth.? I usually add half a cup
> of honey and get good results. Do I need more sugar or less? Im not sure
> what the conversion from grams to cups is.
> Any help with this would be appreciated.
>
> - -Adam Boyle
> adamtboyle@hotmail.com
Adam
You might want to try a cup of this Chai Tea mix before you use it.
I have found that there are usually 2 varieties of Chai Tea, one with
Black Pepper and one without Black Pepper. I once bought a cup of Chai
Tea with Black Pepper and could not drink more than 2 sips of it before
I threw it out, that cup has to be the most revolting cup of tea I have
every had. So be warned try stuff like that before you add it to your
mead (throwing out a cup of tea is no big deal, throwing out 5 gallons
of Mead is a very big deal).
Also 128g of sugar works out to about 4.5 ounces or just over 1/4 of
a cup, one source I have suggests using 30% more honey in place of sugar
(so maybe just over 1/3 of a cup of sugar would equal out you 1/2 cup of
honey).
Ken
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1196, 4 July 2005
From: Lazurus106@aol.com
Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 20:54:38 EDT
Greeting Kinsman,
On planting Buckwheat we do it every year for the bees in one of our bee
yards. The critical thing is to get old fashioned buckwheat seed. Not modern,
much like red clover the modern buckwheat has a flower steam too long for bees
to get into.
Our 88 year young bee keeper friend told us about this after the first year
that got us nothing for honey. He very nicely didn't laugh at us.
The old fashioned buckwheat seeds cost us about $65 a bag at the co-op.
Keep in mind the deer and turkeys will also love it.
Cheers,
Dutch
In Madison, WI USA
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Question about Chai Tea for Mead
From: Randy Goldberg MD <randy@randygoldberg.net>
Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 22:08:17 -0400
>=A0My question is this, the container says there are 16g sugar per
>=A0serving. =A0Eight servings per container, which makes 128g sugar per
>=A0container. =A0I was planning on adding two of these to a 5 gallon batch.=
=A0Now,
>=A0will this be enough sugar to carbonate my meth.? =A0I usually add half a=
cup
>=A0of honey and get good results. =A0Do I need more sugar or less? =A0Im not=
sure
>=A0what the conversion from grams to cups is.
>=A0Any help with this would be appreciated.
According to the FDA, 1/2 cup of strained honey weighs about 168 grams, and=
contains 138 gm of sugar and 30 gms of water. Two containers would be=
nearly double your normal priming dose. I'd go with one.
****************
Randy Goldberg MD
RandomTag: Government: group that does violence to the rest of us.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: New Method of Monitoring Specific Gravity
From: rdadams@smart.net (Dick Adams)
Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 22:25:36 -0400 (EDT)
Spike <spikedmead@gmail.com> asked:
> Has anyone ever tried just leaving a little extra head space in
> a carboy and tossing a hydrometer right into the carboy and just
> leaving it in there? (Just something that poped into my head
> while I was reading this).
>
> I would think that if there was a LOT of fermentation going on,
> the foam would cover up the hydrometer and it might be ok once the
> fermentation slows down and there is not much of a head any more....
>
> Thoughts?
I have done it and it works well for high gravity when you are
looking for the drop in gravity. As for precision, it's like a
broomstick with a micrometer on the end of it.
Dick
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Buckwheat Mead
From: rdadams@smart.net (Dick Adams)
Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 22:51:09 -0400 (EDT)
Doug Smith" at <The North Avenue Trade School> asked
> It's interesting that all this talk about Buckwheat mead has come
> up recently, seeing as I was deciding to make some high gravity/high
> alcohol Buckwheat mead right before all this talk about it began. I'm
> glad to have heard what people had to say about it, good and bad (if
> it was a thoroughly bad idea, though, I waited too late to research
> it). I just received a five gallon pail of buckwheat honey from Dutch
> Gold a couple days ago, and though strong, I like the flavor (I've
> heard that's an important point when dealing with strong flavored
> honeys). I'll probably start on it right after I send this message,
> and I'll let you know how it goes.
Be prepared to age a long time before you will have a drinkable
product. It is waiting for mead to age that got me into extract
brewing.
Let me pass on to you two things Mike Faul of Rabbitsfoot Meadery
wrote at rec.crafts.meadmaking.
1) Aerate the mead after adding the yeast. This can be done with
aerator you attach to a drill or with oxygen.
2) Add 1/2 of your nutrient with your yeast, 1/4 about 24 hours
later, and 1/4 when the SG has dropped 30% as in 1.10 to 1.07.
Since you are on a University campus, you might consider putting
up signs offering to pay $1 each for unchipped Carlo Rossi 4 liter
wine bottles. They make great carboys for one gallon tests of
untested great ideas.
You might also think about making a braggot.
Dick
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1196, 4 July 2005
From: Chris Yate <chrisyate@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 11:10:34 +0100
> Subject: Re: New Method of Monitoring Specific Gravity
> From: Spike <spikedmead@gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 08:10:23 -0700
>
> Has anyone ever tried just leaving a little extra head space in a
> carboy and tossing a hydrometer right into the carboy and just leaving
> it in there? (Just something that poped into my head while I was
> reading this)
> I would think that if there was a LOT of fermentation going on, the
> foam would cover up the hydrometer and it might be ok once the
> fermentation slows down and there is not much of a head any more....
> Thoughts?
>
> Spike
I've done this a few times in a batch of beer when I knew I wasn't
going to be using my hydrometer for anything else in the meantime.
Works nicely, but it tends to leave quite a bit of dried on gunk on
the glass tube.... Those things don't work to a particularly high
level of accuracy so I'd not be too worried about it affecting the
measurement.
Yes, the bubbles obscure the hydrometer to begin with but after that it's o=
k.=20
However, I don't really see the point - at least for beer, the
approximate pace of bubbles through an airlock (and the flavour :-)
are usually enough to convince me that it's ready for bottling. Don't
have any real experience of mead apart from that it seems to take
blooming ages!!
Regarding my previous post - Tried the plain mead last night, and I
think it'll be OK. I will rack it off tonight, if I get time, and see
if it clears in time...
Chris
------------------------------
Subject: plastic carboys
From: "Kirk Hansen" <khansen567@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2005 09:29:09 -0500
I am a new subscriber and a first-time poster. I have reading the archives
and trying to absorb as much information as possible. There is an incredible
amount of great material on this digest that has been extremely helpful to
me. I enjoy the tone of the digest. Posters seem to be here to help one
another rather than entering into games of ?one-ups manship.? I am also
impressed by the effort Dick Dunn puts into the distribution/publication of
this free digest year after year. Perhaps Dick might want to someday
author/edit a book on ?The Best of the Mead Lovers Digest??
There has been some recent discussion on the merits and use of buckwheat
honey. On June 12th, I started a 5-gallon batch of root beer mead using 12
pounds of buckwheat honey. When I first purchased and sampled the honey, I
thought that it was going to put me into insulin shock (just kidding). I
thought, however that the honey would stand up to the bottle of Homebrew
Root Beer Extract. Tonight I am going to taste it and will probably sweeten
it up with clover honey. I?m using Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast, but in retrospect
I probably should have used an ale yeast.
I have started four batches since Memorial Day (traditional, root beer,
maple, and pyment from concentrate). This weekend I plan to start up a batch
of blackberry melomel. My problem is that I only own three glass carboys.
>From reading the archives I have learned that rapid oxidation is to be
avoided like the plague as it will impart off-flavors. I have also learned,
however, that tannins have an anti-oxidant property. I have further learned
that gradual oxidation in oaken barrels is not a bad thing as it does not
produce the sherry-like result of oxidation. I am unclear whether it is the
tannin from the oak or the very slow rate of oxidation (or a combination of
both) that prevents the oxidation problems. There seems to be a general
avoidance of the use 5-gallon plastic water cooler jugs for secondary
fermentation due the fact that they might allow oxidation. It seems to me,
however, that they rate of oxidation would be extremely slow. I would doubt
that these jugs would oxidize mead any more quickly than oaken barrels.
Since plastic jugs are much cheaper than glass carboys I am considering
experimenting with them. Has anyone experimented with these jugs in the
past? Is there anything that I haven?t properly considered?
Kirk Hansen
------------------------------
Subject: Hydrometers in Honey Must
From: "Dan McFeeley" <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 09:22:31 -0500
On Fri, 1 Jul 2005, in MLD 1196, Spike asked:
>Has anyone ever tried just leaving a little extra head space
>in a carboy and tossing a hydrometer right into the carboy
>and just leaving it in there? . . . .
Joe Mattioli, a regular poster on the GotMead forums, does
this. He uses cheap hydromters, about $1.95 each, which
he gets from this source:
http://www.listermann.com/Store/products.asp?id=2
He says it works well. I've never tried it myself but keep
telling myself to check into it.
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
------------------------------
Subject: moving mead
From: Mike Grau <mikegrau@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 09:16:43 -0700 (PDT)
hi mead lovers-
i have a batch of blueberry melomel that's been in the carboy for about 5
months. about a month ago, i racked and added 3 more pounds of blueberries,
which are still in there. now my dilemma: i will be moving from central
pennsylvania to missouri in about three weeks. i can't see if the mead has
cleared because of the dark color the blueberry addition has imparted. what
should i do with the stuff? i am going to rack it again and check it for
clarity, then if it's okay, bottle it up and take it with me. i'm just
wondering if it's not clear, i wonder if i could still try bottling it, or if
that would be unnecessarily dangerous. i can always give the batch away to a
fellow homebrewer, but of course i'm reluctant to part with it. anyone have any
suggestions?
thanks!
- -m
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1197
*******************************
