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Mead Lovers Digest #1185
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1185, 22 May 2005
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1185 22 May 2005
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
RE: HOT!! too hot... ("aboyce@mn.rr.com")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1184, 18 May 2005 (David Collins-Rivera)
Re: HOT!! too hot... ("Dan McFeeley")
Re: Larger fermentation tanks ("Josh Stender")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1184, 18 May 2005 (jtollefson83@comcast.net)
Sugar Clay Winery / mead ("matt_lists")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1184, 18 May 2005 (tjharley762@aol.com)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: RE: HOT!! too hot...
From: "aboyce@mn.rr.com" <aboyce@mn.rr.com>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 10:11:38 -0400
Kevin May asked:
>> Does anyone have a method to do that wouldn?t destroy the
>> delicate balance of tastes and sweetness that I want to keep?
There are only two ways that I know of to reduce the alcohol content of
your mead, and both are likely to change, if not destroy, the balance that
you have achieved.
One - dilution. You could mix your mead with something with less alcohol.
The most logical choice is pure water (boiled and cooled before adding, to
sterilize it.) I don't have the formula, but you could add by trial and
error.
Two - boiling. Boiling a portion of your mead will drive the alcohol from
it, then by cooling and re-adding it to your mead you will be, in effect,
diluting the final product. This method is very likely to introduce
oxidation into your final product also, which could be good or bad in a
mead, depending on your taste. But the boil is very likely to drive off
some of your flavor and aroma also.
Finally, if your mead is fusel-alcohol hot, you could dilute and still end
up with a mead that "feels" hot.
You could try both methods with a small sample of your mead to see if
either one achieves your balance goal.
- - Al
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1184, 18 May 2005
From: David Collins-Rivera <lostnbronx@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 08:47:57 -0700
Now I don?t mind the high alcohol, but I would like to
> lower it slightly, say into the <12% range so that I
> could give them out to others. Does anyone have a
> method to do that wouldn?t destroy the delicate
> balance of tastes and sweetness that I want to keep?
>
> Thanks for a great list
>
> Kevin May
>
Kevin,
The only safe way I can think of is to dilute with a new batch of the same
secret mead made to a much lower ABV. You can use the same ingredients, only
this time, stop the fermentation process early on -- adjust your ingredient
proportions, of course. Clarify as needed, then blend the two meads. Age as
necessary. The flavor should be pretty much the same. A simpler method, and
probably a better one, might be to just age your high alcohol batch until
the heat fades a bit and the flavor balances out.
- -David
------------------------------
Subject: Re: HOT!! too hot...
From: "Dan McFeeley" <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 11:28:42 -0500
On Tue, 17 May 2005, in MLD 1184, Kevin May wrote:
>It is ready to bottle now and upon testing it I found
>that while the taste and sweetness is exactly where I
>want it, the alcohol content is high. . . .
>Now I don't mind the high alcohol, but I would like
>to lower it slightly, say into the <12% range so that
>I could give them out to others. Does anyone have
>a method to do that wouldn?t destroy the delicate
>balance of tastes and sweetness that I want to keep?
Two methods -- you can try aging the mead and hope
that the process of esterification (formation of esters
by combination of alcohol and acid in the mead)
will slowly reduce the alcohol level. It'll take some
time, but the formation of esters that may be aromatic
could improve the mead even more.
You could also make a second mead, just as good,
but lower in alcohol content, then blend the two
meads. The Pearson Square is often used in calculating
resulting amounts from blending. Take a look at these
URL's for guidelines:
http://www.geocities.com/mipeman/acids.html
http://winemakermag.com/feature/84.html
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/blending.asp
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Larger fermentation tanks
From: "Josh Stender" <castings@got.net>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 12:49:54 -0700
Greg-
My local shop, "The Original Homebrew Outlet" has had the idea of selling
used beer kegs (@15.5 gallons) to be used as fermentors. They say you can
just pull the valve out of it, insert a stopper with an airlock, and use as
normal. I don't see them listed in their online catalog, but I saw a pallet
of them at their shop last time I was there. I believe they were selling
them for about $40. If you interested I'm sure you could work out shipping,
etc. Their web address is below. If you come up with any other ideas I
would be interested to know as well, since I've been considering stepping up
my batch size as well.
http://go.to/homebrew_outlet/
Josh Stender
> Greetings all,
>
> Anyone have any suggestions about where to get a larger fermentation
> tank, preferably stainless? I want to make batches about 25 gallons or
> so.
> I'm tired of running out of mead, so I want to step up production, within
> the legal limits allowed for homebrewer, of course. ;)
>
> Anyone out there have experience with such equipment? Any advice would
> be welcome.
>
> Greg Fink
>
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1184, 18 May 2005
From: jtollefson83@comcast.net
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 21:59:45 +0000
If you havn't done so you might want to consider letting it age longer and
maybe adding tannin to balance out the flavors. How old is your mead? What
was your recipe?
If you've aged it for awile and you feel confident that you've achieved
more or less the "final" taste of the mead, you may have to add a little
honey and sweeten it up a bit. Sweeten to taste so you don't add too much
and make it too sweet. Thankfully dryness is an easy problem to correct.
> Subject: HOT!! too hot...
> From: Kevin May
> Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 05:51:50 -0700 (PDT)
>
> I have a rather unique problem. I made a mead this
> past year using a very subtle ?secret ingredient?. It
> is ready to bottle now and upon testing it I found
> that while the taste and sweetness is exactly where I
> want it, the alcohol content is high. I failed to get
> a measurement, but I would guess it is in the
> neighborhood of 15-18%.
>
> Now I don?t mind the high alcohol, but I would like to
> lower it slightly, say into the <12% range so that I
> could give them out to others. Does anyone have a
> method to do that wouldn?t destroy the delicate
> balance of tastes and sweetness that I want to keep?
>
> Thanks for a great list
>
> Kevin May
------------------------------
Subject: Sugar Clay Winery / mead
From: "matt_lists" <matt_lists@liquidsolutions.ws>
Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 10:29:18 -0700
Anyone out there know these guys or have tried their mead??
Just curious.
Matt Maples
Liquid Solutions
450 Beers, Wine, Meads and Ciders online.
www.liquidsolutions.biz
503-524-9722
May mead regain it place as the beverage of gods and kings.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1184, 18 May 2005
From: tjharley762@aol.com
Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 22:49:22 -0400
Kevin, your question about reducing alcohol content without destroying
the delicate nature of your finished mead is one for which I see only
one "quick" solution, and that not necessarily a good one. There is a
longer-term solution, but this may well leave you with more mead than
you want, and might also result in a different character to your
finished mead.
If you are willing to take a chance for a quick fix, and if you have
only a few gallons of mead, set up a double boiler using two different
sized stock-pots, or a stock-pot and a carboy, and slowly heat the mead
to about 100 degrees F. The alcohol in the mead with begin evaporating
at that point, and if you can keep things constant and do some
calculations about alcohol percentages in real volumes, you can predict
how much volume must be lost to achieve the right degree of
evaporation. I do NOT recommend this method, as heat changes things, so
if you do insist on doing this, keep the temp to 100 degrees F or
BELOW. Any higher will leave you wondering why your mead suddenly
tastes different, since such things are not unheard of.
Hopefully, this won't change the character of the mead too greatly, and
you should probably experiment with a small quantity on the stovetop
first. It is essential that you not allow the bottom of the carboy or
inner pot to get too hot, and you might have to build some kind of
'stand-off' mechanism that'll allow a heavy carboy to be off the bottom
of the boiler pot (ceramic BBQ rocks in the water work if you're
careful with them). If you allow the temperature to get too high, your
mead will begin to change chemically, and oxidation will be accelerated
by the increased heat, as well as producing a FIRE RISK!!! When setting
up the double boiler, I suggest the carboy, simply because you can put
a fermentation lock on it and keep outside oxygen away from the brew,
minimizing the oxidation that might occur, and you can pipe the alcohol
fumes away from the heat source.
OK The other option, that I WOULD recommend, but isn't a quick
fix......
The only other option I see is to put your mead away in a cool, dark
place with no air or ants able to reach the brew, and brew yourself
some dry mead with the same ingredients, yeast, acidity, and character,
but do so with only enough honey to finish dry at a lower alcohol
level- or use a different yeast that is not as hearty, but this
involves possible changes in the character of the finished mead that
you might not want. Calculations about how much of a different alcohol
content mead to add to reach a specific level in the finished product
should be worked out in Algebra I, starting with X*(quantity Mead A)
plus Y*(quantity Mead B)= Z*(quantity mead with proper alcohol
content). I'm sure someone here can help. Anyway, once you've done
this, let the two meads mellow together for several weeks, then bottle.
OK, on to the other question by Greg....
Hey there. If you can find a stainless-steel fermenter that's exactly
25 gallons, you are likely to be on the hook for about two-hundred
dollars for a simple tank with lid and plumbed for a fermentation lock
and drain. If you want a "nice" tank of thicker guage steel, gorgeous
welds and spiffy 'clog-proof' drain, you'll be looking at between three
and five HUNDRED dollars, if you want to buy new. Your local homebrew
shoppe can order it for you if they don't have one new in the box for
you. Before I ordered one, I'd check www.craigslist.com in the 'for
sale' category under "fermenter" or "beer making" or "wine making"
(separate searches). Check once a day for two weeks or so and you'll be
suprised what you find right around the corner for one tenth the price
of new.
I use 15 gallon (or 16 gallon) plastic Hops barrels, that come to the
brew shoppe from their 'syrup supplier', arriving full of Hops syrup.
Large brewers and syrup producers have these barrels sitting around as
well, and a local microbrewery might have a stack of them 'in back'.
Ask the manager. Again, the homebrew shoppe is likely to have several
sitting around in the back, waiting for their next syrup delivery.
Also, you can find fruit juice producers will put their concentrate in
15 or 20 gallong barrels of a similar plastic, but I don't think these
are as durable, since they're really for storage until use, while the
hops barrels are in constant use as the syrup is sold by the gallon or
quart at ye old homebrew shoppe. Ask and ye shall likely receive.
Good luck to both of you.
Peace
Tom
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1185
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