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Mead Lovers Digest #1196
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1196, 4 July 2005
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1196 4 July 2005
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: New Method of Monitoring Specific Gravity (Dick Adams)
Clearing mead - paranoia (Chris Yate)
Re: New Method of Monitoring Specific Gravity (Spike)
Buckwheat Mead ("Douglass Smith")
Question about Chai Tea for Mead ("Adam Boyle")
Buckwheat mead ("Ed Vendely")
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Subject: Re: New Method of Monitoring Specific Gravity
From: rdadams@smart.net (Dick Adams)
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 04:17:44 -0400 (EDT)
What is really needed is a digital hydrometer for under $150.00!!
It calibrates via the water you are using.
Dick
------------------------------
Subject: Clearing mead - paranoia
From: Chris Yate <chrisyate@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 10:43:47 +0100
Hi there,
New member/first post... I've been brewing beer for a couple of
years, and recently attempted a batch of mead. From memory, a rough
recipe:
12 lbs honey, in 3 (UK) gallons of water (15 ltr). Brought it to
pasteurising temp for 10-15 mins or so, force-cooled and fermented
with champagne yeast. It went very slow, so I removed a portion,
diluted it a little, added some sterilised raisins (!) for a 'starter'
to boost the yeast content and re-pitched - this helped...
After about 2-3 weeks racked to three secondaries. One batch had 1lb
pasteurised strawberries, another had a little lemon juice and some
elderflowers (about 150g), third had some earl grey tea and a little
lemon juice. (I read that a bit of tannin and citrus is helpful for
mead flavour)
A couple of months later, and after another racking (about 3 weeks
after initial racking), the elderflower has cleared very nicely and
probably needs bottling. The other two are still quite cloudy - the
strawberry batch i'm not so worried about, and as the colour has
darkened I think it's starting to clear. Anyway, I'm intending to
boost the strawberry flavour by addding more, in the next couple of
days.
The third is still quite cloudy though - and i'm generally doing my
best to RDWHAHB about it... Is the best plan to rack it again into a
clean carboy, and just wait, or to add some fining? I've not checked
the gravity but fermentation seems to have mostly stopped. I recall
something about using egg whites (?) to clear mead - is this a good
idea? and how would I go about it?
BTW on first taste (second racking) the elderflower mead was
absolutely gorgeous, really floral.
If all I need is to be told to be patient, that's fine ;o)
cheers
Chris
------------------------------
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
> Subject: Re: New Method of Monitoring Specific Gravity
> From: "Dan McFeeley" <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
> Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 12:04:47 -0500
>
> Thanks for the feedback -- I'll try to respond below.
>
> It was pointed out, both on the digest and on back
> channels, that the accumlation of lees would also
> throw off the reading over time. Good point! Thanks.
------------------------------
Subject: Buckwheat Mead
From: "Douglass Smith" <gtg089b@mail.gatech.edu>
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 15:16:36 -0400
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.
- - Doug Smith -
------------------------------
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
------------------------------
Subject: Buckwheat mead
From: "Ed Vendely" <edven@charter.net>
Date: Sun, 3 Jul 2005 18:44:57 -0400
>Spencer W. Thomas wrote on Mon, 27 Jun 2005 11:21:43 -0400 :
Not all buckwheat meads/honeys need taste of "wet dog". I have had some
excellent buckwheat meads. In fact, the 1995 Mazer cup winning "Show"
mead (just honey and water) was a buckwheat mead (brewed by Brian
Ehlert, if he's listening).
In 2003 (MLD 991), Matt Maples wrote:
Buckwheat honeys vary WIDELY!! There are several varieties of the buckwheat
plant. Some produce a dark rich honey that has massive flavor that tend to
run in the malt like flavor range and then there are some that run in the
molasses flavors that also include an acrid smell and taste. Just like
eucalyptus honeys there are different buckwheat honey so be careful. My
friend Trevor is bound and determined to make a 100% buckwheat mead, after
we had sampled some of the more mellow varieties of buckwheat. I agree that
it had great potential but some of the buckwheat honey I have tasted didn't
seem fit for consumption.
=Spencer in Ann Arbor>
So does anyone know what variety of Buckwheat makes the best mead? I'd
like to plant a field of buckwheat for soil enhancement and it's pretty
to look at as well....I keep bees as well so might as well do it right
so I can enjoy the mead from it!
- -Ed Vendely
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1196
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