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Mead Lovers Digest #1217
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1217, 24 September 2005
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1217 24 September 2005
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: cranberry ("John P. Looney")
dissolving honey at the bottom of a carboy ("Lane Gray, Czar Castic")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1216, 21 September 2005 (Jeannette)
Correction: Valhalla, Mead-only competition ("David Houseman")
mixing honey ("eric")
cranberry honey sounds good ("Eric Chumley")
RE: reactivating mead ("Randy Wallis")
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: cranberry
From: "John P. Looney" <valen@tuatha.org>
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 22:56:27 +0100
> When I tried using cranberry juice in my musts, I found that is was very
> acidic and I ended up having to use Calcium Carbonate to bring the acid
> level down to something the yeast could work with.
When I'd an attempt at cranberry, I didn't even know the must was
supposed to be slightly acidic. It was a few days before christmas, and
the local supermarket was selling freshcranberries for 1/3 the normal
price. I thought "It'd be rude not to"..
At the time, I used what was sold as "hungarian organic honey", and a
bee-keeper friend decided was Ivy honey. I put on two batches - 6 gallons
of cranberry, 6 with a small amount of apples (more for yeast food,
really). Both were interminably vile after three months. The cranberry was
really really acidic, and too strong to taste. The other just smelled of
urine (something I learned is a common fate of meads made with Ivy honey.
After nine months, the mild cyser was still horrid. But we'ed spent the
money, so drank it. The cranberry was...intriguing. Who would have thought
a drink so sharp was worth it.
Last weekend, I'd a few friends over at a "mead tasting", and we found an
ancient (now over two years) bottle of the cranberry. It was really very
good. Any off-odours were long gone, and it still had a pleasant pale-pink
colour, and the cranberry sourness seemed to have aged out. I couldn't
help wondering if the citrus meads I've seen mention of - that also take a
while to age - have acidity in common, or is there some other factor at
work ?
John
- --
For astrology and the rest to flourish it is only necessary that those with
an IQ in double figures do nothing.
-- Lucy Mangan
------------------------------
Subject: dissolving honey at the bottom of a carboy
From: "Lane Gray, Czar Castic" <cgray2@kc.rr.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 17:05:27 -0500
On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 16:24:32 -0500, <mead-request@talisman.com> wrote:
>
> Subject: Question
> From: "jamesbrown" <jamesbrown@iowatelecom.net>
> Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 22:12:21 -0600
>
> When I racked my last batch from secondary, I found it was too dry for my
> taste and wanted to add some more honey to it.
> I was told to put the honey in the carboy and rack onto it, the swirling of
> the racking would dissolve the honey .....
> According to my gravity readings, about 3 pounds dissolved, leaving the
> other six at the bottom of the carboy.
> My question is how to get the rest of the honey to dissolve
>
I use an "Auto-siphon" for all of my rackings: if I get honey sitting in
the bottom of the carboy, I use the autosiphon's dip-tube as a monster stirrer.
- --
Lane Gray
I used to be superstitious, but my lucky squirrel-tail cured me
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1216, 21 September 2005
From: Jeannette <JeanneNoSpam@comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 15:19:46 -0700
On Wednesday 21 September 2005 02:24 pm, mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
> Subject: Question
> From: "jamesbrown" <jamesbrown@iowatelecom.net>
> Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 22:12:21 -0600
>
> When I racked my last batch from secondary, I found it was too dry for my
> taste and wanted to add some more honey to it.
> I was told to put the honey in the carboy and rack onto it, the swirling of
> the racking would dissolve the honey .....
> According to my gravity readings, about 3 pounds dissolved, leaving the
> other six at the bottom of the carboy.
> My question is how to get the rest of the honey to dissolve
Try racking, leaving an inch in the fermenter, then add a quart of boiling
water. Stir to dissolve, and return the must.
Jeannette
------------------------------
Subject: Correction: Valhalla, Mead-only competition
From: "David Houseman" <david.houseman@verizon.net>
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 19:40:28 -0400
Sorry, it's only two (2) bottles of precious mead for this competition, not
3.
Dave Houseman
------------------------------
Subject: mixing honey
From: "eric" <zeee1@nebonet.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 20:14:25 -0600
Subject: Question
From: "jamesbrown" <jamesbrown@iowatelecom.net>
Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 22:12:21 -0600
When I racked my last batch from secondary, I found it was too dry for my
taste and wanted to add some more honey to it.
I was told to put the honey in the carboy and rack onto it, the swirling of
the racking would dissolve the honey .....
According to my gravity readings, about 3 pounds dissolved, leaving the
other six at the bottom of the carboy.
My question is how to get the rest of the honey to dissolve
I would try gently stirring to avoid oxidation, with a sanitized racking
cane etc, and then bottling immediately to keep the honey in suspension.
------------------------------
Subject: cranberry honey sounds good
From: "Eric Chumley" <beekeepers@insightbb.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 03:33:45 -0500
I am a beekeeper, and I know that that there are some plants that supply a
great deal of pollen, and almost no nectar (the beginning ingredient of
honey), such as cantaloupe, and there are plants that supply a great deal of
both, as goldenrod, and still others produce a great deal of nectar (again,
necessary for honey production only) and little pollen.
As I live in Kentucky, I am not educated in cranberry honey production. So,
Google provided the following: (link is
http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/book/chap7/cranberry.html).
The production of pollen and nectar of cranberries, vital in the pollination
and fruit-set of the crop, seems to vary with conditions and location.
Caswell (1962) stated that the blossom secreted little nectar, in some
locations practically none, but produced generous quantities of pollen. This
seems to be the general rule. Bergman (1954) found that cold injury further
reduced or even stopped nectar secretion. Marucci (1967a) stated that
cranberry blossoms are apparently poor producers of nectar and pollen, and
honey bees do not eagerly work them. Stricker (1953) stated that bees work
cranberries in New Jersey only for pollen. However, Gates (1911) reported
that nectar from cranberries produces a superior grade of honey. Caswell
(1962) and Oertel (1967) list cranberries as a nectar and pollen source.
Beekeepers occasionally obtain a reddish honey they associate with bee
activity on cranberries. There seems little doubt that the plant is more
attractive to honey bees for its pollen than its nectar, but if bees visited
it solely for its pollen, which is available before the stigma is receptive,
little pollination would occur. Shimanuki et al. (1967) showed that some
colonies consistently collect more pollen from cranberries than other
seemingly similar colonies. This may lead to the development of specially
selected bees for cranberry pollination.
I also have never tasted cranberry honey. It sounds wonderful. I wonder if
it could be made from adding cranberry juice to honey.
http://www.honey.com/info/fltable.html is one of the websites for the
National Honey Board. They do not list cranberry honey as one of the
varietal honeys available, but neither is canola honey. My best friend and
mentor produces many gallons of canola honey each year. (Very good honey,
but granulates quickly.)(For those that do not know, putting a jar of
granulated honey in a pot of hot, not boiling, water will liquefy honey back
to its original state without any adverse effect).
The following are three very good websites all dealing with our nations
supply of honey.
www.honey.com <http://www.honey.com/>
www.honeylocator.com <http://www.honeylocator.com/>
www.nhb.org <http://www.nhb.org/>
------------------------------
Subject: RE: reactivating mead
From: "Randy Wallis" <vwbettle72@earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 19:47:46 -0400
Chris
About the same thing happened to me a while back (see ?make it Stop? MLD
1198). I had two batches that were dead for three months then I added a
clarifier to remove a little haze and they both started to slowly bubble.
With the one I grew impatient and campdened, sobated, froze and bottled,
the other I left. The bottling was a big mistake since all but two blew
their corks. In fact recently my daughter was back for a wedding and went
to grab something from the garage and asked why it smelled like alcohol out
there, but at least the fish in the St. Johns River got a treat (floor
drain). Anyhow, I thought it may be an infection also, but I got a lot of
feedback from the digest telling me not to worry and let it run it?s
course, as one person said, if it is an infection that is going to ruin
your mead you are not going to stop it anyhow. However, the story does
have a happy ending because it finely did stop and about three weeks ago I
bottled 27 bottles of very nice traditional mead. I have always felt
patience is the hardest part of mead making, and unfortunately something
there is no substitute for. I learned that the hard way. I think if you
let it run its course and wait a little longer both you and your friends
will be glad you did.
Randy Wallis
vwbettle72@earthlink.net
Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1217
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