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Mead Lovers Digest #1220
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1220, 7 October 2005
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1220 7 October 2005
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
re:volume loss & topping off during racking........ (JazzboBob@aol.com)
Re: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1218, 28 September 2005 ("Dan McFeeley")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1219, 3 October 2005 ("Dennis Key")
Re: topping up after racking (Dave Polaschek)
Great Lakes Old Worlde Syder Competition ("Jeff Carlson")
Re: MLD#1219, 3/10/05, topoffs, Acid ranges, 'Thickening' a brew, (arthur_...)
(oskaar@dslextreme.com)
Sweet mead (Jim Johnston)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: re:volume loss & topping off during racking........
From: JazzboBob@aol.com
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 23:25:54 EDT
I suggest another strategy and solution to maintain a full topped off
carboy due to the losses that occur at racking time. I own several carboys
in different sizes. I recalculate the recipe to brew 5 1/2 gallons of
mead and start the primary fermentation in a 6 1/2 or 7 gallon carboy.
After the fermentation is completed, I have enough volume to rack and
top off a 5 gallon carboy. I usually try to have at least two or three
meads aging in my cellar. I wait until they all clear and are ready for
a second racking. At this point I rack to two five gallon and a three
gallon carboy. The trick is to blend the meads in a complimentary manner.
Meads one and two go into the five gallon carboys and get topped off with
the third mead. The main portion of the third mead goes into a 3 gallon
carboy while anything leftover gets immediately bottled into a few wine
bottles or splits. There usually isn't too much leftover after topping
off the carboys, but at least you can get a few samples to try before
the main bottling day.
I realize that everybody doesn't have the space or ability to acquire many
carboys. But they do make a good long term equipment investment. I've had
some of my carboys for over ten years.
Bob Grossman in Philly
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1218, 28 September 2005
From: "Dan McFeeley" <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 09:49:15 -0500
On Mon, 3 Oct 2005, in MLD 1219, Dr. Jim asked:
>What is the acid range of sweet, medium and dry meads.
Difficult to say -- acid range depends on the type of varietal
honey/s used, not the amount of residual sugar in the mead.
Also -- gluconic acid is the primary acid in honey, and the
flavor profile is going to be different from wines made from
the grape (noble or otherwise) and various fruits. Tartaric,
malic and citric acids tend to contribute acid sourness along
with their particular acidulant/flavor properties, whereas
gluconic acid has been described as a more mild tasting acid.
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
"Meon an phobail a thogail trid an chultur"
(The people's spirit is raised through culture)
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1219, 3 October 2005
From: "Dennis Key" <dione13@msn.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 10:13:50 -0600
> Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1218, 28 September 2005
> From: Lofty@aol.com
> Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 13:55:50 EDT
>
> What is the acid range of sweet, medium and dry meads.
>
> Dr. Jim
Dear Dr. Jim
I believe sweetness is better determined by specific gravity. 1.0 or less is
bone dry, 1.01 is off-dry. 1.015 to 1.03 is semi sweet to sweet. Much
higher than that will give you something to pour over ice cream but too
sweet for me. These measurements are a reflection of residual honey. The
higher the reading, the more residual honey in the mead. You can have a
really tart mead that has a high residual honey. In fact, I made a red
raspberry mel that was sweet enough at 1.015 but tasted "thin." I added
acid blend (tartaric, citric and maleic) a bit at a time, tasting as I went,
until it was sufficiently tart to give it a better mouth feel. The residual
honey remained the same.
Cheers, Dione Greywolfe (AKA Dennis Key)
------------------------------
Subject: Re: topping up after racking
From: Dave Polaschek <davep@davespicks.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 12:08:15 -0500
> Generally, I will make a five gallon batch and a one gallon batch. I'll
> siphon off some of the one gallon batch to top up the five gallon carboy.
My most common solution is to use a 6 gallon primary (a food-grade plastic
bucket) and a 5 gallon secondary (glass carboy). Between what I lose to the
lees in the primary and what I pull off for testing in the hydrometer and
tasting to ensure everything is proceeding according to plan, it's pretty
easy to ensure a full carboy for the secondary fermentation. If there's
a tiny bit of extra headspace, I follow Papazian and "Don't worry. Relax
and have a homebrew."
Another approach I take sometimes is adjusting the strength of the
mead by adding either water and/or more honey when putting it into the
secondary. Yes, there will be more lees in the secondary if you add
more honey, but I find it a lot easier to make strong meads ( > 12% ) by
initially targeting 8% and then adding some extra honey (dissolved in enough
water to make up the volume I'm aiming at) after the initial fermentation
is complete. In that case, I generally do plastic->plastic->glass, so I
have to rack one additional time, but I don't have to worry much about
volume. If there's a quart or two of "extra" mead that won't fit into
the carboy, I put it into 25 fl. oz. bottles with very small stoppers and
airlocks. These micro-batches get odd spices, fruits, jujubes, or whatever
added to them as experiments that I don't want to try with a full batch.
Another solution folks have mentioned over the years is getting a supply of
clean glass marbles. Sanitize and rinse them, and they're good for making
up missing volume.
- -DaveP
- --
Dave Polaschek - http://betternerds.com/ http://davespicks.com/
To me, cheating just means you care about winning. -Red Green
------------------------------
Subject: Great Lakes Old Worlde Syder Competition
From: "Jeff Carlson" <carlsonj@gvsu.edu>
Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2005 16:04:55 -0400
For all who might be interested, the 2005 Great Lakes Olde World Syder
Competition will take place in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Saturday
Dec. 4th. Entries will be accepted from Nov 21 thru Dec. 2. It is
open to all ciders and perries, plus styles of beer and mead that
include apple or pears as ingredients. There are separate divisions
for commercial and non-commercial entries. Details can be found at
http://www.michiganbeerguide.com/beerguide.asp
Lead Registrar
Jeff Carlson
President, PrimeTime Brewers
http://www.primetimebrewers.com/
------------------------------
Subject: Re: MLD#1219, 3/10/05, topoffs, Acid ranges, 'Thickening' a brew,
From: arthur_torrey@comcast.net
Date: Wed, 05 Oct 2005 05:32:32 +0000
> Subject: RE: topping up after racking
> From: "Matthew Ransom" <talonsgrip@earthlink.net>
> Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 12:46:58 -0500
>
> Generally, I will make a five gallon batch and a one gallon batch. I'll
> siphon off some of the one gallon batch to top up the five gallon carboy.
>
> Good quality water can also be used, providing very large quantities aren't
> used near completion of fermentation. Large quantities may end up diluting
> your mead.
I have four topping up methods I use with the following order of preference:
Note that my preference for brewing method is to use champagne yeast, feeding
as needed until fermentation stops due to alcohol level, while leaving
enough unfermented honey to get the desired residual sweetness. (Usually FG
around 1.005 - 1.010, approx 18% alcohol) This generally means that if
I blend from different sources, there will be some 'extra fermentation'
as the yeast from the drier batch consumes some of the excess sugars
from the sweeter batch. (Note that this is a possible way to 'dry up'
an overly sweet brew) I don't use sulfates or sorbates, so my brews are
stabilized by alllowing fermentation to go to completion, then sweetening
as needed. I only bottle after a batch tastes OK and has gone through at
least one racking cycle WITHOUT having any additional things added to it,
and with no detectable SG change. Also if I am feeding a batch, I usually
add the honey first. If I have room, I mix it 50 / 50 with hot water,
which makes it easier to dissolve in the carboy and also helps top it up.
1. I brew a bit more than five gallons on my initial stage, then save
the extra and use it for topping up later. Note that this requires an
assortment of different size bottles to hold the extra w/o to much airspace,
and requires more tracking of the extra bottles, etc. Also the two batches
will likely develop slightly differently, and thus you will probably get some
extra fermentation action when you mix them as the batches 'balance' out.
2. I periodically brew a batch of dry simple (1 gallon honey, 4 gallons
water, champagne yeast) that I will use as a 'top up' blend. This is
relatively flavor neutral, and while it will cause some 'balancing
fermentation' it will cause less than adding water, and it doesn't dilute
the batch as much. I deliberately make the top-up batch dry because
it is easier to feed a batch to make it sweeter than it is to 'dry up'
a batch that is to sweet.
3. Add water. This will usually restart a fermentation that has gone
to completion as the % alcohol will be dropped by enough that the yeast
can fire themselves back up again. (DON'T add water at bottling time,
fermentation will probably restart, and you'll get bottle bombs...)
4. Add an inert 'filler' such as glass marbles. This won't effect
fermentation, but makes subsequent racking more of a challenge and
increases the racking losses. It is also amazing how many marbles it
takes to significantly change the level in a carboy.
As a side note, I save the leftover dregs from each racking cycle, bottling,
etc. and mix them together. Periodically I'll rack off the useable stuff,
and when I get enough, bottle it up. The results are usually pretty
good 'one of a kind' brews that I use either for personal consumption or
'giveaway' bottles. I've never noticed any significant harm from sitting
on the yeast debris for extended periods.
- -----------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1218, 28 September 2005
> From: Lofty@aol.com
> Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 13:55:50 EDT
>
> What is the acid range of sweet, medium and dry meads.
>
> Dr. Jim
Acid range isn't really the factor in sweet vs. dry meads. They all should
be about the same with some variation depending on the flavor variety
(I.e Simple vs. melomel, etc) The determining factor is the amount
of residual sugars (honey) left after the yeast has either fermented
to completion or been killed off by some kind of stabilizing process.
"Dry" meads will have very little extra sugar in them, "Sweet" meads will
have a lot. Typically a Dry will have an SG of around .095 (very dry)
to 1.001 or 2. The alcohol is less dense than water, lowering the SG,
while the non-fermentables (what gives it flavor) tend to bring the SG
back up to about that of water. A sweet mead will have an SG closer to
1.010 or higher, although if you get very much higher you start getting
to the icky-sweet 'cough syrup' stage.
> Subject: pleasant surprise...
> From: "P&J" <eala@cecomet.net>
> Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2005 18:10:02 -0400
<much snipped>
> My only question is, if we want a slightly sweeter "thicker" mead, what do
> we do?
Add more honey. Use caution as it is easy to over do. If you are still
getting a 'fizzy' taste, you probably have slow fermentation continuing,
which will make the mead drier than it is now. My usual approach is to
take an SG reading, and add two cups of honey to a five gallon batch if
it is below 1.000, and one cup if it is between 1.000 and 1.005. If I
have room in the carboy, I mix the honey 50/50 with hot water to make it
easier to dissolve and to make up the extra volume.
> We found a place that has wildflower honey for $16.00 a gallon compared to
> $45.00 at the store, and finally saw the little sign up on the route we
> take to work every day..and this fellow has goldenrod honey for $20.00 a
> gallon.
> This is fun stuff!
> Paula
$16 / lb is a really excellent price, but I'd want to make sure you tried
the honey before brewing with it. "Wildflower honey" is beekeeperese for
"I don't know what's in it" and can range from very light to molasses-dark
in color, and even more in flavor, with some batches having unpleasant
aftertastes. My one hive sitting in the same location, produces a different
color and flavor honey every time I harvest it. Some are wonderful, others
are much less so. You might also want to read up a bit on honey varieties.
Goldenrod honey is usually used in baking for instance, as it tends to be
a bit stronger flavored and also crystalizes more than many other varieties.
Never Thirst
ART
------------------------------
Subject:
From: oskaar@dslextreme.com
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 02:20:05 -0700 (PDT)
Hi Folks!
This is a call for entries along with some information on the upcoming
International Mead Fest and the Home Mead Maker's Competition in February
10 - 11 of 2006.
If you make mead, this is the festival to enter. The Home Mead Maker's
Competition judging panel will consist of some of the finest Commercial
Mead Makers in the Country along with BJCP sanctioned Judges!
The Commercial Meadery Competition is an International affair and there are
usually plenty of great Meaderies in attendance who have some mead
available for you to taste.
Here's a link to the MeadFest website where you can get the information you
need:
http://www.meadfest.com
Cheers,
Oskaar, Home Mead Maker Competition Chairman
------------------------------
Subject: Sweet mead
From: Jim Johnston <jim@tervolk.com>
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 09:14:31 -0500
On Oct 3, 2005, at 9:29 PM, mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
> My only question is, if we want a slightly sweeter "thicker" mead,
> what do we do?
A sweeter mead can be achieved by using around 2 1/2 to 3 lbs. honey
per gallon with most normal wine yeasts. Here is the tricky part. Now
you need to pay attention to the type of yeast that you use, the type
of honey that you use, etc. One of the best sources I have is from
Zymurgy, May/June 2000. They had a great table of dry to sweet, light
to heavy bodied with honey type and yeast to use. Ken also does a good
job of this in his book.
So, if you want a light, sweet mead, I would use around 15 lbs. of
clover honey and Wyeast Sweet Mead yeast. And yes, at $45 / gallon,
you paid too much for honey.
Jim
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1220
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