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Mead Lovers Digest #1253
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1253, 13 March 2006
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1253 13 March 2006
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Seattle Area ("Erroll Ozgencil")
Thinking about phenols ("Erroll Ozgencil")
Chieftains concert in Chicago ("Dan McFeeley")
Gas in solution ("Trevor James")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1252, 8 March 2006 ("Jeannette C. Wilson")
RE: Mead Lover's Digest #1252, 8 March 2006 ("Dave and Jen Halliday")
Fwd: Re: Let's keep it safe out there! ("John Mealey")
check for preservatives? (Dick Dunn)
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Seattle Area
From: "Erroll Ozgencil" <errollo@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 10:40:23 -0800
> Just out of curiosity, I was wondering if any of you guys live near
> Seattle, WA? We have lots of micro-brew but not a lot of good mead.
>
> Robert
Hi Robert,
I'm glad you asked. I knew I couldn't possibly be the only one around
here who makes mead, but it's good to actually hear from someone.
We do have a meadery in Washington. The Sky River Meadery is in Sultan
on highway 2, east of Monroe.
Erroll
Bellevue (just east of Seattle), WA, USA
------------------------------
Subject: Thinking about phenols
From: "Erroll Ozgencil" <errollo@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 11:12:46 -0800
Some of the comments on ultra filtration give the impression that
phenols are undesirable. Filtering them out, then, would improve the
mead, and save you from having to "age them out". Age them out? This
makes it sound like they are something like suspended particles that
eventually drop to the bottom, leaving the mead unaltered except that
these nasty things have been removed.
John's comments on esterfication are closer to my own, less technical,
thoughts on how mead ages. When I first heard of ultra filtration, I
began to think of the clean, early-drinking, ultra filtered meads as
something like white wines. Unfiltered dry mead, unpleasant when
young, would benefit from the phenols as it aged like red wine does.
Dan suggested looking at research on protein's effect on wine. We
might be wondering the same thing. Do we know enough about proteins,
phenols, and whatever else is removed by ultra filtration to say that
they are unambiguously bad? Or might they, with time, add something to
the mead?
Erroll
------------------------------
Subject: Chieftains concert in Chicago
From: "Dan McFeeley" <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 13:27:30 -0600
Last Friday I had the great pleasure of taking my eight year
old daughter, Rachel, to see the Chieftains live, in concert
at the Chicago Symphony Center. Rachel has become quite
a fan of Irish traditional music, mostly through listening to
the Chieftains. This all started during the summer with horse
riding lessons. Rachel took to it right away, and thinking
she might enjoy the Chieftains soundtrack album to "Ballad
of the Irish Horse," I picked up a copy. She absolutely loved
it. Before long we were carting along several Chieftains CD's
on the way back and forth between riding lessons.
The Chieftains have justly earned their status as a living
cultural treasure. They've been playing for fourty four years
now, earned 6 Grammys, an Oscar, many other awards.
Seeing them live is an experience. The bandmembers are
mostly in their 60's now, but they maintain a busy touring
schedule, and on stage they show the vigor of men half
their age. As many years as they've been playing the music,
as tough as the tour schedule is, on stage they continually
show the joy and passion for traditional music that keeps
them going year after year.
I'd brought a few bottles of mead with me, thinking the
Chieftains would appreciate the gift. It seemed a natural
idea -- I'd heard the band enjoys making connections with
the people at the cities they visit, and it's not unusual for
local musicians to join them on stage. For the Chicago
concert, there were students in Irish dance, and also in
Irish music, who got to perform solo spots. It's almost
a traveling Irish session.
>From the message we got back from the stage people, they
certainly did appreciate the gift. We were told us that as soon
as the band members heard that someone was bringing them
mead, they all got excited. Unfortunately, the band was still
working hard to get the stage set up for the concert, so we
weren't able to present the meads in person. Paddy Moloney,
leader of the Chieftains, was kind enough to thank us on
stage, giving Rachel a thrill. "Dan and Rachel McFeeley
are with us, and they brought us four lovely bottles of mead!
We're going to have a good time tonight."
It was a wonderful concert. The virtuoso solo performances
by the bandmembers were dazzling, *lots* of Irish step
dancing, and through it all there was a causal looseness.
The Chieftains are highly professional in everything they do,
but they have a lot of fun doing it. Kevin Conneff was out
there with the "odd song" as Paddy likes to put it, but sitting
towards the back as he usually does it's easy to overlook
his bodhran playing, which is amazing to watch. Triona
Marshall, the harpist, was directly in front of me so I had
to look around her as best I could to see him.
One nice touch they did was for the encore -- they finished
up with a Breton folk tune, and had snake lines of audience
members dancing a simple Breton dance. Quite a few of
the audience members got into it. There were snake lines
all over the auditorium. Really livened things up.
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
"Meon an phobail a thogail trid an chultur"
(The people's spirit is raised through culture)
------------------------------
Subject: Gas in solution
From: "Trevor James" <James@management.uottawa.ca>
Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 16:19:06 -0500
I fear my first attempt at mead may have failed.
By the looks of thing fermentation had stopeed, SG was stable
(just over 1.00), air lock had leveled, I was using the onese
with little bubbles, and when the water leves out usually the
pressure is equal on both sides.
It would not clear, 2 batches of maple wine had cleared in the
mean time. Put it in the cold for 2 weeks nothing. I did read
patients it will clear, well 4 months later still nothing.
This week I racked over my maple wines (last stage before
bottling, I am doing a control experiment on yeasts, all wines
the same, using 3 different yeasts). I noticed some lees on the
bottom of the mead, and thought, well since I am racking these 3
why not. Note the lees was maybe an 1/8th of an inch.
When I put the racking tube in, it started to foam up. I could
not rack because gas locks were happening inside the J tube.
With 1/4 racked over, and all of CO2 (?) coming out of solution,
I figured my best bet was to just pour it over, and stir daily.
I am now into day 3 of stirring twice daily, it still acts like
a fresh can of soda every time I stir it, but it is now
clearing. The amoutn of lees, is now getting very high up, I
hope at the end of the week I can do a real rack, and that it
can bulk age for 2 months, and be bottled at the same time as my
maples.
Questions to the experts -
What da <beep> happened??
Is this a rare occurance?
Is my mead going to be OK?
Thanks in advance
T. James--
james@management.uottawa.ca
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1252, 8 March 2006
From: "Jeannette C. Wilson" <jeannenospam@comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 14:09:23 -0800
On Wednesday 08 March 2006 09:41 am, mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
> Hey,
> Just out of curiosity, I was wondering if any of you guys live near
> Seattle, WA?
> We have lots of micro-brew but not a lot of good mead.
>
> Robert
I'm here, planning two more melomels this year. Maybe now that I know how to
prevent lingering fermentation, they'll stay tasty after bottling and not
turn back into rocket fuel.
Jeannette
------------------------------
Subject: RE: Mead Lover's Digest #1252, 8 March 2006
From: "Dave and Jen Halliday" <info@brownsnout.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 14:13:18 -0800
> ------------------------------
>
> Subject: Seattle Area
> From: Robert Keith Moore <Rob@ineedachef.com>
> Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 10:25:38 -0800
>
> Hey,
> Just out of curiosity, I was wondering if any of you guys live near
> Seattle, WA?
> We have lots of micro-brew but not a lot of good mead.
>
> Robert
Two hours to the North, 30 miles due east of Bellingham near Mt. Baker.
http://www.brownsnout.com
We will be doing Mead as well as our Cider
(still waiting on Federal permit -- have the State)
Honey will be from local Apiarists and will be mostly from berry flowers.
Also planning a Melomel.
The Honey Moon Meadery is in downtown Bellingham but they do not have a
web page...
Dave
------------------------------
Subject: Fwd: Re: Let's keep it safe out there!
From: "John Mealey" <mealey@gw.grand.k12.ut.us>
Date: Thu, 09 Mar 2006 09:02:03 -0700
Egads, I guess it's been too long since I last used this formula, I
forgot to mention the time factor. So, I'll address that now.
How fast one absorbs alcohol into their system varies from person to
person a little, and varies more from situation to situation. Factors
like when one last ate, what they ate and how much they ate are probably
the biggest factors, along with how fast a person is drinking. One will
absorb alcohol faster on an empty stomach than on a full one. Also, the
human body metabolizes alcohol mostly in the liver by producing a
substance called alcohol dehydroginase, which is an alcohol reagent.
Some alcohol is lost as alcohol from our bloodstream in the expiration
of vapor from our lungs and some goes out with water in our urine and
sweat. On the average, we dispose of alcohol at the rate of 0.015% per
hour. This means that in addition to the formula in my previous posting
one should subtract 0.015% per hour, after starting to drink, from the
blood alcohol percentage obtained from the formula.
Sorry I forgot this yesterday.
Have a great day, everyone.
John
<Original Message>
Subject: Re: Let's keep it safe out there!
From: "John Mealey" <mealey@gw.grand.k12.ut.us>
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 3:11 PM
If you're trying to figure out your blood alcohol level after drinking,
to decide whether to drive, here is a formula that can help:
(Your weight in ounces) X (.11 for a man) or (.14 for a woman) X (the
legal limit in your state) = (Ounces of alcohol that will take you to
the limit)
Or
(Your weight in ounces) X (.11 or .14)
Ounces of alcohol you drank = Your % blood alcohol
level
To use this you need to know how many ounces of alcohol you have drunk
or are about to drink. To figure that out, you have to know the percent
of your drink that is alcohol. If you took beginning and ending gravity
readings, that should be close enough. Just multiply the ounces of beer,
mead, wine or spirits by the percentage of alcohol in the drink.
Remember that if you're mixing drinks, you pay attention to the ounces
of the alcoholic part of the drink, not whatever you're mixing it with.
So if I weigh 200 lbs. and am male and if I drink 1.75 ounces of alcohol
(That's about 14.5 oz. of 12% wine or mead, or just under 36 oz. of 5%
beer), and I'll be at .08% blood alcohol (The legal limit in my state).
If you're measuring spirits remember that proof is twice percent. So 80
proof whiskey is 40% alcohol.
John
------------------------------
Subject: check for preservatives?
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 21:03:29 -0700
In the last digest, Dan Geer wrote:
> Question: I've had a cyser made with supposedly all organic cider fail to
> start fermentation despite everything I can test being correct. Of course,
> I suspect unacknowledged benzoate or the like. Is there a confirming test
> that does not require undue skill/equipment? Other suggestions welcome.
I asked Andrew Lea about this one; he says basically "no"--a definitive
test nowadays would normally involve HPLC. Older tests still involve more
severe chemistry than can be made "kitchen-friendly".
The simple test he described (which is not definitive) is about what you'd
expect: take a sample and make it as favorable as possible for some sort
of fermentation to start, and see what happens. That is, nutrients and
vitamins, a large yeast culture, warm environment. (The idea is not to
make something -good-; it's to check whether fermentation is possible!)
If you can't get a fermentation going on with that, you suspect pretty
strongly that there's an inhibiting factor, but it doesn't address Dan's
question.
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1253
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