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Mead Lovers Digest #1265
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1265, 4 June 2006
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1265 4 June 2006
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Complexity (Dick Dunn)
mold (CircusGimp@aol.com)
Tried And True Yeasts (Eric Snyder)
Mead Judging (Ken Schramm)
Re: Complexity (Edward Martin) (Michael Kaiser)
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Subject: Re: Complexity
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 22:48:57 -0600
Edward Martin <kitkatnedrat@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> I have a raspberry melomel in the works and am wondering how I can add
> complexity to this wine. It tastes pretty good right now but is rather
> mellow. It seems like it is missing something - can anyone make any
> suggestions to add some complexity.
You didn't tell us how you made it...but I've got one experience in my past
melomels that might indicate the problem: I found that if I used only
raspberry juice, I got a kinda one-dimensional, pleasing-but-sorta-boring
character. Using whole fruit (in the primary, effectively "carbonic
maceration") is my usual approach and gives the complexity I want. Part
of it seems to be tannin extraction from the fruit, but I don't know any
more and even that is actually supposition.
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
------------------------------
Subject: mold
From: CircusGimp@aol.com
Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 12:24:45 EDT
Hello..
A few days ago i made up a few different one gallon batches of mead.
I forgot to pitch yeast in one of the gallons, so a few days later it had
some mold growing at the surface in the neck of the one gal. carboy it is in.
Ive had the happen a few times before and ive always, including this time,
just removed the mold as best as i could. I pitch the yeast, shake it all
up,,, and fermentation has always gone well, including this time...without any
mold occurring again.
I cant ever taste "mold" or anything "off' in the wine or mead that this has
happened to.. but im no expert judge... i was wondering how a little bit of
mold would affect mead..can a bjcp taste it in mead? (after reading that
last article in the digest i guess it wouldn't matter but that's beside the
point)
I'll drink the mead, im sure it'll turn out swell, but is it something that
you'd enter in a competition? Thanks.
Scott Adams Houston, Texas
Brewer, Wine maker, Mead maker, Heart breaker.
------------------------------
Subject: Tried And True Yeasts
From: Eric Snyder <snyderep@mac.com>
Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 22:21:23 -0400
I am a beginning meadmaker and have 2 batches in fermentation right
now. Into the first batch went 17 lbs. Orange Blossom honey, nutrient
and water, nothing more. Initially I pitched the Wyeast liquid sweet
mead yeast, but after 4 days of no activity I went back to my local
homebrew store where they recommended that I re-pitch with Red Star
Cote de Blanc dry yeast. I did this and soon after I noticed activity
in the airlock and it has been bubbling away for almost 3 weeks now.
In fact I have noticed that fermentation as measured by the bubbling
has sped up in the last week. Something to note about the liquid
yeast, it was a bit on the older side but still within acceptable
limits according to the homebrew shop folks. It also took a full 24
hours to activate after smacking the smack pack.
I started a second batch again with 17 lbs. of honey, this time
clover. I pitched with Cote de Blanc right away this time and noticed
activity in the airlock within 24 hours. Should I give the liquid
yeast another go? Is it really superior for sweet meads and perhaps I
had a bad packet? Anything wrong with Cote de Blanc? Will Cote de
Blanc dry these batches out too much? I'm curious as to what the 'go
to' yeast is for most folks.
Thanks, this is turning out to be a very enjoyable hobby,
- -Eric Snyder
------------------------------
Subject: Mead Judging
From: Ken Schramm <compleatmeadmaker@wowway.com>
Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 10:01:29 -0400
Man, could I go on about this subject. Gordon and I had many lengthy
discussions about this when the BJCP guidelines were being crafted,
by phone, email and in my living room.
Before we enter into any of the individual issues, there are two
things that need to be said.
First, you get what you pay for, and all of the judges and those
working on style guidelines and education are volunteers. If you
don't like what you see, and think you can do better, it is incumbent
on you to go out and do it.
Second, the nature of judging is subjective, and even in the highly
structured and supposedly competent world of professional wine
critics, there is considerable controversy. Robert Parker, Michael
Broadbent and James Suckling themselves are the targets of serious
lambasting. You gets up on the platform and spouts, and you takes
your shots. So be it.
Experience is an issue. How many folks knew and loved mead for 5-10
years before they became a judge? Few, I am confident. I certainly
did not wait 10 years before Dan, Hal, Mike and I started the Mazer
Cup. But that was what got us and many others the chance to taste
and evaluate meads and give scores to dozens, even hundreds of meads,
so on balance, I think it was a good thing. The corporal body of
experience and knowledge has to built on some foundation, and we are
the ones doing that. Hopefully in 50 years or so, folks will look
back and have appreciation for what this generation of mead
enthusiasts did - methiers and judges. Here's a proposition: Y'all
work hard to keep getting better at making mead, and we'll work hard
to get better at judging it.
The biggest problems I see are in standardization. Using a 100 point
scale, the first 50 points are for showing up in an unbroken bottle.
Many of the judges did/do not understand this. A 55 point score on a
100 point scale reflects serious unfamiliarity with the 100 point
model.
The same can be said for the standardization of judges' expectations
about styles. I see this coming over time, but I completely
understand the frustration of the adjudged. Education is needed
before the judges open a bottle, and the IMA folks have already
discussed improving that before next year's judging sessions.
Lastly, beyond the 50/100 pt issue, there is a big spectrum of
differences between the wine critics model and the BJCP approach.
Chief among them to me are the inclinations among beer judges to:
1) Find as many faults as possible, without addressing the positive
points or flavor/aroma nuance perceptions about a beer, &:
2) Reverse engineer the brewing process, to tell the brewer how to
fix those faults.
Neither of those techniques is prevalent in the wine evaluation
crowd. Another key difference is the almost universal unwillingness
of beer judges to give perfect scores, while the wine crowd
consistently does that for many commercial products each year.
Ironically, the wine crowd understands that perfect scores drive
demand and therefore market prices (the consumers are human, after
all), but the beer guys haven't quite grasped that yet. And there
are many mead judges who come from the beer judge stable and bring
that mentality. I have often conjectured that beer judges think that
they can get into heaven with their un-awarded beer judging points.
Note to judges: St. Peter doesn't take un-awarded beer judge points.
So, the take home points:
Patience
Volunteer
More education and better communication are needed
If you are willing to work on solutions, your comments on the
problems will always be well received.
Lastly, I have no problem with those on the home mead making front
who don't make all that much mead. A good year for me is 80-100
gallons, and I've had a few that were only 40. Moderation in
consumption is paramount, and we should not feel bad about only
making as much mead as we can safely consume without developing life
ruining patterns.
If you think this post was too long, I apologize. You should see
what I left out.
Ken
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Complexity (Edward Martin)
From: Michael Kaiser <kaiseriron2@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 13:19:32 -0700 (PDT)
>>>
From: Edward Martin <kitkatnedrat@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 20:10:09 -0700 (PDT)
Hi All!
I have a raspberry melomel in the works and am wondering how I can add
complexity to this wine. It tastes pretty good right now but is rather
mellow. It seems like it is missing something - can anyone make any
suggestions to add some complexity.
Thanks in advance,
Edward Martin
>>>
Edward,
Try brewing a small pot of a chocolate-flavored coffee, and adding a cup or
two. It would play nicely off of the raspberry, and if you left it a tad sweet,
it would make an excellent dessert wine. It would pair nicely with a
chocolate-raspberry tort and an espresso!
Michael Kaiser
Artist/Blacksmith/Brewer
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1265
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