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Mead Lovers Digest #1300
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1300, 23 January 2007
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1300 23 January 2007
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Initial Lavender Mead Steps (canwebowlnow@aol.com)
Re: Question for any Lalvin K1-V1116 yeast users out there... (Dick Adams)
Re: milk ("J Bailey")
Re: Milk (Dick Adams)
Re: Milk (stencil)
Re: Milk (Dick Adams)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1299, 19 January 2007 ("lameuse@netzero.net")
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Subject: Re: Initial Lavender Mead Steps
From: canwebowlnow@aol.com
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 16:12:50 EST
I haven't tried using lavender in mead specifically, but I do use it in tea
and as an aromatic in bath salts and massage/healing oils. I can tell you that
lavender has a VERY strong aroma, and a fairly strong flavor. I think your
best bet would be to go with your first instinct and start with the gallon of
strong lavender tea in your primary. You can always add more later if
tastings tell you the flavor is too weak for your tastes; you can't remove
it if you add to much to begin with. I've found with my herbal meads that the
flavoring in the primary tends to ferment out a bit, mellowing out as the
process runs.
Let me know how it turns out, I'm interested in trying it myself.
Cheers~
Janelle
In a message dated 1/19/2007 11:13:21 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
mead-request@talisman.com writes:
Subject: Initial Lavender Mead Steps
From: "Jeff Tollefson" <jtollefson245@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2007 21:10:14 -0800
Gonna make a dry lavender mead. Any experiences? I was planning to use an
ounce of dried buds (3/4 pint?) by putting it in a couple large tea bags and
boiling it in a gallon of water, then removing the lavender and starting out
with a gallon of lavender tea. I've seen recipes that just add it in primary
and let it go, straining out the lavender later. I've also seen both done in
a recipe.
What do you guys do? Add it in primary? Boil a tea? Both? What are the
advantages/disadvantages? Is this enough lavender? I'd be glad to hear any
experiences with lavender, roses, or anything similar.
Thanks!
Jeff Tollefson
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Question for any Lalvin K1-V1116 yeast users out there...
From: rdadams@smart.net (Dick Adams)
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:40:04 -0500 (EST)
>> My typical mead recipe uses ~12 lbs of honey for a five gallon batch.
>> For my next batch, I'm considering bumping the amount of honey I use
>> wildflower, from southern Wisconsin) up to ~18 gallons. Just curious
>> about how dry I can expect it to ferment out to, if anyone has
>> experience with that. Thanks!
> I have used K1V-1116 and EC-1118 and never have got above about 15 percent
> ABV. Both of these are suppose to tolerate up to 18 percent but I haven't
> messed around enough with the fermentation conditions (temp., amount of
> yeast nutrient added, etc.)
If you want an ABV of 15% plus, do the following:
- - Use twice as much yeast as the recipe indicates. That's usually
two packs of 5 grams up to 6 gallons and 3 packs for 7.5 gallons.
- - Add 1 tsp of yeast nutrient per gallon on the following schedule.
* 1/2 of the yeast nutrient after pitching;
* 1/4 of the yeast nutrient 3 hours after pitching; and
* 1/2 of the yeast nutrient wheb the SG drops by 1/3.
- - Saturate the must with oxygen for 90 seconds after you add the
first dose of yeast nutirent.
- - Stir the must daily until you pitch the last dose of yeast
nutrient.
- - Cold ferment at 50F to 59F (10C to 15C) or as cold as your yeast
can take it.
Be aware that yeast nutrient can cause foaming so use a 7.5 gallon
fermenter for a 5 gallon batch.
> I made a 5 gal batch using 15 lbs. of honey and EC-1118 yeast. It
> managed to get to 15 percent but it is very sweet.
> If you want it more dry, you might try Mile High Distilling's 48 Hr.
> Turbo yeast at <http://milehidistilling.com/>. The instructions say
> it can manage 20 percent in 5 days from 8 kilos of sugar in a 6.5
> gal solution. I have no idea what it will taste like in mead but it
> might be worth a try if you like higher ABV levels.
I have used turbo yeast and of the opinion. I don't like the taste
the yeast leaves in the Mead and while it does what it says it will
do, I didn't think it was worth the money.
Dick
------------------------------
Subject: Re: milk
From: "J Bailey" <jbmail@isomedia.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:31:11 -0800
Keep in mind, homogenized means not mixed, as in it's not mechanically
treated to force the fat to blend with the water and solids. Non-homogenized
milk separates with cream on top and skim milk on bottom, unless you shake
it before pouring.
Pasteurized milk is heat-treated to destroy bacteria that gets into milk due
to crowded factory dairies and so it can stay in transit from cow to
bottling facility longer. Un-pasteurized milk is in its natural state,
strained and chilled right out of the cows. It's not generally homogenized
either.
My local co-op sells natural untreated milk and also heat-treated milk that
isn't homogenized. The kind that sours instead of rots is the
un-pasteurized. Hopefully that makes sense. I've been reading up on milk &
cows since I bought a calf to raise as my milk cow. After drinking nothing
but untreated milk for a year, you couldn't pay me to drink the "regular"
stuff.
Good luck finding a local source. Most states don't allow it, so it can be
hard to find.
- --Joanna (also planning a milk stout once the heather mead is bottled)
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Milk
From: rdadams@smart.net (Dick Adams)
Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2007 02:16:35 -0500 (EST)
circle mouse <circlemouse@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Dick Adams <rdadams@smart.net)
>> "You just solved a problem for me. I wanted to make a milk stout,
>> but store bought milk sours! Because raw milk is nothomogenized,
>> it turns into butter milk rather than souring.
> One problem remains. I am not near a dairy farm. Where does
> one purchase non-homogenized milk?
> try http://www.realmilk.com/where.html
That is an excellent site!
Now I have two new problems. There are no dairy farms listed for
Maryland or Delaware. If there was one in Delaware, I could use
it as an excuse for stopping at the Dogfish Brewery as long as I
was there. So I'll have to go to PA to get it.
My other problem is needing to find people who would want to
split five gallons as I would only need two gallons for brewing
plus a half gallon for myself. My wife and children won't
drink whole milk.
Dick
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Milk
From: stencil <etcs.ret@verizon.net>
Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2007 19:52:22 -0500
On Mon, 15 Jan 2007 11:23:45 -0700 (MST)
in Mead Lover's Digest #1298
Dick Adams wrote
>One problem remains. I am not near a dairy farm. Where does
>one purchase non-homogenized milk?
There may be some confusion here between *pasteurized*
(heat-sterilized) milk, and *whole* milk, which has not been
homogenized (had the cream mixed into it, usually by agitation.)
Neither process has much to do with souring, which is the effect of
lactic acid - a byproduct of lactobacilli metabolizing milk's sugars -
creating a sour flavor and curdling the butterfat, if it's present.
You can achieve whole milk, in varying degrees of richness, by pouring
cream into low-fat milk. Once you have an esthetically satisfying
layer of cream floating on top of the milk, you then can stir it in
like everybody used to do, until the dairies started beating in for us
and selling it as Homo..
For brewing and meadmaking purposes, you're better off with skim milk,
which has the lactose, just like whole or pasteurized milk, but with
less of the curd-forming butterfat; curd formation is inevitable,
given the low pH of fermenting products. This presumes you *don't
want* curds on, or in, your alcoholic beverage. If you do want them -
as in kumiss - you must be prepared to continuously agitate your must
so as to integrate the curd into a homogenous mixture. Like, umm,
homogenizing it. The result will be creamy, sour, and alcoholic, just
the thing for a tired Mongol home from a hard day toppling empires. Or
you could just mix vanilla extract into yoghurt or sour cream.
Non-*pasteurized* milk, raw, that has not been rendered sterile by
heating but is certified to be free of disease organisms, is available
from various boutiques; Google is your friend. Irradiated milk,
which achieves sterility not by heating but by exposure to electron
beams, is widely marketed as Parmalat. In any event it's milk -
lactose, butterfat, and water.
gds, stencil
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Milk
From: rdadams@smart.net (Dick Adams)
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 04:03:26 -0500 (EST)
stencil wrote:
> Dick Adams wrote
>> One problem remains. I am not near a dairy farm. Where does
>> one purchase non-homogenized milk?
> There may be some confusion here between *pasteurized*
> (heat-sterilized) milk, and *whole* milk, which has not been
> homogenized (had the cream mixed into it, usually by agitation.)
>
> Neither process has much to do with souring, which is the effect of
> lactic acid - a byproduct of lactobacilli metabolizing milk's sugars -
> creating a sour flavor and curdling the butterfat, if it's present.
>
> You can achieve whole milk, in varying degrees of richness, by pouring
> cream into low-fat milk. Once you have an esthetically satisfying
> layer of cream floating on top of the milk, you then can stir it in
> like everybody used to do, until the dairies started beating in for us
> and selling it as Homo..
>
> For brewing and meadmaking purposes, you're better off with skim milk,
> which has the lactose, just like whole or pasteurized milk, but with
> less of the curd-forming butterfat; curd formation is inevitable,
> given the low pH of fermenting products. This presumes you *don't
> want* curds on, or in, your alcoholic beverage. If you do want them -
> as in kumiss - you must be prepared to continuously agitate your must
> so as to integrate the curd into a homogenous mixture. Like, umm,
> homogenizing it. The result will be creamy, sour, and alcoholic, just
> the thing for a tired Mongol home from a hard day toppling empires.
A Mongol may like sour milk, but my recollections of it are not
something I'd like to renew. Maybe a taste so one of my Mongol
neighbors' homebrew would change my mind. Then maybe not.
> Or you could just mix vanilla extract into yoghurt or sour cream.
Vanilla extract and sour cream seems worth a try. After all, I
ferment anything I encounter. Why not?
> Non-*pasteurized* milk, raw, that has not been rendered sterile by
> heating but is certified to be free of disease organisms, is available
> from various boutiques; Google is your friend. Irradiated milk,
> which achieves sterility not by heating but by exposure to electron
> beams, is widely marketed as Parmalat. In any event it's milk -
> lactose, butterfat, and water.
I avoid boutiques like the plague because of their usual 100%
over retail markup. Maybe a pound or more of lactose in the
primary with wildflower honey is worth a try for a Milk Mead.
Dick
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1299, 19 January 2007
From: "lameuse@netzero.net" <lameuse@netzero.net>
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 21:13:35 GMT
spices in meads:
>>Place spices in a cheese cloth bag with a string or fishing line to
retrieve
You can then control the amount of extraction by monitoring.<<
I don't personally recommend this above technique, it's tried and true
yes, but the actual fine control isn't there. IF you have a spice
grinder always use whole spices!!! Only add at bottling time is my
suggestion, make an extract and titrate to taste in a measured sample,
then calculate how much to add for the whole batch and in it goes. I
dry pan cook the whole spices until the room smells good, then grind
freshly. Pre-ground spices work also, but for best results use only a
freshly opened container as most ground spices will lose flavor and
aroma rapidly once in contact with air. I use an espresso maker ($20
stovetop variety is proven by millions of Italian homes to work)and
make a fresh steam extract of the freshly ground spices. Using steam
and pressure extracts all but the heavier oils from spices, which can
be gotten from an ethanol extraction but again if you want this I'd
recommend doing it seperately (say in 95% ethanol) and adding together
with the steam extracted or alone. Improved clarity, finer flavor
control and better final aromatics are the advantages as they won't be
lost due to CO2 scrubbing. Happy spicing.
Len
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1300
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