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Mead Lovers Digest #1309
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1309, 8 March 2007
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1309 8 March 2007
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Servomyces ("David Houseman")
Re: Yeast slow startup / yeast recovery (stencil)
Re: Yeast slow startup / yeast recovery (Dick Adams)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1308, 3 March 2007 ("Dan&jan")
table error (dan@geer.org)
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Subject: Servomyces
From: "David Houseman" <david.houseman@verizon.net>
Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2007 13:33:44 -0500
Servomyces is essentially dead yeast. This is used to supply zinc, a
necessary mineral to yeast health. While there is trace amounts of zinc in
malt, the graphs showing increased yeast growth and fermentation indicate
that Servomyces does greatly improve the health of yeast. I don't know
what the zinc presence is in honey but I would imagine that the yeast would
still benefit from the added zinc. It's added to the boil when making
beer. I suspect you'd add to water that you'd heat up to sanitize prior to
adding honey.
Dave
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Subject: Re: Yeast slow startup / yeast recovery
From: stencil <etcs.ret@verizon.net>
Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2007 14:58:51 -0500
On Sat, 03 Mar 2007 10:21:20 -0700 (MST),
in Mead Lover's Digest #1308, Omar Hernández Romero wrote:
> [ ... ]
>I decided trying to recover by culturing more yeast from the other
>savings I had (a 100 ml flask), and purchased some mixed fruit beverage
>(namely, Welches Harvest Blend, grape, apple, pear and lime juice, in
>water, with some glucose).
...and, probably, "stabilizers," i.e. yeastkillers
>I used this beverage, added half a campden
>tablet (beverage bottle holds half a gallon), and added 3 drops of
>saturated (NH4)SO4 solution, and 3 drops of saturated MgSO4 solutions.
>That was last Saturday... as of early today, there are no signs of
>fermentation. :(
>
>My questions are:
>1. What did I do wrong? I'm thinking now that I should have tried and
>approach more similar to making a yeast starter, instead of dumping all
>my savings into half a gallon "must".
I think you've got that right; and if you feel you have to add a
campden tablet to clean up the juice/starter/wort/must, then wait 24
hours or so to allow the gases to dissipate, before pitching the
yeast.
> [ ... ]
>4. The most important: is there any well-established procedure to
>recover and reactivate yeast from lees?
Many. Google for > wash yeast <
>5. Alternatively, do you know of any procedure to culture yeast that I
>could later use for brewing (i.e. mantain a live and healthy culture,
>from which I can take a portion for brewing)?
Many. Google for > yeast ranch <
>I undestand that yeast reproduction is aerobic, vs. "normal operation"
>which is anaerobic. I also understand that yeast are "more confortable"
>living and working in anaerobic environment. I also know that moving
>from anaerobic to aerobic is more demanding to yeast than the opposite.
>Any suggestions to "force" switch from anaerobic to aerobic?
Most brewers aerate the young must or wort, either by agitating the
fermenter vessel or by piping in clean air via an aquarium airstone;
sintered stainless airstones are available.
Google for > aerate wort <
The yeast will respond to the oxygen-rich environment by entering a
reproductive phase for a few hours until the oxygen has been taken up;
afterward, once they start converting sugar to CO2 and alcohol,
there's usually a stong enough current of gas leaving the fermenter to
keep oxygen at low levels.
>I do not have quick access to homebrewing supplies (I need to travel to
>the USA... this happens once or twice a year).
Schade. Sounds like a great business opportunity for a heads-up
Mexican entrepreneur. All those expats in Guadalajara.
gds, stencil
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Yeast slow startup / yeast recovery
From: rdadams@smart.net (Dick Adams)
Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2007 18:11:12 -0500 (EST)
Unfortunately I do not save yeast and cannot add any value
to your situation. However, given given the sizes of your
fermentations and presuming you have access to standard
2 liter soda bottles, there is an Australian company that
sells a product called OZ-Tops. <oztops.com.au> Even in
Australian dollars, $24.95 seems expensive. But they were
a gift to me. They come with yeast and they do work.
> Savings # 1, 500 ml total
> Lees recovered from orange blossom honey mead, 1 gal batch
> About 3 ounces lees
> Mixed with 100 ml water, 100 ml guava juice, 100 ml mango juice, 100 ml
> orange juice, 3 teaspoons sugar (this concotion boiled for 10 minutes
> and cooled before adding yeast)
> Happily fermenting for two months in the fridge (about 7° C)
>
> Savings # 2, 150 ml total
> Lees recovered from sima, 2 liters batch
> About 1.5 ounces lees
> Mixed with plain (boiled) water, two teaspoons sugar, two drops
> ammonium sulfate, two drops magnesium sulfate (both saturated
> solutions)
> Happily fermenting for one month in the fridge (about 7° C)
Fermenting at 7C (44.6F) is the lower limit for EC-1118. Per
Lallemand, 71B-1122 has a lower limit of 15C (59F). I'm one
of the last people to say "warm it up", but if you take those
fermenters out of the fridge for a few days, they should really
start fermenting big time.
BTW: Where are you located geographically?
Dick
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1308, 3 March 2007
From: "Dan&jan" <montveil@skybest.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2007 09:36:46 -0500
>>The local beer/wine shop I go to sells several types of honeys, <<
Generally the lighter the honey the milder the taste.
If you can get a taste of the honey's offered it will give you a pretty good
clue to what it will add to you mead.
For instance, a light aromatic honey will give you a light mead. Medium and
heavier honey will give more honey taste and many times more complex
product. For instance when I make beer I will use a dark honey in my darker
ambers and heavier beers to add more interest and complexity to the final
product. However for lighter beer and when I only want to jack up the
fermentable I use one a lighter honey.
I would suggest you contact a local beekeeper (contact the local
Agricultural Agent) and see what they have.
They will try to sell you the darker honey as the lighter ones are generally
better sellers for the table BUT NOT NECESSARILY FOR YOU USE.
Try the different honey and match it with your goals.
The premium honeys such as orange blossom, sourwood, tupelo will not
necessarily add the complexity of other honey
Dan Veilleux
in the mountains of NC
zone 6a
------------------------------
Subject: table error
From: dan@geer.org
Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2007 13:30:43 -0500
FWIW, the table at
http://brewery.org/library/beeslees.html#App3
appears mis-labeled. It says "difference in gravity" and
then proceeds to start with 1.000 as 0%.
This is not possible; to achieve a difference in gravity of
1.000 you must start at circa 2.000 which would be solid
sugar under pressure.
The labels down the left should not begin with 1.000 but
rather with 0.000. I mention all this as the URL above
is a link on a number of other pages and appears in the
archives here.
If I am wrong, I am sure corrections will now appear.
- --dan
[ Author, <jmiller@genome.wi.mit.edu>, is no longer reachable
and the <improvements@brewery.org> entity has yet to answer.]
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1309
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