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Mead Lovers Digest #1326
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1326, 17 June 2007
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1326 17 June 2007
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Back Sweetening Mead (Ian)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1325, 12 June 2007 ("Robert Goulding")
Artificially Sweetening Mead (Ian)
Re: Sweetening Mead with Honey (Dave Drummer)
Re: A beer-like mead ("Erroll Ozgencil")
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Subject: Back Sweetening Mead
From: Ian <elkor@mindspring.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:03:13 -0400 (EDT)
>>Dave Drummer asked:
>>
>>I have some mead that I fermented from 1.087 down to 0.996 using
>>Lalvin D-47. It has cleared nicely and tastes good, but I want to
>>try sweetening it slightly with honey. Any suggestions on the best >way
>>to add the honey to insure that it dissolves completely?
>
Dick Responded:
>Thank you for asking this question because I did know the
>answer and I had to think about it.
>
>Final.SG = ((128 oz * 0.996) + (X oz * 1.4)) / (128 oz + X oz)
>I wrote a 'quick & dirty' binary search program and got an answer
>of 3.2488 oz will raise the SG of a gallon from 0.996 to 1.006.
>For 5 gallons, that's 16.25 oz. of honey.
Ian Appends:
I agree with Dick's equation, but rewrote it to solve for X (I'm an
Engineer, math is fun for me).
Plugging the numbers into the following will give the answer:
V = Volume of Starting SG mead (volume ounces)
S = Start SG
T = Target SG
X = oz (mass) of Honey
X = V * (T - S) / (1.4 - T)
- -------- OR ---------
X = V * (Target SG - Starting SG)/(1.4 - Target SG)
Naturally, if you divide X by 16 you'll get lb of honey per whatever unit of
liquid.
Regards,
Ian
- --<br>
It's about using your life to touch or poison other people's hearts in such
a way that could have never ocurred alone.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1325, 12 June 2007
From: "Robert Goulding" <sanctuary@rushmore.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 07:40:39 -0600
How much honey for how much mead?
> Re: Sweeting mead with honey? ("Eric Wescott")
>
> Subject: Re: Sweeting mead with honey?
> From: "Eric Wescott" <eric.wescott@gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 07:41:07 -0400
>
> Dave Drummer asked about how to back-sweeten his dry mead.
>
> Dave, I just did this for a big batch for a wedding, and it came out
> great. I boiled some water, then mixed roughly equal parts water and
> room-temp honey. This melted the honey nicely, and created a syrup,
> if you will. This then got poured into the rest of the mead a stirred
> a bit to ensure even distribution. Went in easy.
>
> I happened to preserve my mead just before doing this, because I was
> up against a deadline, and could not risk restarting fermentation.
> With a dry-mead, that is a risk, because you cannot be sure that the
> yeast is ABV attenuated yet. I used 1tsp sulfites, followed by 1tsp
> sorbate for long-term stability.
>
> - --EW
> Stratford CT... but soon to be River Vale, NJ
>
> ------------------------------
>
Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons; for you are crunchy, and good with
ketchup.
------------------------------
Subject: Artificially Sweetening Mead
From: Ian <elkor@mindspring.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 11:07:08 -0400 (EDT)
This is a random thought I had while making my morning tea.
Has anyone here ever used artificial sweeteners in their mead?
Either in primary fermentation or as a back-sweetener to prevent a secondary
fermentation?
What did you use? How well did it work?
I have occasionally tried using Splenda to sweeten Amaretto Sours (and some
other mixed drinks) to limited success (it combines well with the sour mix,
not with the amaretto).
I'm honestly not sure what the purpose would be, other than potentially
preventing a secondary fermentation, depending on whether the sugar
substitute is digestible by the yeast or not.
Regards, Ian
- --<br> It's about using your life to touch or poison other people's
hearts in such a way that could have never ocurred alone.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Sweetening Mead with Honey
From: Dave Drummer <beammeup@fast.net>
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:29:06 -0400
> From: "Eric Wescott" <eric.wescott@gmail.com>
. . .I boiled some water, then mixed roughly equal parts water and
> room-temp honey. This melted the honey nicely, and created a syrup,
> if you will. This then got poured into the rest of the mead a stirred
> a bit to ensure even distribution. Went in easy.
>
> From: MeadGuild@aol.com (Dick)
> Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 18:00:08 EDT
>
> . . .Thank you for asking this question because I did know the
> answer and I had to think about it.
>
> . . .how much honey is needed to raise 1 gallon of Mead .01 SG
> points given the SG of the gallon of honey.
>
> Final.SG = ((128 oz * 0.996) + (X oz * 1.4)) / (128 oz + X oz)
> . . .I wrote a 'quick & dirty' binary search program and got an
> answer
> of 3.2488 oz will raise the SG of a gallon from 0.996 to 1.006.
> For 5 gallons, that's 16.25 oz. of honey.
>
Thanks, Eric, and Dick. The honey syrup works perfectly. As for the
gravilty, I knew the answer as well, but also had to think about it.
This afternoon, I played around with adding different amounts of
honey until I got the sweetness tuned to where I wanted it. And
wouldn't you know, it was about 3 oz. per gallon!
Dave Drummer
Kutztown Sr. High School
www.LehighWheelmen.org
------------------------------
Subject: Re: A beer-like mead
From: "Erroll Ozgencil" <errollo@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:56:01 -0700
Ben Waggoner <heathen@cyberback.com> wrote:
> The only reason I did this was so I could call it "Crystal Metheglin" --
> I made a whole five-gallon batch of mead solely for the sake of a pun!
And a great pun it was!
> I didn't use hops at all, but the end result did remind me of a beer
Thanks Ben, it's good to hear that I'm on the right track.
Dave Drummer <beammeup@fast.net> wrote:
> ... it was quite good. And now that your posting has reminded me of this,
> I think I'll get some ingredients together and make a batch!
I"m glad I helped rouse such a happy memory :)
> ... hops were boiled for an hour, they would have had mostly a bittering
Bittering hops in mead! I'm not going to go that far this time around.
If I use hops, it will be for flavor and aroma, but I'll keep your
positive experience in mind. If my first experiment goes well, I may
try bittering hops the next time.
With some of the blanks filled in, my beer like mead is starting to
look like this:
For six US gallons (23 L) of must:
11.5 lb (5.2 kg) honey
5 gallons (19 L) of water
1 lb (450 g) crystal malt
6 tsp (28 g) DAP
0.25 oz (7 g) flavoring hops (optional)
0.25 oz (7 g) aroma hops (optional)
Ale yeast - Nottingham?
I'm expecting an OG of 1.070 or so. Still thinking about acid and sweetening.
Erroll
http://www.washingtonwinemaker.com
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1326
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