Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Mead Lovers Digest #1318
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1318, 28 April 2007
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1318 28 April 2007
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Mead Lover's Digest (Alida Dunning)
Re: Berry types for mead? (Dick Dunn) #1315, (Dick Dunn)
New York City Mead Gathering (Phil)
mead/morel festival this weekend. (roboschwar@aol.com)
FW: Mead Lover's Digest #1317, 23 April 2007 ("James, Trevor")
Re: Heating the Honey Must ("Dan McFeeley")
RE: Maple Syrup Mead ("Michael Zahl")
Yeast selection (MeadGuild@aol.com)
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com.
Use mead-request@talisman.com for [un]subscribe/admin requests.
Digest archives and FAQ are available at www.talisman.com/mead
A searchable archive is at www.gotmead.com/content/category/9/43/69/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest
From: Alida Dunning <alida@alaska.net>
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 21:31:44 -0800
Hi There
Does anyone have any tips/recipes for making mead with mature coconut
(meaning not green)?
I've started one batch using mostly only the water with a little shredded
meat, and some sprout material. I've heard warnings about the oil going
rancid in recipes for beers and wines. This is why I used mostly the water,
but I could not resist using some of the delicious fresh meat. I have not
seen any mead recipes. I'm thinking of adding some grated meat or toasted
meat soon to produce more of a coconut flavor. Any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks.
Alida Dunning
Homer, Alaska
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Berry types for mead? (Dick Dunn) #1315,
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:30:18 -0600
Alida Dunning <alida@alaska.net> wrote:
> Don't forget fruits other than berries. Apples, crabapples and rhubarb are
> easy to grow and make great mead. Our local meadery makes a "highly
> quaffable" blackberry-blueberry.
Sure, but Art Torrey's question was specifically about berries. I took it
in that narrower context because he seemed concerned about space--and his
reply in MLD 1317 confirms that. Rhubarb is easy enough; I mentioned that
as going along with strawberry (a combination that's as good in a melomel
as in a pie). But apples and crabapples need a lot more space...you can
grow several berry bushes in the space required by even a single, semi-
dwarf fruit tree.
Although we don't have space limitations here, a decade ago we only had 1%
as much land as we do now, so I'm very much attuned to the problems of more
ambition than land!
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
------------------------------
Subject: New York City Mead Gathering
From: Phil <dogglebe@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 03:34:46 -0700 (PDT)
On Tuesday, May 15th, the New York City Homebrewers Guild will hold its
seventh annual mead meeting at Burp Castle (located on Seventh Street
between 2nd & 3rd avenues) at 7:30pm.
This meeting is open to all makers and fans of mead. At last year?s meeting,
twenty different meads were passed around; a good time was had by all!
Phil
------------------------------
Subject: mead/morel festival this weekend.
From: roboschwar@aol.com
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 07:22:00 -0400
Not sure how many of us live in Virginia, but this winery (meadery?) is
having their annual morel festival this Sunday. Performers, tastings, etc.
Near Sperryville - lovely country, still largely undeveloped - for those with
an idea as to where that is.
Here's the winery's link, go to "events" : http://smokehousewinery.com/
Rob Schwartz
------------------------------
Subject: FW: Mead Lover's Digest #1317, 23 April 2007
From: "James, Trevor" <james@management.uottawa.ca>
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 09:21:39 -0400
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
I have successfully and unsuccessfully made Maple Syrup Meads.
My conclusion is to add the Maple Syrup after a traditional Mead has
fermented dry. My reasoning is that fermentation strips the flavoring
from the Maple Syrup. However, that technique may lead to other
problems:
* If the yeast are not all deceased, they will have been
given a rich dose of sugar upon which they will thrive.
* Since Meads brewed for personal consumption do not focus on
clarity to the extent that Meads brewed for competition, I
have not evaluated how Maple Syrup will affect the clarity
of the end product.
Does anyone have some insights into brewing Maple Syrup Mead?
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Personally I have found Maple wines easier to work with. I will admit I
am pretty well a rookie, only 2 years into this.
My personal taste is sweet strong wines (AKA Wombat Wines). So I have
been using the 14-18% yeasts, and starting with a high OSG.
One secret I found was Vanilla beans. I put one in the primary, and a
fresh one in the secondary. When it sinks to the bottom it is time to
rack and let clear.
Remember Vanilla is not truly a flavour, but more of a flavour enhancer,
so I find it brings out the maple flavour very well.
On a similar note, does anyone have a contact at a sugar bush? I am
wondering if I were to get the sap before they boil off the water
(basically at my OSG) if it would have any different flavours. They
boil off all the water to make it a syrup, and I go and add all my water
back to it (sorta makes it redundant no?)
Wombat
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Heating the Honey Must
From: "Dan McFeeley" <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:05:23 -0500
Hello Dick -- I'll try to respond to both of your posts in
MLD 1317 as best I can.
You wrote, in response to me:
>> From what I can see, the benefits of boiling the honey must are meads
>> that clear more easily due to the denaturing of the proteins that cause
>> haze. The scum that comes to the surface can be skimmed, resulting
>> in a cleaner must. The disadvantages are an alteration of the flavor
>> of the mead from the high temperatures used in order to boil the must,
>> and a driving off of the volatile components that add bouquet and the
>> more delicate honey flavors to the mead.
>
> If I am understanding correctly, this is referring to a pre-fermentation
> boil. On the presumption that the objective is to "denature the
> proteins that cause haze", I ask Is boiling necessary or will
> pasteurization have the same effect?
Yes, that's right, this is a pre-fermentation boil.
I've never tested this, and don't have access to specific scientific
data from food research material, but my instincts tell me that a
gentle pasteurization will not have the same effect on denaturing
the protein/colloidal material in honey as would boiling. I've
pasteurized in the past and never had a scum rise to the surface,
whereas, all reports of boiling (I've never done this) indicate a
scum on the surface.
Dan McFeeley wrote:
>> John White cited research (in The Hive and the Honey Bee) by G. F.
>> Townsend published in 1939 examining variations in temperature and
>> time needed to kill off five vegetative forms of wild yeasts found in
>> honey (at 18.6 % moisture). White drew up a table which was
>> calculated from the data in Townsend's article. This is the table
>> (p. 513) below:
>
>Is not honey suppose to be 15% moisture?
There aren't strict standards on moisture content for honey you
might pick up from your local beekeeper. Most are aware that
in order to prevent fermentation of the honey, you have to keep
moisture content below 18% water. The bees will more or less
do this themselves -- after all, they don't want spoiled honey
anymore then we do. Harvesting honey too early can lead too
high moisture content.
I don't know what the industry standards are, but I'm assuming
that they would stay close to 18% water content or lower.
Hope this is helpful, but if not, keep posting to this list!
<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
"Meon an phobail a thogail trid an chultur"
(The people's spirit is raised through culture)
------------------------------
Subject: RE: Maple Syrup Mead
From: "Michael Zahl" <mzahl@cox.net>
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:42:39 -0700
Dick:
I made a Maple Syrup Mead in December 2005. I started a 3 gallon batch with
just 5 quarts of maple syrup, no honey. I don?t have my notes handy, but
I?d be willing to share either off list or later when I dig them up and have
had more coffee!
Anyway, the result was a beverage around 11% ABV and very dry! It was
horrid, tasting like you were chewing on maple bark! So, after reading a
few bits here and there on the digest, I decided to add a gallon of
wildflower honey I had, and made it into a 5 gallon batch (added some water
too). I think I added this around the 3-4 month mark after initial creation
of the batch.
The result of that was a very lovely sweet maply wine! It?s been one of my
cherished favorites of that year?s brewing activity, and considering I
brewed 13 batches totaling 80 gallons that year, that should tell you
something!
Not really sure where the true final ABV ended up, because I did get a small
amount of restarted fermentation. Any techies or fellow math whiz?s out
there want to explain the calculus on that to me??!!??
During fermentation I got considerably less and much much finer sediment and
lees forming at the bottom of my carboy. Also, as has been mentioned in
this thread, clarity was not as nice as most my other batches.
I generally do NOT boil my musts. I usually use EC-1118, D-47 or liquid
Sweet mead yeast. (think D-47 got used here) No sulfates, but I used a
clarifier after 9 months of bulk aging and 4 or 5 rackings.
When (not if) I do this again, I would consider either adding the maple
syrup after a primary fermentation, or adding it in with the original honey.
I typically add all m fruits and spices to the primary fermentation anyways,
so this would be a consistent method for me. Though, the more I read, the
more I consider do the ?add-ons? during secondary.
Hope that bit of info helps you out Dick!
Michael
Subject: Maple Syrup Mead
From: rdadams@smart.net (Dick Adams)
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 00:49:45 -0400 (EDT)
I have successfully and unsuccessfully made Maple Syrup Meads. My conclusion
is to add the Maple Syrup after a traditional Mead has fermented dry. My
reasoning is that fermentation strips the flavoring from the Maple Syrup.
However, that technique may lead to other problems:
* If the yeast are not all deceased, they will have been
given a rich dose of sugar upon which they will thrive.
* Since Meads brewed for personal consumption do not focus on
clarity to the extent that Meads brewed for competition, I
have not evaluated how Maple Syrup will affect the clarity
of the end product.
Does anyone have some insights into brewing Maple Syrup Mead?
Dick
------------------------------
Subject: Yeast selection
From: MeadGuild@aol.com
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:11:16 EDT
Lalvin EC-1118 has been my yeast of choice for a few years and have been
pleased with it. But my O.G.'s are in the range of 1.100 to 1.300 with an
F.G. of 1.015 to 1.025. One of my preoccupation has been killing yeast
left over from primary fermentation.
Ken Schramm recently suggested using Lalvin 71B-1112 with an O.G. of
1.140, having the yeast die of alcohol toxicity at 14.5%, and producing a
semi-sweet yeast. It reads like a simple solution to killing the yeast.
BUT WHAT IF my ABV objective is say 10%, what yeast should I be
using?
Dick
- --
Richard D. Adams, CPA (Retired)
Moderator: misc.taxes.moderated
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1318
*******************************
