Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Mead Lovers Digest #1324
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1324, 7 June 2007
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1324 7 June 2007
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: #1323, To puree or not ("Shaggyman")
Sweeting mead with honey? (Dave Drummer)
Solidified honey ("Todd Miller")
Gypsum (MeadGuild@aol.com)
Ph (MeadGuild@aol.com)
Chemicals in the fermenter (MeadGuild@aol.com)
A beer-like mead ("Erroll Ozgencil")
A note from Dick Adams [with janitor's reply] (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: #1323, To puree or not
From: "Shaggyman" <shaggyman@kc.rr.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2007 18:44:21 -0500
Pureeing works, but it can lead to "must mousse" as the CO2 bubbles cling to
the tiny bits of fruit (had a 3 gallon batch of pureed Kiwi that came out
the airlock- in a six-gallon fermenter!), and the seeds are in there ready
to clog any racking and feeding excessive tannins (in some cases) into your
work of love and art.
I use a home rigged steam extractor- got everything from a thrift store for
twenty bucks
I freeze the fruit, then extract the juice in a large pressure cooker (the
kind used for home canning), with about a half inch of water in it. The
fruit goes in a colander suspended over a large saucepan sitting on a jar
rack so that it does not touch the water. Only the steam touches the fruit,
and the juice runs into the saucepan. I use about 15lbs of pressure for
about 30 minutes with most fruit, although with elderberries I cut that in
half to avoid over-extracting the plentiful tannins.
An added advantage is the ability to get a more accurate OG reading using
juice, as the fruit's fermentable sugars are not bound up in the fruit, but
actually in the must.
Freezing the fruit makes the whole process faster, plus fresh-picked will
store for months in freezer bags.
Lane O.
AKA: The Great And Powerful Shaggyman
------------------------------
Subject: Sweeting mead with honey?
From: Dave Drummer <beammeup@fast.net>
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 11:15:23 -0400
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 sweeting it slightly with honey. Any suggestions on the best way
to add the honey to insure that it dissolves completely?
Dave Drummer
------------------------------
Subject: Solidified honey
From: "Todd Miller" <todd.miller@borderlandnet.net>
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 20:47:21 -0500
Hi, gang--
I'm hoping somebody can help me out. I have a source of honey at a good
price, but unfortunately it's fairly distant and I'm only in the area from
time to time. Last time I was there, I picked up a five-gallon bucket of
wildflower honey. Trouble is, it tends to set up quickly and solidify. I
have a *horrible* time getting it to liquify so I can use it for meadmaking.
Can anybody share some helpful hints? For starters, I think I'm going to
start getting it in five one-gallon containers, which (hopefully) will make
it more manageable. Any thoughts would be enormously welcome!
tm
~~~~~~~~~~
Theirs is a hidden land; wolf-haunted,
Stormy highlands with perilous paths,
Where mountain torrents plunge through the mists
And flow unseen...
- -Beowulf
~~~~~~~~~~
------------------------------
Subject: Gypsum
From: MeadGuild@aol.com
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 21:52:52 EDT
Gypsum will make the water harder. Is there any effect of gypsum on Mead?
Dick
- --
Richard D. Adams, CPA (retired)
Moderator: misc.taxes.moderated
------------------------------
Subject: Ph
From: MeadGuild@aol.com
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 21:53:51 EDT
Is there a minimum Ph level for Mead?
Dick
- --
Richard D. Adams, CPA (Retired)
------------------------------
Subject: Chemicals in the fermenter
From: MeadGuild@aol.com
Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 21:57:27 EDT
I add nutrient and yeast. Acid blend can wait until fermentation has
completed. Does anyone add any other chemicals to the fermenter?
Dick
- --
Richard D. Adams, CPA (Retired)
------------------------------
Subject: A beer-like mead
From: "Erroll Ozgencil" <errollo@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 18:30:01 -0700
I'm posting this to rec.crafts.meadmaking, as well, to get as much
feedback as possible.
I've noticed brewing or winemaking origins in a lot of the mead
recipes I've seen. When a recipe calls for boiling, irish moss,
gypsum, and priming, odds are a homebrewer created it. Other recipes
call for pectic enzyme (even when there is no fruit), campden tablets,
tannin, and produce a still mead with 12% alcohol. A winemaker
probably came up with that one. All of my meads have been from the
"wine mead" camp, and I've had two people ask, with puzzled looks,
"isn't mead more like beer?" Well the obvious answer is "sometimes."
There are a lot of people making it like a beer and a lot of people
making it like a wine. The more I think about it, the less I think
either of these camps has a claim on what mead is *supposed* to be
like.
In the interest of expanding my horizons, I've decided to make a
beer-like mead. I haven't finalized it yet, but a recipe is taking
shape in my mind: It will be beer-like, but not a braggot. So it will
be 100% honey with an OG of around 1.075. I think I'll use specialty
grains, like crystal malt. I don't think I want a bitter mead, though,
so if I use hops it'll be for flavor and/or aroma. I may boil for 10
minutes, especially if I decide to use hops for flavor. If I do boil,
I'll toss in some irish moss.
I had been thinking of using specialty grains in exactly the same way,
and in the same concentration, that you would in a beer. I'm hesitant
to use hops at full strength though. Has anyone used specialty grain
in their meads? How about hops? How did you use them? How did it turn
out? What would you do differently?
and what the heck does gypsum do?
Comments and suggestions welcome.
Erroll
www.washingtonwinemaker.com
------------------------------
Subject: A note from Dick Adams [with janitor's reply]
From: MeadGuild@aol.com
Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 00:33:22 EDT
I have been moderating a high volume newsgroup, misc.taxes.moderated, for
the past 11-1/2 years so I know many of the problems, frustrations, and the
PITA ideas people suggest. Given that, I have a suggestion which I hope is
constructive. Although it may not be implementable since I do not know how
you are setup.
Mead Digest is basically a digest form ListServ, but I doubt it is setup as
a ListServ. If you went to a ListServ, users could choose between receiving
individual submissions and daily digests. Only people "white listed" on the
ListServ will have their submissions posted. Since I post the newsgroup
daily, I have never used a ListServ and that is the extent of my knowledge
about them. Another reason I have refrained from going to a ListServ is
that I am obsessive compulsive about the appearance of posts and have
written a reformatting program to assist me.
Thank you for your service to Meadmaking,
Dick
- --
Richard D. Adams, CPA (retired)
Moderator: misc.taxes.moderated
_ _ _ _ _
Reply from Janitor:
Since Dick addressed his note to the Digest as a whole, and since I think
it brings up some concerns which arise occasionally anyway, I'll respond
to it here. (I'm invoking my janitor privilege in order to reply in the
same digest as the original note rather than one digest later.)
I've been handling the MLD for 13+ years (about 1100 issues). As you all
know, it's not a particularly high volume digest, generally not a lot more
than one digest a week. Mostly this simplifies the matter, but there are
a few concerns specifically from the usually-bucolic pace.
Firstly, I have to be careful to note that "LISTSERV" is a registered
trademark of L-Soft International, Inc., for a particular implementation of
mailing-list software. It's not a generic term, and (as a former coding
pig) I want to respect their trademark and property. But "we know what
you mean".
I'm aware of software which allows subscribers to receive either periodic
digests or immediate submissions. I've watched it; it has major problems
and those problems become worse as the digest frequency decreases. The
biggest problem is that different people see the same article at different
times. So, the immediate recipients see an article and interaction begins;
eventually the digest recipients get the original plus a pile of followups.
They try to enter the discussion but it swirls around them; you get Carnac
questions and general confusion. The problem is fundamental/perceptual;
it's not a software issue.
The reason it gets worse as the digest goes slower is that there is more
going on with the immediate subscribers before the digest subscribers get
re-sync'ed. I keep looking at this issue every year or two, and I never
find any reason to have two different kinds of subscribers.
If you accept that premise (and I realize you may not), the next question
is: "What kind of distribution should it be? immediate or digest?" For
guidance on that, I have occasionally turned to the readership and have
also invoked some cheap philosophy! It seems most readers aren't living
and breathing (sic) mead: Either it's an avocation and they don't want to
be deluged daily, or it's a vocation and they've got better things to do
than email. They prefer something once or twice a week so they don't feel
completely left in the dust if they set aside an issue for a few days.
Next, the immediate-recipient model tends to encourage chatty behavior
which is difficult for folks who don't live for email. If your reply goes
out right away, you tend to start thinking about "me too" responses that
don't actually carry any information, whereas if you have to wait a couple
days to see your name in lights in the digest header, you may think again
about the value of it.
Finally, the cheap-philosophy part is: In meadmaking, patience is a
virtue; I assert it is a -necessary- virtue. Therefore I'm quite willing
to encourage newer meadmakers to slooowwww dooowwwwnnnn. And yes, I do
realize that sometimes the pace of the digest is a problem for somebody
who has a genuine honest no-foolin' problem like "Holy Guano, Batperson!
The mead is foaming up out of the airlock and what can I do to avoid
contamination?" But it's rare.
If you want faster reaction times, I'm pretty sure gotmead.com can help;
I hope Vicky will chime in here.
If you want to pick up a discussion of the mechanics of the MLD, feel free
to contact me at mead-request@talisman.com (the admin address). I would
like to keep the digest free of administrivia, so we can discuss this off
list; I'll be glad to reflect comments to anybody interested, and bring
back any conclusions to the main group.
Dick (the other one)
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1324
*******************************
