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Mead Lovers Digest #1365
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1365, 5 February 2008
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1365 5 February 2008
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1353, 29 November 2007 (dan@geer.org)
Solera mead? (stencil)
Fermenter suggestions (PHREDLESS@aol.com)
2008 Upper Mississippi Mash-Out results are posted ("Crist, Jonathan")
Re: Fermenters for small batches (ashford@whisperpc.com)
wheat mead ("Greg and Sandy Swob")
Re: competition medals (Dick Dunn)
First mead batch - progress report and questions (ashford@whisperpc.com)
NOTE: Digest appears when there is enough material to send one.
Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com.
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Digest archives and FAQ are available at www.talisman.com/mead
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1353, 29 November 2007
From: dan@geer.org
Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:03:45 -0500
> A searchable archive is at http://www.gotmead.com/mldarchives.html
I've entered direct phrases, cut&paste, and asked for
"exact phrase" matching -- so far, 10 of 10 for zero
results. What am I doing wrong?
Looking at the site map at the above shows that the last
mead digest indexed there was in October 2006, unless
the site map is incorrect.
What gives?
- --dan
------------------------------
Subject: Solera mead?
From: stencil <stencil.sends@verizon.net>
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:06:46 -0500
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1364, 27 January 2008, Robert
Agnew wrote in the "What is it that oxidizes?" thread,
- -------------------------------------------------------------------
> I postulate this is why meads
>are know to improve nearly indefinitely with age. The various residual
>and non-fermentable sugars can go through very complex organic chemical
>reactions and create new flavors as time goes by.
Has any one used the solera scheme, in which a container of
aged mead gives up a portion of its contents for bottling,
and is then topped off from another container of younger
mead, and so back until the last container is filled with
freshly-fermented mead? Most of my carboys run around 6.5
gallons, say 25 liters, and a dozen 750ml bottles is barely
2.5 gallons. My questions would be,
- - What is the best aliquot to pull for bottling, and why?
- - Is it better to draw down incrementally, a bottle at a
time, or to wait until meading time, and draw several
bottles at once?
- - How deep should the stack be; that is, for how many years
will you have to make up not just what's been bottled, but a
fresh carboy's worth too?
- - Should you try to extract the lees from each container at
racking time, or just let them accumulate until they get to
crisis levels (whatever that might be?)
- - Will the tiding-over of the well-aged portion have
sufficient impact on flavor to justify the hassle?
Although this notion is prompted to some extent by memories
of bouncing around the back streets of Rota, tanked up on
15-pesetas-a-tumbler fino, I'm not talking about the use of
flor yeast, nor the of casks. Just mead, just carboys.
gds, stencil
------------------------------
Subject: Fermenter suggestions
From: PHREDLESS@aol.com
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:32:19 EST
Hey there all you mead-makers. I haven't posted here in ages, and I'm now
switching gears and doing a lot more wine than mead, I've always trusted the
opinions I get out of here. Here goes. Some neighbors and I have planted a
total of 150 grape vines between us. That was about 4 years ago. We produced
45 gallons last year. It's time to move to a bigger primary and storage,
rather than the 9 carboys and 4 plastic primaries. One of the guys located a
"chemical fermenter" new that is medium density poly-propolene, with a welded
stand. It states that it is acid resistant and food grade. Tapered bottom.
Whole nine yards. I think the whole thing was 220 for a 65 gallon set-up.
Should this type of item work? And for storage, stainless? Don't want to do
oak... I know that.
Thanks
Doug Thomas
------------------------------
Subject: 2008 Upper Mississippi Mash-Out results are posted
From: "Crist, Jonathan" <Jonathan.Crist@bsci.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:42:41 -0600
The 2008 Upper Mississippi Mash-Out is history! The organizing
committee would like to thank our sponsors, our volunteers, our entrants
and our guests for helping make this year's Mash-Out such a HUGE
success! You can check out the results and pictures on our website at:
http://www.mnbrewers.com/mashout
SET YOUR CALENDAR! Next year's Mash-Out will be held on Jan 23-24, 2009!
Jonathan Crist
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Fermenters for small batches
From: ashford@whisperpc.com
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:09:46 -0800 (PST)
> Subject: Re: Fermenters for small batches
> From: Phil <dogglebe@yahoo.com>
> Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:40:25 -0800 (PST)
>
> Whenever I make a mead, I fill my carboy within two or three inches of
> the stopper. Unless I add fruit, or something else, it never foams tht much.
> If you a gallon of mead, at the end, you should start by making five quarts,
> as you'll lose that much through repeated rackings.
>
> Phil
>
>> I'm getting ready to make a few small (~1 gal)
>> batches, and was wondering
>> about the fermenter. I think that something around
>> 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 gallons
>> should provide some headroom for foaming, and some
>> space in the bottom for
>> the spent yeast.
Thanks all for the good input.
My original goal was to have a primary batch that would be perfectly sized to
use a 1 gallon jug for bulk aging, and I was looking for a cost-effective way
to do this, while staying away from plastic.
The path I chose (it could change in the future) was to run 5-6 quart batches
in a 3 gallon glass carboy. This will allow expansion to a 10-11 quart batch
in the future (~2 gallons for bulk aging).
I'm currently running the first of two experiments with the small batches.
The purpose of this experiment is to determine whether or not I can notice a
taste difference between heated must and non-heated must. I used a starter
(pitched it 48 hours before use) and pitched the two musts (5 quarts water +
4.5 pounds honey) late last night. This evening, they're both beginning to
bubble. The yeast (Wyeast 4632 - Dry Mead) seems to like a temp of ~75F, but
it's been a bit cool here due to the rain (must at ~69F right now).
I only used about half the starter, and put the other half into the
refridgerator to use later. In a few weeks, I'll find out if this works.
Thanks again.
Peter Ashford
------------------------------
Subject: wheat mead
From: "Greg and Sandy Swob" <swob@eaglecom.net>
Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2008 12:41:59 -0600
I finally stepped outside the hive on a mead recipe. Meaning, instead
of traditional sack or other simple meads, I finally tried one of a recipe
I modified, making two separate one gallon batches. Ingredients for
each gallon: 3/4 lb. wheat, 1# raisins (one batch white & one is dark
raisins), 1# brown sugar, 2# honey, yeast, etc.. Soaked wheat in about
a quart & a half of water for 24 hrs. Minced the wheat & raisins the
second evening and mixed in honey, brown sugar, water & Pot.
Metabisulfite. Used very warm (105°F or so) water to mix in with the
honey & brown sugar first. Third evening, I added a starter- two small
oranges' juice, a little water, Cotes des Blanc packet. The first few
days, I whipped the must every evening to add oxygen. At day two, a cap
of wheat/raisin sludge covered the top and it bubbled loosely like a
swamp in a low budget scary movie. After another couple of days the
'cap' thickened and a fairly firm deposit encrusted the bottom of the
primary container was noticed when I whipped the must. It still put out
a funky odor & bubbled actively. After 8 days in primary, the cap
settled out, leaving a colored liquid mix with a few floaters of debris.
At 10 days, I decided to rack it and air lock the must into a small
collapsable fermenter. That's the only thing I had to use as a sealed
fermenter. The sludge cleaned out from the primary fairly easily, but a
very white colored layer was at the very bottom of the bottom sludge. I
strained more liquid from the sludge and got the fermenters relatively
full to the top & placed air locks on them. I forgot to get a startign
gravity & will take on in a hydrometer tube that I finally got today.
The hydrometer sank too deeply and bottomed out in the shallow fermenter
to get an actual reading. Something tells me there may not have been
enough sugar in the initial mix, but I'll get a reading ASAP. Now, the
must has stopped bubbling,once it was racked into the secondary. I'm
hesitant to add another yeast solution, but I do have some that
tolerates higher alcohol. It's only been in secondary for about a half
day.
Any suggestions?
Thanks, Greg
------------------------------
Subject: Re: competition medals
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 14:18:19 -0700
Howard Curran responds to notes from myself and Vicky; we were wondering
why giving more medals at a competition is a good thing:
> I am sorry you both feel this way! We do not just "Hand Out" medals,
> nor do we award them by score - as in professional competitions. We still
> AWARD 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for each category!!!...
Nobody said you were just handing out medals.
And are you aware of mead competitions which award by score?
Or are these straw-man arguments?
[Really, awarding by score is neither better nor worse than awarding by
ranking. It's just different. Score-based awards have the advantage of
indicating quality according to judges regardless of how many other quality
meads are in the same category. A fifth-place mead in a category with lots
of entries could actually be better than first-place in a sparsely-entered
category. Score-based awards recognize that. Still, if the thresholds for
the awards are set too low, you do get the problem Vicky mentioned that half
the entries take home medals. But that's neither here nor there when we're
talking about mead competitions.]
> We are not in this as a money-making event for our club ...
another straw man?
> ... I keep hearing negative comments from
> some of the forums, BUT, when I hear from a meadmakers that say they only
> make dry melomels, and never win a medal, because it appears only sweet
> meads win in other contests, I think it is a shame...
If you're going to say that's true of "other contests", let's see some
justification for your statement. Hasn't been my experience in the
occasional judging I've done.
Howard, you want to promote your competition, fine. But you can do it
without sniping at other contests. The mead community is small. The
competition territory is, shall we say, so sparsely settled that there
is room for everybody. Your negative comments work against attempts to
build a sense of community and cooperation.
> If we are wrong, I would like to hear about it. And if this is what
> the larger meadmaking community wants, we can be like everyone else and just
> award 9 medals (and possibly make some money).
That's just plain dishonest.
Let's see...the recently finished Upper Mississippi Mash-Out awarded 12
medals in mead categories plus 3 BoS . . . and it's not even a mead-only
comp!
The last Valhalla awarded 19 in category plus 3 BoS. Note that the odd
number is because medals were withheld in a couple categories. (To me,
that indicates serious judging.)
The last IMF home-meadmaker competition awarded in all BJCP sub-categories
(3 categories x 3 sub-cats each x 3 medals) = 27, plus single medals in 3
special categories, plus BoS.
Those were the ones I could look up easily. Now, as I learned arithmetic,
9 is not equal to 12, nor to 19, nor especially to 30. So why did you make
up the idea that "everyone else" awards only 9?
Oh, and there's one more straw-man: that "everyone else" is making money
because they don't give many awards.
As I said, the mead community doesn't need this sort of sniping.
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
------------------------------
Subject: First mead batch - progress report and questions
From: ashford@whisperpc.com
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2008 10:42:07 -0800 (PST)
I've been slowly reading the old posts, but I haven't seen anything about
these questions yet, so I'm posting the information and questions.
I added the starter to the batches eight days ago, and I thought it was time
to see how happy the yeast was. Here's the data:
Original SG - 1.100 (5 quarts distilled water + 4.5 lbs. honey)
Current SG - 1.068
Fermentation temp - 66F-68F
Yeast - Wyeast 4632 (Dry mead)
DAP, "Brewcraft Yeast Nutrient" and Gypsum (suggested by shop, due to use of
distilled water) were added to the starter (1/3 dose, full dose of Gypsum) and
both DAP and Nutrient were added to the fermenters (1/2 dose, three days into
fermentation).
I believe that this gives me ~4% ABV. Based on this, I think the primary
fermentation should be done in about 3-4 weeks. Does this sound right for the
above conditions?
Should I add more DAP/Nutrient?
When should I rack to the secondary? Immediately, or wait for the mead to
clarify a bit?
I think I need to leave the mead in the secondary until it completely
clarifies, and stops ALL fermentation (I'm making a still mead). I also think
I need to use a fermentation lock in the secondary. Is this correct?
What temp should the secondary be done at? I'm thinking 60F-65F.
Thanks in advance.
Peter Ashford
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1365
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