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Mead Lovers Digest #1450
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1450, 4 December 2009
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1450 4 December 2009
Mead Discussion Forum
Contents:
RE: A Plug for a New Meadery ("Vicky Rowe")
Re: MLD#1449, 26/11/09 - Crystallized Honey (Arthur Torrey)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1449, 26 November 2009 (Mark Donnelly)
Yeast (Edward Verhagen)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1449, 26 November 2009 (Luke Kostu)
RE: Mead Lover's Digest #1449, 26 November 2009 ("Matt Falenski")
re: Dealing with crystallized honey (stencil)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: RE: A Plug for a New Meadery
From: "Vicky Rowe" <gotmead@gotmead.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:51:33 -0500
Paul does make a good mead! But Long Island Meadery has been out there for
several years now. I agree with you, if you're anywhere in the NYC area, you
really should stop and sample the unique meads Paul makes. You won't be
disappointed.
Carl, which of his meads did you get to try? I've always been fond of his
cyser, it is excellent and has won medals at both the Mead Festival and at
my Mazer Cup (which replaced the mead festival)
We're hoping that Maxwell will enter our competition this year. I got the
chance to sample them (and judge them) at the old Mead Fest a couple years
running, their mead is excellent. Volcano's is good as well, but I've only
had the pleasure a few times. I'm hoping to see them again too.
Wassail!
Vicky Rowe
Owner & Webmistress, Gotmead.com
Director, Mazer Cup International
March 26-28, 2010
http://www.mazercup.com
I was not satisfied with commercial meads, so have been making my own for
11 years (currently 36 carboys fermenting - but many are long-term so less
than 200 gal/year). At the International Meadfest a couple years ago, I
thought Maxwell's Meadery had the best meads, but unfortunately they are
located near Adelaide, Australia and I can't get them in Ohio (although
I can buy Maxwell's grape wines). Last year I found a good mead at the
Vulcano Winery on the Big Island in Hawaii (made from Macadamia Nut Flower
Honey), but I can't get it here either. A week or so ago, I discovered
the new Long Island Meadery and was pleasantly surprised by his meads.
He has only been open a year or so, but if anyone is visiting NYC, I would
suggest trying his meads (only open on weekends).
Carl McMillin
Brecksville, OH
------------------------------
Subject: Re: MLD#1449, 26/11/09 - Crystallized Honey
From: Arthur Torrey <arthur_torrey@comcast.net>
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:53:45 -0500
On Thursday 26 November 2009 22:38:00 mead-request@talisman.com wrote: (along
w/ much other stuff that's trimmed...
> Dealing with crystallized honey ("Patrick St. Jean")
> ------------------------------
The commercial places will use a honey melter, essentially a closed steam bath
that will gently heat a bucket to melting temps, or an electric heating belt.
The following is the low budget home brew method that I use...
Get a large pot - I use a porcelain water bath canning kettle - and put the
bucket in the pot w/ some sort of open spacer under it so as to keep it off
the bottom a little bit. Fill the pot w/ water to almost full, and put it
over low heat. I like to use the same propane burner that I do my fried
turkeys with, but you can use your stove as well...
Note that if it's bee flying weather, you MUST do this inside a bee proof
structure, or at night - the local bees will smell it and try to come get
their "stolen property" back...
As the honey warms up, it will slowly melt back into a liquid, the magic
temperature is around 110-120*F or so.
Stir it (or try to) every 15-20 minutes or so to distribute the heat and speed
the melting. As soon as it melts, turn off the heat and pull the bucket
out...
Some of the purists will argue that heating honey degrades it, which is
probably true, but as long as you keep the heat down to just enough to melt
the crystals, and not to long, it doesn't hurt it that much.... (Certainly
far less than the over processed stuff in the grocery store)
The other thing you should be aware of, is that if your bucket has a honey
gate on it, every time I've done this, the gate has had a slow leak after I
was done. I suspect the heat messes up the O-ring. (In the future I will be
keeping my honey in buckets w/o gates, except for possibly the bucket I'm
working out of)
As to breaking it up, I'd get some gallon jars from your local restaurant or
equivalent, and put it up as five 12 pound batches...
ART
> Subject: Dealing with crystallized honey
> From: "Patrick St. Jean" <stjeanp@pat-st-jean.com>
> Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:33:31 -0600
>
> Hi everyone,
> I've got a 5 gallon bucket (~60 pounds) of honey here which has
> crystallized and I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on how to deal
> with it. I'm probably going to break it down into 4 15 pound batches,
> but it's going to be tough to dig it out the way it is. Can I just dig
> out chunks and use them by weight or is there maybe a way to soften the
> whole thing?
>
> Thanks!
> Pat
> - --
> Pat in Lewisville BS#140 K0OOK EKIII rides with me
> '04 BMW R1150RT (das schwarze Schaf) '97 XLH 883 (Rocinante)
> http://www.pat-st-jean.com/ http://www.bikerscum.org/
--
Arthur Torrey
Town Meeting Representative
I'm an FSF member -- Help us support software freedom!
<http://www.fsf.org/jf?referrer=2442>
Speaking only as myself unless otherwise indicated!
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1449, 26 November 2009
From: Mark Donnelly <meadmaker@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:46:45 -0500
> Hi everyone,
> I've got a 5 gallon bucket (~60 pounds) of honey here which has
> crystallized
<snip>
> Can I just dig
> out chunks and use them by weight or is there maybe a way to soften the
> whole thing?
>
When honey crystallizes, it can be liquefied again if you warm it up. Since
you mention that it's in a five gallon bucket, I'm guessing the container is
plastic. Given that, I'd suggest moving the whole bucket next to your
furnace, or boiler, or whatever you have that heats your house. If that's
not an option, then try a hot water bath - put the whole bucket in the
bathtub, and fill the tub with hot water. (Make sure you don't submerge the
bucket; just sit it in the hot water.) You may have to refill the tub with
hot water a few times before you get the whole thing to liquefy.
Cheers,
- --Mark
------------------------------
Subject: Yeast
From: Edward Verhagen <wobbleygoose@yahoo.com.au>
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:39:19 -0800 (PST)
I use Lavlin eec1118 yeast in my mead.
I have no problems with fermentation.
Does anyone know a natural way to kill off the yeast?
I use no chemicals and do not want a chemical to kill the yeast.
Would cold work, if so what temp. for how long?
Edward
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1449, 26 November 2009
From: Luke Kostu <lkostu@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:43:37 -0800 (PST)
Dealing with crystalized honey:
Scraping and breaking crystalized honey into chunks is time consuming and
messy. My suggestion would be to invest in a carboy warmer available from
most brewing supply shops ($20). It's basically a mat that you plug in and
strap around the carboy to increase the ferment temp of your beer but it'll
work just fine for slowly melting honey. If you're worried about heating
plastic, place the bucket in a hot water bath vessel and wrap it instead.
I store all my honey in 1 gal pickle jars as most of my batches use 12 lbs.
I have a crock pot that the jars fit in which I can use to liquify if the
honey crytalizes or to warm and thin before mixing with my "no heat" method.
The crocker will melt a block of honey in just a couple of hours. I always
loosen the jar lid to let it breath during heating.
------------------------------
Subject: RE: Mead Lover's Digest #1449, 26 November 2009
From: "Matt Falenski" <mfalenski@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:48:49 -0500
Subject: Dealing with crystallized honey
From: "Patrick St. Jean" <stjeanp@pat-st-jean.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:33:31 -0600
Hi everyone,
I've got a 5 gallon bucket (~60 pounds) of honey here which has
crystallized and I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on how to deal with
it. I'm probably going to break it down into 4 15 pound batches, but it's
going to be tough to dig it out the way it is. Can I just dig out chunks
and use them by weight or is there maybe a way to soften the whole thing?
Thanks!
Pat
Hi Pat...
At work we either put it into a hotbox, put a brew belt on them, or a hose
with hot water running over it.
I use a brew belt at home since I always have a few of them handy.
Once its melted down, you can pour it into those 15# batches. Much easier
than digging crystallized
honey out.
Matt
------------------------------
Subject: re: Dealing with crystallized honey
From: stencil <etcs.ret@verizon.net>
Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 12:07:54 -0500
On Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:38:00 -0700 (MST),=20
in Mead Lover's Digest #1449, 26 November 2009
Patrick St. Jean wrote:
>
>[ ... ]
> I've got a 5 gallon bucket (~60 pounds) of honey here which has
>crystallized [ ... ] is there maybe a way to soften the
>whole thing?
>
If you have a 10-gallon or larger brew kettle, put the bucket in the
kettle (on a scrap of lumber so it doesn't sit on the kettle bottom)
and fire off the burner at a very low flame. An electric hotplate
would be better for this than the usual gas burner. =20
Absent a large enough kettle or washboiler you can use a 15-gallon
plastic tote. Set the bucket on a scrap of wood so the water gets
to its underside, and fill the tote with hot tapwater. Either use a
large (100-150W) submersible aquarium heater (ca $25) to maintain
the temp, or plan on replenishing the hot water frequently. For the
latter case, having the tote on sawhorses or a counter will
facilitate siphoning off the water. Wrap the mess with mats and
towels to reduce heat loss.
The process will take several days.
gds, stencil
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1450
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