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Mead Lovers Digest #1418
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1418, 16 April 2009
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1418 16 April 2009
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Orange spiced mead (Phil)
Orange spice mead (Mike Jansen) (docmac9582@aol.com)
Re: ABV? (MeadGuild@aol.com)
Re: Mead Style Definitions (MeadGuild@aol.com)
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Subject: Re: Orange spiced mead
From: Phil <dogglebe@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 2009 05:25:46 -0700 (PDT)
Aging the bottle will mellow the mead out a little bit, but there were a
couple of other 'problems' I saw with your recipes:
I think you may have over-spiced your batch. When I make a six gallon batch
of my ginger/clover/cinnamon mead, I use three cloves for a six gallon
batch, and about the same amount of cinnamon as you did for your yours.
The only way to get rid of the excessive flavors that your mead has is to
blend it with other traditional mead.
In the future, weigh the cinnamon sticks. Two sticks can vary a great deal .
Your starter was made with one cup of water and two pounds of honey?
By my calculations that's a starting gravity of about 1.120. Did you mean
2 ounces of honey in a cup of water? That sounds more appropriate.
Champagne yeast dried the living hell out of a mead. There are other
yeasts to try that will not ferment a batch out as much, leaving some
honey sweetness behind.
Hope this helps.
Phil
I am new to mead making, and to homebrewing as well. I made a gallon of
simple quick mead (2lb honey for 1 gallon) and it turned out "decent". I've
got 2 bottles of it left that I'm going to let age for a while.
I finished a gallon batch of an Orange Spiced Mead not too long ago. I
documented it here -> http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcjn7txs_9f39xx96k. I
have some questions about it.
A summary of what I did is: 1 gallon, 2lb orange blossom honey. Boiled
bottled water. Simmered at ~160F with 2 whole cloves, 2 broken cinnamon
sticks, and zest from 2 oranges and 1 lemon (literally just the zest -- no
white stuff) for ~25 minutes. Added honey and juice from the 2 oranges and
1 lemon and 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient. Simmered at ~160F for another 20
minutes. Created a starter with 1 cup boiled (and cooled) bottled water, 2
lb honey, and champagne yeast, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient.
Once starter was going and must cooled to < 100F, added starter to must.
Let ferment, covered for 4 hours. Racked to glass jug. Fermented a week.
Racked to secondary jug. Fermented another couple weeks til completely
clear. Bottled.
Every step was done sanitation-minded (one step, no-rinse sanitizer galore).
I tried this mead a couple weeks after bottling. It's aroma is very good.
Taste is VERY dry (used champagne yeast). It tastes good at first but
finishes very acidic, bitter.
Questions:
1. Any thoughts on the general ingredients, process?
2. Will aging mellow the acidic/bitter taste?
3. A local homebrew store owner said I could chill the mead for a couple
weeks to let some of the acidic stuff precipitate and then rack and
re-bottle. Does this sound reasonable? Would it improve the flavor
possibly?
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Subject: Orange spice mead (Mike Jansen)
From: docmac9582@aol.com
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 2009 14:17:04 -0400
I have made both orange and spiced meads (and combined some of
them).? Looking at your ingredients, my guess is that you taste the
astringency from the orange and lemon zest and the spices and not really
any acidity.? In very dry meads the chemical and astringency tastes
are?very accentuated.? I doubt whether you have enough acids to ppt at cold
temperatures, but aging will probably soften the mead.? A little sweetness
often will hide some of the astringency (and balance acids).? Try adding
honey in a graduated manner to a sequence of small samples of your mead
and then scale up from your results.?After you find the correct level of
sweetness for your taste, you might even try adding a bit of an acid blend
for balance.
Carl McMillin
Brecksville, OH
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Subject: Re: ABV?
From: MeadGuild@aol.com
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 2009 20:23:39 EDT
Our Colleague, Dione Greywolfe, wrote:
>>> However, don't some states only allow homebrew up to a certain
>>> % alcohol content? (hence the OP's first and third questions,
>>> I'm guessing.)
>> I'm not aware of a State that allows homebrewing by statute
>> that caps the ABV. But there could be a few.
> I think the key point (no pun intended) is there is no limit to the alcohol
> level you reach by fermentation only that I know of.
Hair of the Dog Brewing Company reported a Strong Pale Ale at 29% ABV.
Sam Adams reported Utopia at 27% ABV. John McKissack, a Texas
homebrewer, reported his "Cause of Death" all-grain Barley Wine at 21.4%,
before being interrupted by Hurricane Rita.
The major problem to overcome in fermenting a high ABV Mead
is using a yeast with a high alcohol toxicity tolerance. Another
problem will be the fusel alcohols that need to be aged out.
Dick
- --
Richard D. Adams, CPA (retired)
Moderator: misc.taxes.moderated
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Style Definitions
From: MeadGuild@aol.com
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:14:35 EDT
Our colleague, Mitchell Omichinski, wrote:
> To those who have an interest in mead competitions, I would like to hear
> any opinions / clarifications on the differences between a show mead and a
> traditional mead from the same honey varietal. The BJCP guidelines state
> "Traditional Meads feature the character of a blended honey or a blend
> of honeys. Varietal meads feature the distinctive character of certain
> honeys. "Show meads" feature no additives, but this distinction is usually
> not obvious to judges." So with respect to the additions of nutrients
> for fermentation, and tannin, acid, and honey for sweetness and balance,
> what if anything would distinguish a show mead from a traditional mead?
There really is no distinction. The guidelines are for Traditional Meads
submitted to competitions, also known as "Shows". Perhaps it would
be clearer if it read:
Traditional Meads feature the character of a varietal honey or a blend of
honeys, e.g., Wildflower. When made with varietal honey, Meads should
feature the distinctive character of that honey. Traditional Meads feature
no additives, but this distinction is usually not obvious to judges.
If one was to add oak and the effect was a subtle enhancement to
the flavor of the honey (rather than overpowering it), it might pass
as a Traditional Mead - even though adding oak would place it in the
Open Mead Category. I believe that is to what "this distinction is usually
not obvious to judges" is referring.
The best Traditional Meads are those that clearly feature the taste
and the aroma of a honey. The best one I have judged was a Mead
made with "Virginia Mountain Wildflower Honey". The honey most
likely came from flowers that were next to a moonshine still. ;)
Dick
- --
Richard D. Adams, CPA (retired)
Moderator: misc.taxes.moderated
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1418
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