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Mead Lovers Digest #1492
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1492, 5 October 2010
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1492 5 October 2010
Mead Discussion Forum
Contents:
Anyone ever attempted Dwojniak? How about an unhopped braggot? (Russ Riley)
Re: Quick question on MEAD (mail-box)
pectic enzyme (Dick Dunn)
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: Anyone ever attempted Dwojniak? How about an unhopped braggot?
From: Russ Riley <russriley61999@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 06:22:11 -0700 (PDT)
I have two questions, almost totally unrelated.
First, I recently read about dwojniak in Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing. He
sounds as if all it takes is diluting honey 1:1 (and nothing else - no
yeast pitch or anything) and letting it sit for 5 to 7 years. Has anyone
ever tried this? How were the results? Did you use nutrients, pitched yeast,
aeration, etc.? I'd like to try it but I don't want to find out in 7 years
that I goofed up!
Second, has anyone made an unhopped braggot, and if so, did you (or others)
like it? I once tried an unhopped beer (~5%) and it was pretty unpleasant,
but I don't know if the extra gravity and honey would add enough to it to
make it good.
Thanks in advance...
Russ
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Subject: Re: Quick question on MEAD
From: mail-box <mail-box@comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 22:21:43 -0400
On 9/29/2010 12:45 AM, mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
> Subject: Quick question on MEAD
> From: anthonydykes@iendeavor.com
> Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:48:52 -0400 (EDT)
>
> Hello, My name is Anthony Dykes. I am just getting involved in
> HOMEBREWING, and am VERY interested in makeing MEAD. I think i pretty much
> have everything down, But i just wanted to ask a few questions. I remember
> when i was younger, I was at a local festival, and remember having some
> "SPARKLING MEAD" a freind had homebrewed. I am NOT quite sure on how this
> is done. On your internet post at
> http://www.oldwestbrew.com/basic_meadmaking.htm under the "BOTTELING"
> section it states "A normal amount of priming sugar is about 4 ounces by
> weight for five gallons. " Now, Is this saying 4 Ounces of sugar added to
> water in a syrup solution, or is it saying a SUGAR/WATER soultion in the
> amount or 4 ounces added to the must? I also have a quick question on
> ageing. At what relative temperature should Mead be stored at, Does mead
> get better with time (is a 5 year old mead BETTER than a 1 year old mead),
> and how long should I age a mead before i can really enjoy it? Any help
> would be MUCH appreciated.
>
> Thank You,
> Anthony Dykes
> anthonydykes@iendeavor.com
Hi Anthony,
Your instructions are calling for 4 oz. of sugar. Which you dissolve in
a few oz. of water before adding it to your mead, because you want to
dissolve all powders before adding them to your mead. If you do not,
you provide many nucleation sites for the dissolved CO2 in your mead to
leave solution. Violently.
Speaking of violence, be sure to read carefully about carbonating your
mead. You can find many web sites which will describe the champagne
process in excellent detail, and this can be very similar if you decide
to use the same methods.
Corks will not suffice to seal the bottles. And normal wine bottles
will also not suffice. Buy a supply of new champagne bottles. You'll
want crown caps or the cork and cage combination that champagne bottlers
use. If you want to remove the yeast used for the carbonation process,
you'll need to first crown cap and invert the bottles (I find that
inverting them in the same box they came in works fine, even if it
doesn't get all of the yeast all the way into the neck. I'm too lazy to
build a riddling rack), wait for the carbonation to form (about a month
at cellar temperatures), and then disgorge via freezing the yeast into
an ice plug at the top (currently, the bottom) of the bottle, and then
add a dosage (this can be as simple as some still mead, or it can be an
elaborate mix of any or all of sherry/wine/mead/grain alcohol/sugar) to
replace the lost volume and either re-crown cap or use the cork and cage
to seal your sparkling mead. Chill the dosage, it helps. Refrigerator
temperature is fine. The mead should also be chilled, you only want to
lose the ice plug, and the colder the mead the less CO2 will want to
leave solution when the plug is ejected. It is not for the faint of
heart. Dry ice can help, but again, be very careful. Wear eye
protection (goggles), sturdy clothing (attempting this in the cool
winter months helps to make heavy clothing not just tolerable but
natural), and it's also nice to have a friend or two (also wearing eye
protection and sturdy clothing) to assist with handing you dosage,
corks/cages, and helping to stage the assembly line. A rubber mallet
helps to quickly and firmly seat the corks. Aim the crown capped
bottles "down range", and well away from friends, pets, neighbors, or
automobiles, pop the cap, clamp a thumb over the top, and wait for it to
calm down. Add dosage to replace lost volume, hammer in a cork, then
hand to a friend to cage and box while you disgorge the next bottle. A
screwdriver or other sturdy metal rod is helpful for spinning the cage
down tight.
Best of luck!
Cheers,
Ken
------------------------------
Subject: pectic enzyme
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2010 11:41:40 -0600
I missed commenting on this a few digests ago:
> Big caveat: Do not use a pectic enzyme late in the process as it produces
> methanol as a by-product. Better to live with a hazy melomel than go
> blind!
This is wrong on a couple counts; more below.
The real reason not to use pectic enzyme late in the process is simply that
it is unlikely to work. Ethanol (that is, alcohol produced by fermenting)
inhibits the action of pectic enzyme, so depending on the particular enzyme
you get ("pectic enzyme" or "pectinase" is a generic term for several
enzymes), it may work slowly, poorly, or even not at all. If you
anticipate a pectin problem because of the fruit you're using, add the
pectic enzyme at the start.
As to methanol production: First, the pectic enzyme will produce methanol
regardless of when it is used; that's the way it works.[*]
Second, the amounts produced from fruit pectin are trivial and easily
eliminated by the body. (Methanol is not a cumulative poison.)
The body will turn pectins into methanol in the gut anyway.
Now, somebody's getting ready to object: "Well, but if you drank enough,
the methanol would be dangerous..." But that argument fails for a
surprising reason: Methanol becomes toxic because the body turns it
into formic acid, but that conversion is slowed by the presence of ethanol,
allowing the body to deal with a larger dose of methanol.
[*]There is one pectic enzyme I've heard of that doesn't use the pathway
which produces methanol, but I don't know if it's commonly available.
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1492
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