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Mead Lovers Digest #1478
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1478, 29 June 2010
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1478 29 June 2010
Mead Discussion Forum
Contents:
Re: Powders to mead (docmac9582@aol.com)
back sweetening ("Greg and Sandy Swob")
The Evolution of a Mead...or the Evolution of Taste? (Craig Bryant)
RE: Mead Lover's Digest #1477, 23 June 2010 (Wyatt Kilgallin)
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Subject: Re: Powders to mead
From: docmac9582@aol.com
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:10:53 -0400
Dissolved Carbon Dioxide in Mead
Ken suggests dissolving the bicarbonate (and or sugar, brown sugar) that
is being added to the mead. I HIGHLY agree with this. I thought I had
learned my lesson a number of years ago when adding yeast nutrient or
post-fermentation acids to my mead I created a volcano. Trying to hold
it in with my hand only made like I was spraying with a garden hose and
increased the distance of wet basement. I have also generated a similar
effect by stirring the mead. But just last month, I swirled one of my
carboys to put the yeast back into suspension - hoping to help the mead
to keep fermenting. It obviously should have been a gentle swirl first
(with the air lock off), as is my usual practice.
Carl McMillin
Brecksville, Ohio
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Subject: back sweetening
From: "Greg and Sandy Swob" <swob@eaglecom.net>
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:29:10 -0500
I think we all agree that prior to any back-sweetening, fermentation should
be halted. One commercial meadery in Colorado I know of puts their meads
to below freezing temperatures to halt fermentation. Their fermenting
tanks are capable of being heated and/or chilled as needed. While we may
not all have this capability, most chest freezers will easily hold one
or more carbouys vertically. I do believe the commercial meadery slowy
chills their meads, but I have no idea what the time frame for chilling
or length of exposure time is. Having personally never tried it, I don't
know if simply placing a carbouy in the freezer is acceptable or harmful
in any way. Anyone have thoughts?
Thanks, Greg Swob - bee keeper and hobby mazer
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Subject: The Evolution of a Mead...or the Evolution of Taste?
From: Craig Bryant <craigkbryant@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 23:12:50 -0400
I'm sipping a traditional clover mead at the moment...nothing special at
all, 3 pounds clover honey to the gallon of mead, Red Star Premier Cuvee
yeast. The batch was started November 15, 2008. But I can't quite figure
this thing out.
I opened the first bottle two months ago, in April, and it was nothing
like love at first sight. My notes say "a hard one to love"..."overly
grassy, vegetal, even a kind of muddy quality." I finished the bottle,
but never cared for it. In fact, I was prepared to write off all-clover
meads altogether.
And yet here we are, two months later, and I am in love with this mead. I
roused out a second bottle, thinking I might blend it with an overly tart
orange blossom mead, from the days when I was experimenting with various
acid levels to find the "right" one (incidentally, I'm increasingly
convinced that the right level of acid addition is zero), and I thought:
why not have a glass straight, see if my impression has changed.
Dry but rich--the aroma by itself is nothing much, but roll it on
the tongue and inhale, and...ahhhhh...ancient memories of meadows in
springtime. Muddy? No--a kind of mellow almost-buttery quality, underneath
the rolling green hills that fill the nasal cavity.
And I keep turning it over in my mind: what happened? Did the mead change? Or
did I? Did two months--or bottle-to-bottle variation--work this alchemy,
or did it simply take a few glasses worth to train my palate to appreciate
the sensation of an all-clover traditional mead?
I'm thinking in particular about an experience I had last year, when
I proclaimed the hot months of 2009 "The Summer of Cocktails," and
set our household on a systematic exploration of probably a hundred
different mixed drinks. I picked up a bottle of the bright red Italian
spirit Campari, an intensely bitter and herbal concoction, mixed it
with soda, and detested it. Mixed an Americano--Campari, sweet vermouth,
and more soda. Revolting. But so many sages of cocktail culture spoke so
admiringly of the drink! Italian mixed drink culture, such as it is, rests
on Campari! Negroni: Campari, gin and more sweet vermouth. Ugh. Campari and
orange juice...lots of orange juice...and it was at least quaffable. Even
if only just.
But the next day, damn me if I didn't find myself thinking of nothing but
Campari...longing, almost, for another go at it. I made a second Americano
that evening: beautiful! Today, I keep Campari stocked in the bar, and
enjoy a Negroni or Campari Soda for an aperitif.
Now, did the Campari change in that time? Of course not. I changed--I
acquired an acquired taste. Taste is such a damn funny business. There
are times I wonder why I write tasting notes in the mead journal. When
I look at a tasting from a year ago, that's some other guy talking: I'm
never going to be that person again.
------------------------------
Subject: RE: Mead Lover's Digest #1477, 23 June 2010
From: Wyatt Kilgallin <wyattkilgallin@msn.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:45:51 +0000
Greetings,
I have made up a batch of Cyser and had racked it a couple of times and
everything seemed fine. We went on vacation and came back to find that
the Cyser had turned essentially black. Any ideas as to what might have
happened?
Wyatt
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1478
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