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Mead Lovers Digest #1542
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1542, 4 September 2011
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1542 4 September 2011
Mead Discussion Forum
Contents:
Re: when a mead is not a mead (Dick Dunn)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1541, 30 August 2011 (Mike Faul)
Sediment Ring at Top of Carboy? (fivecat)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1541, 30 August 2011 (Wayne Boncyk)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1541, 30 August 2011 ("Dennis Key")
RE: temps ("Wout Klingens")
FW: Honeyed wine (Paul Millns)
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: Re: when a mead is not a mead
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:22:27 -0600
Dick Adams wrote:
> Much of what is labeled Mead in the US is made by wineries
> that try to make Mead via the same process they use to make
> wine because they suffer from the delusion that Mead is a
> honey wine. I have been told that the Alcohol and Tobacco
> Tax Board (TTB) mandates Mead is to be labeled as honey wine.
> But, Mead is no more a honey wine than beer is a malt wine!
Mead is -classified- as a wine in the US for regulatory purposes--that is,
it's under 27 CFR 24 (as opposed to Part 25 for beer). A place that makes
mead--what we call a "meadery"--is legally a winery.
Much of the production of mead is quite similar to wine, as in processes
or yeasts for example, aside from preparation of the must. Culturally,
mead is normally served comparably to wine. There's a fair bit of useful
correlation.
As to labeling: Mead may need to be identified as "honey wine" as its
class-and-type identification, but this needn't be the most prominent
ID on the label. My old copy of the BAM says it needs to be at least
2mm high--which is rather small print.
[But when I went back to read the BAM for this, I found that it appears
the type name might be either Mead or Honey Wine. Anybody know for sure
on this?]
OTOH, "cider" is legally wine, and a "cidery" is a winery, but cider is
not required to be labeled as "apple wine".
So what's the difference? History. Cider (or "hard cider" as it's often
called in the US) has been well known since colonial times. Mead was
little-known, a curiosity...in fact it still is just that, if you look
outside the small mead community.
Subject to my own confusion in [...] above--that it might -not- be
mandatory to say "Honey Wine" on the label any more--if it is required,
it's something that concerned, energetic members of this group, or some
group representing the trade, should be working to change!
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1541, 30 August 2011
From: Mike Faul <mfaul@faul.net>
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 11:23:16 -0700
Two points inserted below. Well three...
>> It's worse than you think Paul - Some of the commercial
>> "meads" made in the UK are merely cheap bland wine with
>> sugar and "honey-flavouring", not even real honey! ....
I'll name a few. Bunratty and Linsdisfarne make products that are now
produced from white wine to which they add honey etc back to the white
wine and they call it mead.
Many moons ago when I was still starting the Meadery, I realized that the
aforementioned producers had switch their formulation and so therefore
the product they were making was no longer mead. Labeling is controlled
by the TTB (former BATF) and as such requires a truthful disclosure of
the product not only for providing the consumer with with the correct
information but more importantly of course to allow the TTB to identify
the tax class of a particular product.
0-7%ABV
7-14% ABV
14-18% ABV
and so on.
Each taxed differently.
So, if a product is made from white wine and has hone yadded to it it is
obviously not a mead and
should not be allowed to be labeled as;
"<Insert Company> MEAD"
So I wrote a nice letter requesting TTB to intervene and force those
company's to re-label their products
with a truthful statement of composition.
Much to my dismay they idiots at TTB allowed them to submit a new
formula for the products and to re-label it as....
"<Insert Company> MEADE"
or
"<Insert Company> MEDE"
BECAUSE those (MEADE/MEDE) words are not the same. Huh? Don't get me going.
In the United States, the silly government lumped fermented honey in the same
tax class as wine simply as a way to categorize it for taxation purposes.
Additionally, they did so as the only taxed business that were allowed to
make it were wineries. So The other grape wine producers referred to it
as 'honey wine'. Which technically I guess it could be called seeing as
fruits fermented are respectively grape wine, apple wine, apricot wine,
berry wine etc. I think it just seemed natural.
Technically it is different but for governmental/taxation purposes we
are stuck with it.
Anyway, I could go on and on about this.
Mike
Rabbit's Foot Meadery
P.S. Thanks for enjoying my mead -sheesh.
> A long time ago, I came to the realization that if your
> Mead is not better than the average commercial Mead, you
> are in need of both education and training.
>
> Much of what is labeled Mead in the US is made by wineries
> that try to make Mead via the same process they use to make
> wine because they suffer from the delusion that Mead is a
> honey wine. I have been told that the Alcohol and Tobacco
> Tax Board (TTB) mandates Mead is to be labeled as honey wine.
> But, Mead is no more a honey wine than beer is a malt wine!
>
> There are US commercial Meadmakers that make excellent Mead
> - - Rabbits Foot and Redstone to name the two I have enjoyed.
> I also enjoyed excellent commercial Meads on my trip across
> Australia in 2007 - at Bartholomew's, Maxwell's, Chateau
> Dorien, Daringa Cellars, and Walkabout.
------------------------------
Subject: Sediment Ring at Top of Carboy?
From: fivecat <fivecat@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:11:44 -0400
Hi All,
I put all of my ingredients for an Apricot Mead into the fermenter on 07/07
and racked it to a carboy on 07/26. The airlock has been tightly in place
ever since (with no additional fermenting) and, as an old homebrewer, I'm
pretty confident with regards to my sanitation practices all around.
The other day I checked on my mead and discovered a yellow ring of sediment
on the top of the glass carboy. There is no sheen of sediment across the
top-most surface of the mead, only the ringed edge of the container.
Should I be concerned? Should I bottle this mead quickly in hopes of
salvaging it or am I worrying for nothing?
Any and all advice/sage words are welcome and appreciated!
- -- Tom
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1541, 30 August 2011
From: Wayne Boncyk <wboncyk@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:38:43 -0600
> >Subject: Temps
> >From: "M. Graham Clark" <mclark04@gmail.com>
> >Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:58:44 -0300
> >I have found that over the summer months that my beer has
> >become flabby and it is likely due to higher fermentation temperatures.
> In
> >My question is
> >two fold, 1) do you notice any temperature effects on your mead , and 2)
> How
> >have you designed any fermentation areas to be effective at limiting the
> >stress put on the yeast? I know modified chest freezers are common in
> beer,
> >but do you mead makers use such things?
>
> Graham, I definitely notice a change in the characteristics of my meads
when they are fermented at higher temperatures. Instead of the "flabby"
flavor you get with your beer (which I would attribute more to excess
oxidation at higher temps rather than yeast stress), with my meads I'll get
a harsher, "hotter" flavor profile that comes from increased production of
fusels (higher-order alcohols) and phenolics. Yeast tend to be much more
neutral fermenters when they are kept in the lower half of their "optimum"
range (different for each yeast strain) during the course of primary
fermentation.
Wayne Boncyk
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1541, 30 August 2011
From: "Dennis Key" <dione13@msn.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2011 01:38:46 -0600
> There are US commercial Meadmakers that make excellent Mead
> - - Rabbits Foot and Redstone to name the two I have enjoyed.
> I also enjoyed excellent commercial Meads on my trip across
> Australia in 2007 - at Bartholomew's, Maxwell's, Chateau
> Dorien, Daringa Cellars, and Walkabout.
>
> Dick
> - ---
> Richard D. Adams
> Ellicott City, MD 21042
In my area, two excellent meaderies are Bee's Brothers in Albuquerque and
Falcon Meadery in Santa Fe.
Dione Greywolfe
Dragonweyr, NM
------------------------------
Subject: RE: temps
From: "Wout Klingens" <wout@nivo-media.nl>
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2011 17:27:37 +0200
M. Graham Clark wrote:
"but do you mead makers use such things?"
I myself do not. I suppose it depends on philosophy and style you're trying
to make. I think that a slow cool fermentation on a melomel or show mead
amplifies a lot of fruitiness and saves a lot of (honey-)aroma.
But there are winestyles, which favor extremely fluctuating circumstances,
from hot to freezing cold, like Vin Santo (Toscany).
So I'd say it's all about a lot of study for the mead style you're trying to
make. And after that: trial and error.
Wout.
------------------------------
Subject: FW: Honeyed wine
From: Paul Millns <hivekeeper@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2011 16:45:38 +0000
Hi
I recently noticed a number of wines which referred to themselves as
"honeyed" wine but which did not contain any honey. I looked up the term
"honeyed wine" and it refers to wine that has notes of honey flavours,
funnily enough this is caused by a fungus (botrylis cinerea). I could well
image the buying public purchasing the wine beleiving the wine was made at
least in part with honey when in fact it may well contain none. It seems
that the wine and mead business is in a bit of a tangle, how many people are
put off buying meads (or honey wines) because they are dissappointed with
"honeyed wines", this just a thought and would appreciate others peoples
experiences and thoughts.
Cheers
Paul
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1542
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