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Mead Lovers Digest #1550
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1550, 29 October 2011
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1550 29 October 2011
Mead Discussion Forum
Contents:
Re: Aging different meads (docmac9582@aol.com)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1549, 23 October 2011 (Kurt Sonen)
pasteurization (ricardo mandl)
Re: How much vanilla (Dick Dunn)
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: Re: Aging different meads
From: docmac9582@aol.com
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:24:29 -0400 (EDT)
Wout Klingens asks about 3 year aging of his vanilla mead. My experience
is that traditional and spiced meads (methyglyns) continue to smooth and
improve with age (one source reported that the optimal age for traditional
meads is 50 years). On a 5 gallon carboy of 10 year old bulk aged mead,
I notice some sherry type of aroma notes - not unpleasant if you know
it is long-term aged mead. Some of my 12 year old bottled mead had not
developed any sherry aroma - just keeps getting better. So I have just
started wrapping the rubber stoppers of my carboys with aluminum foil to
retard oxygen permeability,
My spiced meads perhaps become slightly more spicy with age. On the other
hand, my melomels (fruit meads) start loosing some of the fresh fruit notes
in six months to a year or so and are still very good - but different.
I made 15 gallons of a strawberry - cinnamon mead for a wedding, helping
to pick the fresh strawberries and using 2 year old golden rod honey mead
as the base. I optimized the mix for about a year before bottling it six
months before the wedding (strawberry/cinnamon/honey/sweetness/tartness all
in balance). By the time of the wedding it had become a cinnamon/strawberry
mead, with the cinnamon flavor dominate and with a nice strawberry
background. Still very good - but different from what I had bottled.
Carl McMillin
Brecksville, OH
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Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1549, 23 October 2011
From: Kurt Sonen <kurts2@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:13:37 -0400
How much was just discussed by our brew club.
It varies, but for a strong vanilla flavor, 10 beans / gallon. Some used
even more with other ingredients. Obviously, you can use less.
After the discussion, we did a group buy of 12+ pounds of beans.........
Kurt
> Subject: How much vanilla
> From: "Wout Klingens" <wout@nivo-media.nl>
> Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2011 10:47:59 +0200
>
> Now for my questions: I read a lot of recipes which call for 5 beans or so
> and leave it on for the duration until ranking/bottling.
> 1. I now have experience with leaving 1 bean on the mead for only 2 days in
> a 5 gallon batch. What happens to the flavor when leaving it to age for 3
> years or so?
>
> 2. What does a mead taste like in terms of complexity, which was made with a
> few beans and left a few weeks to macerate?
>
> Thanks for any answers.
> Wout.
------------------------------
Subject: pasteurization
From: ricardo mandl <ricmandl@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:59:35 +0000
Hi, this is my first time to the digest, my name is Ricardo, from argentina,
and I was trying to find information about pasteurization of must AFTER
primary fermentation. I wonder if elevating the temperature of the must
at some point to kill the yeast, but not enough to evaporate alcohol,
would ruin the wine. This as a means to stop fermentation (kill the yeast)
before it finishes all the sugar, to end up with a sweeter mead, to avoid
using sorbate or chemicals, or to be able to do sparkling mead knowing the
yeast has finished working, and adding new yeast for the carbonation. I
was searching trough the old digest colection from years back, but without
luck. I've heard this is done in the wine industry, I would like to hear your
opinions. I have currently 40 litres of mead in 10 litres batches at end of
primary fermentation, first 10 liter batch finished in 2 weeks, og 1.090 fg
0.997, I used red star champagne, and nutrients ( DAP, servomyces nutrient,
some raisins, a spoonful of enriched flour, half teaspoon epsom salt) half
at begining, an rest at fifth day of fermentation, and fermentation went
great, at 20 degres centigrades ambient temp. (14 days exact) I understand
servomyces are dead hull yeast cells, and is not enough for nutrient in
its own, I can`t get other more compleat nutrients brands in here, so I
improvised with the mentioned ones to provide the missing ones, what do
you think? Other question is an old man in my town that makes its own wine,
told me that instead of airlocks he fills the carboy up to one inch before
top, and add about a quarter of an inch of liquid vaseline, and just covers
the top with a piece of a ploastic bag, and a rubber band, so air goes out
(rubber band doesnt press so much, bugs dont get in and must is not in
contact with air because of the vaseline barrier floating on top. Does
this seem viable for mead? Thanks in advance for you opinion. Salud!
------------------------------
Subject: Re: How much vanilla
From: Dick Dunn <rcd@talisman.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:07:08 -0600
I wonder if "How much vanilla?" won't end up like a replay of "How much
ginger?", with answers over a very wide range.
And in both cases, what's really needed is people to sit down in one place
and try some of these meads (metheglins) to get a real sense of how they
stack up.
- --
Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1550
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