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Mead Lovers Digest #1586
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1586, 21 May 2012
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1586 21 May 2012
Mead Discussion Forum
Contents:
Bulk Honey (Robert Lewis)
Help with translation -old english- (Grégoire Demets)
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Subject: Bulk Honey
From: Robert Lewis <mazerrob@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 19 May 2012 14:02:38 -0400
I just wanted to know if anyone out there has bought honey in bulk, say 5
gallon buckets, or however it's shipped. Honey prices have put a bit of
a damper on my mead making of late, and i have read that honey, so long
as it is stored properly, keeps for a very very long time. I suppose i
could do a google search for bulk honey, but i would welcome any first
hand experiences.
Also, just as a non-sequiter, and i don't know if this is appropriate
for a digest, but i am curious to know peoples favorite yeasts for meads.
it might be simpler just to Email me directly for that one, or maybe it
wouldn't be so bad for the digest to get a flood of short yeast posts. I
started with Champagne, but i think it's way to attenuative for a mead.
I am currently very happy with the wyeast dry mead yeast, even tho, it
rarely produces a dry mead, it leaves a very mellow finish, nice with
Melomels.
robert.
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Subject: Help with translation -old english-
From: Grégoire Demets <gdemets@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 21 May 2012 11:41:00 -0300
Dear friends,
I was looking for an old mead recipe and I found so in "The true
Amazons : or, The monarchy of bees : being a new discovery and
improvement of those wonderful creatures ... : also how to make the
English wine or mead, equal, if not superior to the best of other
wines" by Joseph Warder 1718
I am not a native english speaker and I need some help to translate
this text in modern english (as well as for the gallons and pounds
that I believe are different from modern gallons and pounds.) The end
of the recipe is difficult to me (posset etc...) I have no idea of
what it is about...
Could you help me please?
Regards,
Greg, from Brazil.
here it is as it was written:
How to make English Canary, no way inferior to the best of Spanish Wines.
One hundred and twenty Pounds will make a Barrel of Very good Mead;
but if you make it of clear Honey, then your best way is to allow four
pounds to every gallon of water. Let your Quantity be much or little,
which you ought to govern yourself by, either considering the bigness
of your cask, or the quantity of honey you have to make up into Mead,
mix it in your Copper, and then boil it and scum it well, which scum
you may strain thro' Hyppocrates's Sleeve, or a taper Bag. made of
swan-skin, with a Hoop at the broad end, letting the narrow end come
to a point. Thia bag will make it as fine as the other, through which
you may put it. When your mead is almost cold, Tun it up, clay it
down, and let it stand till it is fine, and old enough to drink,which
sometimes will be sooner than other, according to the time of the
year, and weather that comes upon it after making. This liquor is one
of the choicest of wines, as well as the most wholesome of all vinous
liquors in the world, and ought to be drank and made use of in
possets(poffets???)__strange symbol similar to @__? as Canary; and
thus us'd it is impossible to know whether the posset was made of your
own mead or canary. Thus for making of mead with clear honey, but if
you do it with the washings of combs,or dissolve all your honey from
the combs, then you must dissolve it in warm water, till an egg will
swim in the mead the breadth of a Shilling. But here you must be very
careful, that before you break your combs into the sieve or strainer,
you separate all the young bees, which you may easily know from the
honey, and also the sandrach or bee-bread, which is a yellow
substance, with which some of the cells are fill'd, which otherwyour
mead an ill taste, and then proceed to boil, scum, and tun as before.
It is best if it be kept till it is a year old and if you make it
well, as before, it will keep as long as you please. I have some now
by me of almost nine years old.
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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1586
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