Mead Lover's Digest #1129 16 September 2004
Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1128, 12 September 2004 (Charles Sifers)
Ukranian Mead (hillsofg)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1128/ Fermentation bucket blues (Matt Gerbrandt)
Re: Fermentation bucket blues ("Ken Taborek")
Re: Juicing fruit ("Ken Taborek")
Rethinking The Impact of Sorbates On Yeast (Matt Gerbrandt)
Rose Hip Mead ("Paul Gatza")
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Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1128, 12 September 2004
From: Charles Sifers <chazzone@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 15:25:15 -0500
On Sep 12, 2004, at 11:17 AM, mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
> Subject: Fermentation bucket blues
> From: hillsofg <hillsofg@netvision.net.il>
> Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 20:42:14 +0300
> Miriam
>
I would certainly not use old lye buckets for fermenters, or any other
food use! If you have a Home Depot, you have access to 3, 5, or 7
gallon buckets w/lids. A spade type wood bit would be more than
sufficient to make what ever size hole is necessary to accommodate your
stopper and airlock (just place the lid on an old scrap piece of wood
to drill a nice clean hole).
- -zz
Subject: Ukranian Mead
From: hillsofg <hillsofg@netvision.net.il>
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 05:52:15 +0300
I plan to create a Ukranian-type mead in memory of my father, who passed
away last week. He mentioned several times that his grandmother would
make a mead with hops in it for Passover that "tasted like sweet beer",
according to my grandmother. I had told him I would make one for him and
located a recipe. Now I would like to know if anyone on this list has
made this: it is 2 parts water to one part honey and some hops, that's
all. It must have been allowed only a short fermentation period, as my
grandmother told Dad that "it tasted like sweet beer". Mead sometimes
does taste beery in its first weeks, I've found, but that taste
disappears with time. That's why I think my great-grandmother was making
it just a few weeks before Passover.
Anyway, if anyone has experience with this recipe, or a similar one, I
would deeply appreciate any feedback or advice.
Miriam Kresh
www.hillsofgalilee.com
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1128/ Fermentation bucket blues
From: Matt Gerbrandt <matthewgerbrandt@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 08:00:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: Matt Gerbrandt
Subject: Fermentation bucket blues
Miriam:
Hopefully, I'm not being redundant but I haven't noticed anyone recommend
that you use stainless steel (cornelius) soda kegs. You can get corny
kegs in 3, 5, and sometimes 10 gallon sizes. With kegging equipment, you
could even use the CO2 to rack from one keg to another. The best part -
they're often cheaper than carboys. Good luck. Hope that helps!
- -Matt
Subject: Re: Fermentation bucket blues
From: "Ken Taborek" <Ken.Taborek@verizon.net>
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 14:56:26 -0400
> Subject: Fermentation bucket blues
> From: hillsofg <hillsofg@netvision.net.il>
> Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 20:42:14 +0300
[snipped]
> It occurs to me that I do
> have some large buckets, old lye containers. Their lids are very tight.
> But how does one hack a hole to fit a bung and airlock into a sturdy
> plastic lid?
Miriam,
I have made fermenters out of 5 gallon buckets which I received with honey
shipments. The buckets are almost exactly like the plastic fermentation
buckets sold by home brewing shops, save that they are exactly 5 gallons in
volume rather than 7 gallons. The lids are interchangeable, but came
undrilled. I was able to fit these for an airlock by carefully cutting a
circle for an airlock grommet using an exacto knife. Cut conservatively, as
you can always widen the opening. Use good cutting practice, cutting away
from you always and using a sharp blade.
This should give you the airlock opening you'll need, but please be certain
that your lye buckets are made of a food grade plastic and do not have a lye
residue.
Cheers,
Ken
Subject: Re: Juicing fruit
From: "Ken Taborek" <Ken.Taborek@verizon.net>
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 15:07:28 -0400
> Subject: Re: Juicing fruit
> From: rcd@talisman.com (Dick Dunn)
> Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 21:03:29 -0600 (MDT)
>
> "Doug Honey Love Ranch" <HoneyLoveMead@msn.com> wrote in the last digest:
> > I have stopped using frozen/fresh, whole/crushed/mashed fruits in
> > nylon bags in any must in favor of simply juicing all the fruits I use.
> > The nylon bag method was messy, it never seemed to give the fruit flavor
> > that I wanted...[etc]...
>
> Yes, there are various advantages to working with just the juice, but when
> I tried that with berries, it seemed like there was "something missing".
> The taste was soft. It was pleasant enough, but somehow lost interest.
> Not really sure how to describe it. My guess at the time was that it was
> due to a lack of tannin that might otherwise have been extracted from the
> skins/seeds/pulp. Still, that's only a guess.
> - ---
> Dick Dunn rcd@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA
At the risk of offering up a 'me too!', I would agree that meads made with
juice alone are often lacking in the same character one gets from a fruit
mead. I have not used a juicer, but I have made several meads using 100%
juice from various brands. I'd say that Dick's description is right on
target for my experience with several of these, and that the addition of a
little tannin has added a depth of character that seemed missing from the
juice ferment alone.
Cheers,
Ken
Subject: Rethinking The Impact of Sorbates On Yeast
From: Matt Gerbrandt <matthewgerbrandt@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 09:25:07 -0700 (PDT)
I've had some experiences lately that have got me reconsidering the effect
sorbates have on yeast.
Case #1: Last week, I made a half gallon starter using apple cider containing
sorbates and about 1/3 cup DME. I pitched some rehydrated Lalvin 72B into
the starter and had airlock activity within 2 hours. I got a really nice
yeast cake from this starter within a few days.
Case #2: Last night, I made a batch of Cruz's Apple Butter Cyser that has
3 gallons of sorbated cider and 2 gallons of sorbate-free cider. Pitched
a half-gallon starter of Wyeast 3347 and am getting 1 bubble/5 seconds as
of this morning.
So I'm starting to think that sorbates are only an issue if you've got
one of the two following conditions:
1) Low yeast count
2) Few nutrients (as in a mead that's already fermented out)
Any thoughts here?
Subject: Rose Hip Mead
From: "Paul Gatza" <Paul@aob.org>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 16:09:31 -0600
Ira from Anchorage asked about rose hips in mead. I do not have experience
with fresh rose hips, but with dried rose hips in what you could probably
stuff into a gallon-sized ziplock bag. My experience with making rose hip
mead was very positive, and received raves at the 1998 AHA National
Homebrewers Conference in Olathe, Kansas, where it was served at the banquet.
The base mead I used had 4 lb of honey per gallon (60 lb to make 15 gallons
of mead). I recall the mead finished at around a 1.030 specific gravity
reading. I put 3 lb of dried rose hips in 3 gallons of mead from that batch.
The mead had finished out before I added the rose hips into the fourth carboy
of its life. I used no special preparation or other additive. The rose hips
added significantly to the color, and had a delicious tannic quality that
complemented the sweetness of the mead.
Paul Gatza
Director
Association of Brewers
736 Pearl St.
Boulder, CO 80302
paul@aob.org
ph: +1.303.447.0816 ext. 122
fax: +1.303.447.2825
www.beertown.org
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1129
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