Mead Lovers Digest #0009

eZine lover (@eZine)

Published in 

Mead Lovers Digest

 · 9 Apr 2024

Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #9 (October 06, 1992) 
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 92 01:00:06 -0700 
From: mead-lovers-request@nsa.hp.com (Mead Digest) 

 

Mead Lover's Digest #9                      Tue 06 October 1992 

 
        Forum for Discussion of Mead Brewing and Consuming 
               John Dilley, Digest Coordinator 

 
Contents: 
  corking & clearing (Alan Mayman) 
  Re: Mead Lover's Digest #8 (October 04, 1992) (Robert Crawford) 
  Re:  Mead Lover's Digest #7 (October 03, 1992) (Michael Tighe) 
  Plum melomel recipe??? (Brewing Chemist Mitch) 
  Acid-blend??? (Mark N. Davis) 

 
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Date: Mon, 5 Oct 92 11:15:29 -0400 
From: Alan Mayman <maymanal@scvoting.fvo.osd.mil> 
Subject: corking & clearing 

Howdy, 

I am hoping a veteran corker out ther could share his/her method with me, 
including sanitation and any special treatment of the cork, and special 
treatment of the bottles after corking. 

My first try with this type of closure turned out horribly.  I infected  
every bottle with algea like scum :( 

I am also curious about what happens when the mead finally clears and is  
ready to bottle.  Too add insult to injury, I corked the doomed batch 
of mead prematurely after it had been sitting quietly for about 5 months. 
(I was moving & could'nt think of a better way to transport the mead)  
Though it had not cleared when bottled, I assumed that fermentation had  
ceased and that I was into the "conditioning" period where harsh tastes  
are mellowed and patience tested.  Anyway, back to the insult & injury  
part, roughly half of the bottles blew there corks and spewed mead all 
over my closet.  Does clearing indicate an end to fermentation and  
therefore a safe time to bottle? 

Thanks All, 

Alan 

------------------------------ 

Date: Mon, 5 Oct 92 10:40:29 CDT 
From: Robert Crawford <betel@camelot.bradley.edu> 
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #8 (October 04, 1992) 

        Where are good places to look for reasonable prices on bulk 
honey? So far I've only made gallon batches of meads, but I'm planning 
on making a five-gallon batch of melomel, and don't want to spend the 
ridiculous store prices. 

 
- --  
Robert Crawford                       betel@camelot.bradley.edu 

------------------------------ 

Date: Mon, 5 Oct 92 11:55:23 EDT 
From: tighe@kc.camb.inmet.com (Michael Tighe) 
Subject: Re:  Mead Lover's Digest #7 (October 03, 1992) 

To gelly@persoft.com (Mitch Gelly) who asks if aged honey 
makes any difference - 

In my opinion it does not make any difference.  I've used "fresh"  
honey and two-year-old bulk honey that had to be scooped out of tin 
with an ice-cream scoop it was so dense.   I've had very nice results 
in both cases.  I haven't done a side-by-side comparison, so I can't 
really comment on the taste issues, but I don't see any problem with 
using older bulk honey.  Most of the reading I've done says you can 
just heat the honey to get it back to liquid form with no probelms. 
In addition, honey is so dense (specific gravity) that practically  
nothing can grow on it (unless mixed with H2O) so you don't have to 
worry about bacterial or mold infection.... :-) 

Michael Tighe, Intermetrics, Inc.,  Cambridge, MA 02138 (USA) 
email: tighe@inmet.camb.inmet.com,  phone: 617-661-1840 

------------------------------ 

Date: Mon, 5 Oct 92 13:44:41 CDT 
From: gelly@persoft.com (Brewing Chemist Mitch) 
Subject: Plum melomel recipe??? 

Greetings, 

A co-worker who enjoyed my raspberry melomel has approached me with a  
proposition (no, not that kind). He has tons of plums and wanted to 
'commission' a batch of plum melomel from me. I have plenty of carboys 
and fermenting room, so I thought hell why not. It will get me a few 
champagne bottles of it (I never would have made plum otherwise). 

Anyone have a good plum melomel recipe? Also a guess on quantities of 
plum, skins/no skins, etc. I will probably use about 15 lbs of light 
clover honey as the base, and it will be a 5 gallon batch. 

Are plums a good idea ? Any experience with them ? 

Thanks, 

  Mitch 

- --  
   - Mitch Gelly -     | We tend to scoff at the beliefs of the ancients. 
software QA specialist | But we can't scoff at them personally, to their 
    and zymurgist      | faces, and this is what annoys me. 
 - gelly@persoft.com -  |                                -- Jack Handey 

------------------------------ 

Date: Mon, 5 Oct 92 18:12:47 PDT 
From: Mark N. Davis <mndavis@pbhya.PacBell.COM> 
Subject: Acid-blend??? 

Meadings greed lovers (er, I mean Greetings Mead lovers), 

In reading through my first two issues of the MLD I noticed the mention 
of acid blend. Being only a beer brewer (and the occassional mead of course) 
and never attempting wine making, I'm not sure what the purpose of this 
stuff is. In addition, in a recipe that I saw in issue #7, it called for 
acid blend to taste. So what does this stuff affect the taste anyway? 

While I'm on the subject, does mead require a low pH like beer for fermentation 
(OK, I know the in beer the low pH aids in mashing mainly), or are the yeasties 
pretty flexible with or without and addition of acid? 

And finally, what makes Mead Yeast nutrient any different than generic Yeast 
Nutrient (besides the price I imagine) ? 

                            Enquiring minds want to know, 
                                     Mark 

 
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End of Mead Lover's Digest 
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