Mead Lovers Digest #1541

Published in

· 10 Apr 2024

Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1541, 30 August 2011 
From: mead-request@talisman.com 

Mead Lover's Digest #1541                                  30 August 2011 

                      Mead Discussion Forum 

Contents: 
  Temps ("M. Graham Clark") 
  Re: when a mead is not a mead  (MeadGuild@aol.com) 

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Subject: Temps 
From: "M. Graham Clark" <mclark04@gmail.com> 
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:58:44 -0300 

Hi all, 

Perhaps this has been answered in previous digests, but it new members 
(including myself) were not present, so I will ask the current group their 
thoughts.  I am looking for general thoughts on a DIY solution. 

I make both beer and mead.  I am fairly new to the former, so my mistakes 
are more regular.  I have found that over the summer months that my beer has 
become flabby and it is likely due to higher fermentation temperatures.  In 
the summer I ferment in a dark cool closet around ~70-75F but its not a 
stable temprature (I do not have a climate controlled fermentation area so 
regulation is difficult).  In my meads I have not noticed this as an issue, 
but typically I do my primary fermentation in the fall months.  I would like 
to expand my mead making times to other months of the year.  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? 

Cheers, 
Graham 
- --  
M. Graham Clark 

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Subject: Re: when a mead is not a mead 
From: MeadGuild@aol.com 
Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:16:51 -0400 (EDT) 

Adam Chatburn _achatburn@cssea.bc.ca_ (mailto:achatburn@cssea.bc.ca) 
wrote: 

> 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! .... 

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. 

Dick 
- --- 
Richard D. Adams 
Ellicott City, MD  21042 

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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1541 
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