KWH@roadnet.ups.com (Kirk Harralson, KWH) wrote that he boiled his must
for 45 minutes, then socked it with campden tablets, then added the yeast
right away after cooling… Somehow, enough yeast managed to survive to
bring about noticeable fermentation.

First, honey doesn't like to be boiled. It's only done to pasteurize
(which really only requires 170F for 20 min.) the must. The skum is
skimmed because it does nasty things to the mead if you leave it in.

(Frankly, I didn't know that one ever *could* skim *all* the skum off.
You may wind up with a palatable product yet. That depends upon what
your skimming left behind.)

Second, the *ONLY* reason you'd add campden tablets is to sanitize.
Since that's already been done by the boil, why did you do it?

Third, you didn't wait long enough after the tablets, and you've killed
off most of your yeast. You should've had a vigorous start within the
first 12 hours. Pitch more yeast… now.

Best wishes,
Rick Miller rick@discus.mil.wi.us Rick.Miller@Linux.org

G'day all!

I am a beginner-brewer and have struck trouble with my fourth batch of
orange and honey quick mead (melomel?)

The basics are 3kg of bush honey to make up 20 lts. 1/2 doz oranges and
some strong EarlGrey Tea for the tannin and the Bergamot flavour. I use a
generic champagne yeast and brew in 1 gallon glass bottles.

The problem I've struck is that at the 12th day of brewing, the thing just
stopped. Bubbling went from one per second to nearly nothing; and the brew
went from somewhat turbid to a clear golden colour. At first I thought
that everything had gone as planned so I bottled one of the containers.
After chilling overnight, I tried one, and found it to be completely flat,
extremely watery taste and horribly bitter. Previous attempts, using same
ingredients and procedure yielded very bubbly reasonably sweet drinks that
were quite pleasurable. What could have gone wrong? (the flatness is not
due to badly capped bottles). Can I do anything to save/restore the brew
in the other containers yet to be bottled?

As I said above I am a beginner, so any comments or advice are welcome

cheers!

Alex Tewes

ga_tewes@minke.iasos.utas.edu.au

Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies (IASOS)
University of Tasmania (Australia)

phone: +61 02 20 2940

+61 02 39 1427

Some time ago Roger Grow wrote:
> I'm also interested in a rhubarb wine or melomel recipe.
> So if anybody has one, post it here (vs private) so we
> can all enjoy.

I just bottled this and it looks very promising:

Rhubarb Mead

for 1.5 gallons
1 gallon water
1 tsp yeast nutrient (ammonium phosphate)
3.5 cups wildflower honey (between 2.5 and 3 lbs)
7 cups chopped fresh rhubarb
sweet mead yeast

Water was boiled to drive off chlorine, then nutrient and honey
added to dissolve, brought back to just boil then heat turned off
and rhubarb added. Allowed to cool covered in pan overnight. Next
day the mixture was poured back and forth between pan and plastic
fermenter to aerate. Then the yeast sediment from a 1 qt starter of
yeast was pitched. SG of honey mixture (before fruit) 1.092.
Racked to secondary after about 1 month, bottled when still with
priming sugar.

Comments: I like fruited meads to have dominate fruit flavor but I

don't think that 7 cups rhubarb per gallon was at all excessive. At
bottling this was sour with some sweetness, hot alcohol flavor typical of
young mead. Overall very nice. I am looking forward to tasting this in
the future.