Subject: Ancient Celtic Metheglin Recipe

Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
wrote:

I ran across this note on the excavation of the Hochdorf tomb, a Celtic
site just a few miles from Stuttgart Germany, dated approx. 540 – 520 BC.
Along with the artifacts that were recovered, there was a bronze 125 gallon
cauldron that had held mead, according to the analysis of the brownish
sediment at the bottom.

Where can you get some of the sediment?

Rod McDonald

Leonard Meuse wrote:
> chimay uses 3 yeasts at 3 different times during
> fermentation. They finish up with a very tolerant strain as you might have
> imagined, but if you culture from the bottle I'm not sure what you'll end
> up with strain wise…

Michael Rose wrote:
> The yeast you find in Chimay (and most beers) is the yeast used to
>bottle condition (carbonate) the beer. The yeast used to ferment the
>beer was removed after the fermentation ended. You don't want to use
>he yeast you find in the bottle.

I'm 99% sure that both of these statements are false. Chimay formerly
used 3 strains, but about 40 years ago they isolated a single strain
and have solely used that since. From their web-site,

"The yeast that is used today was selected by Father Theodore in the
fifties. … Once Father Theodore isolated the right strain, he
selectively propogated it."

Also, they are very proud of the fact that their beer is bottle
conditioned with the same strain it is brewed with. Many beers do use
a separate bottling strain (usually a lager strain), but many Belgian
beers do not, and Chimay is one of them. I've cultured from Chimay
with good results, but I would recommend using the Wyeast culture.
It's been treated much better than sitting on 9% ABV for years.

SM

in MLD #662, Wayne_Kozun@otpp.com said:
>- ——
>I have heard a rumour that mead made by naked virgins clears faster than
>mead made by the rest of us. Does anyone have anything to substantiate
>this theory?

I've tried, but it seems combining naked virgins with mead makes for
an unstable mixture.

Paul A. Hausman <paul@lion.com>
Lion Technology Inc., Lafayette, NJ, 07848 USA

> I've done some experiments that indicate that the rate of clearing of a
> mead may be affected by the moon-phase during which it is made. Specifi-
> cally, meads started (i.e., when yeast is pitched) during the full moon
> seem to finish and clear faster than meads started during a new moon. I
> don't have enough data yet to know whether this follows a smooth transition
> over the phases.

Oh, of course. You folks aren't doing that already? If you start on the
new moon, the must will expand up into your airlock when the full comes
around. And you also have to look at the sign the moon is in. You really
don't want to be starting a fermentation during a wet sign like
Aquarius, unless you want a watery tasting mead. If you want a
full-flavored mead, you want a dry sign like Scorpio. 'Course, if it's a
melomel, you might want a fruitful sign. I believe it does follow a
smooth transition, like the tides, but it also depends on whether the
moon is heading towards appogee or perigee. I can't believe anyone would
even *try* to make a batch of mead without keeping track of all these
complicated and confusing yet vital details.

and in #662 Wayne Kozun said:

> I have heard a rumour that mead made by naked virgins clears faster than
> mead made by the rest of us. Does anyone have anything to substantiate
> this theory

Since I lost my virginity and started wearing clothes, I noticed a sharp
drop in the quality of my mead. That may be due to having added
distractions on my mind now, however. Yet I *did* discover that being
naked, even though no longer a virgin, can still yield a high-quality
mead that will fool any but the most experienced tasters. So I must say
in my experience that it's the nakedness, rather than the virginity,
that is of primary importance. And a little drumming and appropriate
body paint doesn't hurt either.

I know this is off-topic, but oddly enough, I've found the best state

to be in during the making of cider (which might apply to cyser as well)
is to be in the process of actually having sex. Perhaps it's something
in the apples? Anyone care to confirm this?

Cheers,
Di

Raising the pH to 4.0 at the beginning of fermentation simply gives
some head room for your fresh must, so that when the pH drops (which
happens very quickly), it settles into a Ph that the yeast can
tolerate. In wine musts, these swings aren't so drastic, because the
amounts of acid and buffer are much higher, there is plenty of
nutrient for the yeast, and the total effect on the pH is not as
great.

Yes, yeasts love an acid environment, but many of us are using beer
yeasts conditioned to beer worts with pH ratings of 4.5 to 5.5.
Acidic is good; too acidic is bad.

Lastly, and someone on the digest correct me if I am wrong, but I
thought that the "flabbiness" you described was a function of too
little titratable acidity (Milli/equivalents per kilogram, for
example), and not of too much buffer or too low pH. Taste is
affected more by % acid and not by pH.

Wout Klingens: Interesting idea. I'd love to hear (taste) how that
works out.

Chuck: Thanks for the comments on the mazers. Don't filter. Wait.
Pollen: good. Stripping flavors and aromas: bad.

Many great wines are totally unfiltered, and most really dyed in the
wool vintners consider it heresy to even discuss it.

Just thought I'd stir up the hive a bit.

Peace and Love,
Ken Schramm
Troy, Michigan

>>The idea is to forget about acid blend until fermentation is done.
>>Unfermented mead (whatever the term is) has a natural pH below 4 which
>>by itself is not ideal for the healthiest ferment. Adding the acid
>>blend only makes it worse. Raise the pH to over 4 with calcium carbonate.
>
>As a winemaker, this makes no sense to me, although I do agree that
>acid blend is just a confused compromise…but a wine with a pH of 4
>would NEED acid for a healthy ferment, we shoot for a pH of 3.5 in reds,
>3.2 in whites. Yeast must have an acid environment, they love it and grow
>best, and with fewer deleterious bacteria to contend with. In champagnes
>the pH will be about 2.8, and yeast are quite active. If you raise the pH
>you increase the risk of oxidation, lessen the effectiveness of SO2, and
>increase the risk of spoilage bacteria. Plus it makes the wine taste flabby.

Although it doesn't make good sense in winemaking to ferment with a high
pH, it is an accepted practice in meadmaking because of the relationship
of pH to total acid content in honey must. Honey has a total acid content
two to four times less than that of grape, even though the pH range for both
is roughly similar at 3.0 to 4.0. It is poorly buffered and as a result,
small changes in the acid content of honey must will cause wide swings
in its pH range. The small amount of acid produced by yeast is sometimes
sufficient to drop the pH of the fermenting mead below 3.0, resulting in a
slowing down or ceasing of the fermentation process altogether. Morse &
Steinkraus, originally working in the 1950's, found that honey musts could
be fermented to completion in about two weeks by maintaining the pH at
ranges between 3.7 to 4.6. They recommended a starting pH of 3.7 in order
to prevent the growth of bacteria and still avoid extreme pH drops during
fermentation. Pitching a large starter is also helpful in preventing
bacteria growth by allowing the yeast to propagate quickly and overrun
the environment, producing sufficient alcohol levels to discourage
other competitors.

Some good references on this subject are:

Roger Morse, _Making Mead: History, Recipes, Methods and Equipment_,

Wicwas Press, 1980.

Roger Morse & Keith Steinkraus, "Wines From The Fermentation of Honey,"

in _Honey: A Comprehensive Survey_, edited by Eva Crane, NY: Crane,
Russak & Company, 1975, pp. 392 – 497.

"The Amateur Scientist" _Scientific American_, vol 227, no. 3, Sept. 1972,

pp. 185-190.

Daniel McConnell & Kenneth Schramm, "Mead Success: Ingredients, Processes

and Techniques," _Zymurgy_, vol 18, no. 1, Spring 1995, pp. 33 – 39.

________

Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net

Preferably in Mass?

• —

Allen E Heard
Systems Group / Tessera Enterprise Systems, Inc.
(781) 716-1112
mailto:AHeard@Tesent.com
http://www.tesent.com

There's only us, There's only this
Forget regret, or life is yours to miss
No other road, No other way
No day but today

Refer to INSIDE MEAD, vol 10, number one from June 1995.
This rer\prints an article from The Hournal of Apicultural Research, 1972 by
Roger Morse and Keith Steinkraus.
To quote, 'The pH of honey…influenced the rate of fermentation considerably.
A clover honey fermentation at pH 2.9 progressed much more slowly than one at
pH 3.7. It was found that a pH of 3.7-4.6 was desireable for honey
fermentation…

Addition of growth factors allowed all honeys tested to be fermented rapidly,
yielding characteristic meads which had none of the unpleasant flavor
associated with long (unaided) fermentation..

Fermentation takes about two weeks without agitation'

Check out the article, it is quite interesting.

Also, the last I knew, exposure to oxygen was responsible for oxidation,
unrelated to pH.

Regards,
Bob Talkiewicz