Mead Lover's Digest #1349 Tue 6 November 2007

 

Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor

 

Contents:

Re: Alternative to yeast aeration — Olive oil! ("Dan (Ian)
Re: Alternative to yeast aeration — Olive oil! (MeadGuild@aol.com)
Re: Alternative to yeast aeration — Olive oil! (MeadGuild@aol.com)

 

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Subject: Re: Alternative to yeast aeration -- Olive oil!  ("Dan
 From: Ian <Elkor@mindspring.com>
 Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 23:44:33 -0500
 

Using the ratios they provide, it's .0667mL/L of YEAST.

One drop is approx 0.050 mL.

Very difficult to manage without overdosing. You can't mix up a Liter
of a water with Olive Oil because the oil will just float on the
surface unless you emulsify it, at which point you're basically
aerating the mixture.

Best bet is probably to dip a sterile needle into oil and wipe one
edge of the needle against your funnel before you pitch the yeast.

Or maybe add the oil to a small glass of water and dip your stirring
spoon into the glass before stirring your must.

There are some other interesting comments on the site you link,
particularly about Hydrogen peroxide as a substitute. Anyone played with that?

Regards,

Ian

>"For the volume of wort we normally ferment, we would pitch
>about 4500L of yeast, and to that we would add around 300mL
>of olive oil. To translate that into a 5 gallon size, you would
>need to measure about 0.0000833mL of olive oil. For any
>practical purpose, that is much too small an amount to
>accurately measure out. You could fudge and just add the
>tiniest imaginable drop to the yeast you have, but you'd be
>over-dosing the oil by thousands of times the required amount,
>and run the risk of having zero foam retention. Not a good
>compromise in my opinion.

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Subject: Re: Alternative to yeast aeration -- Olive oil!
 From: MeadGuild@aol.com
 Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 06:27:01 EDT
 

"Dan McFeeley" _mcfeeley@keynet.net_ (mailto:mcfeeley@keynet.net) wrote:
> I kid you not.
> Saw this one come over on another list — here's the link to the article

….

Try _http://tinyurl.com/3433bh_ (http://tinyurl.com/3433bh)

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Subject: Re: Alternative to yeast aeration -- Olive oil!
 From: MeadGuild@aol.com
 Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:24:26 EDT
 

> "For the volume of wort we normally ferment, we would pitch
> about 4500L of yeast, and to that we would add around
> 300mL of olive oil. To translate that into a 5 gallon size, you
> would need to measure about 0.0000833mL of olive oil. …"

I had a problem with the math on this one until realized the
4500L could not be straight yeast. I e-mailed New Belgium and
got the following reply (which I altered to eliminate superscripts):

< Begin quote >
This is not the first time this email has raised questions among the
homebrewing community. And, not the first time a homebrewer has caught me
trying to dispense inaccurate math. This should be correct: If we pitch
45hl of slurry (about 9*(10^7) cells/ml), that???s around 4.05*(10^15)
cells total.300ml of olive oil divided by that many cells means there
is 7.04*(10^(-14)) ml of olive oil per individual cell. If you add a
normal Wyeast smack pack (they claim 100 billion cells) to five gallons
you???ll need .0074ml of olive oil. That being said, I still stand by
the main point I made in my statement, that it???s too small an amount
to measure accurately, and isn???t worth risking head retention issues
over. We did this because our flagship product is a delicate beer with
a shelf life requirement of over four months; those are issues that not
very many brewers grapple with on the five gallon level.
< End quote >
GOOD NEWS:
If your Mead does not need head retention, this sounds very good.
But what effect might olive oil have on honey or on yeast nutrient.

Dick

• —

Richard D. Adams, CPA (retired)
Moderator: misc.taxes.moderated

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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1349

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