Mead Lover’s Digest #112 Fri 09 April 1993

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

Contents:

request ("Phil.Perreault")
Exploding Bottles and Kumiss Discussion (Julie Kangas)
RE: Specific Gravity Charts (Ricky Becker)
Birch Beer (ala Compleat Anachronist) (Julie Kangas)

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Date: Thu, 08 Apr 93 16:30 EDT 
From: "Phil.Perreault" <21643PHP@msu.edu>
Subject: request

Is there subscription address?? If not may I be included on your distribution
list. Please send to:: perreaul@egr.msu.edu Thanks….


Date: Thu, 8 Apr 93 12:56:12 PDT 
From: julie@eddie.jpl.nasa.gov (Julie Kangas)
Subject: Exploding Bottles and Kumiss Discussion


>From: Tom Brady <BRADY@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU>
>Now, my comments. Best of luck, kiddo. I haven’t tried any of these recipes,
>perhaps because I like my brewing to be a little more…sedate ("Open bottles,
>but be sure no one else is in the blast radius" ;-).

I’ve reading a translation of the 19th century Russian cookbook
by Elena Molokhovets Gift for a Young Housewife. The book discusses
making beer and mead and states that when the first bottle explodes
the rest are ready. Well, I guess that’s one way to look at it….

>I tried to make a kefir
>(buttermilk, sugar, and yeast; much less carbonated though), and it was, well,
>rather nasty. I’d try it again, though, just for the hell of it

True kefir is much like sourdough — that is, it is a symbiotic colony
of yeast and lactobacilli (but the kefir colony forms lumpy grains
instead of being spread out as in sourdough.) It isn’t anything
like buttermilk, sugar, and yeast. The yeast in the kefir colonies
is a different strain and can metabolize milk instead of gluten or
added sugar. Try again, but with a real kefir culture.

About the CA series from the SCA: Do they sell to us slobs who
aren’t members? Does their list of titles cost anything?

Julie


Date: Thu, 8 Apr 93 15:56:32 CDT 
From: becker@wunder.wustl.edu (Ricky Becker)
Subject: RE: Specific Gravity Charts

john@rsi.com (John Gorman) posted a useful article of Specific Gravity
Charts, which I believe has I minor typo in in one of the formulas,


>Using Dick Dunn’s formula:
>

> Gs = starting gravity

> V = total volume

> Gh = SG of honey

> h = volume of honey

>then

> h = V * (Gs – 1) / (Gh – 1) (Amount of honey to hit Gs.)

>and

> Gs = (h * (Gh – 1)) + 1 / V (Gs for amount of honey.)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ <- This one here
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||

>also

> Alc%vol = (Gs – 1) * 130.8 (According to Fred Eckhardt.)

I think it should read:

Gs = ( h * ( Gh – 1 ) / V ) + 1

I might add that I only noticed it, because the formulae were something that
I was looking for, and I had to go try them out immediatly.

Thanks alot for posting those, John.


It should be pretty obvious that the above opinions are not those of Wash. U.,
they don’t brew anything.
Ricky Becker becker@wunder.wustl.edu


Date: Thu, 8 Apr 93 15:10:09 PDT 
From: julie@eddie.jpl.nasa.gov (Julie Kangas)
Subject: Birch Beer (ala Compleat Anachronist)

Tom Brady wrote up some kumiss recipes found in the
compleat anachronist series from the SCA. Well, I
replied to his posts and asked some questions about
this series and like a dunce forgot one question —
it’s about the birch beer. Tom, I assume you’ve got
the book, do they say anything about the type of birch
tree to use? I’d like to try birch beer and I’ve got
these nice white birch trees in the backyard….


Julie



End of Mead Lover’s Digest