Mead Lover's Digest #37 Tue 17 November 1992

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

Contents:

Re: README / FAQ (Victor Reijs)
first mead questions (Julie Kangas)
Juniper Metheglin (Jacob Galley)

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Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 20:41:33 +0100
From: Victor Reijs <Victor.Reijs@SURFnet.nl>
Subject: Re: README / FAQ 

Hello all of you,

In the Mead-lovers README file, was a talk about tannic acid. To my
knowlegde this stuff has totally no acid tatste (I even think it is
not an acid, but some other chemical). Tannic acid is the stuff which
cause the non-smoothness of the pallet. It does not increase the
acidity or pH of the mead. It only increase the non-smoothness, which
will because lower in due time (it adds some king of body to the mead,
and it makes the sweetness less pronounced).

All the best,

Victor

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Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 14:15:48 PST
From: julie@eddie.jpl.nasa.gov (Julie Kangas)
Subject: first mead questions 

Hello all,

Well, I'm going to take the plunge this weekend and brew up a
gallon of mead. Having only brewed one batch of beer so far
I'm a tad nervous (although I'll be using plenty of homebrew
during the process).

I'm trying for a not-too-sweet/not-too-dry mead that I can
share with friends around a campfire after a day of rock
collecting. I've got 3 pounds of sage honey (the lady in
the honey shop told me it was mild) and will add yeast
nutrient, and champagne yeast. Questions: what about
some sort of acid blend — should I use some? What level
of acidity am I aiming for? Is sage honey really ok? I could
go back and get orange, wildflower, buckwheat, or alfalfa (which
was the strongest according to the honey shop lady).

Also, I've never had mead with spices. Should I try it
for my first batch or wait until next time? Will it mask
my mistakes or just make people think I've given them a
funny drink? (I know, this is highly qualitative)

I'll be doing the primary fermentation in a 5 gallon plastic
jug with an airlock. Do I wait until I don't see any bubbles
before I rack to a 1 gallon jug? Should I use the 5 gallon
carboy so I can see what's going on instead?

I plan on tasting the mead while it's in the one gallon jug to
see how it changes (I'm planning on several months in the jug),
but I'm concerned about loosing all my mead to tastings! Should
I add boiled then cooled water to the jug or just not worry about
it (and control my urges to taste it)?

Should I rack it every three months or so?

How sensitive is mead to oxygen? That is, is it ok to ferment
2 gallons in a 2 1/2 carboy?

Do I have to bottle it with corks? Are beer bottles and caps ok?

Am I the only one torn between doing small "test" batches of mead
and the horrid aging period (since if you really like it you'll
run out way before you get some more)?

Thanks,
Julie

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Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 19:28:53 CST
From: Jacob Galley <gal2@midway.uchicago.edu>
Subject: Juniper Metheglin 

Hi. I have acquired about a half a cup of fresh juniper berries, and
would like to flavor a mead with them. Does anyone have any
suggestions? This is a sketch of the recipe I'm thinking about making:

(for 5 gallons)

10 lb Buckwheat honey
oz Juniper berries
oz Rosemary leaves
oz Fresh fennel greens
oz Coriander seed
Belgian Ale Wyeast — just to make sure this tastes interesting

 

Above are all the spices I would consider using with juniper. I don't
want the spices to be extremely strong: I'd rather they were subtle
and only barely recognizable.

So can anyone suggest the amounts I should use?

Thanks,
Jake.

Reinheitsgebot <– "Keep your laws off my beer!" <– gal2@midway.uchicago.edu

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End of Mead Lover's Digest

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