Have fun,

Bob Tisdale

Get a length of tubing (1/4") that stretches from one arm to the

other, or about 4 feet. Also get a racking can if you are using a 5 gal
carbouy, but not necessary for one gallon. Fill tube(and cane connected
to it) with water, put the end(with the cane) in the elevated, full jug
while covering the other end with your thumb(so the water doesn't run
out). Then let it run into the sink until the mead starts to come out.
You can now quickly put the tube in the empty carbouy, but remeber to
keep the "out" end lower than the "in" end or suction will stop.
BrewWard

Oh, another comment, this time on generic honey.
I have noticed the same, that generic honey oxidizes more and gives a bad
taste. To keep honey costs down I did some searching, and found a local
"Wildflower" honey, that is packaged locally in big glass jars, by the
gallon. Even though they are generic, these local brands tend to be more
stable, and the price is usually much lower than those straight from the
keeper. Also health food stores sell bulk straight from the 50 gallon
shipping barrels. This stuff is the best for the price. Recently I got
bulk clover honey for 1.10# and orange blossom for 1.30#. Great prices,
and really decent quality. Almost keeper quality.

Hello All,

As a beekeeper I would respond "Of course it

better"<g>. Seriously, honey is a lot like beer. Just like
the MegaSwill crew has to create a bland brew acceptable to
the widest possible range of taste buds, that travels well,
and has a good shelf life…the large honeypackers have to do
the same things. Storebought honey is heat treated to insure
it stays liquid for long periods of time (why we americans
insist on liquid honey when most of the rest of the world
understands creamed honey is more convienent and doesn't have
to be heat processed is another story), it is microfiltered
to remove pollen which also retards granulation, and finally,
is a bland blend of honey from any and all sources because
the "average" consumer may not like a particular flavor (say
mesquite or cotton or…). In short, like home grown
tomatoes, and home brewed beer or mead, home produced honey
retains more taste. That said, I have seen beekeepers
produce some miserable honey (overheated, poorly stored) but,
I've also had some god awful homebrew.

Good locally produced honey will have more flavors

and complexity than storebought and I think these will come
through in your mead every time. I can't comment about side
to side comparisons because I have always used my own
production for mead and beer (and fresh homemade biscuits,
he..he..he..). As for oxydation, I wonder if its really the
affect of oxydation you are tasting, or the absence of some
of the complex flavors. I cant think of anything that would
cause a difference in oxydation rates.

While we are talking honey, I would like to add a

small log to the boil/no boil bondfire. If you use store
bought honey which has mostlikely already been subjected to
heat pasturization I dont really think boiling the must will
further degrade your finished product.

take care
Patrick M. O'Hearn
Bears Choice Honey
Aztec, NM
email patrick@cyberport.com

>From Gordon

>Two or three years ago, Phil Fleming won first place in the Mazer Cup (I
>think it was the Mazer Cup?) with his chocolate mint mead. If the recipe
>was published, I probably couldn't find it in my records. Maybe someone
>else on the digest can find it? One suggestion from me: make a sweet
>chocolate mead or else serve it cold. Room temperature dry chocolate is
>rather harsh.

That would be the 1993 Mazer Cup. I will dig out the recipe, but it may
not do much good. I recall and see that the details were somewhat scant.
My gut feeling is that this was made from a chocolate mint extract. (Maybe
from talking to Phil?) This would have been posted about July of 1993.

Methleglyn-Best of Show
Philip Fleming-Stan's Stuff
20 lb dark honey
Chocolate mint
Prisse de Mousse, Lalvin EC-1118-dry yeast
Primary ferment-4 mo. in glass at 63F
Secondary ferment-2 mo. in glass at 63F
3 wks in glass at 29F
OG:1.130
TG:1.035

DanMcC

Ok, where do those of you who don't keep your own bees get your honey?

What do you look for?

I ask because I've made mead from store bought clover honey (5# for $5.79)

and I've used honey given to me by a friend who got it from his brother's
hives. There's a great difference, and the store bought stuff sure isn't my
choice, but it's available all the time.

Any ideas on where to look for other sources would be appreciated.

TIA… …Tom

After being asked by the AHA to help re-do their mead scoring sheet
(along with several esteemed colleagues in the mead world), I made up a
LaTeX version to illustrate my proposed changes. The old version of the
mead score sheet was primarily based on the beer score sheet and
included many inappropriate items, such as mentions of skunkiness and
DMS, which are rare in meads.

My mead score sheet is available on my homebrew club's web site at

http://alpha.rollanet.org/~tamhc/goodies.html

in LaTeX, PostScript, and PDF formats. The LaTeX version could be easily
modified to make a beer sheet (it's on my to-do list). This scoresheet
was recently used in the Albuquerque Dukes of Ale "Spring Thing"
competition.

Bob, you mention not having web access. If any of the formats above would
be useful to you, please email me and I will mail them to you.

Mike Hall
Los Alamos Atom Mashers

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Overheard at a homebrewing meeting:

Q: So, how's your twelve-step program coming?
A: Not so good. I'm still on the first step — denial.

Patrick M. O'Hearn
Bears Choice Honey
Aztec, NM
email patrick@cyberport.com