Mead Lover's Digest #66 Wed 06 January 1993

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

Contents:

clarifying a ginger mead (Dick Dunn)
Red Star wine yeasts ("Daniel F McConnell")
Re: Red Star wine yeasts — comments? (wegeng.henr801c)

Send articles for submission to the digest to mead-lovers@nsa.hp.com
Send digest addition or removal requests to mead-lovers-request@nsa.hp.com

---

Date: 5 Jan 93 02:23:09 MST (Tue) 
From: rcd@raven.eklektix.com (Dick Dunn) 
Subject: clarifying a ginger mead 

I've got a ginger mead (ummm…would that be a metheglin? or a melomel? or
is there a separate name for mead with tubers? or is ginger a tuber anyway?
I'm so confused! but I digress…) which seems not to want to clarify and
settle out. I used a lot of chopped ginger in it, but most of that has
been filtered out. It's just cloudy. I tried one fining with gelatin
(standard brewing approach) and nothing much happened. I might wait a bit
and try it again, but first I thought I'd ask whether anyone has had any
particularly good or bad results fining a mead with lots of ginger.
—
Dick Dunn rcd@eklektix.com -or- raven!rcd Boulder, Colorado USA

---

Date: 5 Jan 1993 08:46:17 -0500 
From: "Daniel F McConnell" <Daniel.F.McConnell@med.umich.edu> 
Subject: Red Star wine yeasts 

                       
Subject:                               Time:8:25 AM 

OFFICE MEMO Red Star wine yeasts
Date:1/5/93

Brian writes:
>Can any experienced mead-makers out there comment on Red Star's
>wine yeasts? Good/bad meads made with Red Star, comparision
>to meads made with other yeasts?

My experience with isolation and purification of Red Star wine yeast is that it
is as impure (contaminated) as most of the dry beer yeasts available. When
making a mead with a high, >10% alcohol concentration the contamination does
not seem to be a significant problem. I know of very few mead-makers, (I could
be wrong here) that use pure liquid yeast cultures. I highly recomend them.
Your best bet are currently available WYeast cultures. I think they carry
Pasteur Champagne and mead whatever that means. Vierka carries a large
variety of liquid wine yeast cultures that are suitable for meads, such as
Tokay, Epernay etc. Check your local supplier.

Good Luck
DanMcC

---

Date:   Tue, 5 Jan 1993 06:30:41 PST 
From: wegeng.henr801c@xerox.com 
Subject: Re: Red Star wine yeasts -- comments? 

Regarding Red Star wine yeasts, I have never heard anything bad about them
(unlike Red Star`s beer yeast products). I have used them with good results.
Also, the winemaker at a well known winery once told me that he used Red Star
yeast for his commerical products, and that Red Star was very popular.

But as with all products and techniques, you should try a few different ones
and then continue using the one(s) that you like. Red Star certainly is not
the only producer of wine yeasts. You can also sometimes find yeast
specifically intended for mead.

/Don
wegeng.henr801c@xerox.com

---

End of Mead Lover's Digest

---