Mead Lover's Digest #0715 Sun 27 December 1998

 

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

 

Contents:

Re: MLD 712: Acid levels in mead (Dan McFeeley)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #714, 20 December 1998 (Steven M Haag)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #714, 20 December 1998 (Jadeshaman@aol.com)
Unusual Wyeast Sweet Mead results (Gary Shea)

 

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Subject: Re: MLD 712: Acid levels in mead
From: Dan McFeeley <mcfeeley@keynet.net>
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 14:18:19 -0600


On Tue, 1 Dec 1998, Alan Meeker wrote, regarding my post on acid levels:

>. . . I was confused by your discussion of converting from ppt to grams per
>liter. You said, "…Since a liter is equal to a thousand mililiters, it is
>a simple matter to multiply ppt by 10 to obtain grams per liter…" Since
>there are 1000 mililiters in a liter and (for water anyway) one mililiter
>weighs one gram, ppt should *already* be equivalent to grams per liter.
>What then is the purpose of multiplying by 10 here?? Either I'm missing
>something or the calculated amounts to be added are all 10X too high…

Yikes! That was a major goof. The conversion is supposed to be from
percentage of acid to grams acid per liter, not ppt to grams per liter.
I'll repost the material with the needed correction, along with a clearer
definition on TA. Thanks for your alertness.

<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>
Dan McFeeley
mcfeeley@keynet.net


Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #714, 20 December 1998
From: Steven M Haag <the-savage@primary.net>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 22:36:48 -0600


Dennis Key said he feeds [his mead] with 1/4 lb. per gallon of honey
every time the S.G. drops to 1.005…

I've completed 5 batches of mead over the last 1-1/2 years (with 4 more
in the works,) and thankfully have only had one batch turn to vinegar.
As a microbiologist, I'm too aware of the possibilities for
contamination in my kitchen and basement, where I do my mixing and
fermenting. So I wonder how you remove enough liquid from a 5-gal.
carboy to get a specific gravity reading without contaminating the
batch. Do you sterilize tubing and siphon it off, or just pour it? Do
you wipe the stopper and fermentation lock with sterilizing solution
before breaking the seal?

Checking sp.g. seems like a fairly common practice, so there must be a
simple, clean way to do it without buying a laminar flow hood and
sterilizing pipettes, etc. Thanks for your advice.

Steve Haag


Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #714, 20 December 1998
From: Jadeshaman@aol.com
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 23:11:57 EST


Hello All! I am starting my first mead in January. The problem is it is sub
zero weather and I live in a drafty aptartment. John P. suggested using covers
on the brew, but I am still wondering if that will be enough since I can't
even regulate a comfortable temperature in my apt. How will the internal
temperature changes affect my mead? BB JADE


Subject: Unusual Wyeast Sweet Mead results
From: Gary Shea <shea@gtsdesign.com>
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1998 00:04:41 -0700 (MST)


Thought you folks might be amused to hear that the rose mead I
pitched back in late August is still going… not quite
what one expects from Wyeast Sweet Mead, which has a nasty reputation
for stuck fermentations. Well, this one is stuck in low gear, I guess!

10 lbs of honey, 1 tbsp yeast energizer, 3 or 4 gallons of water
(who knows!), 7 lbs (yep, lbs…) of rose petal in a sparge bag.
Mixed up the must, poured it over the rose petals in their sparge
bag in a 5 gal bucket, picked off a few floating bugs (heh heh heh…)
and stuck a fermentation lock on the bucket. Absolutely no
attention to sanitation… gotta love mead. It still has a
nice rose flavor/nose, but the Listerine flavor is pretty strong…
I have to wonder if this one will ever recover from that part
of the flavor. Will check and modify the ph sometime soon, as
I expect it's pretty acidic by now; ph was around 3.8-4.0 in early
September.

A few days ago I racked into glass and it's fairly clear
but still slightly active…

Hope this is interesting to someone!



End of Mead Lover's Digest #715