I've used these in one "melomel", although since they are not fruit per
se, would this be more a metheglin? In any case, I won't be able to tell
you an exact recipe. This was one of those batches where I just threw in
a big bag of the dried flowers, and didn't think much about taking notes,
etc. (Sorry!). But it turned out well – sort of a cross between a cherry
melomel and a tamarind melomel.

For a recipe, you might consider looking for recipes for the non-alcoholic
drink, then bump up the fermentables, go with honey instead of sugar,
and go from there…

Mark

I tasted a " Flor de Jamaica" [Jamaica flower] drink in Mexico recently,
made by pouring boiling water over dried Jamaica flowers and adding sugar to
sweeten. It tastes somewhat similar to Tamarind juice and having made a
terrific tamarind melomel last year I am wondering if anyone has tried to
make a melomel using Jamaica flowers.
I tried to google it but only got Jamaican flower shops. Anybody got a
recipe?

Alan Colton

Email: coltonhse@btl.net
Web: www.coltonhouse.com

Alan asked about using Jamaica in mead. I have used it in both beers,great
in lambics, and meads. I make a "tea from several cups of dried flowers in 3
cups of water. Boil for 10 min and pour the boiled liquid into the must. I
usually do this after most of the fermentation is over. Dried Jamaica
flowers can be found in most "Mexican markets"
Remember Hibiscus and Jamaica are the same thing
Cheers
David Brattstrom
Plymouth, CA

Greetings to the list,

I study mead making of the Middle ages. Has anyone tried drying lee's for
use in brewing. It something a have been wanted to try. I have a idea for
drying lee's. i am planning on attempting to dry the Lee's from this
batch of mead i have working now. Maybe someone could dry that as well. I
know there is live yeast in balm, and i would think that live yeast may
become trapped in the Lee's as well thought?

Cheers,

Jim C. Norwalk, Wi

Hi everyone,
I have tried to stop fermentation of a blended mead using potassium
sorbate, however the fermentation is continuing. I blended 3 meads which
all had different yeasts: White Labs 720 Sweet Mead yeast (OG = 1.120),
Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast (OG = 1.100), and White Labs 001
California Ale yeast (OG = 1.095). Over 2 weeks ago, in a 5 gallon batch
of the blended mead (SG ~ 1.019), I added 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of
potassium sorbate, 2.5 teaspoons total as recommended by Ken Schramm in
his book. As of today, the bubbles are continuing, and the gravity is
now 1.013!

My questions:
After the addition of potassium sorbate, do I need to stir daily for a
number of days, or just when I add the potassium sorbate?
Should I be racking the mead as soon as it clears?
Does anyone have any idea why this didn't work?
Does anyone have any other ideas of how to stop this fermentation?

Thanks for any help you can give me!
Cheers!

Janis

For all of you who asked – here is my Tamarind Melomel recipe:

Qty: 5 gall

2 lbs tamarind seed pods
7 lbs honey [local honey here comes in used quart rum bottles = approx
2.3lbs each]
3 lbs brown sugar [I used this due to lack of honey]
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
10 yeast energizer tablets
2 tsp tamaric acid
1 tsp irish moss
1 only 100mg vitamin B1 tablet
1 pkt Red Star dry Pasteur Champagne yeast

1. Shell seed pods and soak contents in 1/2 gall boiling water. When
cool "squish" through fingers to separate seeds from pulp. Discard seeds
and freeze pulp until ready for use. [I estimated I finished up with
about 24 oz of pulp]
2. Stir honey and sugar in 2 galls water and boil for 30 min. Skim
off foam and add irish moss for last 10 min of boil.
3. Put thawed tamarind pulp in fermenter, pour over strained hot must
and stir for 10 minutes to pasteurize.
4. Add acid, nutrient, energizer, vitamin B1, pectic enzyme and
sterile cold water to bring to 5 gall.
5. Aerate must for 15 minutes while at the same time rehydrating
yeast.
6. Pitch yeast when cooled to 70 degrees. Original gravity 1.124.
Ended up with 16.8% alcbv

I racked twice, topping up with a small amount of local rum each time. I
split the batch putting 2 gallons into 1 gall demijohns and then added
priming sugar and bottled the rest in beer bottles. The still melomel is
wonderful, it is semi-dry and the tartness of the tamarind perfectly
balances out the sweetness of the honey. I think carbonation will make
this a fantastic drink but unfortunately the bottled version has not yet
carbonated [this has also happened to my Barley Wines] and I will
probably have to doctor it with a yeast starter.

Alan Colton

In the last digest Alan Colton asked about "jamaica" flowers… there isnt a
flower called jamaica, but the agua fresca you get in Mexacan places called
that is made with hibiscus flowers. It may help to corroborate my story
that hibiscus flowers are in fact called jamaica flowers in mexico. You
should be able to find these at a good tea store dried, or even a mexican
oriented grocery store.
hope that helps.
Leonard

>> I believe I read something in the digests about using an artificial
>> sweetener to solve this problem – something yeast cannot convert to
>> alcohol and c02. What I'm looking for is details about this process.
>> Which sweeteners to use; baseline amounts to start with; general
>> experiences with this type of post-fermentation artificial sweetening.
>> Thanks so much!

>>

>> Jeremy

>

> I was one of the persons asking about putting artificial sweeteners in
> mead.
> The concensus response seemed to be Splenda / Sucralose, however be aware
> that
> both the packets and boxes contain significant amounts of (fermentable?)
> malto-dextrin as bulk filler. I'd also look at the herb Stevia (check your
> vitamin store, the FDA has not approved for use as 'food' but is sold as a
> 'supplement' – this despite it's known use by American Indians for many
> hundreds of years) However I'm not sure if stevia is fermentable or not,
> and
> one must be cautious in using it as using too much can cause a bitter
> aftertaste.

>

> ART

>

IMO Stevia is a poor choice for a sweetner in beer, wine or mead. As an
experiment I tried putting just two drops of Stevia into 8 oz. of dry red
wine. Took two sips and tossed it down the drain. Though Stevia works well
in coffee and tea, in wine it leaves a grassy taste that lingers. I also
feel it didn't offer up any sweetness to the wine. I have also tried
Splenda(1/2 tsp to 8 oz) in the same dry red wine and though it tasted
better than the Stevia, I still didn't care for the "artificial sweetner"
flavor it gave the wine. Splenda did sweeten the wine, but also added an
off after taste that was unpleasent.

I would suggest to anyone wishing to sweeten their much labored over mead to
first try these different kinds of sweetners in a glass of dry wine or mead
before adding them to the entire batch. Another thought, does anyone know
how well these sweetners hold up over the long haul? Cans of soda pop
sweetened with Nutri-Sweet will only last about 6 months. This sweetner
breaks down with age and doing so makes the beverage undrinkable.

Gary

What yeast do you normally use for cold temp fermentations? And or what
would you suggest for cold fermented traditional meads?

Cheers,

Spike

Michael,

Temperature can have a significant effect on
fermentation. Whether it's positive or negative
depends on what you want. A slow, cold fermentation
can give you a crisp mead that is usually ready to
drink right out of the carboy. However, you can lose
complexity with this method. Hotter and faster
fermentations tend to make more complex meads that
frequently requre aging (sometimes prolonged). So its
a give and take. Ingredients are also a major factor
in the aging process, though. Most of my meads are
cold fermented, around 55 deg. F

Regards,

Steven