Mead Lover's Digest #1535 Tue 26 July 2011

Mead Discussion Forum

Contents:

RE: Ginger (Eric Holzhauer)
Mead glasses ("Wout Klingens")
RE: sweet wines ("Wout Klingens")
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1534, 20 July 2011 (Patrick King)

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Subject: RE: Ginger
 From: Eric Holzhauer <eric.s.holzhauer@gmail.com>
 Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:49:08 -0400


I'm posting here for the first time to agree with Steve on how much ginger
to use. I haven't yet made ginger mead, but I've made two batches of ginger
beer. In the first one I used under a pound of ginger, and it was not
nearly strong enough for my tastes (which certainly tend toward the strong
side). It was more like ginger ale, really. In the second, I used 2.5
pounds of ginger as well as 4 habaneros, and it was much spicier. My next
batch will have fewer habaneros, but probably even more ginger. In both
batches, my method was to grate the ginger, squeeze all the juice into my
primary, and then boil the ginger shavings a couple times to get out any
extra flavor.
So while 3.25 pounds of ginger is a lot, I'd say it's definitely reasonable
as long as you want a nice kick to your ginger mead. And I've always seen
fresh ginger for about $3 a pound at supermarkets, so the cost is pretty
negligible. The biggest problem for me was peeling and grating it all,
since I didn't have a food processor/blender/juicer and did it all by hand.

Eric Holzhauer

Subject: Mead glasses
 From: "Wout Klingens" <wout@nivo-media.nl>
 Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2011 06:31:08 +0200


Yah. I know. Another one. Lots of discussions in de the past about what the
ultimate mazer is. I did search the digest for "l'impitoyable" though and
didn't find it.
Is your mead ready for this glass? A glass especially made for evaluating
the aroma.
I don't think mine is. At least not the one that is ready, but that a story
in itself 🙂
Just do a Google image search for this glass. Strange looking glass, made to
hold with 2 fingers, much like you hold a well cooled bottle with precious
wine with 3 fingers.

I find it truly amazing, what a difference a glass can make. I am not an
expert, but I am just sharing the little experience I have with a new glass
I bought:
A Sommelier Sauternes glass. Without brand name, but I am sure you can
figure it out.
It's a glass especially made for dessert wines, which I like as you know by
now.
A glass with an amazing shape, which permits to evaluate the aroma, as well
as the taste. Not cheap though: I paid 52 EUR. But for me it's worth every
cent. Not only because I like the beautiful shape, but I think it really
makes a difference, also to amateur palates like mine. The manufacturer
claims, that the shape of this glass makes the drink touch the tongue a bit
to the back, where the acidic flavors come through better. That way sweet
wines may taste better balanced.
My tip would be to try for yourself with your own mead in different shaped
glasses and cups. For instance: try a mazer, a lemonade glass and a tulip
shaped wine glass with a big bowl.
Also try to swirl the mead in your container. If you can't, then it's
useless.
Swirling in my opinion is absolutely essential for both aroma and taste
experience. Both improve a lot if you do and small flaws just disappear.
Obviously the many different mead styles "require" different shaped glasses!
You really need to convince your partner, that you can't do without! 🙂
Conscent is then obviously rewarded by buying 2 of each.

I do acknowledge however the romantic ideas behind using a middle-age
(looking) mazer! Or the necessity of enjoying a good mead in an appropriate
cup on a wicca event.
You made a 6 gallon batch and you might not want to smell through all those
gallons with a heavenly smile on your face and taking small sips from a 3
ounce pour 🙂
But sometimes you have to, and for that you need some good glasses.
In my opinion.

Subject: RE: sweet wines
 From: "Wout Klingens" <wout@nivo-media.nl>
 Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2011 06:58:59 +0200


hroth521@comcast.net wrote:
"It sounds like I need an objective measure of total acidity, but I plan to
make a sour cherry melomel this season and will seriously consider a
sauternes yeast – great idea. Need to investigate how to measure total
acidity, which, I understand does not correlate completely with pH."
There are kits in the homebrew store that measure the TA easily and cheaply.
A very simple procedure. Especially when you have a syrupy or medicinal
finish to your wine 🙂
TA is a measure of acid taste sensation. A low pH does not translate into
acidic taste.

" but I plan to make a sour cherry melomel this season and will seriously
consider a sauternes yeast – great idea"
My strain (Kitzinger) has a few characteristics I like: It emphasizes and
even produces acidity. It's predictable and will always ferment around
1.100. The rest is residual sugar It's also easy to stun it with normal
amounts of sulfite (which I seldom do).

"One question: There is a distortion in the way the email shows so that you
have a line in your post that says "I'll start *something* (looks like
b?tonnage) shortly, once a week or so…" what is the thing you are going to
start doing once a week or so?"
It's batonnage. An ^a. Dunno what the accent is called in English. It's
"just" lees stirring 🙂
I like to put in a teaser here and there, hoping that the community sees it
as a tip for a whole new set of resources. For instance: entering
"batonnage" in google.fr produces tons of interesting information. Entering
the same in Youtube also.
I might do a post on amazing internet resources soon.

Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1534, 20 July 2011
 From: Patrick King <patkingfilms@optusnet.com.au>
 Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:37:58 +1000


Hi,
Just about to bottle my first mead and thus free up my equipment for a
second. Trying to use backyard ingredients to go with our pet bees'
honey. Being winter in Oz right now I've got a tree full of sweet
little mandarins and a couple of fat lemons. The usual recipe pages
are not at home to a mandarin mead. Have any of you grizzly pioneers
been there before? What yeast did you use? I would like to try a
sweet mead to go with my last champagne dry one.

Regards.

Pat

End of Mead Lover's Digest #1535

J
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