Mead Lover's Digest #1566 Fri 20 January 2012

 

Mead Discussion Forum

 

Contents:

Re Back Sweetening (Carl)
Apricot Mead: First Impressions at Bottling (Help Requested!) (fivecat)
Maple mead (Timothy Gouge)

 

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Subject: Re Back Sweetening
 From: Carl <docmac9582@aol.com>
 Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:49:59 -0700


Many people have posted on back sweetening meads with residual raw honey –
but I have always been reluctant to use this approach. Yeast starts out
feeding on simple sugars before metabolizing the more complex sugars. So
I prefer blending sweeter, mostly finished meads with meads that are too
dry to avoid a raw sugar taste.

Remember that sorbate/meta works better than either by itself, and that
this INHIBITS the yeast but does not kill it. It stops the yeast from
multiplying – so traces of residual yeast may eventually make the yeast
sparkling (and quite good).

The yeast must not be active when sorbate/meta is added or else the yeast
might chew on the sorbate, which I have read gives a disgusting flavor to
the mead.
Carl McMillin
Brecksville, OH & SAAZ Club 

Subject: Apricot Mead: First Impressions at Bottling (Help Requested!)
 From: fivecat <fivecat@gmail.com>
 Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:44:47 -0500


Hi All,

I would appreciate some feedback on my first impressions — at bottling —
of my first mead.

Here's the recipe I used:

Apricot Mead
9 lbs. Desert Mesquite Honey (3 @ 3lb cans from Trader Joes)
1 gallon Apricot Nectar (4 @ 1qt bottles of Looza Apricot Nectar —
Ingredients: Water, 40% juice, sugar)
Lavin 71B-1122 Yeast
5 tsp Yeast Nutrient
Water to 5 gallons (largely from rinsing out honey containers and nectar
jars)

Placed in fermenter: 07/08/11
Fermentation lasted for about a week.
Racked to glass carboy: 07/26/11

Bottled: 01/15/12

Early on this mead developed a yellow-ish ring around the top surface of
the liquid. I've been a homebrewer for 20+ years and have seen nasty molds
grow on my precious wort due to improper sanitation and this did not look
like that. It more closely resembled the wash of pollen we get here in the
South in the springtime.

I took a quick sniff immediately after removing the airlock. Instead of a
nasty mold smell I was surprised by a very yeasty scent.

Although the mead appeared to be quite orang-ish in color in the carboy,
the mead coming through the clear plastic bottling hose was almost watery
in appearance. When I put some in a glass the color improved, but not
nearly as much as I had hoped for.

Most importantly, there was very little apricot taste, if any. There was
an odd "sparkly" taste, however.

I've bottled this and shelved it until the summer for re-tasting. At this
point I'm thinking that it might well need a good shot of apricot brandy
poured into each bottle before I serve it to improve the taste.

As this is my first mead, I would greatly appreciate any
comments/suggestions/Monday Morning Quarterbacking from anyone here.

Many thanks!

Tom

Subject: Maple mead
 From: Timothy Gouge <trgouge@yahoo.com>
 Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:12:04 -0800 (PST)


Last August, I hosted a "Mead Making for Beginners" for several of my friends
and acquaintances. Two guys made traditional meads, one with store bought
clover honey, the other with orange blossom honey from a local beekeeper.
They both used a Wyeast sweet mead yeast packet. The guy that used
clover honey decided to add more honey at the first rack, and we added
some yeast nutrients. After two more rackings, it was ready for bottling.
The other guy waited a little longer to rack for the first time, and racked
twice more. He waited until the first of January to bottle.

I just got to sample both this weekend–side by side. Both were fantastic!
Very different nose, very different flavors. The clover mead ended up
with about a 14% ABV, while the Orange Blossom was at just over 8%ABV.

Meanwhile, I brewed two batches that day, a small strawberry batch, and a
maple batch. The strawberry has a strong, but not overpowering strawberry
nose and a delicate strawberry-honey flavor, with a nice strawberry finish.
Definitely a contest batch.

My maple mead is REALLY sweet. I used 5 quarts of Orange Blossom Honey
and nearly three quarts of Vermont Grade B maple syrup. I racked it
three times, but I made the mistake of bottling it too soon. It is not
clear unless chilled. But the flavor is rich and maple-y without the
woody/barky taste that seems to accompany maple mead. I think I will try
this one again but age it longer.

The best part of it all was the fellowship of three new enthusiasts who
now can't wait to brew their next batch!

Tim Gouge
Kissimmee, FL

End of Mead Lover's Digest #1566

J
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