Mead Lover's Digest #1593 Mon 30 July 2012

 

Mead Discussion Forum

 

Contents:

Re: Bananas Foster Mead and Rum choices ? (Mike Faul)
Re: Bananas Foster Mead and Rum choices? (MeadGuild@aol.com)
adding vanilla to mead at bottling (hansvater@comcast.net)
A few questions (Bob)

 

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Subject: Re: Bananas Foster Mead and Rum choices ?
From: Mike Faul <mfaul@faul.net>
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 08:55:55 -0700


> > Subject: Bananas Foster Mead and Rum choices ?
> > From: "Mark Banschbach, SFO"<mrbear37@yahoo.com>
> >
> > 2) Just as wines which had brandy added were Ports.. is there a proper name
> > for this type of concoction ?
Many words come to mind. 🙂 … Weird, disgusting, sick, gross….
outrageous! Possibly delicious. Maybe even splendid?

There isn't a proper name for this that I am aware of. If it tastes good
and you like it then call it something. If it tastes bad then the first
words that came to my mind might be appropriate. Or if it tastes really
bad, I wouldn't talk about it 🙂

Mike


Subject: Re: Bananas Foster Mead and Rum choices?
From: MeadGuild@aol.com
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2012 00:58:34 -0400 (EDT)


"Mark Banschbach, SFO" _mrbear37@yahoo.com_ (mailto:mrbear37@yahoo.com)
asked

> > I got a wild hair after a friend brought me a bunch of must – go Bananas..
> > I made bread.. and then more bread.. and then what do you think any
> > self respecting meader would do? I fermented those bad boys.
I tried fermenting bananas w/o success. Hats off to you!

> > Well I confess its not a pure mead.. why ? Because I wanted to be sure
> > I got some really good Fosters Recipe Taste in there.. so I fermented it
> > with honey and brown sugar, and cinnamon.. Now that it is coming to
> > the point of its final racking, and aging,, I am pondering 2 points..
> >
> > 1 ) I want to add some rum and I would like some suggestions.. I am
> > thinking some dark Jamaican rum of some ilk.. so I get more flavor and
> > less alcohol taste.. Suggestions? Brands??
My experience with making flavored Vodka says do not waste your money
on high quality Rum. But then Rum has a distinctive flavor that Vodka
lacks. Dark Rums get my vote. Myers is excellent, but expensive. I'm
not a fan of Captain Morgan. Admiral Nelson is better, but the flavor
might
not be strong enough. This is definitely a situation deserving of
research.
If you lived nearby, I'd be more than happy to contribute to research
costs.

After tasting it, you may want to add a banana liqueur to accentuate the
banana flavor.

Dick

Richard D. Adams
Ellicott City, MD


Subject: adding vanilla to mead at bottling
From: hansvater@comcast.net
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:59:39 +0000 (UTC)


It is time to bottle my 2 gal batch of vanilla mead that has been aging for
almost 2 yrs. While in the secondary I added one vanilla bean to each 1 gal
bottle but now at bottling I would like more vanilla flavor. My questions
is: would it be Ok to use a vanilla extract with some artificial flavoring
or go with a pure vanilla extract?

Brian Hackman


Subject: A few questions
From: Bob <bob.kiley@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2012 01:09:36 -0400


My very first mead went into ageing two days ago (smells and tastes very good
surprisingly) and I just had a few questions. First off, my OG was 1.103,
FG 0.998, used 10g DAP, 8g Fermaid (spread over 12 hour intervals for 4
days with aeration, stopped at 1/3 sugar break), 5g potassium carbonate,
and fermented with 1oz heavy toast French oak (I know it's barely at the
threshold for taste but, I hate "OAK!" wines if you know what I mean, and
it does lend a nice amount of mouthfeel). I fermented at 70F for primary,
and 60F after 1/3 sugar break (it had a good amount of ester so I didn't
want too much more produced). Fermentation lasted three weeks (total! D21
is awesome!).
Now for the questions: I want to back sweeten a portion of it to around
1.010, but definitely want some dry.
1. Do I stabilise all of it with sorbate, or just some? I was thinking of
bottling the dry portion then sorbating/resulfiting the rest, but I don't
know if it's a good idea.
2. I want to cold stabilise as well; could I keep it in the fridge (35F)
for a month, bottle the dry portion, then add sorbate and keep in the
fridge, rack the rest and then bottle?
3. I like my acid levels where they are (D21 produce a decent amount)
but I know they tend to soften significantly during ageing, so should I
add more now?
4. I know you have to do it "by taste" in mead (gluconic acid/gluconolactone
issue prevents easy TA measurement) but what's a good rule of thumb for
pure tartaric acid?

I know that is long and not easily read (sorry), but any help, advice, or
comments are very welcome.
W??s ??u H??l!

~Bob

Sent from my iPhone


End of Mead Lover's Digest #1593