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A bit OT

Jesse, you mentioned you also enjoy cheese making and charcuterie. I know this is off topic but could you reply or PM me with a good link for these hobbies? I would love to get into them as well.

Making Mead for me is just another way to become self-sufficient. The more I can rely on myself and rely less on others, the better I become. I think cheese and preserved meat is an appropriate addition to my knowledge base.

Oh Mead, how do I love thee?? Let me count the ways! 1 gallon jug ♪ 2 gallon jug ♫ 3 gallon jug ♫ ..... Muah hah hah.
 
Interesting... I was talking to my mother last night, while drinking a lovely sweet mead (sweeter than I'd have liked, but it wasn't making me swell up and die, so that was nice) that was bottled by a mysterious brewer in 2004, gifted to my husband in 2005, and forgotten about because he doesn't drink mead... We started dating in 2006, and by 2009 when we got married, I was comfortable enough with his habits to start going through his "stuff" and quaffing it as I was able. Thus... lovely aged mead in 2011. Anyhoot.

I was talking to my mother, we were going over allergies to wine and mead (she has the same set of problems I've got and noticed pictures of my JOA on facebook) and she mentioned that she can eat organic dried apricots that have gone black from oxidation, but she cannot eat normal dried apricots without wheezing and all the other bad stuff I get from bad wine experiences. I do not like apricots or peaches, so I'd never noticed this. I think this is due to sulfite content in the dried apricots... Yes? If this is the case, it's a simple matter of running tests on my finished products to make sure they come out below my sulfite threshold, and voila! Drinkable (for me) booze!
 
I think this is due to sulfite content in the dried apricots... Yes? If this is the case, it's a simple matter of running tests on my finished products to make sure they come out below my sulfite threshold, and voila! Drinkable (for me) booze!

Yes. The principal ingredient in most commercially dried fruits (aside from the fruit) is metabisulphite, which tends to discourage oxidation as well as provides a bit of antimicrobial activity.