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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Mead Lovers Community's LiveJournal:
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| Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | 7:35 pm
[grautr]
 |
Melomel Problem
My black cherry melomel has stalled. I racked off first fermentation onto the cherries but the water in the airlock is level and not moving. I've added a cup full of honeyed water (the carboy is full) with a bit of energizer to restart but no joy yet. If it doesnt restart what are my options? should I bottle it soon as or can I leave the cherries in there for a couple of weeks for the flavour to infuse? I'm not sure if this second option would work without it oxidizing. | | Thursday, June 11th, 2009 | 7:15 pm
[sterlingspider]
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Oregon Fruit Puree
In the name of thoroughness... Has anyone happened to look at the ingredients/small text of a can of this company's puree? All of the info I can find on the internet simply says "packaged sterile" but what I'm trying to find out is whether there are additives used to sterilize it (such as sulfites) or if it's done another way such as with heat. If so is it purely the fruit as advertised or are there any "neutral extenders" or "natural/artificial flavors" added? Current Mood:  curious | | Saturday, June 6th, 2009 | 5:33 pm
[braufrau]
 |
NYC locals take note!
From June 22-28, Just Food, a non-profit organization that works to develop a just and sustainable food system in the New York City region, will be sponsoring "Pollinator Week", a series of events in Manhattan that highlight the use of local honey in food and drink. In part these events are designed to bring public attention to a drive to legalize beekeeping in New York City. Kicking off the week will be the First Annual Beekeeper's Ball at Pier 17, South Street Seaport on Monday, June 22 from 6-11pm. On Thursday the 24th, fifteen Manhattan bars and restaurants will be featuring signature dishes and drinks that incorporate locally harvested honey. On Saturday the 26th, the Union Square farmer's market will be having a "honey fest" featuring local beekeepers and their wares. As part of Pollinator Week, I will be one of the speakers at Jimmy's #43 on June 25th at 6pm. This is a fundraiser for Just Food, admission is $10. The evening includes a screening of "Hidden Hives", a movie about urban beekeeping. Representatives from the Manhattan Meadery and the Long Island Meadery will be present to let you sample their commercially available offerings. I will be speaking about the art of making homebrewed mead, and may have some of my own stuff for people to try. "Bee" there! Current Mood:  mellow | | Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 | 11:10 pm
[sterlingspider]
 |
Floor corker question
I have ye olde Portuguese floor corker. It looks like it would take a bottle up to just under 14" tall. The sum and total of the instructions on it are a single sticker in Portuguese. I would like to bottle with smaller bottles then 750mls: ideally I'd like to use some of the the tall thin 375ml bottles one so often sees Rieslings in. Does anyone know of any associated problems with this? I know the corks are different, but otherwise I just want to make sure it'll be fine before I drop extra money on the fru-fru bottles. Current Mood: curiousCurrent Music: (mentally) Tori Amos - Precious Things | | Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | 12:18 pm
[nex0s]
 |
Cloudy
Hey all, So, we've had this mead in the carboy for a year now. We've switched it over 2x just to get it off the old yeast. We used reisling yeast because we wanted some residual sweetness... However, this sucker is STILL cloudy after a year. It barely ever blurps anymore, but every once in a great while you get an air bubble through the airlock. So, what do we do now? I mean, originally we were going to carbonate it, but it's still mildly cloudy and I am worried that if we add sugar and bottle it, it will explode. Could we just bottle it an see? I dunno :/ It's mead made from honey that was made when we were married last year! So... it's a little special to me and I don't want exploding bottles :) Anyone have experience with riesling yeast and mead? N. | 10:36 am
[faolan_phe0nix]
 |
New Here
Hello Everyone! My name's Aubrey. I'm brand new to this community and the home mead brewing arena, though I've been a huge fan of mead for YEARS.
I made my first mead last night, a blueberry melomel. I expect it to be dry after first stage completion so I plan to back sweeten it and let it age a little longer then normal after bottling.
For my next mead (fully on my own with no guidance) I want to do a traditional sack mead. I would like a semi-sweet to sweet mead. I'm torn between using Orange Blossom or Wildflower (unfiltered) Honey. Can anyone give me an opinion on which would be better?
I'm considering using a Wyeast 4783 Rudisheimer, 4184 Sweet Mead, or Lalvin 71B-1122 Narbonne yeast. The
Wyeast 4242 Chablis yeast also looks intriguing. Does anyone have any experience with these or a preference opinion?
Thank you!
Current Mood:  blankCurrent Music: Angel S3 | | Sunday, May 31st, 2009 | 6:00 pm
[tater1112]
 |
| | Monday, May 25th, 2009 | 10:31 pm
[ragnorokt]
 |
Raspberry Score!
I was in St. Louis over the weekend, hanging with the WOOF's, and I went into a grocery store with my Mom to pick up some stuff she needed for the big grill meal. They had 6 oz. containers of organic raspberries 10 for $10! For those not playing the home game that is 3 ¾ pounds of raspberries for $10! That may not seem like a big deal to some of you but for me that is damn cheap. So on the way out of town this morning I stopped in and picked up $20 bucks worth. So 7 ½ pounds added to the 1 ½ pounds I had the in freezer from last year gave me 9 pounds of raspberries. When I got home tonight I mashed them up with 3 teaspoons of pectic enzyme and racked 3 gallons of sack mead I had standing around for just such an occasion onto the top of that. Hopefully this will be pretty good, the color is already amazing. To top it all off, just before I left, my shiny new refractometer arrived in the mail Friday. I am in mead heaven at the moment. Current Mood: jubilantCurrent Music: Cuban Jazz | | Sunday, May 10th, 2009 | 12:31 pm
[tater1112]
|
What should I make next?
Now that I've upgraded to 5-gallon equipment, I'm looking to experiment a little more with my 1-gallon batches. What of the following should I try out? Note that I don't have recipes for most of these; I will be riffing off existing recipes and making it up as I go along... Also, what is your experience with some wackier flavors? Any experiments that became favorites? What's the most unexpected flavor you've made? Poll #1397674
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: Allchile toblerone (chocolate and almond) pumpkin pie apple pie coconut pina colada dandelion rose vanilla vanilla & cinnamon chocolate mint chocolate strawberry root beer lemon/lemonade | | Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 | 12:45 am
[knaveofhearts]
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Ideas on making extract from berries?
It's too much of a hassle to deal with berries in my brew. I'm tired of them getting caught in hoses and racking canes and everything else. Is there an inexpensive and effective way to extract the essential flavors from berries? I don't want to buy extract if I can make it -- I like using local/homegrown elements in my brewing, but this is just... annoying. Current Mood:  annoyed | | Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 | 12:37 pm
[grinning_fox]
 |
Clever idea?
I was staring at the space under the basement desk where I've been hiding the bottled mead the other day and thinking, "I would like to know how that's going, but it would be great to not kill a whole bottle to find out that I should have ignored it for a little while longer..." I know, I know, forget it's there, it'll be great when I find it again. Unfortunately, my chemical composition doesn't really permit me such luxuries. That, and I spend a lot of time in that space looking for other things. And people keep asking. Manky people. BUT! A brilliant flash of cleverness may save my sorry inquisitive hide, next time I bottle something. At the local Agway, they sell small bottles, probably meant for storing fancy maple syrup. They're slightly smaller than old fashioned coke bottles, actually. But what, pray, is stopping me from putting samples of that bottling in there so I can find out what's going on? I thought I'd share the thought and see who said what. Enjoy! Current Mood: creative | 11:16 am
[eumelosdrizzle]
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Getting Started...
Hi I'm new to the community. I joined because I'm interesting in trying my hand at mead/wine making. I know next to know about the process and was wondering if people had any hints or tips - esp. if you have advice about doing this sort of thing in an apartment? I'm also wondering if people could give me feedback on whether or not they find that making your own mead/wine is cheaper than purchasing it from the stores? I want to start doing this sort of thing in order to get some experience in making my own mead or wine and to try to cut down on costs. Our household typically buys about 3 or 4 bottles a month tops. Any feedback is appreciated. :) I've cross posted this to the ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) wine_making community. | | Friday, April 3rd, 2009 | 3:26 pm
[grautr]
|
Dutch Bee Keepers Association Meeting
This is an entry I posted to my LJ but is maybe of interest to a few members of this group too. Because I make mead we get through a lot of honey. The cost of making one liter of mead is about 2 Euros with almost all of that cash going on the liquid gold. Francien came up with the idea of keeping a couple of hives on the boat roof. Because I now store my own yeasts throughout the year and grow or forage for fruit or herbs to make melomels and metheglins, I could reduce my mead making cost to zero. So last night we went to the provincial meeting of the Dutch Bee Keepers Association where we learned a few interesting facts I would like to share. The first concerns Colony Colapse Disorder. This quite often is a topic of discussion on doomer/enviromental forums because bee populations are declining so fast and they polinate 70% of the food we eat. One man who had lost 8 of his 15 hives to CCD had put together a study which he had been working on for months. His conclusion was that most of his bees had been lost to corn/maize fields because the seeds are treated with a powerful insecticide. The insecticide I assume is on the seeds to give them a better chance of germination without being eaten but the insecticide stays in the plant as it grows. The poison is so powerful it is leathal to insects in PPB, thats Parts Per Billion a magnitude larger than Parts Per Million which is often used to determine leathal airborn chemicals and the rising CO2 in the atmosphere. His bees were leaving the hive to collect nectar from the corn field, being poisoned and then dying before they could even get back to the hive. The organizer of the event then showed us a slide of some German research on the subject that had just been published that came to exactly the same conclusion as the Dutch beekeeper. This would seem to be some fairly conclusive proof that two seperate studies are blaming the same insecticide for CCD. Maybe now they can do something about it. Someone else at the meeting also pointed out that this insecticide is also used to coat some seeds sold in garden shops to general Joe Gardeners too. Bee keepers are of course naturaly interested in the subjects of gardening and agriculture because they are inter related subjects and another man also gave us some interesting information on a recent study about Heirloom seeds. They found that fruit and vegetables natualy produce substances to fight off bacteria much like fungi produce the basic substances for penicillin. But that these plant based substances help protect humans who eat them from developing cancer. These substances though are not found in modern hybrid plants but are in Heirloom seeds. Whats more the older the heirloom species is then in general the more protection it gives. Most gardeners naturaly go for heirloom species to grow outside because they tend to be more hardy but now they have a second reason for growing them as well. Anyway we found a local man whos going to sell us cheap fresh honey and we are booked in for a basic bee keeping course in January. | | Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 | 2:39 pm
[redsonja]
 |
| | Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 | 9:01 pm
[tater1112]
|
What kind of mead do you make most often?
As I was at the brew store today, pondering my next batch, I wondered what you out there in internet land make most often. Poll #1364009 What kind of mead?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: AllDo you make your own mead? What kind(s) do you make most often? mostly still or mostly sparkling? How often do you make up a recipe? | | Saturday, March 7th, 2009 | 1:59 pm
[tater1112]
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| | Thursday, February 26th, 2009 | 10:52 pm
[purple_flames]
 |
I realise that I am asking for advice at the wrong time.. but... I made my first ever batch of mead today. I found so many recipies online that my mind was boggled and I just did things my own way... now im hoping that this wasnt a bad idea! firstly, I boiled water and added about 2 + 1/2 pounds of honey whilst it was hot but not boiling. (should you boil the honey?) then I added the yeast, (when it was warmish but not hot) just sprinkled it on top and then the yeast nutrient... but the yeast nutrient made a lot of the yeast sink... I waited 15 minutes then stirred it anyway but should I have started the yeast in a seperate container? will it still work? I have another packet I could add? or will that mess it up even more... also... is it best to keep the demijohn in the light or dark or doesnt it matter? and does it matter if/when you add acid? thankyou in advance! (edited! sorry for any confusion...) Current Mood: hopeful | | Sunday, February 15th, 2009 | 7:59 pm
[ragnorokt]
|
If You Had One Question, What Would It Be
The weekend of February 20 th and 21 st my Homebrew Club, The Kansas City Bier Meisters will be hosting our annual homebrew competition. The keynote speaker this year is Ken Schramm, author of The Complete Meadmaker. So the question I have for the community is this. If you could ask him just one question, what would it be? If I have the chance to ask him, I will report back his answer. Current Mood: curiousCurrent Music: Suvivorman | | Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 | 5:12 pm
[kiarrith]
 |
Failed Mead Uses?
For folks who have had a batch of mead come out completely undrinkable [even after aging for a few years], what kinds of uses would one have for fairly high alcohol content but horrible tasting liquid? [Backstory quickly: In my earlier mead making days I used to add a container of apple juice to the wort, to give the yeast some easier sugar to eat than the more complex honey. One batch I wasn't paying close attention and bought the 'on sale' apple juice which was not organic or even 100% juice, and something in it really made the mead taste horrible (this was a recipe I'd used quite well in two other batches before, and the only difference was the kind of apple juice, hence my certainty). I cannot even describe the taste, but it's not just off, it's truly undrinkable.] Anyway, it's been 2.5 years of aging now [and various restarting and respicing and rehoneying and re-everythinging in efforts to make it drinkable] and I've finally admitted defeat. But I wonder if there are any things it can be useful for? I know folks clean with vinegar and baking soda, and wonder if this would work as well? It is not actually vinegar at all, but...yeah. Just would hate to see it all be thrown out, and trying to figure out ways to use it. Part of me considers using it mixed with the high proof grain alcohol we use in our vapor locks, but I'm a bit paranoid about having it in contact even with just the outside of our good meads, in case it could psychically teach them bad tricks or something--yes, I know it makes no sense and is silly, but nonetheless... Current Mood:  sad | | Monday, February 2nd, 2009 | 9:23 pm
[grautr]
|
Oxidation?
I recently made two small, 2 litre, batches of rosehip melomel and cranberry melomel. They are both in bulk storage now but when I tasted them they both had the same flat taste to them. I assume this is due to oxidation although I'm not sure because it never happened to me before. Usualy I make larger 10 litre batches and this was never a problem. So I have two questions; Is oxidation more likely to occure or just more noticable in a smaller made batch of mead? And what can I do about it now it has happened? |
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