Did you not find: rec.crafts.meadmaking ???

Sorry, didn't read far enuf and see that it was already pointed out!

Derric

"Peter Pichler" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

Trust me, I have scoured the Usenet high and wide, but did not find any
mead-making newsgroup (at least not that my ISP would carry). Is it
something that can be discussed here? After all, mead *is* honey wine :-)

Thanks,
Peter

I've made a variety of mead products over the last 5 or 6 years. My favorite
is a rose mead; I added a quart of white rose petals to each gallon of must.
I finally found a use for that monstrous rose bush alongside the driveway.
Pyment is also good; grape flavored mead. One of the side benefits of
getting involved in mead is that you'll pick up a lot of good words for
Scrabble; pyment, cyser, melomel, etc.

I've generally found that meads take at least a year of age before they're
drinkable; three or four years is better.

Paul

On Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:32:19 +0100, Peter Pichler
wrote:

Hi all,

Trust me, I have scoured the Usenet high and wide, but did not find any
mead-making newsgroup (at least not that my ISP would carry). Is it
something that can be discussed here? After all, mead *is* honey wine :-)

Thanks,
Peter

rec.crafts.meadmaking

The Anchorage Fishwrapper and Litterbox Liner Press

Joe Sallustio wrote:

Peter, for now, just go to google.com and grab 'groups', then cruise
over to rec.crafts.meadmaking. It is an offshoot of this group. When
your ISP catches on you will be set. I make mead too.

Thanks, I promise I won't start another thread here. I cannot promise
not contributing to this one, though :-)

I never boil and always skim, no need for wax and bee legs in mead.

Interesting. I must be using honey that has been clered from these
things. Never seen any impurities. Skimming never yields more than a
couple of spoonfuls of froth. Could be something to do with not having
my own source and hence having to buy from a supermarket.

I do not boil either: I bring the water to the boil and then add the
honey, thus cooling it down. Afterwards, I take great care not to boil
it again.

As to the yeast question, I really am not sure what you mean.
They can't handle temperature above 50C.

I mean, you go though all the bother with heating and skimming to remove
the protein, only to put some (i.e. yeast) back again.

Meads are notorious slow
fermenters, by adding those raisins you not only added sugar, you
added nutrient. If you are happy with your yeast have at it but most
meadmakers use a wine yeast.

That's the next phase: experimenting with various strains. I figured
that for that I really need to get a LOT of honey of the same kind to be
able to compare (and be sure that the only difference is the yeast).

The protein they are interested in
removing can cause what is called a protein haze, it's more of a
cosmetic defect than anything else.

Somehow it always come out clear for me. I have had one particularly
cloudy batch that mysteriously cleared itself up in the second
fermentation (with raisins). Could be thanks to some additives in the
raisins: sulphur or whatnot.

Peter

Paul Arthur wrote:
On 2007-10-08, Dick Adams wrote:

But I have heard prisoners use baking yeast to make alcohol.

As do some homebrewers. Joe's Ancient Orange mead is often recommended
as a good first mead, since it's a fairly quick one and the recipe is
quite simple. The recipe calls for bread yeast (a specific brand, and
substitutions of other strains are not guaranteed to work).

I am not sure I used the recommended brand, but it worked for me :-)