Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1626, 7 March 2013 Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2013 15:47:22 -0700 (MST) From: mead-request@talisman.com Mead Lover's Digest #1626 7 March 2013 Mead Discussion Forum Contents: Wild Yeast (Spam-a-holic) Re: Wild Yeast (Chazzone) NOTE: Digest appears whenever there is enough material to send one. Send ONLY articles for the digest to mead@talisman.com. Use mead-request@talisman.com for [un]subscribe and admin requests. Digest archives and FAQ are available at www.talisman.com/mead#Archives A searchable archive is at http://www.gotmead.com/mldarchives.html Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Wild Yeast From: Spam-a-holic Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 23:25:53 -0500 > Wild yeast. > I was just wondering if any one had done a wild yeast mead and if so how it > turned out what were some differences good or bad that you noticed in time, > taste, and quality of the final product? There are a couple ancient recipes > out there i would like to try that are wild yeast and I'm looking for some > pointers > Adam Beware the ancient recipe, for it may date back, yea, unto 1970-something AD Terrible mead "recipes" have been around approximately as long as either the internet, or the SCA, or both, or may even predate both. Most of the SCA types I knew (quite a few) who got themselves an "ancient recipe" and no understanding of sanitation produced vile crap that nobody wanted to drink, even when desperate, even if they had made the stuff. Of all the SCAdians I knew in college, there was exactly one who made decent mead. There were a lot who took a swipe at it and wasted some perfectly decent honey... If you actually find a recipe that's authentically "ancient" consider that writers and meadmakers of ancient times may not have been the same people, so it's still highly suspect - like getting car repair instructions from a lawyer, say - someone who really doesn't understand the process. On the off-chance they were the same person (probably a monk) you might still suffer from translation errors and unwritten secrets. Cider and winemakers (more commonly than the rest of us) tend to go there sometimes, but the results are highly variable. When I've dumped $50 in ingredients plus my time into a carboy, I am much more comfortable also putting in a dollar or two packet of known yeast, rather than hoping I get a good one from random air currents. If you wish to play that lottery, feel free - I'd rather make mead I'm reasonably sure will end up drinkable in a few years than gambling. I don't mind you gambling, but i think you should at least be aware that you are gambling, and that you should beware the origins of your "ancient recipe" unless (or even if) you happen to be an authentic ancient historian. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Wild Yeast From: Chazzone Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2013 01:17:26 -0500 The big problem with wild yeast, is the wild bacteria that comes along for the ride. Sure there are plenty of wild yeasts to do the job, but there is also abundant acetobacter and lactobacillus to turn all that fermented goodness into vinegar. I have fermented plenty of fruit juices with the intention of getting vinegar, apple, blackberry, etc. and they make a fine salad dressing and cooking adjunct, but unless you find a way to deactivate the freeloaders, this is where you'll end up. In fact, I cultured my sourdough starter using unpasteurized apple cider and stone ground local flour. There are a lot of things to explore with wild fermentation, but a stable mead is not one of them. - -zz ------------------------------ End of Mead Lover's Digest #1626 *******************************