Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1629, 28 March 2013 Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:22:31 -0600 (MDT) From: mead-request@talisman.com Mead Lover's Digest #1629 28 March 2013 Mead Discussion Forum Contents: Mazer Cup International Competition Results ("Vicky Rowe") Fermaid (Martin Pare) Corking questions from a novice (Gigi Flynn) 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: Mazer Cup International Competition Results From: "Vicky Rowe" Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 23:04:04 +0000 The 2013 Mazer Cup International was a resounding success, with more than 60% more meads judged this year vs. 2012. We had meads from all over the world, and were privileged to judge some seriously fine meads! Congrats to Doc Bivins (a long time Gotmeader) for his Best of Show win in the Home competition. All judging sheets and awards will be mailed out, so if you entered, watch your mail! You can view the results on our website at http://www.mazercup.com. And you can see some of the pictures from the competition and the Mead Mixer public mead tasting event on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/mazercup Happy Meading! Wassail! Vicky L. Rowe Vicky Rowe Owner, Gotmead.com http://www.gotmead.com Managing Director, Mazer Cup International http://www.mazercup.com ------------------------------ Subject: Fermaid From: Martin Pare Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:20:42 -0700 (PDT) Hi, Since i started meading, I've been using fermaid, no added DAP, at twice the rate (look up peter bennell and mead about this) with good results. I also put go-ferm in rehydration solution. I select yeast with low nutrient requirements: DV10, Spark, etc To be honest, I have not tried a no added nutrient mead yet - raw honey was always a bit short supply. May come, I now have a couple hives :-) martin ------------------------------ Subject: Corking questions from a novice From: Gigi Flynn Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2013 12:24:11 -0500 I just bottled my first batch of mead. I sanitized the natural corks by rinsing them in sanitizing solution, but did not soak them in it (for an hour per the recommendation, I later realized). Once corked, I left the bottles standing for 48 hours, then laid them on their sides in a cool dark place. Will they be okay for months-years, or should I recork the bottles? I used the no-heat method, adding potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate after the second racking. Fermentation stopped for a solid month, and then I noticed the tiniest build up of gas in the airlock. With the third racking, I added 1/8 tsp potassium metabisulfite per the recipe, but no sorbate and did not think to check specific gravity (you live, you learn). The gas build up might have just been "degassing"? If it was fermentation, did the metabisulfite kill the process? I can live with sparkling, but not exploding mead. ------------------------------ End of Mead Lover's Digest #1629 *******************************