In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about distilling mead, cloudy mead, “yeast babies,” bottling in plastic, and more!
Further Reading: Clouds on the Horizon
TRANSCRIPT
My new tents are here! And if you're wondering why they're still lying down, not standing up, it's because it's raining today with the barometric pressure fluctuat-- just kidding, I have no idea how to stand these things up.
Welcome to Ask the Meadmaker, where I, Ricky the Meadmaker, answer your questions about mead making, mead drinking, mead brewing, or really any question you're willing to send to me.
Our first question this week is from William, and he's sick of people writing to me asking about distilling mead at home, and he wants me to either point them to a video talking about the risks of methyl alcohol poisoning or give a lecture on it myself. If you want to know, I'm an advocate for home canning of meat which runs the risk of botulism. I trust home meadmakers, home brewers, home distillers, home canners, to not kill themselves and their families. The reason I tell you not to distill mead at home is it is illegal in almost every country and I don't want to get in trouble for advocating it.
Our next question comes from Matthew, who has a great question about mead clarity. And you know, I usually hate questions about mead clarity, but his is, "I'm lazy," That's how it starts. It's not a question. Apparently, it's a statement of fact, on behalf of Matthew. "I'm lazy, and I'm wondering if clarity in mead actually affects the flavor? If not, can I just skip this step?"
And the answer is, yes, it affects the flavor in two ways. In one way, when you clarify you are actually removing compounds from solution, meaning they're not there to smell or taste. More importantly, see. When we drink a beverage, especially a beverage, the temperature and the color of it tell us a lot about what we're consuming. The cloudier your mead, the more it tastes like honey to most people, because bright yellow is what we associate with honey. And if it's crystal clear and a very, very, very straw or almost white, yellow, it will taste less like honey.
Chris wants to know how I, as a Meadmaker, cultivate my yeast babies. And what he means, I think, is how do you make a starter for mead? If he doesn't mean that then I think he asked me something obscene. We're going to go with the first interpretation. So how do you cultivate your yeast babies? What nutrient do you use? What's the pH?
And the answer is, just like Matthew before me. I'm a lazy man. The way I make a starter for mead is that I make a batch of mead. Take the mead off of the yeast sitting at the bottom. Then I use that yeast again and call it a starter.
LoudSoda is racking his or her mead into type one plastic jugs and wants to know if there's a risk of leaching from the plastic and should he or she worry? The way I would put it is, I don't know if there's a risk or not. But I would tell you, don't worry. It's not going to be the thing that kills you, I can almost guarantee it.
Our last question this week comes from a person who shall remain nameless for reasons... You'll see. My beautiful and amazing wife recently brought home a few cases of red wine slash honey wine blend from one of those brew yourself with your own equipment places. This was a great surprise. We cracked one of the bottles and helped ourselves to what tasted suspiciously like Welch's. My wife quite liked the wine and has been into multiple bottles at a time. She always says how incredibly drinkable it is and how she never gets too tipsy, no matter how much she drinks. And this is a woman who was "famously a one-beer-and-she's-done (all hyphenated) drinker." The question is, should I tell her that they forgot to put the yeast in? And my answer is another question. How strong would you say your marriage is?
Well, that was our last question this week. Keep sending them and I'll get to it as soon as possible. Cheers.
