In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about carbonating in large bottles, dealing with “hot” mead, the best pipe tobacco and mead pairing, and more!
Aging: The Secret of the Ages
Many of you know that last night was my stand-up comedy debut, and there have been conjectures all around the web for weeks that whether this episode of Ask the Meadmaker is just going to be the footage from that show. My full 10-minute Borscht Belt style comedy sketch! The answer is no, because you guys don't understand the magic of cinema. You see, we don't shoot this show on Saturday mornings when you're watching it at home. This is in fact being shot next Tuesday for you guys, sent back to Ricky on Friday, the one who does Word of the Week and almost nothing else, for editing and we post it Friday afternoon, then you get to watch it on Saturday morning. So, I haven't even done my stand-up routine yet. And also because it's next Tuesday, I did do it already. But I was so distracted because I know more about Bernie's momentum than you do.
Welcome to Ask the Meadmaker, where I, Ricky the Meadmaker, answer your questions about mead making, mead drinking, mead brewing, and really any question you're willing to send to me. Our first question this week comes from Lindsay, who has carbonation issues, but she has very different carbonation issues from most people. You see, she seems to be cut from the same cloth as Ricky the Meadmaker. She appears to be lazy. She doesn't want to wash a whole bunch of bottles. She has a gallon batch of mead and she wants it all to be carbonated in one vessel and she wants to know what bottle type she could use. She's been coming across champagne bottles and Belgian bottles, but she can't find a gallon-sized bottle that is pressure safe.
So really, Lindsay, you have two options. One I don't recommend. Technically, you can get a gallon-size Growler. Often the industry calls it a grumbler. Put your mead in there, put your carbonation tablets in there, seal it up really well. The reason I don't recommend this is they are pressure safe, not pressure rising safe. The difference sort of gets into the realm of physics, but they are safe to hold the carbonation once it's in solution. But as the head pressure above it builds, you do risk shattering that bottle and creating a bottle bomb.
So, the better solution is to get a full size something like a Jeroboam, or a large size champagne bottle, which is pressure safe. I have a modest example right here.
Our next question comes from Azazeal who is not cut from the same cloth as yours truly, as he has been entering his meads in competitions, which is something I never do. I hate competitions, unless I win them, in which case they're okay, in which case it isn't really a competition, which is why I don't enter. But anyway, he got some reviews and his clarity was exquisite. The nose was good, but they didn't like the flavor. They knocked him because it was too hot, because it had a heat from alcohol. And he wanted to know what I thought about this. Is there a way to reduce the perceived heat from the alcohol? Are there ways that that's not an issue? Are there styles of mead? So the answer really is, if you're making a mead that you like, that your friends like, that's good enough. It's really the reason I don't compete. I brew for my customers and not for mead judges, but there are some ways to reduce the perceived heat from alcohol in a beverage. Unfortunately you can't usually do them retroactively. It's all part of a very, very healthy initial fermentation.
The camera woman reminded me that the other option is just wait, see if the heat goes away. But that implies that you have a certain amount of patience that I no longer expect in the brewing populace.
After the episode shot at Red Brick at Jane's End, a lot of people saw that I had a pipe that I was smoking, and I've gotten a lot of questions about what kind of pipe tobacco I recommend pairing with mead. Do I go for like a British style, a highly aromatic, and the answer is, I obviously do not recommend smoking with mead. Smoking is bad for you. That's said, I love black Cavendish.
Our last question this week was so astute, so exquisitely well-written that I wanted to read it verbatim. Kyle writes, "I read between the lines in one of your recent episodes, when you said the word of the week is saison, and then later in the episode, almost a minute later, you said, "And the Word of the Week might have something to do with what I'm brewing right now." Using some advanced cryptological tools, I have a theory I want to propound. Are you making a saison style mead?" And then he includes researcher's bias. "I, [expletive removed] love saisons and really hope you're brewing one." An answer to your question, Kyle. You've cracked the code. Nordic farmhouse is coming out in a few weeks. Stay tuned.
That's the end of our show. I just need to send it over to Ricky with our word of the week. Ricky?
Thank you, Ricky. But you do not need to yell. I am right here getting a drink. Oh, wait, sorry. I don't need to yell either. Okay. This week's word is mouthfeel. Mouthfeel is arguably the hardest thing to describe about a beverage. It's not the flavor. It's not the aroma. It's that subtle other thing, when a wine is too thin, or a beer is too viscous, or the carbonation level doesn't feel right. That's bad mouthfeel. And insomuch as it is the hardest thing to define, it is arguably the most important. It's what makes a beverage sing.
Mouthfeel. It's out word of the week and the end of our show, keep sending your questions and I'll get to them as soon as possible. Cheers.
