In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about halting fermentation, Brew Demons, honey wines, and… answering questions…
A lot of people tried to figure out whether there is rhyme and/or reason to where we shoot each episode of Ask the Meadmaker. Why are some at the bar and some at my house? The answer is, there is no rhyme or reason. The reason we are shooting Ask the Meadmaker out of doors today is because this morning I woke up and I thought to myself, "Self, I want to drink outside this morning." The boss said, "You have to shoot Ask the Meadmaker." I said, "Well, we're shooting outside."
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 me.
There was a claim and a point that was really driven home to me this week. We'll get to that in a moment. But first, a question from Jenny, who was having refermentation issues. Poor Jenny has a mead that she loves that she wants to be still, and she did everything right. She put in sulfites to kill the yeast, sorbate to prevent refermentation. But lo and behold, a few weeks or months later, she opened a bottle and there are bubbles. What happened? The answer is for one reason or another, she didn't get all of the active yeast. The reason this probably happened was flocculation had not completed. That means that there was still yeast in solution, and too much for the sulfites to take care of.
The trick for this is, before you add your sulfites and sorbate, an essential step if you're not filtering, get it cold, like really cold, like 34 ˚F. This will help these precipitate out of solution, or flocculate. At that point, rack it, siphon it to another vessel, and then add your sulfites, your sorbate and give it a day or two before bottling.
Our next question is one that I have in fact already answered on this show, but we've been getting it so often recently that I think I should answer it again. Spagnot wanted to know why I'm making honey wines. He or she thought that I was always, forever and ever and ever, going to make only craft mead and never honey wine. And the answer to the question "What the heck?" is "I guess I was wrong." Also, it's really good. I'm really good at this.
Our next question comes from Azazeal, who is considering getting a BrewDemon, which is a type of conical fermenter made for homebrewers. It's made out of plastic and he wanted to know the relative advantages of having a conical versus a fermenter that just has a spigot at the bottom. The answer is, if you want to harvest yeast, you can't do better than a conical. If you don't care about harvesting yeast, the cheaper the better. My motto? The cheaper the better.
The next question is an easy one. Where can I buy Lord Colechester's Overtly Pretentious honey wines? And the answer is only at Colchester's Mead Hall. Why? Because that's the way Lord Colchester wants it.
Our last question this week is more of a promise of things to come. Somebody has been watching my show recently and really questioned the "any" questions. And I said, "Well, I haven't gotten a question yet that I haven't answered." And she said, "Well, I've had a bunch of weird puberty kind of questions recently. Can I submit those?" I said, "I'm probably not the best outlet for those kinds of questions but go for it. Try to impress me." And she said, "I will." So, that's something we all have to look forward to. And it's the end of this episode. I'm just going to send it to Ricky with our word of the week. Ricky?
Thank you, Ricky. I don't do the out of doors, if I can help it. This week's word is honey wine. A lot of people have been wondering what the difference between a honey wine, like we make for Lord Colchester, and mead is. The answer is nothing. A honey wine is a type of mead just like craft mead is a type of mead. What makes a honey wine a honey wine is that it is still. It has no bubbles, and they're almost always higher in alcohol, often aged longer, and almost uniformly more expensive. Now, in most places in the world, honey wine and mead can be used interchangeably. Just like you can use the word ale in Britain and it works for beer, since almost all beers brewed in Britain are ales.
Honey wine is our 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.
