In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about cooking with mead, using multiple yeast strains, calculating your starting gravity, using a starter, and Sir Kenelm Digby.
Further Reading:
Choosing a Yeast Strain
Nordic Farmhouse
Recipe Blog
Mead Calculator
Sir Kenelm Digby
TRANSCRIPT
As many of you know, from time to time, we have comedy shows here at the Mead Hall, Havoc Comedy Night. And once, just once, I was induced to perform. Well, last night, we hosted a burlesque night at the Mead Hall. And this raised a question with a lot of our regulars and you'll all be sad to know that the answer to the question is yes.
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 William, who wants to know if there are any benefits to mixing yeast strains, using more than one strain of yeast in mead or, arguably, any other fermented beverages. There are two main reasons to mix yeast strains. One, if you want to have a specific profile from a yeast strain, think Hefeweizen. Now, Hefeweizen will ferment to about 7-8% in a beer. It can go a little bit higher. What if you want something with the characteristics of a Hefeweitzen, but 12% alcohol? You use your Hefeweizen strain at the beginning, and when it peters out, you use something like a champagne strain to finish it off. This is a fairly common practice. Those you add sequentially. The other reason you would do it is if you're going to do a complex funky fermentation. And in that case, you'd be using innumerable yeasts and bacterias. Think a Lambic or our Nordic farmhouse.
Our next question came to me on a postcard. It reads, "Dear Meadmaker, I'm going apple picking next weekend with your soon-to-be brother-in-law. What recipes do you suggest I make that might add some mead or your delicious honey wines that might keep him from complaining about all of the apple picking since there will be delicious results. And I don't just mean getting him drunk first, though that is an option." I'm gonna have a brother in law? Nah, I'm just kidding. I'm sure she meant brother-in-law metaphorically. Anyway, the answer is we have a recipe section on our blog. It's not updated often, but if you go to groennfell.com, click on the blog, there's a drop-down menu and there you'll find a whole bunch of recipes to make this male friend of yours very happy.
We got a whole bunch of questions from Li in Thailand, and I'm going to answer two of them this week. The first one was very specific. If I want a mead with 5.7% alcohol, what should my starting gravity be? Now, starting gravity is how much sugar is in it that could potentially be turned into alcohol. The answer, specifically, is 1045 or 1.045. But the way you can find this out at home is either look at your hydrometer, find the alcohol you want and follow it around to the other side which shows the OG, original gravity, or use one of the many fine mead calculators.
Even easier than that, Li wants to know whether a starter, a mead starter, is required for belle saison. And the answer is, belle saison being the type of yeast, it can't hurt. In fact, I probably owe you all an article just about starters, any day now.
My last question this week I'm also going to read verbatim. Dennis from Ireland says "We've been researching old mead stuff in Ireland and England and came across The Closet of Sir Kennel Digby Knight, Opened, an old book about a bit of a playboy gentleman who collected over 100 mead recipes from the well-heeled of the 17th century of Britain and Europe. Have you come across it? And if so, have you tried any of the meads from it? My wife recalls seeing you in English gentleman's outfit at some point." Now, a little while ago, I wrote a whole article about The Closet of Sir Kennel Digby Knight, Opened. And there seemed to be some implications in other emails from this gentleman and a few people at the time. But whether it might be me? Whether I had written a book in the 17th century and the answer is, I am no demigod. I'm a semi-god at best. I only have one divine grandparent. So, who knows what my longevity is?
Anyway, that's our last question this week. I just need to send it over to Ricky with our Word of the Week, Ricky.
Thank you, Ricky. This week's word is starter. A starter is when you make a small batch of a fermented beverage, think one gallon for a five-gallon batch. What this allows you to do is to add yeast and then build up your yeast colony for a happier, healthier fermentation when you do a large batch. But the really cool thing about mead is, mead is already a starter. Mead is just honey, plus water, plus yeast. So, you can just keep a mead going forever. It can always be its own starter. How cool is that?
Starter. It's our Word of the Week at the end of our show. Keep sending your questions and I'll get to them as soon as possible. Cheers.
