In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about de-gassing, bottle shock, using agave in mead, pitching temperature, aging temperature, and more!
This year, the first night of Hanukkah is also Christmas Eve, which seems to simplify things. You could just say Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas, and not worry that you're one of those people that wish your Jewish friend Happy Hanukkah a month after it happened. The problem is, we have people on our staff who are pagans, we have people who are of all different denominations. In fact, if you do the Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, you're only hitting two of the three big Abrahamic traditions. So, we finally figured out what to say when people come here around the holidays. Have a drink.
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.
My first question this week. comes from Koniko, who wants to know if degassing need is necessary. And the answer is, only if you want it to be still. If you want it to have bubbles, add more. And if you don't mind your meat being petillant, ever so slightly fizzy, don't degas.
Tom has a question about bottle bhock, not the awful film from the 70's, but rather the phenomenon in beverages. He made a wine and he tasted it. When he tasted it first, it was excellent. Then on bottling day, he tasted it and it was flat and boring. He knew it to be bottle shock. Then he wondered, is this happening to his meads? Does mead suffer from bottle shock? The problem is, we have no idea what bottle shock is. It's also called bottle sickness. And we're not even sure it actually exists. It might just be your mood when you drink it. So, we don't know.
Paul has a great question about using agave in mead. His friend bought some to use in beer and had a bunch leftover. And the reason it's a great question is agave in mead is fine. You can do lots of cool things with it. I love it because he said isn't agave really just unfinished tequila? And I think it is. So, if you want your mead to have a sort-of-tequila tang, try fermenting with agave. If you want it to have a real tequila tang, pour tequila in it.
Yet more questions about aging. Alex wants to know if it's better to have a consistent temperature, even if it's not a great temperature for aging mead, like a higher temperature, or if allowing it to bounce around is better? The answer is, it depends on what you're going after. And it depends on the mead. It depends on the alcohol content and the residual sugar. So, I wouldn't stress out about it too much. Just try to keep it from freezing or boiling.
Ryan had a great question. It's something I needed to clarify when I was talking about my fermentation temperatures. He wants to know when I say I ferment at 82˚F, if I pitch the yeast at 82˚F, or if I pitch it at like 78˚F and let the metabolic activity of the yeast bring it up to 82˚F. Now, I have a 12-ton coolant system to hold my 1,000 gallons of mead at exactly the temperature I want. So, I pitch at the final temperature, just trusting my system to actually turn on and keep it where I want it. At home and when I do small batches, I tend to pitch low, hoping that the activity brings it up where I want it.
Our last question this week comes from approximately 100 people. A lot of people have wanted my recipes and we're finally going to commit them to paper. In the new year there's going to be a page on our website that has every single recipe for every single thing we brew here, even some of our experimental batches, so I won't need to email you one at a time.
That's our last question this week and Ricky said that if I do Word of the Week, he could go out and buy me a Hanukkah present he's been trying to get me. So, I agreed even though I'm not great at it, as you know, from times past where I've tried to do it, but this week's word is one of my kind of words.
It is Yule. It is a big part of our holiday tradition to this day. So big that we use words like Yule log and Yuletide as if that has anything to do with Christmas, which it really, really doesn't. It predates Christianity. But this is a fun little fact for you. We have no idea what Yule means. We go try to find etymologies. They're either specious or they're like "Yule" means the month Yule, which is the time of year in which Yule was celebrated, which I love. But the reason Yule is a mead word is mead is the perfect beverage for your holiday. Whether it is Hanukkah, Christmas, Yule, New Year's, or none of the above, the day on which you choose to call the brightness back to the world, mead's perfect to go with it.
Keep sending your questions and we'll get to them as soon as possible. Happy New Year's, guys. Cheers.
