hist-brewing: Strength of Mead

[Marc Shapiro]

Doug,

I have done plenty of both wine and mead (along with its many
derivatives) over the last 23 years, or so.  I would _NEVER_ boil
fruit.  That just sets the pectin and is a lot more likely to ruin the
delicate flavors of the fruit than wild yeast, which can be eliminated
in other ways, anyway.  I also never boil honey.  In either case, if you
are worried about wild yeast, heating to 150 F for just a few minutes
will take care of any chance of wild yeast survival.  With hard fruit
like pears, wash them well with warm water and you will eliminate most
of your worries if you use a yeast starter with your wine yeast so that
it takes over immediately (leaving any remaining wild yeast struggling
against the competition).

HTH

Wassail!

Baden,Doug wrote:
> 
> As for boiling the fruit, my studies are not in wine so my sources are again
> tertiary at best, but I have made a pear wine, and it requires boiling
> or the wild yeast on it ruins the delicate flavors of that delectable wine.

-- 
Marc Shapiro                                 mn.shapiro1 at mindspring.com

THL Alexander Mareschal                         Canton of Kappellenberg
                                            Barony of Windmasters' Hill
                                                    Kingdom of Atlantia

                       Visit 'The Meadery' at:
           http://www.mindspring.com/~mn.shapiro1/index.html     
           http://www.geocities.com/Paris/1265/index.html

"If you drink melomel every day, you will live to be 150 years old,
unless your wife shoots you."
--Dr. Ferenc Androczi, Winemaker of the Little Hungary Winery

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, send email to majordomo at pbm.com containing
the words "unsubscribe hist-brewing". To contact a human about problems, send
mail to owner-hist-brewing at pbm.com