hist-brewing: spontaneous ferment mead

[PBLoomis at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/17/01 10:30:35 AM Central Standard Time, 
WyteRayven at aol.com writes:

> Also, since honey has been used as a remedy against infections (and there 
are 
> studies that have proved that it is effective) Im not sure that there 
> actually is much yeast that could survive in it. I think that the must is 
> watered down enough that the yeast is able to survive in it, but might not 
be 
> able to survive in honey itself. 
>  
    You are correct.  Honey is ~81% sugar.  Yeasts or bacteria 
which fall into honey die of osmosis.  The water in their little cellular 
bodies osnoses out through the semi-permeable integument in a 
vain attempt to bring the local outside environment into "balance",
and they just shrivel up.  Too much sugar isn't good for you.
    To make mead, we dilute the honey sugar down to the point 
where the yeasts can work on it without gagging.
    Scotti


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