Okbrewer

Received the Modellistas yesterday. They are very comfortable, the Tempurpedic insole is cushiony-soft yet supportive, and the sole is sturdy but has a spring to it. They do, however, seem to run a bit on the large size. I wear a 10.5 normally, and since these don't seem to run in half sizes, I got the 11. I can wear these, but I probably should have gotten the 10. Though the Modellista name might suggest otherwise, these are not European made, and don't use Euro sizing. The company is actually a Boston area company. I purchased the Professional model which has the smooth black leather that can be cleaned easily. The toe box area fits me fine, but the heel area is rather boxy and wide. Perhaps a heel cup/cushion will be all that is needed to make thes fit better. Regardless, at $36 not a bad buy.

Carolyn, You can add the yeast nutrient right before or at the same time as you add the yeast. And you asked if it will be ready for the holidays? The answer is YES! but that is NEXT year's holidays! I will probably be making a 5-6 gallon batch to be split later into smaller batches. I will use the clover/wildflower honey I have on hand. If Brooks can get us the wyeast 3783, great. If not, or if you are anxious to get started, check your local homebrew shops for this yeast or wyeast 3632 (sweet mead yeast) or White labs sweet mead yeast or Lalvin 71 B or D47 or Ec1118 even! Have fun!

New counter tops on which to put the gadgets I already have!

I'm ready! I plan to start this weekend, but Monday will be more likely since I have the day off. Brooks? Any word on the yeast or should we fend for ourselves? How about a roll call on what we all plan to do and how big a batch we each will make? Anyone have any questions about the process or equipment? (Carolyn it might be just the two of us!)

Reading and working out of: Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads and also perusing my 1963 edition of Mastering the Art of French Cooking in honor of Julia Child.

My wife, daughter and I were on a mini vacation in state a few years back. One day after driving around seeing the sites we all started getting a bit hungry. It was after normal lunch time but too early for dinner, so my wife and I decided that we would just hold out for a big dinner. Well, my daughter didn't agree with our reasoning that it was too late for lunch and not time for dinner, she was hungry! She pleaded, "couldn't we just stop for a little, late, light, lunch!?" We popped into KFC and got her some chicken strips to satisfy her until dinner. Now, whenever we get hungry at that time in the afternoon, we are known to suggest, "how about a little, late, light, lunch?"

Thanks for the info on the Modellistas. They appear to be comfortable, I have seen them only on the 'net, with the Tempupedic cushioning I would expect them to be very comfortable. I went ahead and ordered a pair, they should arrive this week so I will relate how they fit. I purchased them from a vendor on ebay for $32 + shipping. I'll let you know what I think about them!

Thanks Susan! I haven't had a beer all day! But I am sipping on some Booker's bourbon right now! Maybe a beer a bit later, perhaps a Boulevard Bob's '47, or maybe some of the Cuvee Rene I have stashed away, or some Fuller's Vintage Ale! So many choices!

I'd do a combination travel and food show...with a twist. Get some of my Harley riding friends (who are going to go for rides anyway!) and select various restaurants for the ride destinations. Have someone document the ride to and fro, and the meal, to include prep, presentation and consumption, with feed back from the group. Local 'talent' could be used for the voice over. Could use bike mounted cameras to document the ride or have a passenger shoot the ride or even a camera in the back of a pickemup truck. The restaurants could be local as well as places farther away from home, like enroute to a rally or Sturgis or something.

Anyone familiar with the Modellista brand of clogs? They are similar in style to the Dansko and Euro-clogs, but less expensive. I'm just wondering if they run true to size? I normally wear a Euro size 44, but in Dansko, I have to go to the 45. Any help on these? Thanks!

Lo-carb beers have been the topic of several articles in home brewing magazines the last couple of issues. Check your favorite bookstore for issues of Zymurgy and Brew Your Own, both have had articles as well as recipes. I haven't paid too much interest in either because I didn't get in to home brewing to make bland tasteless hop water! But to each his/her own.

OBTW! I forgot one item on the equipment list! If you are interested in the starting and finishing specific gravity, and checking it along the way, you will need to add an Hydrometer to the list. Also available in the local homebrew stores, ask them to show you how to use it if you are not familiar with the hydrometer.

I am going to suggest a basic, no heat, mead recipe consisting of just honey, water and yeast. Additives such as yeast nutrient or energizer, and acid blend are optional. The basic recipe can be adjusted or modified in the secondary fermenter to include fruit or spices or more honey as you decide. The honey we use will vary since we will all probably use whatever honey variety is available to us locally. Let’s try to keep the amount of honey in the range of 3-5 pounds per gallon, regardless of variety. That is still a rather wide range but it will allow us to play with or individualize the basic recipe. Also, final volume may vary depending on the size of fermenter you have available. One, three or five gallon batches are possible. This recipe is for a 5 gallon batch: 15 - 20 lbs Honey 4 Gallons Water 2 tsp yeast nutrient or Diammonium Phosphate or Wyeast Nutrient, 1 tsp yeast energizer, 4 tsp acid blend (all optional) Wyeast 3783 (Rudisheimer) (Brooks will be getting this for us?) Pour the honey into the plastic fermenter along with about 2 gallons of water. Stir until the honey is well dissolved in the water. Add the remaining water and stir. The yeast nutrient, yeast energizer and acid blend, if used, can now be added. Add the yeast and stir lightly. Ferment until the gravity reaches approximately 1.020. Then, rack to secondary fermenter for an additonal 1-3 months (at least!). Top up (with water and/or more honey) to desired volume and bulk age. When the mead is clear and stable, it may be bottled.

Mead IS honey wine! The references to beer in my list were just because the same equipment can be used for making beer, wine or mead. So let's just agree to call our honey wine - MEAD! We will be making MEAD!

Well, if we are gonna do this thing I guess we better get started! First, here is the gear you might need: Equipment: Most homebrewers have the necessary equipment to make mead. For those who will need to buy the equipment, here is a list of what you might need. Homebrew supply shops sell these items, but check around the house first -- you probably already have some of this stuff. Brewkettle (if you plan to heat the water and/or must) Use an enamel-coated or stainless-steel pot that holds at least 3 gallons Primary Fermenter A food-grade container, usually a white plastic bucket with a lid that holds at least 6 gallons will do. Secondary Fermenter This can be another plastic bucket or, better still, a glass carboy. Depending on the size batch you plan to make, this carboy can be 3, 5, or 6.5 gallon capacity. Siphon Hose This is usually clear, food-grade plastic tubing. You will need about 6 feet. This is for transferring your beer or must from one container to another. Racking Cane This is a stiff piece of plastic tubing about 2 feet long, often with a curve at one end. It connects to your siphon hose and is used when transferring your beer or must from one container to another. It makes siphoning easy and efficient. Large Funnel If you don’t want to fuss with siphoning the liquid from the primary to secondary fermenters you can simply pour using this funnel. Long-Handled Spoon This can be plastic or stainless steel, or even wood I suppose. Just make sure it is sturdy. You probably already have one that will work. It's for stirring, of course. Fermentation Lock It's also called an airlock and it keeps your beer or must from being exposed to outside air while letting carbon dioxide escape from your fermenter. It should fit in a hole in the lid of your primary fermenter (or in the opening of the carboy). Bottling Bucket (you won’t need to bottle your mead for almost a year, so you won’t need these bottling related items immediately.) This should hold at least 5 gallons. It can be the same type of container as your primary fermenter. Bottles These should be made of brown glass. Don't use the twist-off variety. You'll need about 50 12-ounce bottles or the same volume in whatever size bottles you use. Bottle Capper * Numerous styles of this device are available, any one will work for capping your bottles of homebrew. Bottle Caps These must be new. You'll need about 50. Bottle Filler This is a clever device that will really speed up your bottling process. *If you plan to bottle your mead in wine bottles with corks, then you will need a corker and corks instead of the capper and caps. I'll put together a basic recipe and post for your approval.

From the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) TechTalk: From: Julia Herz [mailto:julia@honeywine.com] Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2004 11:30 AM Subject: International Mead Festival Tickets Now Available We are proud to announce the November 5 and 6 International Mead Festival-Honeywines of the World Tickets Now On Sale! Check out www.meadfest.com to order your tickets and for all festival details. Plan to attend the world’s largest commercial mead competition and festival. This third annual historic event will be held in Boulder, Colorado. Last year we had over 60 commercial meads to taste from 7 different countries. Cheers! Julia Herz -Honeywine.com -Redstone Meadery -International Mead Festival

Another timely post from the AHA TechTalk: From: Julia Herz [mailto:julia@honeywine.com] Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2004 11:30 AM Subject: International Mead Festival Tickets Now Available We are proud to announce the November 5 and 6 International Mead Festival-Honeywines of the World Tickets Now On Sale! Check out www.meadfest.com to order your tickets and for all festival details. Plan to attend the world’s largest commercial mead competition and festival. This third annual historic event will be held in Boulder, Colorado. Last year we had over 60 commercial meads to taste from 7 different countries. Cheers! Julia Herz -Honeywine.com -Redstone Meadery -International Mead Festival

I've never had it warm, but I know of others who like to make a kind of warm wassail-like mead drink for the holidays. I actually prefer it at what would be regarded as 'cellar temperature' or just slightly chilled.

What a coincidence! This note from Ken Schramm was just posted on the latest AHA TechTalk: From: Ken Schramm [mailto:schramk@resa.net] Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2004 11:12 AM Subject: No Heat Meadmaking I was looking back through some previous Tech Talks, and I'd like to reiterate something about no-heat mead making. It is very important that you get all of the honey into solution when preparing the must. That means a prolonged period of vigorous stirring in a vessel suited to the task. Honey is completely soluble in water, and there should be no reason for stratification other than incompletely dissolving the honey. On the other hand, honey is extremely dense, with an OG above 1.400. It's going to take some work. I mix my musts in a seven gallon plastic fermenter, whether they are going to be fermented in plastic or glass. It takes me a minimum of about 10 minutes to get 15-18 lbs of honey to mix thoroughly with the 3.5-4 gallons of H2O I use. I buy my honey from a beekeeper in 5 gallon containers, frequently completely crystallized. It generally takes a couple of "turns," meaning that globs of the honey which do not immediately dissolve will fall to the bottom of the fermenter, and need to be worked on repeatedly to get into solution. Most of the time I use a large, commercial grade, stainless steel spoon. The other tools of the trade: a stainless steel ladle, a large, commercial grade spatula, a two quart Pyrex measuring cup/bowl, and serious elbow grease. I have also used my hand-held Pillsbury electric mixer with very satisfactory results. It mixes and aerates well, and the beaters are easy to sanitize. It is especially helpful when working with crystallized honey. I often start with the honey and a portion of the liquid until I get a thick but fully dissolved solution, and then add the rest of the water. A large funnel is handy to transfer the must into a carboy. I don't ever try to mix the honey and the water in a carboy. I don't think there is any amount of "sloshing" that can substitute for agitation with a stirring implement. Happy meadmaking, Ken

I didn't know that about Full Sail wort and Wyeast! Ya learn something new everyday! Speaking of learning something new... For those who might want to join in on this mead experiment, I highly recommend reading up on the process before getting started. No better place to start than with Ken Schramm's book The Compleat Meadmaker. I do know Ken but I have no financial interest in his book sales. But it is a good, informative book for new and advanced mead makers. It can be found at amazon.com or at the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) website, www.beertown.org. It's about $20. Once everyone gets some common understanding of the steps, we can decide which process we want to take. Ken is a strong proponent of the no heat/no boil method. If you aren't already a homebrewer with all the toys, er, tools of the hobby, such as a pot big enough to heat 3-4 gallons of water, then the no heat/no boil method might be the easiest and cheaper route since you will only have to buy fermentation vessels of some sort. How much interest is there in this project beyond Chris, Brooks and me!?

Chris, Think of varietal honeys as single floral source honey. Most varietals have distinct flavors and aromas of the floral source or fruit, or at least very unique flavor/aroma profiles. (With that said, orange blossom is considered a varietal but any citrus honey can be marketed as orange blossom.) Around here I get mostly what is called clover honey or wild flower honey, they are not single source but blends from many, sometimes unknown, sources. This clover honey is usually light in color, flavor and aroma. Exactly why I like to use it for a base mead. Varietals with strong flavors, like buckwheat, mesquite and tupelo, can be added later in the process to allow some of their characteristics to show. You can obviously use these varietals right from the start as you only source of honey for the mead, but they are usually more expensive than clover honey. Especially for someone just learning to make mead, I suggest going the cheaper route! You can still make good mead, but it doesn't leave you broke! I have used orange blossom, blackberry and watermelon honey, all claimed to be single source, but only the watermelon seemed to have some flavor of the fruit. I like to make melomels and metheglins, so I use mostly clover honey. It gives me the honey component I want but also is light enough to allow the fruit or spices to be evident. Brooks, if you want to get with Wyeast to supply a particular yeast for us to use, how about Wyeast 3783 Rudisheimer. Since it sounds like we might shoot for a traditional mead for this experiment, this yeast would be perfect. It would be neat see what different honey types/sources we all have based on our varied locales.

I need to make some mead, so count me in! CDH, I do what you suggest. I make a 5-6 gallon base mead and then portion it out to 3 smaller batches when I go to secondary. That way I can experiment, use different flavors, fruits, spices, etc. In fact, my next batch I was wanting to use some of the ever abundant mint I have growing in my back yard. But I don't want probably more than 2 gallons of mint mead. I have several 3 gallon carboys that I use to split up a batch. They work great because you get a good volume of liquid plus a good amount of head space. One gallon jugs can also be used to split the batch into smaller portions. Should we decide on a recipe? We can keep it real simple and each use the exact same recipe or, vary the yeast used in the base batch, or ... however you want to do it! That's what is so fun about making mead, you can experiment! One thing about buying honey, make sure what you buy is pure honey and doesn't have preservatives as some grocery store bought honey has. Find a local supply by looking up HONEY or Beekeeping in the phone book. Most places probably just recently harvested their honey, so it should be a good time to buy. A gallon of honey is about 12 pounds, which is about right for a 3-4 gallon batch. It is usually cheaper when purchased in bulk than in smaller containers too.

I usually transfer mead at least 3 times, sometimes 4. True, with each racking it becomes clearer. You'll be surprised at the amount of settling that occurs! Even tho it might sit on some dead yeast for a while, I've never really noticed any of the off flavors associated with autolysis in my mead.

RP! Hoist one or two or six for me on Friday! Sorry I can't be there! I was looking forward to it. Maybe I can make it in May next year! But I WILL be there in October!

No glass in the 16th century! But wood, clay and possibly pewter would have been used. A meather, the cup traditionaly used to drink mead from, is typically four-handled. A mead cup is meant to be passed around, so if you are holding on to two handles and presenting the cup to another, then at least one handle is available for the other person to grab hold of! I use a fired clay goblet or a pewter horned animal goblet when I drink mead. As for finings, I don't usually use any, just let the mead clarify on its own. But polycar or bentonite can be used, if you don't mind plastic and clay in your mead!