[Sca-cooks] Re Killing the yeast in Mead

[Steinfeld, Henry S CIV NAVAIR PMA-209T&E/AIR 1.6.3]

 Having brewed mead now for some time, I can say I have never used
campden tablets to kill off the yeast and I feel, based upon the results
of my meads that this has never affected the sweetness of the mead.
That said, I brew to completion and sterilize the bottles with very hot
water prior to filling them.  The yeast I use is a 'mead' yeast and it
produces a sweet nectar.  The principle effect on sweetness, in my
opinion, is the yeast chosen.  I have brewed drier meads, buth this was
a choice of yeast to balance against the ingredients I chose.  

In Service
Khadir




On Nov 25, 2007 6:10 PM, Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
wrote:
> The reasons to kill off the yeasts are to maintain a bubbly bottle
> without the concern that letting the fermentation continue will end
> up blowing up your bottle (which can be quite, ah, interesting
> especially if you have several pressurized bottles stored next to one
> another) or to keep a sweet mead which fermentation would turn into a
> drier mead.

From: "Elaine Koogler" <kiridono at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Killing the Yeast in Mead
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Message-ID:
	<c8c0c5d20711251815u63949b1fqd32d69e0615f9f58 at mail.gmail.com>
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My lord husband, who has been making mead for many years, says he
never uses campden tablets to kill the yeast, only to sterilize the
bottles that the finished product goes into.  He rinses the bottles
out with campden and lets them air dry.

He says that he lets the alcohol content rise high enough to naturally
kill the yeast.  He uses a mead yeast for most of his meads.  The dead
yeast will fall to the bottom and he pours the mead off of the top.
If he wants to make a sparkling mead, he'll use a champagne yeast for
a second fermentation.

Hope this helps!

Kiri

>
> > I bought a book on basic brewing, and almost all their suggestions
for Mead
> > is roughly; "Boil up honey and water, add yeast, leave for a week or
two,
> > then add a campden (sulphur dioxide) tablet to stop fermentation,
bottle and
> > store for 6+ months before drinking"