11-23-21 Stephen at Experimeads – SCIENCE of Meadmaking

11-23-21 Tonight we’re venturing back into the world of mead sensory analysis. Stephen from experimeads.com will be joining us again to talk about the latest mead experiments he's been conducting. Stephen is a home mead maker, three time Canadian mead maker of the year, and BJCP certified beer and mead judge. In the process of honing his craft, he has been testing the parameters of mead fermentation and conducts formal sensory analysis to compare methods. Given the lack of scientific evaluation of meads relative to wine and beer, he has been sharing his findings with other mead makers via experimeads.com to try and push mead quality to the next level. We will be talking to him on how and why to design experiments on sensory analysis. Whether conducting triangle tests or bench trials, why is formal evaluation needed to take your mead consistently to the next level? He will cover recent findings from experiments on water chemistry, nutrient off-flavor thresholds, acidity, nutrient levels for ale yeasts, and the effect of kieselsol and chitosan. We find out why he has been focused on session meads, and how the experiments on nutrient timing, pitch rates, nutrient types, dried vs wet yeasts, and alternative ale yeasts inform his recently published recipe? Also, we chat with him about evidence that online calculators can lead to off-flavors. Why does he suggest that the next generation of calculators should formalize the risk from Go-ferm and vary the YAN recommendations by pitch rates, oxygenation regimes, acidity, and temperature? Finally, we will also get an exclusive sneak peek of results from other experiments that have not been published on experimeads.com. This player will show the most recent show, and when we're live, will play the live feed. If you are calling in, please turn off the player sound, so we don't get feedback.[break] [break]Click here to see a playable list of all our episodes! Sponsor: Honnibrook Craft Meadery. Rated the very best winery in Colorado! Visit our state-of-the-art meadery and tasting room south of downtown Castle Rock, Colorado, in a converted man cave. Mention the Got Mead Podcast this month for a free draft taster!  Google H-O-N-N-I Brook for hours and directions. They love visitors!  www.honnibrook.com If you want to ask your mead making questions, you can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323) or send us a question via email, or via Twitter @GotmeadNow and we'll tackle it online! 9PM EDT/6PM PDT Join us on live chat during the show Bring your questions and your mead, and let's talk mead! You can call us at 803-443-MEAD (6323), or Skype us at meadwench (please friend me first and say you're a listener, I get tons of Skype spam), or tweet to @gotmeadnow. Upcoming Shows We are off for December! Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and we'll see you January 11, 2022! Show links and notes Let There Be Melomels by Rob Ratliff The Big Book of Mead Recipes by Rob Ratliff Upcoming Events Nov 26 - Antelope Ridge Mead, Colorado Springs, CO - Mead Black Friday Nov 27 - Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro, NC - CLAWS - Wild bird rescue Nov 27 - Chubby Cheeks Mead, Temecula, CA - Live music and mexican food from their kitchen Nov 28 - Viking Alchemist Meadery, Smyrna, GA - Mead and Metal Artists Market Dec 4 - Wandering Bard Meadery, Greenville, SC - Advanced Mead Making Class Dec 4 - Wines & Wares, Jacksonville, NC - Dansk Meads tasting Dec 4 - Batch Mead, Temecula, CA - Viking Night - mead, hard cider and a souvenir horn Dec 7 - Two Seasons Meadery and the Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, AK - Urban Harvest: Turning Honey into Mead Dec 9 - Wildflyer Mead Co, Navasota, TX - Book Club Dec 16 - Wandering Bard Meadery, Greenville, SC - Mead & Read Book Club Dec 17 - Haley's Honey Meadery, Fredricksburg, VA - Paint and Mead Dec 17 - Meadicocrity Mead, San Diego, CA - Movies and Mead - showing "It's a Wonderful Life"