To My fellow GotMead Forum Members,



Being an experimenter myself, I am all for allowing people to try anything and everything and I would have encouraged this fellow even if I had known in advance about his experiment. I would have, of course, asked him if he really expected the fish to live in such a concenstrated enviornmenteven of honey but nevertheless if he insisted I would encourage him to go ahead for any knowledge he might gain for his experiment. I just couldn't resist posting his post from Mead Lovers Digest so you all could enjoy it with me. I know you will get a kick out of it as I did! ;D



Joe





Subject: experimental piscamel results are in !

From: "robscott@freeshell.org" <robscott@freeshell.org>

Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 18:46:20 +0000 (UTC)



I thought I had detected a studied disinterest for my March 28 questions

about raising fish and making mead in the same aquarium --- now I realize

that you mazers probably thought I was drunk. My hypothesis was that fish

manures would provide valuable fertilizer to the yeast, the aquarium

bubbler would keep O2 levels high, and the fish would get a nice honey

drink.



The result, instead, was 3 "piscamels" flavored by rotting fish.

Description follows.



I prepared three 15-gallon aquariums with 7 gallons of water, and 20

tilapia, bullnose catfish, and goldfish respectively. All fish were ~1oz.

and well acclimated to the aquarium environment. Next I added 3 gallons

(~30 lbs.) orange blossom honey to each for about 10 gallons total volume,

for an OG around 1.130. At this stage the tilapia and goldfish were

visibly distressed, trying to feed at the surface (?) I now suspect they

were dying of low dissolved oxygen, or honey poisoning or some shit.

Anyway, within 24 hours all the fish were dead, and I hadn't even added

the yeast! I made sure to put the fish in a nylon bag before proceeding. I

used Lalvin EC-1118 for a dry finish.



Fast-forward 2 months and I've got 30 gallons at FG~1.000 and I'm racking

off a huuge ammount of sediment (including scales, etc.) in what could

only be described as a nauseating siphoning process. With all the solids

removed, I had a sip. Tastes disgusting, but hey, all young meads are a

little rough, right?



The goldfish piscamel has some kind of jellyfish-like thing growing in it

and I think it is vinegarizing. Lovely dark brown and hazey.

The catfish were preserved by the alcohol (or something) and are now in a

large mason jar. I will donate them to science. The catfish piscamel is a

delightful pink.

The tilapia tastes the best of the three (still: horribly rancid) and is a

sort of swampy green.



If the goldfish batch becomes a balsamic-like vinegar, it might be the

only salvagable output of this disaster. I might try distilling the rest,

or selling it as a weapon to be used in the domain of smell. If you tried

to fight someone, and the catfish piscamel got on you, you might puke.



I will never ferment fish mead again!



Rob Scott



------------------------------