bikerverde

Recipes 

After half a year of work I and a friend just bottled our first batch of Mead and it came out great. I want to start on another batch but I want to make it in smaller increments so it takes less time to ferment. I found this recipe on a forum I frequent:

You will need:
- 3 1/2lb of honey (clover preferably) (runny honey, not set)
- 1 large orange
- 1 small handful of raisins
- 1 stick of cinnamon
- a clove or two
- yeast (baking yeast will do the trick, I used champagne)

In terms of equipment you need a container (demijohn (1 gallon)) to ferment in and an airlock.

First sterilize your demijohn, airlock and bung, once done rinse because you don't want your mead to taste of sterilizer.
Dissolve your honey in water, and add to demijohn, cut your orange into eighths or so and put them in your demijohn (leave the peel on), add your cinnamon, raisins, cloves, and add water until you're ~3" from the top of your demijohn (it needs some room to form krausen), then sprinkle in your yeast. Put your airlock on and put the whole lot somewhere dark with a steady temperature (not too hot, not too cold either though), and forget about it for a couple of months. After this time the fermentation should slow down, and the mead should begin to clear, once this has finished and your mead is clear it's ready to bottle up and drink (though it only gets better with age).

You don't need to bother racking with recipe, it will clear of its own accord.


Besides sanitizing all the equipment and melting the honey it sounds like he just chucked all the ingredients in and just left it. He didn't pitch the yeast either or I assume so when he says to "Sprinkle" it in there. He also has pictures of it and the end result in a beautiful amber liquid.

Dose anyone have any opinions on this method/recipe? Dose anyone have any suggestion on a simple mead recipe such as this? A sweet mead recipe is preferable.

Onihige

Recipes 

If you want it as simple as possible mix honey and water until you hit about 1.100-1.110 OG, pitch yeast and nutrients. That's all. When it's fermented to about 1.020 heat up the batch to ca 40°c to kill off the yeast, not higher though. Or you could use some yeast stopper, either way is fine.

Nothing wrong really with that recipe, though.

Pitching yeast is just another way of saying "adding the yeast."

And avoid baking yeast, it's better to stick to use something that was accually intended to ferment alcohol. Wine/beer/champagne/mead yeast will often have more information regarding the taste, character and alcohol tolerance - so you'll know what to expect. And it's not like dry yeast is expensive.

fongsong

Recipes 

Hi
I am quite new to mead making but have read the forums quite a bit. The recipe that you posted was indeed designed for a beginer mazer so they can make something with things they mostly have in the kitchen. It is not supposed to be an award winning mead although many paople have attested to its taste. I made a batch a while ago but left it way too long before racking and it took on the orange peel taste. I have another two batches going now (with different honeys).

The main reason that I posted was that small batches will take roughly the same length of time as big batches. So this is a false economy. I make small batches but its mostly because of price and space. If I had more money and lots of space I would be making 5gal batches all the time.

Hope this helps

bikerverde

Recipes 

This dose help! Thanks.

But I'm curious. In the recipe I posted the brewer said he didn't have to rack it, it would clear on it's own. How long did you wait to rack your mead? The one with the orange peel taste.

fatbloke

Recipes 

The recipe you posted is "JAO" a.k.a. joes ancient orange.

If you follow the recipe exactly, it takes between 2 and 3 months from start to clear.

If you use a wine yeast of any kind, its likely to ferment dry and it doesn't make for a good dry recipe IMO.

I believe the recipe has been posted here, its also over at gotmead, in their "newbie" guide (chapter 6 I think). With a a few extra tips and guidance, from Joe himself.

Following the recipe verbatim will give you a benchmark batch. His comment about the cloves is especially important

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