dr_al

Recipes 

about 11 months, not exactly sure my son got a hold of my binder and tore out a page or 2...

at bottling, i tasted and almost poured it out and checked to make sure the fingernail polish remover was still in the bathroom but it had a very nice citrus flavor that was quickly overwhelmed by every thing else.

at 8 months i had one 12 oz bottle i popped the top on, jetfuel, overpowering clove. honey after taste and smell. i only poured half an oz so i corked the bottle capped it and put it in the fridge until tonight.

tonight still jet fuel but no where near as bad, it smells like honey and candy and has allot of candy taste. honey and citrus after taste but the candy and clove are the major flavors.

its drinkable now, before i wouldn't dream of even a partial glass full. I will try to give it another year before i sample it again but age will help it allot.

I was thinking about blending it with a dry cider possibly or another orange mead to experiment and to dilute the candy flavor some more?

bighorn_brew

Recipes 

At how many months did you bottle it? And what yeast did you use?

dr_al

Recipes 

i used bread yeast like in the recipe, and it was bottled after about 5 months the only thing i changed was i zested the orange peel and skipped the pith.

if i do it again i will use better yeast and skip the clove and get a sg and fg.

it's the only mead i have done and only the 2nd anything i fermented so others results will most likely be better. i have a few ciders and wines under my belt now and i want to do another simple mead.

i can get michigan wild flower honey local and not horribly priced so thats what i used.

fatbloke

Recipes 

So if you zested the Orange, you voided the warranty!

The aftertaste you allude to is possibly, "alcohol hot", or maybe fusels ? Though I don't know if you stuck to the recipe with bread yeast, those would be issues I'd associate with incorrectly managed wine yeast ferments.......

Perhaps a batch made exactly as the recipe (no meddling) so you've got a bench mark.....

__________________
"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away". Tom Waits.

Oh, and here's some blog stuff!

dr_al

Recipes 

its down to just the hot alcohol taste now things are starting to balance, i took it to a few friends that have much better pallets than i do and they say it will be fine, its just very hot still.

i was just impressed with how much the flavors changed from horrible should i dump this to almost enjoyable, i continued to sip the 3 oz the rest of the evening and it kept getting better as it sat out. as it went from cold to warm it became more enjoyable.

i have only had one other mead and it's made by oliver? i'll see if i have enough of my sample left to get a gravity reading, i guess there was one other variation, i estimated my 3 lbs of honey for a 4 lb container, i should warm it up and measure the remainder since its still sitting around i have a feeling i added more than 3 lbs lol.

truckjohn

Recipes 

The "Candy" flavor you are talking about.....

This can be from all the orange zest without the pith and the residual clove flavor.... The oils in the Zest will give you that orangey essence without any of the bitterness you get from the pith.... If you bump up the zest - you get an stronger orangey essence... If you bump up the pith - it seems to add more of the bitterness you expect out of Grapefruit or Lime... The right amount of that bitterness adds a nice character to supplement the orangey-ness from the zest, and makes it seem "Citrusy".... Too much and it's unpleasant....

This is where you gotta be careful of the sort of oranges you use... Some have super duper thick, bitter pith (Like Navels)... Others have much thinner peels without as much bitter (Like tangerines)... Others like Tangelos seem more "Orangey" and less bitter to me.. and others like the little Pineapple "juice oranges" seem much less orangey. Then, there are things like Citron, grapefruit, calamondin, and kumquats - which are different altogether.....

The juice basically only adds a neutral "Sour" to the final flavor compared to the intense orangeyness of the pith and zest... This acid can help balance out the sweetness of the mead nicely... but you really aren't adding much juice if you think about it - maybe the equivalent of 1/2-1 cup of juice into a gallon....

Anyway - it's amazing how all the flavors meld together isn't it? All that clove that started out as "GoshthatsalottaCLOVE!" kinda disappears into the background and leaves a nice hint behind....

Thanks

dr_al

Recipes 

very interesting thank you very much truckjohn for the explanation on the candy flavor.

i hope the clove continues to mellow and in another year i bet its much better.