Qurstions with crude recipe

Following joes ancient orange spiced mead I have made a one gallon batch of Meade with assorted fruits and spices and 3.8 pounds of honey. The recipe says don't worry about switching containers or pushing down the fruit. It also said to use bread yeast. Anybody have recommendations or advice

bread yeast will not ferment 3.8lbs of honey in 1 gallon batch. You'll have a mead that's WAY too sweet to drink and like.

I'd go with no more than 3lbs in a gallon, and use a brewing yeast, not bread yeast.
yeah, 'yeast is yeast'...but its not. brewing yeast is made for fermenting, not baking.

I'd go with narbonne 71-B or EC-1118, staggered nutrient additions...etc.

malkore said:

bread yeast will not ferment 3.8lbs of honey in 1 gallon batch. You'll have a mead that's WAY too sweet to drink and like.

I'd go with no more than 3lbs in a gallon, and use a brewing yeast, not bread yeast.
yeah, 'yeast is yeast'...but its not. brewing yeast is made for fermenting, not baking.

I'd go with narbonne 71-B or EC-1118, staggered nutrient additions...etc.

Click to expand...

Well yes, that's right, but not quite. Yes it's too much honey, but the JAO recipe is very specific in saying about using bread yeast.

I'd suspect it's supposed to be sweet, but while it also says about using the entire orange, pith, skin, flesh, the lot, I also suspect that any bitterness that might result from the pith, is there to help balance the sweetness.

I don't know how much honey it says to use from memory, but it isn't worth messing about with the recipe as it's not very good as a dry mead, hence no wine yeast.

Sticking with the original recipe almost always produces a drinkable batch.