Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

Yakima 728
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Getting excited! Fermentation is slowing down to 1 bubble every 15 minutes or so, still extremely cloudy, but I'm only 2 weeks in..
 
I did a Joam back in April 1, 2013. Bottled in July. Opened on Thanksgiving. It was amazing!!! But I guess fermentation wasn't finished bc it was carbonated!

Opened my last bottle of it on January 13 with some brew buddies. 15 min later, my wife called and told me her water broke!

It must be a magical drink.


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This is my first time ever brewing anything and I think I messed up. Is it okay if I didn't totally dissolve all the honey in the water? Also I read about people reusing their ingredients, is it alright if I reuse the honey that isn't dissolved to make another batch? Thanks.
 
bounty1012 said:
This is my first time ever brewing anything and I think I messed up. Is it okay if I didn't totally dissolve all the honey in the water? Also I read about people reusing their ingredients, is it alright if I reuse the honey that isn't dissolved to make another batch? Thanks.
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The year should still work their way through it. If you are really worried and JUST made it, shake the crap out of it (I know, I know, it's JAOM, just leave it alone). With that said, lock it away in a dark corner and don't look at it for a few months and you will be fine.

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Trust me, I'm not just throwing out a meaningless platitude when I reiterate that it is very very very difficult to screw this recipe up. So long as you have yeast, water, and honey in proportions somewhere in the ballpark of the recipe and you are in a space in which human beings can live in a reasonably comfortable fashion, you will make mead.

I know I am only sort of helping when I say this, but it has to be said again. He or she who overthinks on this one will succeed in losing the enjoyment of the brew (but will most likely make the same mead they had if they had just stuck it in a closet and went back to their lives).
 
My JAOM be chillin down to pitchin temps. I still have to top off the 2 on the left. First time for mead, and I'm following the original page 1 recipe including optional pinches of allspice and nutmeg, with the following exceptions:
Used 3.0 lbs of honey in each batch.
I zested the rinds of the citrus and squeezed and put the pulp and seeds in but no rind.
I just used a box of raisins in each.
Batch 1: red star bread yeast and a ImageUploadedByHome Brew1392840682.744326.jpgnavel orange
Batch 2 Lalvin K1-v1116 wine yeast and a lemon
Batch 3: Lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast and a navel orange, I plan to carbonate.
My goal is to leave it til May 15, then bottle batches 1 and 2 still, backsweetening batch 2 if necessay, and bottling batch 3 in champagne bottles.
And let it sit til Christmas!!


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Are people carbonating this? I plan to bottle my batch into bombers and not sure if I should carbonate all, none, or half and half.

If you are carbonating, what volume and are the yeast too stressed at this point to even work? I am not sure if they are all Tuckered out and that is why this is such a sweet mead?
 
I've made multiple JAOM batches. USE THE BREAD YEAST. Any of the wine yeasts will ferment it dry, or nearly so, and the bitterness/harshness of the pith and peel will become overwhelming.
 
D_Nyholm said:
Are people carbonating this? I plan to bottle my batch into bombers and not sure if I should carbonate all, none, or half and half.

If you are carbonating, what volume and are the yeast too stressed at this point to even work? I am not sure if they are all Tuckered out and that is why this is such a sweet mead?
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I carbonated it lightly. It's 2.5 years old, so I have no idea what my carbonation volume is, but I would guess 1.5-1.8. It is mild and perfect. I used the Danstar Nottingham dry yeast (beer Brewer here) and it worked as expected. I would say the Mead is so sweet because the yeast tolerance of a bread yeast that isn't selected for alcohol tolerance is low so it lips out low. There are yeasts that are only tolerant to about 4%.



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I started my first batch of this on 12/28/13. It hasn't been a full 2 months yet but i didn't touch it at all and it has been perfectly clear for a few days and the oranges have been dropping. Since i have started this i have read every post in this thread so even though this is my first mead, i feel like I'm an expert on the JAOM. I'm planning on bottling in a day or 2 so i gently moved it up on the counter today and it got very cloudy. It should clear up and be ready to bottle in a few days. I'm excited! I also figured since this is such a popular mead it would be disappointing to only do 1gal so i did a 6gal batch. Go BIG or Go Home! :rockin:
 
I finally opened my first bottle of JAOM that I made last May, bottled in Aug and stuck in my cabinet until this weekend. I followed the original directions. My only regret is that I only made a 1 gallon batch, this stuff is good!
 
Has anyone tried making this at 6-8% ABV ??? I'm wanting to make this more of a seasonable bottle and it's a bit strong to appropriately consume 12oz without getting too drunk.

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What's the estimated ABV for the original recipe? I didn't take an OG reading when I made it.


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zhubbell said:
What's the estimated ABV for the original recipe? I didn't take an OG reading when I made it.


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I've done many batches. Measured a few of them. With red star bread yeast I usually get 9-10%. With the Fleishman bread yeast I get 11-14%

Both work great.
 
You could get up to 18% with full attenuation pretty easily from my calculations. I have a refractometer now so measuring starting gravity on small batches isn't so costly to the volume anymore. I'm trying to find my recipe sheet for when I used the Nottingham ale yeast because it turned out pretty good. I'm thinking of trying a wine yeast that I use for fruit wines and melomels this next batch and then back sweetening the batch.

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So, if we used bread yeast, the yeast tends to crap out around 8-10%, leaving the mead sweet, correct? If we added any priming sugar, would the yeast even eat that or would nothing occur? I am thinking about carbonating my JAOM, but not sure how to go about it except keg, force carbonate, and bottle. If I introduced another yeast, I am afraid it might be more alcohol tolerant and dry out the mead resulting in bottle bombs. Any insight?
 
It's hard bordering on impossible to make a sweet sparkling mead short of forced carbonation.
 
Thanks for the feedback on ABV, if I started the recipe verbatim what would my estimated OG be? I didn't get a chance to take a reading, but I'll take a final to estimate my ABV


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I need to brew up some JOAM. I did a 3 gallon batch the first time, because I could. It turned out awesome, as promised. In tripling the recipe, I tripled the bread yeast as well. Those yeasties were really excited, let me tell you, and I quickly learned how to open up the 3-part airlock and add a hose into some water in a jug for emergency blow-off purposes. Is tripling the yeast extreme? Or should I just plan ahead this time and expect massive foaming action?
 
Question... I brewed a 5 gallon batch of JAOM on 09/28/13 and racked it into secondary on 12/21/13 and as of today it's still pretty hazy. However I have another batch I brewed on 12/28/13 and it's already clearing up.

For the cloudy batch did I possibly rack it over to soon and not let the yeasties finish up? Should I toss another shot of Fleischmann's in there to let it clean up?
 
Shouldn't have touched it... Doesn't say to rack in instructions...


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GeorgiaMead said:
Shouldn't have touched it... Doesn't say to rack in instructions...


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Yes, I know that and that was fine for my first one gallon batch. However in these subsequent batches I would like it clear in the bottle so I racked it over.
 
Just let it be for a while. If the yeast was still active it would have transferred over in suspension. Rdwhahb.


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brewski09 said:
Just let it be for a while. If the yeast was still active it would have transferred over in suspension. Rdwhahb.


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Thanks. That's what I figured would happen and only starter to wonder when the one I brewed 2 months after this one started to clear more than it. I guess I'll just let it sit a while longer.
 
itsme_timd said:
Question... I brewed a 5 gallon batch of JAOM on 09/28/13 and racked it into secondary on 12/21/13 and as of today it's still pretty hazy. However I have another batch I brewed on 12/28/13 and it's already clearing up.

For the cloudy batch did I possibly rack it over to soon and not let the yeasties finish up? Should I toss another shot of Fleischmann's in there to let it clean up?
Click to expand...


You could also try cold crashing. That is what I finally did with a JAOM variant that would not clear. It cleaned up nicely after three days in a cooler in a cold garage


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So I have two one-gallon batches of JAOM going right now. Both were started almost four weeks ago and are/were still fermenting. I left for the weekend and turned the heat down at my house. I came back to find one of the gallons had cleared up. I accidentally cold crashed one of the batches. I've placed both gallons jugs in front of a heat vent with the hopes of reviving the fermentation. Anybody got any ideas/tips?
 
brue said:
So I have two one-gallon batches of JAOM going right now. Both were started almost four weeks ago and are/were still fermenting. I left for the weekend and turned the heat down at my house. I came back to find one of the gallons had cleared up. I accidentally cold crashed one of the batches. I've placed both gallons jugs in front of a heat vent with the hopes of reviving the fermentation. Anybody got any ideas/tips?
Click to expand...

Leave em. Let the yeast decide what they want to do.


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Made my first batch on 12/12/13 and bottled it today. Great flavor but very hot! Really hoping it mellows out over the next few months. It ended up at 16% abv. :drunk:
 
Made a 1 gallon batch mid December and noticed it wasn't clearing or dropping fruit. Decided to test gravity and it is 1.050! I figured this would end about 1.020 or less. Suggestions? IM thinking to pitch more yeast. Should I go with bread yeast again? Or maybe something like Nottingham? Or s05?
 
You may be able to rouse the yeast (shake or stir) carefully. I would go with some yeast nutrient personally. If that doesn't kick it off in 24 hours, then new yeast. I liked mine with Nottingham. Note: this goes against all the instructions and I am aware of that.


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brewski09 said:
You may be able to rouse the yeast (shake or stir) carefully. I would go with some yeast nutrient personally. If that doesn't kick it off in 24 hours, then new yeast. I liked mine with Nottingham. Note: this goes against all the instructions and I am aware of that.


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Lol, I know.

How far did Nottingham take it down? I don't want to dry it out too much. I figure 1.010 would be getting too low
 
I never actually measured it because I wanted to make something almost champagne like. It felt like 1.008 to me though. Lightly carbonated to about 1.25-1.5 was my target and I think I got it pretty well.

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I did this as one 4 gallon batch 2/28/14 and put it in a 6 gallon carboy (couldn't find enough 1 gallon jugs) to ferment. I did 14 lbs of honey, 4 oranges (zested - is that a word? - the peel, put the peeled oranges in a blender and poured it all in) 8 cloves and 4 sticks of cinnamon and used bread yeast after a good shake and cool down to room temp. I believe my SG was 1.124 (I forgot to write this down) and plan to serve at a Viking festival/feast my college is having on April 28th. Is that SG right or did I do something funky?


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NinjaMedic said:
I did this as one 4 gallon batch 2/28/14 and put it in a 6 gallon carboy (couldn't find enough 1 gallon jugs) to ferment. I did 14 lbs of honey, 4 oranges (zested - is that a word? - the peel, put the peeled oranges in a blender and poured it all in) 8 cloves and 4 sticks of cinnamon and used bread yeast after a good shake and cool down to room temp. I believe my SG was 1.124 (I forgot to write this down) and plan to serve at a Viking festival/feast my college is having on April 28th. Is that SG right or did I do something funky?


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Click to expand...


ImageUploadedByHome Brew1394158841.968081.jpg

And now I realize I should have read more before scaling. It's too late now but should I worry about too much cinnamon and clove? I put 4x raisins too. Also is there too much headspace here?


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You could add more honey and water to scale it up to 6 gallons. Raisins won't be a problem but the cinnamon and clove may be too much.
 
jak1010 said:
You could add more honey and water to scale it up to 6 gallons. Raisins won't be a problem but the cinnamon and clove may be too much.
Click to expand...


Should I add yeast as well? How would this effect the brewing time?


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