Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

Tnoodle how long do you age yours for?

underground and under the influence

I started drinking it after the 2 months and tried it every month after that. At month 7 something magical happend in the bottle and it was great. I only have 2 bottles left and one is for a Christmas party this year the other is for when my friend makes chief in the Coast Guard. Which could be in 3-5 years.

I have a question... If I bottle the mead and then open one, will it eventually spoil like wine or will it be fine over the course of bottle conditioning it?

brok3n said:

I have a question... If I bottle the mead and then open one, will it eventually spoil like wine or will it be fine over the course of bottle conditioning it?

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It will spoil but it takes a while, if you put it in the fridge it will take even longer to spoil. When I open a bottle I normally put CO2 back into the bottle on top of the mead.

Just drank one, brewed it early august bottled a week ago. Its my first batch and one week in bottles made it soooomuch better than when I bottled it. I hope at least one of these fewbottles makes it to next august!

Edit: I made it in early september, which is why I was so surprised.

Wow, 57 pages of great info!

I plan on making 3 gallons of this next week and based on comments, will zest the orange, dump in the sections and zest and dump the peel/pith.

For the yeast, I have read "leave at one gallon levels" to "tripple the yeast"

What is a good comprimise, twice the level? Would it hurt the flavor, etc.

Thanks all

Robert,

I didn't zest my oranges on my last batch, but rather just cut thin slices of the rind. I think the slices will be easier to remove than zest would be. Be careful with the cloves too. I used three whole cloves in my 2.5 gal batch, which to me was one clove too many.

What would using a champagne yeast do to this recipe? I have the red star yeast in the blue packet.

pilot210 said:

Robert,

I didn't zest my oranges on my last batch, but rather just cut thin slices of the rind. I think the slices will be easier to remove than zest would be. Be careful with the cloves too. I used three whole cloves in my 2.5 gal batch, which to me was one clove too many.

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Thanks for the tips, especially on the cloves. I like a LITTLE cloves, but not that much!

jgerard said:

What would using a champagne yeast do to this recipe?

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Dry it out.

Just trying to see if my mead has 'cleared' out enough. I started the brew Oct 10th and this is what I'm staring at.



I'm itching to bottle this (and try it!). Is it ready or should I wait?

I've read to wait until the oranges drop or at least 2 months. I've only done one batch, started it in september and bottled it early this month a week or so after the oranges dropped.

One week in bottles made a huge difference, I wasn't sure id like it because I tasted it when I bottled and it wasn't that pleasant. It was amazing a week later and I could taste every ingrdient! Can't wait to see how it tastes in a few months. (Wish idve made more than one gal)

Edit: I think I used a half pound of honey less than the recipe said, its still very sweet.

jgerard said:

I've read to wait until the oranges drop or at least 2 months. I've only done one batch, started it in september and bottled it early this month a week or so after the oranges dropped.

One week in bottles made a huge difference, I wasn't sure id like it because I tasted it when I bottled and it wasn't that pleasant. It was amazing a week later and I could taste every ingrdient! Can't wait to see how it tastes in a few months. (Wish idve made more than one gal)

Edit: I think I used a half pound of honey less than the recipe said, its still very sweet.

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Well, thankfully thats only a couple more weeks. I was hoping to bottle some and give them out as gifts for christmas... I guess I should probably include a disclaimer for letting it sit in the bottle to age properly.

I started one over the summer and waited until just a few days ago to move to another carboy for racking. Everything had dropped out, including the last few raisins! The color was a beautiful golden honey hue and it looked amazing. I also had another batch that was started over the summer and managed to sample it a few days ago. From beginning to tasting took about 6 months. I would say it is very hot still. Very hot, I am going to wait until at least a year to taste again. I hope this mead will mellow out a bit more.

Using any yeast other than bakers yeast will greatly improve the flavor of your mead. Instead of getting a bread like taste, from the baking yeast you will get something more wine or mead like.

hippo8046 said:

Using any yeast other than bakers yeast will greatly improve the flavor of your mead. Instead of getting a bread like taste, from the baking yeast you will get something more wine or mead like.

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Not true. This recipe specifically calls for bread yeast, anything else voids the warranty. It's designed to leave a certain amount of residual sweetness to balance the bitterness.

I know it says that in recipe, I'm just talking from personal experience and my own preferences.

Bottled mine today after 6 months. Haven't tried it yet, and to be honest I'm a little afraid to taste it. I made Joe's Quick Grape Mead at the same time, and it didn't agree with my taste buds.

Bottled this after 4 months in the primary. Like others have said, it is still very hot. How long in bottles before this mellows out some? The taste is good but I can't drink much of it at a time due to the alcohol level.

Weenis said:

I justed racked it a second time because it is still not clear after four and a half months. This time there was residue at the bottom, but it was not yeast. It was dark brown almost black. I remembered that I used ground cloves and cinnamon. That was a mistake since it is still cloudy.

I can't taste the orange or the spice. The aroma is mostly that of alcohol with a hint of decayed orange. The flavor is sweet nutty honey with a slight alcohol burn. The honey flavor is "big" and it is too sweet for my tastes. My brain is a bit confused ... expecting something with honey flavor to be thick and sticky. I have never tasted mead of any kind before so maybe I just am not a fan.

I tweaked a small glass and found that adding some fresh squeezed lemon juice seemed to help take the edge off the sweetness and a few grains of ground clove made it more interested. I tried heating it but this made the alcohol burn more noticeable. It was better over ice.

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I racked it for a third time today at 8 months. It is very dark and somewhat clear. A single glass of it is clear enough but the 5 gallon container looks quite murky. There was another load of dark brown (almost black) spice residue at the bottom. I noticed this was not like compact lees so it was getting sucked into the auto-siphon so I stopped and poured the final quart into a separate container.

It smells like honey now, the odor of alcohol and orange from August is gone. The flavor is just sweet honey with just a little alcohol heat. I can't taste the orange or spice at all. If I was a bee this would be great!

I decided to taste the last quart of cloudy brown sludge stuff. It has more non-honey spice flavor. Almost like mulled cider. I nuked a mug of it for 30 seconds and it was actually better hot, in a mulled cider sort of way. I tried heating the mead (not the sludge) back in August but the "alcohol burn" was too strong back then so that has either mellowed in the last 3.5 month or I am more tolerant of such things when it is 30 degrees out.

At this point I'm fairly sure a good filter could be used to clear the black sludge out of the remaining 4+ gallons to yield clear yellow mead but, at the same time, I'm not sure if I even like mead that way. It is so much sweeter than my usual drinks. I think I will just continue to bulk age it until its 1 year birthday and then bottle it. If the flavor doesn’t grow on my by next winter I’ll make this hot wassail drink out of it.

SO I followed the directions and set my mead off to the side and forgot about it. Actually I did a little too well in that dept and four months later I remembered to check it. It's cleared nicely and all the rind and stuff has sunk to the bottom. Do I rack it to take the mead off the lees? Or just bottle? I can't imagine bottling successfully without getting some of the crap into the bottles... If you rack it what is everyone topping with?

Mia said:

SO I followed the directions and set my mead off to the side and forgot about it. Actually I did a little too well in that dept and four months later I remembered to check it. It's cleared nicely and all the rind and stuff has sunk to the bottom. Do I rack it to take the mead off the lees? Or just bottle? I can't imagine bottling successfully without getting some of the crap into the bottles... If you rack it what is everyone topping with?

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I just bottled with regular caps. I would rack it into a bottling bucket first though.

Mia said:

SO I followed the directions and set my mead off to the side and forgot about it. Actually I did a little too well in that dept and four months later I remembered to check it. It's cleared nicely and all the rind and stuff has sunk to the bottom. Do I rack it to take the mead off the lees? Or just bottle? I can't imagine bottling successfully without getting some of the crap into the bottles... If you rack it what is everyone topping with?

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I just bottled my 2nd 5 gallon batch of this recipie. I read a great peice of advice on this chat room: Set the fermenter out on the counter where you will do the bottling and don't move it for about a week. Then siphon the meade into your bottling bucket and let it settle over night. Next day it will be clear as water to bottle. The problem with the yeast in this recipie is it very easily gets stirred up when the fermenter is moved and takes a while to settle. Your meade should taste decent fresh out of the fermenter. But once it has set in the bottle for a month or so it will be smooth and very tastey!

To whomever made this recipie with blueberries and vanilla:
Might I trouble you for the quanities per gallon please, I would like to try to make this variation for summer. Thanks!

I used about 1 lb blueberries and 1 tsp vanilla extract

DeadNutsBrewing said:

I used about 1 lb blueberries and 1 tsp vanilla extract

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Thanks for the reply. I wonder if I could use vanilla beans or pulp?

Probably 1 half of a vanilla bean would be good

DeadNutsBrewing said:

Probably 1 half of a vanilla bean would be good

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Thanks! Merry Christmas!

Any ideas on what to do with this if stuck? Been in primary for over two months and the fruit hasn't dropped- gravity is 1.062 and it tastes super hoochy. Shook it up some and nothing happened... pitch some wine or champagne yeast maybe?

Can't hurt. I'd rack it first, though, get it off the bread yeast.

huesmann said:

Can't hurt. I'd rack it first, though, get it off the bread yeast.

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+1 I would try D47 after you rack it to save some of the sweetness. Or you could try 71B to bring out the fruit flavor.

diablodawg said:

Any ideas on what to do with this if stuck? Been in primary for over two months and the fruit hasn't dropped- gravity is 1.062 and it tastes super hoochy. Shook it up some and nothing happened... pitch some wine or champagne yeast maybe?

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Both batches that I have done I didn't wait for the fruit to drop. Once it cleared, I bottled it. Worked out just fine. Tastes lovely, smells fabulous and will definitely get you crunk if you're not careful.

Put this together today...followed the recipe exactly...had activity within an hour of pitching the yeast. Can't wait to try this...what does it need a couple of months?

I waited 4 for it to clear, but it never did so I just drank it anyway.

Homebrewer for 16+ years...made a simple batch of mead to get started...
Fun to make, going fine after three days...

LOL. What's with the shotgun?

huesmann said:

LOL. What's with the shotgun?

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Must be to remind others not to touch his mead! Or some new sanitation technque?

Alright, I brewed my first mead attempt this morning with the ingredients I had on hand. I made the batch more like 3 quarts since I was short a bit on the honey.

2.2 lbs clover honey
1 1/2 clemintines ( yeah I got small kids)
20 Craisans
1/2tsp cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
pinch of pumpkin pie spice
Pinch of Notti as soon as it cools off a bit

I also used this recipe to make my first mead last night. I did a 3 gallon batch with Monty instead to see if it would get drier. I like a little sweet but not that sweet. Think that this yeast will turn out alright?

I'm looking at using this for making my very first batch of mead. I have a couple of questions. One is this a pretty easy mead to make and second what do I need to do to make this in a five gallon batch instead of one. The only reason I ask is because I have a five gallon home brewing kit and figure I might as well use it to its full potential ya know. Any answers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.