Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

I have bottled my first batch and I'm interesting in aging it for awhile. What is the ideal temperature to age the mead in bottles?

I started my batch on 7/28. I only have 2 orange slices left floating, the other sank already.
It appears to be clearing as well.
Is this normal for it to be happening this quickly?

Vox said:

Wow. Cheapest honey I can find is Mrs. Crocketts 12 bucks for @4 lbs at sams club or 35 a gallon (which is 12lbs?) for local honey. That's an expensive batch. I only made a gallon a few weeks ago. Thinking of trying to make a ceyser soon. Never had one so I don't know if I will like it.

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Yes, I agree it seems pretty expensive especially when I am brewing all grain beers for considerably less. BUT, if you can squeeze about 24 bottles (750ml) out of a 5-5.5 gallon batch you are looking at roughly $2/bottle (without fruit). Even with fruit, at most $4/bottle.
Not bad.

I just spent $40 for a 12# jug ( gallon) of local honey. You just have to remember that you are making mead, not vodka, not prison hooch! It's supposed to be good, not cheap!

Can I cold crash jaom to help it clear?

newbrew77 said:

Can I cold crash jaom to help it clear?

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You can, but just because you can does not mean you should! See page 1 of this thread.

BTW... something I just learned... as the mead ages fruit flavors get more and pronounced. Just finished a bottle of pineapple JAOM that I had in the fridge for almost a year, and what started as a nice pineapple flavor 5 months ago ended up at HOLY PINEAPPLE BATMAN!

Amazon has this cheap(er) clover honey that comes in at $2.90/lb

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E5DZRU/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

As long as you take it for what it is this is a pretty good deal. You are not going to make a world class wine with this honey, but for a batch of quick mead this might just be the ticket.

luda007 said:

I started my batch on 7/28. I only have 2 orange slices left floating, the other sank already.
It appears to be clearing as well.
Is this normal for it to be happening this quickly?

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As of today all oranges have fallen to the bottom. There are only a few raisins left floating. Normal? Not normal?
Ideas?

luda007 said:

As of today all oranges have fallen to the bottom. There are only a few raisins left floating. Normal? Not normal?
Ideas?

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Think of JAOM like you would a child potty training. Taking a little long? Boy that was quick? No biggie either way.

Not trying to be flippant, but there is really a lot of wiggle room here. We are talking about an ecosystem full of LIVE ORGANISMS! .

My advice? Wait until it gets nice and clear, and worry not.

Grab a drink in the meantime.

Thank you. I am relieved.

luda007 said:

As of today all oranges have fallen to the bottom. There are only a few raisins left floating. Normal? Not normal?
Ideas?

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It is bothered, and, possesses by satin! You have pissed off the brew gods, and this is not safe to drink! Immediately disregard the instructions, bottle in beer bottles and ship to me for proper disposal!
*** this is your only responsible option!***

Just think of the children!



(yeah, I'll delete this later!)

I just made JAOM and pitched last night with D47 without sticking the oranges in and @ 12 hours I see no signs of life? I also added nutrients and energizer. The pitch was @ 70F. Am I in trouble yet?

milsman2 said:

I just made JAOM and pitched last night with D47 without sticking the oranges in and @ 12 hours I see no signs of life? I also added nutrients and energizer. The pitch was @ 70F. Am I in trouble yet?

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Add your oranges and shake it! If nothing by morning, add more yeast!

BigKahuna said:

Add your oranges and shake it! If nothing by morning, add more yeast!

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Just to clarify, you want to shake THE JUG, not your money-maker.

Are the oranges really necessary to start the fermentation? I've heard talk of there being a little too much bitter/pithy taste from the rind.

milsman2 said:

Are the oranges really necessary to start the fermentation?

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No! I have fermented lots of things without oranges! They are essential to producing THIS particular mead!

If you do it right, both get a food shaking!

Appreciate it. I'm going to wait until 48 hours ish deep and if nothing positive is happening re pitch and shake it is! Just for experiment's sake I'm leaving out the whole oranges...

Its now bubbling but at a pretty slow rate. Should it be gurgling away? How long does fermentation typically take?

Quick question, how many have tried stormthecastle.coms 1gal version of this? I've had mine going for about a month now, ballon and plastic jug and all. How long did you let it sit before drinking? And when should it palatable?

May as well get in on this madness. The only changes I made were, I used Red Star wine yeast, and added a vanilla bean. Started fermenting in around 2 hours. OG - 1.108

Hi all, I've started up my 2nd and 3rd batch of this, but I'm curious, how is everyone testing their OG, when there is orange slices/chunks and all in such a small mouthed carboy like a 1G? perhaps I'm just not being creative enough, LOL...thanks for any tips and tricks...p.s. I love me some JAOM...

mike280Z said:

Quick question, how many have tried stormthecastle.coms 1gal version of this? I've had mine going for about a month now, ballon and plastic jug and all. How long did you let it sit before drinking? And when should it palatable?

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The first mead I ever made was with Will from stormthecastle's instruction. Will is a gent in every respect, and you can trust his recipe.

The answer I have isnt one you are going to love. You will know that the mead is ready visually, when it clears and the fruit falls. The only way to know when it is palatable is to taste it, (un)fortunately. There will be a few tastes you might not like much... let it wait a while longer... and try it again. There are too many variables to give a hard and fast answer.

I appreciate the answer. I made 3 gallons on a whim experimenting with the recipe. One is by the books, the second was with quick rise yeast. An the second I attempted to rack off the fruit an yeast but ended transferring a large amount of yeast with it. I will say that the one I racked off after a couple weeks did not inspire a tasting on smell and looks alone.

Made this object 4/17/2012 and it still tastes extremely hot (as in alcohol burn)

I have some I made in 2008, I still am not happy with it! Hoping for 2015!

So opening and tasting won't cause it to spoil?

A50SNAKE said:

Hi all, I've started up my 2nd and 3rd batch of this, but I'm curious, how is everyone testing their OG, when there is orange slices/chunks and all in such a small mouthed carboy like a 1G? perhaps I'm just not being creative enough, LOL...thanks for any tips and tricks...p.s. I love me some JAOM...

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I don't test my OG as I know how much honey there is in a specific amount of water. So I just use the theoric OG for reference but I do measure FG once the fruits fall to the bottom.

Also, 1G, once ready ... is gone way too fast ... 10G is the answer.

Davincy said:

I don't test my OG as I know how much honey there is in a specific amount of water. So I just use the theoric OG for reference but I do measure FG once the fruits fall to the bottom.

Also, 1G, once ready ... is gone way too fast ... 10G is the answer.

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ok perfect thanks, I was just wondering if I was missing some nifty little trick, LOL...

In other JAOM news, I got cocky, and I'm paying the price. I've had so much luck with different fruits and flavors that I thought a cherry vanilla JAOM would be great.

Racked it yesterday after 4 months, clear as a bell, and took the obligatory taste for quality control.

Instead of oranges I had used two vanilla beans (they were on the older/drier side so I thought 2 would be appropriate) and enough fresh cherries to equal a pound before pitting and halving.

What I wound up with is the color or honey or ripe hay (no hint that it was made with cherries) and tastes... well... like Cap'n Crunch. Hopefully it will get better with age.

Why not just add more cherries?

Goofynewfie said:

Why not just add more cherries?

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I suppose I could do that. Its that killer punch of vanilla I am lamenting more than anything.

I made a batch over the weekend replacing the orange with 12 oz of mashed blackberries and no clove. It ended up blowing off the airlock and ejecting some fruit over night, but I am hoping it will be okay. My 2 gallons of JAOM is moving along nicely. I tasted it and it didn't seem to strong on alcohol flavor. May bottle my first batch at the end of the month, will need some carboys for grape pyment once I need to transfer that.

BigKahuna said:

It is bothered, and, possesses by satin! You have pissed off the brew gods, and this is not safe to drink! Immediately disregard the instructions, bottle in beer bottles and ship to me for proper disposal!
*** this is your only responsible option!***

Just think of the children!

(yeah, I'll delete this later!)

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I didn't see this until now.
Too funny!
I did taste just now. It tasted pretty good.
Slightly syrupy in consistency but good. Nice little alcohol burn.

luda007 said:

I didn't see this until now.
Too funny!
I did taste just now. It tasted pretty good.
Slightly syrupy in consistency but good. Nice little alcohol burn.

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let it ride a little while before your next taste... I think you will be shocked where it went from there!

Or... drink it now... :rockin:

I used a rather dry yeast (DYW84) for my batch; almost two months in I could probably stand a little sweeter mead. What are my sweetening options? Just curious, I might actually age it as I hear dry meads can be quite good once aged.

nmacholl said:

I used a rather dry yeast (DYW84) for my batch; almost two months in I could probably stand a little sweeter mead. What are my sweetening options? Just curious, I might actually age it as I hear dry meads can be quite good once aged.

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You could rack it into a secondary vessel, use some potassium sorbate, and then sweeten to taste with more honey. No guarantee it won't ferment a little but it probably won't. A campden tab would probably seal the deal.

Hey guys. Trying this out for my first mead and scaled up to 3 gallons. Like a noob I pitched 3 packets yeast. Is it okay or am I screwed from the massive amount of yeast.

jcam91 said:

Hey guys. Trying this out for my first mead and scaled up to 3 gallons. Like a noob I pitched 3 packets yeast. Is it okay or am I screwed from the massive amount of yeast.

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It's going to be totally screwed. Dump it immediately, because mead that has been that overpitched can actually catch on fire and explode!!!

Not really. It will be fine. I used a pack of yeast for a gallon and it behaved perfectly normally. Not even one flame.