blood orange mead??

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flyweed

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I think I came up with a nice recipe in my head I am going to try with a 1 gallon test batch.

This is a Blood Orange Mead

3 1/2 pounds of Orange blossom honey
2 blood oranges squeezed, and zested
1 stick cinnamon
1 vanilla bean
1/4 tsp of Chinese 5 spice
3068 yeast

mix all ingredients and water to 1 gallon. add DAP and goFerm as per instructions. Let set til clear.

What ya guys think?
 
Never done a citrus mead so cant speak to the recipe but the blood oranges will make for a neat color. I grew up on citrus groves and I definitely miss having those available. As for the orange blossom honey, I got some when I was down there last month and would say its way too tasty for mead... but then again it might make an awesome mead.
Anyways, would love to hear how it turns out.
 
I've used orange blossom honey in a couple of meads, and I love the flavor it gives. Yeah, since citrus fruit is "in peak" right now with tangerines, mandarines, blood oranges etc etc..I thought I'd give a blood orange recipe a try, and primarily chose the blood orange for the color, but also has a sweeter taste than a navel or cara cara orange

Dan
 
Orange blossom honey makes terrific mead with a distinct aroma and flavor, and it works well in citrus melomels. Blood oranges are good, but I'm surprised you find them sweeter. I've always found them to have a somewhat bitter, grapefruit-like character; not bad mind you, just different.

If you use this yeast with the 3.5 pounds of honey, you should end up with a very sweet result. I take it that's what you are aiming for. If so, you might potentially need the juice of another orange or two to balance it - but you can decide that later after tasting it in the secondary.

I'm not sure I'd throw all those spices into the mix, as I've found that citrus melomels can be wonderful without added spices, but if you like them, they may help balance all the residual sugar.

I'll look forward to hearing how it turns out.

Medsen
 
Never made a mead, but from what this forum talks about, it takes a really long time. To wait to see how one gallon turns out...
 
Never made a mead, but from what this forum talks about, it takes a really long time. To wait to see how one gallon turns out...

making 1-gallon batches of experimental mead is a great way to get into the hobby and try new recipes.

It's not like you drink tons of mead at a a sitting, so it's worth it to do a small batch....

Although, I'm surprised that Dan didn't go for a full five gallon batch right away on this recipe - sounds great! :mug:
 
making 1-gallon batches of experimental mead is a great way to get into the hobby and try new recipes.

It's not like you drink tons of mead at a a sitting, so it's worth it to do a small batch....

Oh, I love brewing in gallons, but I thought mead took a good year before it was ready, so it would be awhile before the 5 gallons were done up and drinkable. Or, because it is a gallon, can it be done on a shorter timeline?

I guess I'm highjacking the thread. sorry
 
Basically what is Chinease 5 Spice anyway? Everything else I know it's the Chinease 5 Spice that I'm wondering about. Outside of that sounds tasty.

Ok thanks google. Sounds like Chinease 5 Spice is a mix of Cinnimon, Cloves, Anise, Ginger and Fennel. There is also multiple versions. So basically this is a JAOM with blood oranges and no bread yeast.
 
I think I came up with a nice recipe in my head I am going to try with a 1 gallon test batch.

This is a Blood Orange Mead

3 1/2 pounds of Orange blossom honey
2 blood oranges squeezed, and zested
1 stick cinnamon
1 vanilla bean
1/4 tsp of Chinese 5 spice
3068 yeast

mix all ingredients and water to 1 gallon. add DAP and goFerm as per instructions. Let set til clear.

What ya guys think?

I'd refrain from using powdered spices simply because it's tough, if not impossible to remove them. With whole/cracked spices you can remove them once the flavour profile has been reached. Some powdered spices make a mucilanginous mess too. You might make a sort of extract from the 5 spice, or maybe a teabag. You could also use whole/cracked spices & formulate your own version of 5 spice.

Five spice contains cinnamon, so you might not need more cinnamon on top of that. I think I'd also save all the spice & fruit for secondary, or even tertiary; this would allow you to use less & get more flavour from them all. Everything else sounds good to me. Regards, GF.
 
Yeah AZA..I have thought about just going 5 gallons, but I wanted to do a small batch first and see how things turn out. :) If it's good I'll go BIG!! I am indeed using the 3068 to keep it sweet, and am using the blood orange to balance out that sweetness with some orange tartness/acid. It should be a good balance.

That's true about the Chinese 5 spice too...I may just go with the whole cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and a slice of ginger etc rather than putting in a powdered spice mix.
 
making 1-gallon batches of experimental mead is a great way to get into the hobby and try new recipes.

It's not like you drink tons of mead at a a sitting, so it's worth it to do a small batch

Man, I have 4 one gallon batches of different things going right now. All experimental Mead/Braggots/ciders. 1 gal is the way to go for experimentation. When I figure out something that works, I make 5 gallons. I have had a bunch of 1 gallong batches that were 'ok' and was glad to have only spent $5-10 on them instead of $50+
 
I've got a 2 gallon batch of blood orange JAO sitting in bulk from January of last year. It is a beautiful orange color. Didn't retain any of the pinkish hue I'd hoped for.

Are you going to add the vanilla to secondary, or primary? I think you'd have better luck w/ it in secondary. You might lose some of the aroma if in primary, and the alcohol would help extract the flavors a bit better.
 
I made a blood orange sweet mead with Wyeast sweet mead yeast & it turned out great... I had hoped to retain some of the deep color but it fermented to a very clear golden hue.

I also agree that one gallon batches are the way to go to test out new recipes or more expensive ingredients.
 
Ok...just an update...I've changed the recipe just a bit from the O.P.

3 pounds of Orange blossom honey
2 blood oranges squeezed, and zested
1 stick cinnamon
1 vanilla bean
2 tsp mulling spices steeped in 2 cups hot water for 20 minutes
D47 yeast

I steeped the mulling spices in a fine mesh grain bag..then poured that into a 1 gallon carboy. added the juice from the two squeezed blood oranges and zest from one of the blood oranges. Poured the 3 pounds of honey in and shook the carboy until the honey was well dissolved into the water. I put in my cinnamon stick, vanilla bean and topped up with cold water. rehydrated D47 as per packet instructions (104F for 15 minutes)..then inoculated the must..swirled a few seconds, and then put on the airlock.

S.G. 1.130......temp 73F

I was surprised that it really has already lost all of the pinkish red color the oranges put in..now it's a golden color. it is bubbling away like mad already.

Dan
 
My SWMBO said to me that these blood oranges that she had just bought would taste good in a mead... That reminded me of this thread! I have my orange blossom honey ordered and was planning on using mulling spices instead of the chinese 5 spice. Right now I am planning on using B71 yeast due to its acid tollerence, but I may use D47 for its EVC.
 
I ended up going with 71b-1122. Here is the final recipe.

3 squeezed blood oranges (they were very small) which gave just over 1/2 cup of orange juice.
44oz of orange blossom honey
2 tea bags of mulling spice included with Chaucers Orange Blossom Mead
I boiled them and let cool to almost room temp
I put the spice tea in a gallon jug and then put the juice in after. Then I added honey. I shook the jug up and then added the 71b. After pitching I shook for 5 minutes then placed an air lock on it full of vodka.

Before pitching
https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/data/1/medium/Xmass_050.jpg

The mulling spice was cinnamon, orange peel and clove with other spices not listed. I withheld the cinnamon sticks and am saving 1/2 a vanilla bean for the secondary.

5 hours after pitching the airlock is blood red. Considering it is filled with vodka I make take the shot and just fill it up again...:drunk:
 
I racked it on the 6th and gravity was at .96 and it has been clearing for one week. This is the result

It taste very good for it's age. My plan is to let it clear another week or two then prime and bottle into Grolsh bottles.

I plan on using OB honey to prime. I have seen 5/8 cup used for a 5 gallon batch in another recipe. So I am thinking 1/8 cup for a gallon batch. I will take gravity reading before bottleing and if it is over 1.006 then I will have to let it sit. I'm not trying to make BOM bottle bombs. Do you think this is safe. Has anybody else primed with honey. I don't mind waiting a few months for it to be carbed.

A 6 gallon batch of this is going to be my next brew.
 
Last month i put on 2 1 gal batches of JAOM at the same time. Everything was identical except for the oranges, one used a large naval orange and the other a blood orange. The naval batch cleared faster and has a lighter color. The blood batch is only now starting to clear, and has a darker brownish tinge. Just though it was interesting the clearing between the two orange types.
 
Looks good Lightning...mine is pretty clear as well...I am going to be bottling it this weekend. I haven't tasted it at all yet, but am hoping for some very good stuff.
 
Hey Fly, I bottled my test batch. I could have bottled 2 weeks after racking but I let it sit an extra week. I carbed with 1 tbsp of OB honey.

I also started a 6 gallon batch this weekend. My basement now smells like I screwdrivers! I uped the oranges by 1 a gallon to 5, so 30 total. It ended up being just under a half gallon of OJ.
 
Nice...I am going to test sample a bottle of mine tonight I think. Can't wait.
 
The big batch took a little longer to ferment, 3 weeks vs 2 for the gallon. I racked it off and added 2 cups of constant comment green tea (Bigelow) and a Madagascar Bourbon vanilla bean. 2 weeks later I looked under the towel and the bean is on the bottom and the mead is crystal clear! I am busy this weekend so I will rack it off and bottle it some time next week. I plan on using OB honey to carb with. The extra oranges really made the final mead a nice dark red color. It reminds me of a ruby. I think I am going to have to make this every Febuary-March when I see blood oranges hit the local stores.
 
Just racked my sweet mead onto blood oranges last night. I'm going to bottle it in some clear wine bottles which should look pretty sweet.
 
Hey Fly, I bottled my test batch. I could have bottled 2 weeks after racking but I let it sit an extra week. I carbed with 1 tbsp of OB honey.

I also started a 6 gallon batch this weekend. My basement now smells like I screwdrivers! I uped the oranges by 1 a gallon to 5, so 30 total. It ended up being just under a half gallon of OJ.

Was that 1 tbsp for the entire gallon or one table spoon for each Grolsch bottle? I got a 1 gallon fermentor and plenty of bottles so bout as well do this...
 
That was 1 Tbsp for the gallon. I have the link to the calculator on my computer at home. I used another calculator and it said to use twice as much, but I would rather under carb than have bottle bombs, so I went with the 1 Tbsp.
 
That was 1 Tbsp for the gallon. I have the link to the calculator on my computer at home. I used another calculator and it said to use twice as much, but I would rather under carb than have bottle bombs, so I went with the 1 Tbsp.

What was the carb level with the 1 Tbsp? Were you satisfied?
 
I think I came up with a nice recipe in my head I am going to try with a 1 gallon test batch.

This is a Blood Orange Mead

3 1/2 pounds of Orange blossom honey
2 blood oranges squeezed, and zested
1 stick cinnamon
1 vanilla bean
1/4 tsp of Chinese 5 spice
3068 yeast

mix all ingredients and water to 1 gallon. add DAP and goFerm as per instructions. Let set til clear.

What ya guys think?



Any update as to how this turned out?
 
Any update as to how this turned out?

Hi T William, welcome to HBT. It looks like the OP hasn't been around the forums for more than a year, so don't be discouraged if you don't get a response from him. But someone else who has made a blood orange mead might be able to pipe in. I don't make mead, but I've had a blood orange mead that was delicious. Are you thinking of making one?
 
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