Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

Made this today, minus the raisins, and I used blood oranges. First mead, so I'll let you know in like 8-12 months. Thanks yooper, for starting me down another slippery slope, making a different batch next week..... swmbo's gonna hate me when she sees my order from Morebeer.....

As I do not really want to read all 240 posts let me say that I am sorry if this has already been asked.

How does this mead taste? Sweet? Semi-sweet? or Dry?
What flavor would you say it has?

I am looking for a mead that is sweet with a very good honey - orange taste to it.
Also let me say that I have never made a mead before that is the reasons for the questions.

It has a tendency towards Semi-sweet. I know Ive back sweetened some before. it depends on how far your yeast ends up taking it. its a fantastic and simple recipe. IF you follow it exactly...the ONLY change that "I" do is substitute Lalvin D-47 yeast . If you think its a bit less sweet than you like it at the finish, then by all means back sweeten it with some Honey until it gets to where you like it!

If you want to make this come out better than the original recipe try 2 things

1. Do NOT put the whole oranges in! Juice the oranges or you will get a pithy taste.

2. Try using D47 or 71b yeast instead of bakers yeast.

This was the first recipe I tried and it ended up with a yucky pithy taste, which goes away with time. But if you want yours done and drinkable faster follow the above suggestions. I tried this recipe before I found this site. Now that I am have read Hightest's stickies in the Mead forum and Ken Schramm's book I am making much better mead than this. I would hate for people who have been brewing other things to try this recipe and think that all meads suck! For an orange mead you might look up the Blood Orange Mead thread. They are in stores right now and mine is really tasty!

I put on 2 1 gal batches the same evening (10/01/10), one with a large naval orange and the other with a blood orange. The naval batch is starting to clear nicely, but the blood batch is still a little turbid. Cant wait to test them out.

Based on the comments here I plan on doing 2 more batches, both with D47 and one with juiced/zested oranges, either blood or naval depending on which turns out better.

I would start these sooner but I don't have any extra 1 gal glass bottles, and there quite a few bucks to buy new around here. Im a little weary to try using a #5 plastic juice bottle, but lots of people here seem to be using them. Can anyone out there set me strait on the glass/plastic bottle situation?

I made a batch of this yesterday...first mead ever for me. I followed the recipe exactly. It's bubbling nicely, though it hasn't produced a lot of foam. Can't wait to try it!

Just cracked a bottle of this after about 4 months. I pitched too much of the bread yeast so it fermented out completely. The stuff is really good. At 4 months its still kind of hot and warm inside after you drink it, but im sure that will dissipate with time. The flavour from the cinammon stick is the dominant flavour that Im getting. A hint of fruit from the orange but really there isnt too much to speak of. Very tasty. Ill be making this again but hopefully I can get it a little sweeter the way it was intended to be.

I'm just posting to brag on this recipe.

I helped my friend bottle his about 2 hours ago and straight from the bottling bucket this stuff tasted SUPERB. He had it in primary for 4 months and it's just fantastic. This will probably be added to my to-do list. GREAT RECIPE!

edit: btw he followed the ingredients according to the OP, not the revisions that were made. Still SUPERB!

Just got all the stuff from the grocery store for this and hope to make it later tonight when my back recovers a bit. Also stopped by Nebraska Brewing for a growler of wheat and Cornhusker Beverage for some sarsaparilla extract (making the kids some soda) and picked up an extra primary bucket, airlocks, etc to start a new brew soon. It's only been 3 - 4 days since I made my first brew. I think I may have issues.

Any of you guys who have done a larger batch have any issues with clearing? I did a 3g batch at the begining of Decemeber and it is still pretty cloudy.

I cant tell you how awful this was at bottling but after avoiding it for a year, i decided to open a bottle and it was excellent, had really mellowed into quite a heavenly treat.

I just bottled mine and agree it wasn't that good. Tasted quite hot from the alcohol and very orange-y. I set my bottles aside and hope to have the same results in a year or so after it mellows. Now I think I'll try a one gallon batch of something new. The JAOM was kind of fun to do on such a small scale. I could really get into small experimental stuff.

I used this recipe in Nov 09. I let this stuff sit in the carboy (primary) for a little over two months, carefully regulating temperature. Right out of the glass carboy, it tasted great (so I thought--I was siphoning into bottles and had a taste.) But, the next day, for some reason, I couldn't drink it. Flavors were too harsh. So, I let it age. Today is March 14, 2010 and I just opened a bottle. I like it. Ummm. I don't think it's exactly what I, or anyone else using this recipe for the first time expected. Mine still has a very prominent orange peel flavor. It's not sweet at all. It smells like orange peels. I didn't get a hydrometer reading, so I can't say for sure, but my mead seems like it must be about 16 to 18 % alc. My yeast cells just didn't give up. The air lock was bubbling slowly the whole month. If I ever use the recipe again, I'm going to use only half the orange peels, but more fruit. And, I might pitch a yeast strain used for champagne. I did put a tiny bit of priming sugar in with the bottles. Not enough to really produce big bubbles. But, there seem to be tiny little bubbles at first pour??? THIS WAS A VERY AWESOME INTRODUCTION TO HOME BREWING!

It took my first batch 8 months to get rid of all the peely-ness.

flyweed said:

If it's clear, as in..you can read a newspaper through it, you could either rack it off to a secondary and let it sit and mellow a bit....or you could bottle.

Dan

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I did a search of the thread and didn't find a decisive answer, but is it really gonna hurt if I bottle it before it gets newspaper clear. I mean mine was in secondary for about a month and has been in primary for well over 3. Its pretty damn clear, but not newspaper clear. Will it really hurt it that much if I want to bottle now? I'd really like to free up my carboy, that's why I'm being impatient, I still plan on bottle aging for several more months/years, of course sampling along the way!

stromam said:

I did a search of the thread and didn't find a decisive answer, but is it really gonna hurt if I bottle it before it gets newspaper clear. I mean mine was in secondary for about a month and has been in primary for well over 3. Its pretty damn clear, but not newspaper clear. Will it really hurt it that much if I want to bottle now? I'd really like to free up my carboy, that's why I'm being impatient, I still plan on bottle aging for several more months/years, of course sampling along the way!

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It won't hurt, but all of the sediment that's in suspension (keeping it from being clear) will fall out in the bottle. It'll be stirred up when you move the bottle, like to pour it.

Yoop, I opened a bottle last night that I started on 7/17/09. I like it but there is just to much cinnamon taste. Would it hurt the over all out come if I left the cinnamon and clove out?

Craigbrew

3 gallon batch made up last night... My first attempt at Mead. Very curious! I was surprised that the yeast took off after 10 mins and was still bubblin away this morning. Smells delicious! After a few months I'll bottle and forget about it..

I am going to give this recipe a try this week. After leaving home depot, my four year old daughter calls out "the honey man is back.". A local gut that sets up a tent and sells his fresh honey.
Bought 4 pounds of blueberry flower honey to give it a try.
Should I use the bread yeast or go with a mead yeast?
Thanks for the recipe yooper!

I'd go with wine yeast. How much did you pay for the blueberry blossom honey?

Wine yeast? Not even Mead yeast? My first time so I don't know.
I bought six pounds of it. My wife and daughter love it. When I told the guy I was making mead, and that I homebrew, he said he gives brewers discounts. The label said $12 for a 2 pound jar. He charged me $9 each ($27 for 6 pounds). He even said he would do trades with me for homebrew. I thought that was cool!

well i jumped on the JAOM wagon! a buddy made some and it tasted good, after it aged a while...i am thinking that this will be drinkable around the winter solstice...i followed the recipe exactly, i added a pinch of allspice and nutmeg...cheers!

I started a new one of these 4-27-10. I used the zest of one very large orange and about a 1/2 cup of orange juice. I only put a little clove and allspice. It's bubbling away quite happily in my kitchen. I'm going to do a couple of these with some christmasy spice to give to friends as gifts. Especially if this comes out better than my first ones. I am going to amend my first ones a little and rebottle. Gotta do something, my DH already drank all my other meads! But this is a fun recipe.

Love the pix, btw!

Always with the yeast questions...

I've got almost everything to make this mead (my first mead!) but haven't decided on a yeast.

I don't have any redstar, but do have Fleishman's bread yeast, which I think is pretty close. I've also got some EC-1118, but that stuff has pretty good attenuation, and I'm worried it will dry it out too much. I've also got three beer yeasts, Nottingham, Windsor and some Wyeast 1056.

Any advice? Tx!

Guinness said:

Always with the yeast questions...

I've got almost everything to make this mead (my first mead!) but haven't decided on a yeast.

I don't have any redstar, but do have Fleishman's bread yeast, which I think is pretty close. I've also got some EC-1118, but that stuff has pretty good attenuation, and I'm worried it will dry it out too much. I've also got three beer yeasts, Nottingham, Windsor and some Wyeast 1056.

Any advice? Tx!

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The bread yeast worked fine, and it stayed sweet. The only thing is, bread yeast produces some very fine sediment, and even just looking at it funny caused sediment to stir up when I went to bottle it. I'd probably go with the Windsor.

The Windsor, eh? Lol - a bit of a bete noir for beer, it is also notorious for not settling out very well!

Ok, thanks.

How come this recipe works without the staggered nutrient additions mentioned in the mead making FAQ?

Guinness said:

The Windsor, eh? Lol - a bit of a bete noir for beer, it is also notorious for not settling out very well!

Ok, thanks.

How come this recipe works without the staggered nutrient additions mentioned in the mead making FAQ?

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It's got some other "stuff" besides honey that provides nutrients. Honey doesn't really have any nutrients in it, just sugar, and so the yeast will get stressed trying to ferment it. This is a quick mead, and the raisins provide nutrients.

That makes sense; potassium is one of the things that honey is short of, and I know oranges are a good source.

Thanks for a great recipe to get me started on mead - it's in a Carlo Gavassi jug, hopefully to start bubbling soon. Scary OG though - 1.150! For a beer brewer, that's some unfamiliar territory!

Guinness said:

I don't have any redstar, but do have Fleishman's bread yeast, which I think is pretty close. I've also got some EC-1118, but that stuff has pretty good attenuation, and I'm worried it will dry it out too much. I've also got three beer yeasts, Nottingham, Windsor and some Wyeast 1056.

Any advice? Tx!

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yes, you're in the wrong forum. if you don't like bread yeast, go with a more traditional recipe. go back to page one and read what joe said.
if you really think you know what you're doing, or just like to experiment and risk wasting honey, please report back and let us know how it worked, but if you want to make this recipe and are asking for advice from those who already have, stick close to the original, especially with yeast.

I finally bottled my JOAM made with blood oranges after 5 months in the primary (kinda forgot about it), and I have to say it is definitely not what I expected. The smell is overpowering from the cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, and not in a good way. The small sip I took was also overpowered from the spice and way way too sweet. I also wish I had racked this to a secondary as it is impossible to go from the gallon jug to a bottling bucket and not disturb the sediment, it was crystal clear but now its murkier then a hefeweizen. I had followed the original directions to a tee, however I guess it just didn't turn out too well for me. I think Im going to forget about these bottles under my bed for a few years and see how it turns out then.

jim_reaper1066 said:

I finally bottled my JOAM made with blood oranges after 5 months in the primary (kinda forgot about it), and I have to say it is definitely not what I expected. The smell is overpowering from the cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, and not in a good way. The small sip I took was also overpowered from the spice and way way too sweet. I also wish I had racked this to a secondary as it is impossible to go from the gallon jug to a bottling bucket and not disturb the sediment, it was crystal clear but now its murkier then a hefeweizen. I had followed the original directions to a tee, however I guess it just didn't turn out too well for me. I think Im going to forget about these bottles under my bed for a few years and see how it turns out then.

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i've left JOAM batches for that long or longer.
I think spices are a personal thing. We've been putting way more than the recipe calls for. Judges have called it too much, but we like it so PPTTTHH to the judges!
loose sediment is the main drawback of bread yeast. the slightest movement creates clouds of yeast. when i think about bottling, i move the carboy to the kitchen counter about a week ahead of time and let it settle on its own. i've occasionally racked to another carboy first, but usually just bottle carefully. i use an autosiphon and spring loaded bottling wand.
JOAM gets better with age, but is usually drinkable immediately after bottling. if some elements are too strong, you can always save it to blend with something else that is weak in that area.
the original JOAM recipe tends to be too sweet for me, so i cut back the honey a bit, to about 3 lbs, and add more spices, craisins and cayenne pepper to balance the sweet mouthfeel.

I've never made mead before, heck, the only wine I've made is the Hillbilly wine (welch's grape juice, turned out pretty good) but I'm looking forward to trying this!

A quick question: As a noob should I stick with the bread yeast, or should I use a wine/mead yeast? There's a top of the line supply store a few blocks away that stocks everything I could possibly need, so getting it is not an issue. You folks that used the wine/mead yeast, how was your final product? If I use a mead yeast will I need to add a nutrient or acid, or whatever else? I'm leaning toward doing the foolproof method first. Any help would be appreciated!

cowboyflyfisher said:

As a noob should I stick with the bread yeast, or should I use a wine/mead yeast?

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go back and read post #1.

I read through the whole thing, I was just wondering what results people had had with their experimenting, as I have a liquid sweet mead yeast, but I'll save that for another recipe since it's good until August.

That being said I did make this recipe exactly to the specs in the first post so I could have a positive first result. I just put it in the closet this afternoon and the yeast has taken off.

I made a one gallon batch exactly by the recipe in May of '09 on my birthday. Later that evening my daughters came over, and one of my gifts was a cool antique glass vase with sailboats molded into the glass. I just happened to have a rubber stopper that fit the neck.....

I soaked it with bleach water for a couple days and made a mini-mead (about 16 ounces) and brought it to work as a desk ornament with an "S" type airlock. It was pretty cool to have a bubbly thing on my desk as a conversation piece.

I have gone thru about 250 gallons of beer since then, but I still have 5 beer bottles of birthday mead. I am going to drink one Sunday, on my birthday.

So I just put together a batch of this. This is my first attempt at brewing. I listened to the directions given as closely as possible. The one mistake I think I made is that I pitched the yeast while the vessel was a wee bit warm to the touch...its been an hour and my airlock is seeing more action than a cheap Atlantic City motel. Should I be concerned? I am keeping the vessel in a bucket of cold water for now to try and bring down temps.

New brewer here. I just finished reading through all 28 pages of this stuff and I am going to start some on Thursday(payday). I think to start off I am going to do 2 batches of 2.5-3 gallons each, one, exactly like the original recipe, then one with the D-47, zesting, and a few other little tweaks. I will have to post up once I get everything going, wish me luck!

Well, after bottling my mead I at first thought it was overpowering due to the spices, and way too sweet. However after only a few weeks in the bottle I brought some to my local homebrewclub meeting. Everyone was really excited to try it since noone else there brews mead. At first I apologized in advance that it might be too powerful, but after I cracked it open and had a sip whoa! It was a completely different drink. The spice notes had mellowed out and it was just the right level of sweetness, however it as still a little murky due to sediment in the bottle. The president of the club then promptly invited me to give a guest lecture on mead making and brewing biology for a course being taught this fall! Score one for JOAM, cant wait to see what its like in a few more months.

do i dare make a 5 gallon batch of this? think i will like it enough to make 5 gallons, something needs to be fermenting while i am away, and this sounds good due to the lack of special attention!

Orange mead, eh? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I like!