Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

Uh, it's HAWAII. Have you checked Costco? A 5lb bottle is $12 here on the mainland.

Lies! This not hawaii! Oh.... nevermind. I'm sending my roommate to Costco to investigate for future batches. I don't have a membership

I must be lucky Im paying a little over 2 bucks for a pound of that sugary gold stuff

Tnoodle said:

I'm paying around $4 a pound for good local honey

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Hey, where you getting your honey at up there? I'm in Tulsa quite a bit and would like to find a source.

kevokie said:

Hey, where you getting your honey at up there? I'm in Tulsa quite a bit and would like to find a source.

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High gravity sells it in 1-5lbs buckets, and I have a friend that works a SAMs club, so I will have him buy it for me to get his discount.

I just put together a 5 gallon batch of this stuff. Is a 9gram packet of bread yeast enough?

I'm sure that will be plenty

Ok, yooper has never steered me wrong before.why would she start now?

My first mead attempt was this recipe scaled up to three gallons. I used the bread yeast, only one tsp. only one cinnamon stick and one clove. Six pounds of honey cause I spilled some on my kitchen floor :cross:

I want to make a 3 gallon batch of this, but would prefer it a bit on the dryer side than sweeter. I was thinking of bringing the honey down to 9 - 10# for a 3 gallon batch and was also thinking of something other than brewers yeast for the mead in order to try and take it a bit drier.

What's the consensus for alternate yeasts? D47? EC-1118?

Jukas said:

I want to make a 3 gallon batch of this, but would prefer it a bit on the dryer side than sweeter. I was thinking of bringing the honey down to 9 - 10# for a 3 gallon batch and was also thinking of something other than brewers yeast for the mead in order to try and take it a bit drier.

What's the consensus for alternate yeasts? D47? EC-1118?

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Both the 1118 and D47 will dry it out with the normal amount of honey. It will take much longer to age than if you use the bread yeast. I prefer the D47 because it will retains more of the citrus than the 1118.

I gotta tell ya I'm rapidly becoming a JAOM fiend. I have about 8 gallons with various fruits and honeys bubbling and inflating balloons as we speak.

You can always stabilize at whatever FG you want so it doesnt completely dry it. 1118 is very aggressive and has a high abv%'tage

Just finished making this. Only things I did different were adding the nutmeg, omitting the cloves (couldn't find it at the store and was running out of patience lol) chopped up the orange into smaller pieces so it wouldn't get stuck in the fermentor and did it over the dissolved honey so a little juice got in it. A question comes to mind though. Has anybody ever tried mixing in fruit juice or one of those fruit smoothies that they sell in the grocery store like Bolthouse or Naked? How do you think that would turn out? More of a newb question of curiosity than anything.

here is my first attempt - the original recipe scaled up to 3 gallons

Jukas said:

I want to make a 3 gallon batch of this, but would prefer it a bit on the dryer side than sweeter. I was thinking of bringing the honey down to 9 - 10# for a 3 gallon batch and was also thinking of something other than brewers yeast for the mead in order to try and take it a bit drier.

What's the consensus for alternate yeasts? D47? EC-1118?

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Tnoodle said:

Both the 1118 and D47 will dry it out with the normal amount of honey. It will take much longer to age than if you use the bread yeast. I prefer the D47 because it will retains more of the citrus than the 1118.

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My LHBS doesn't carry D47, nor do they normally stock any of the Wyeast Mead yeasts.

So my choices are either 71B, or EC-1118. The biggest difference I could find between the two is the total potential ABV for 14% (71B) vs 18% (EC-1118).

I'm leaning towards going with the 71B (and maybe making a 1g control batch exactly to recipe with bread yeast to compare) but I'd love to hear any feedback on those two yeasts for this mead.

Jukas said:

My LHBS doesn't carry D47, nor do they normally stock any of the Wyeast Mead yeasts.

So my choices are either 71B, or EC-1118. The biggest difference I could find between the two is the total potential ABV for 14% (71B) vs 18% (EC-1118).

I'm leaning towards going with the 71B (and maybe making a 1g control batch exactly to recipe with bread yeast to compare) but I'd love to hear any feedback on those two yeasts for this mead.

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1118 is very aggressive, I only use it for very acidic brews and other brews that have the potential to be a tough ferment. I use 71b for most of the other wines I make because it really brings out the fruit flavors.

I just made a 5 gallon batch and have it in a 6 1/2 gallon carboy 2 weeks ago. Should I worry about having that much head space in there? I see the picture above having a lot more space than mine so do we rack it early or leave it alone?

Less headspace is always best.

I was just playing it safe not knowing what to expect. Should I top off with some honey and water? Of course we wouldn't want to water it down any. lol

Just bottled my first 2 gallon batch of this. Since I'm a bit impatient and didn't want to wait for the possible bitterness from the orange peels to peter out, I peeled my oranges before adding them in. Tastes great after the recommended 3 months of fermentation!

Bigbeavk said:

I was just playing it safe not knowing what to expect. Should I top off with some honey and water? Of course we wouldn't want to water it down any. lol

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Id just watch it for infection or oxidation, your co2 levels might be high enough I don't know w/o looking at it. Id venture to say your fine though if you properly sanitized.

I dunno. If you have to unlock the carboy for whatever reason, you might consider pouring it all into a smaller one with little headspace. But if you leave your airlock on from pitching your yeast until you bottle, I don't see a need to worry, since no air should be getting in.

I'm going to give this a go for the first time today. The guy at the brew store was a bit skeptical about using bread yeast. Ahh well..

Being a kiwi I'm going to try one that uses chinese gooseberries in it instead of oranges

MacrosNZ said:

I'm going to give this a go for the first time today. The guy at the brew store was a bit skeptical about using bread yeast. Ahh well..

Being a kiwi I'm going to try one that uses chinese gooseberries in it instead of oranges

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The guys at my HBS were the same way until they tasted it. Go for it, it's fun and easy.

Took a sample after a month and some change in the fermentor... It appears that my bread yeast crapped out at 1.045. Doing to pick up some D-47 from the store on Friday and see if that will finish it off.

Just for clarification .045 after 5 weeks.with no activity is.way too high right? Would repitching be advisable at this point?

Just bottled 5 gallons, I made this one without the orange pith and it was 10x better than with the pith. There is no bitterness.

At one month, didn't add the extra water though. Was a little clearer when I took it out but one of my hands twitched while setting it down

gotta do this about 50 times just to make sure I like it!

Hey guys, I started a batch of this just over 3 months ago, but it still looks kinda cloudy:



(JAOM on the right, batch of apfelwein started at the same time on the left)

What's the recommended course of action here? Leave it in the carboy until it clears (though I need to bottle it within a month since I'm moving out) or just bottle it now? It was fermenting at about 60F so I guess it might have been going pretty slowly. Thanks in advance!

asderferjerkel said:

Hey guys, I started a batch of this just over 3 months ago, but it still looks kinda cloudy:

(JAOM on the right, batch of apfelwein started at the same time on the left)

What's the recommended course of action here? Leave it in the carboy until it clears (though I need to bottle it within a month since I'm moving out) or just bottle it now? It was fermenting at about 60F so I guess it might have been going pretty slowly. Thanks in advance!

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I would let it sit as long as possible, it will clear. If it doesn't just stick it in the fridge for a couple of days and then bottle.

I just bottled my 1 year old batch and it is tasting great! Possibly a little sweet for my own preference, but that's being picky. I will definitely be making this again very soon!

You have been able to keep your hands off JAOM for a full year? Better man than I!

Anyone have a ballpark FG for this?

Tnoodle said:

I would let it sit as long as possible, it will clear. If it doesn't just stick it in the fridge for a couple of days and then bottle.

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Thanks for the advice! I'll update in a few weeks if all goes well

veritas524 said:

Anyone have a ballpark FG for this?

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Well, I don't know if mine's right or wrong, but I let it ferment for a YEAR. I started at 1.134 OG and my FG was 1.042. It's a bit sweet, but it's not bad.

I just tried this for the first time. It's almost a year old. I'm pleasantly surprised. A bit sweet, but very good.

I wasn't expecting the amount of good flavors it has. Pretty complex considering it's made with baking yeast.

Mine is covered in a thin layer of mold and tests like you will die if you drink it..

2brew1cup said:

Mine is covered in a thin layer of mold and tests like you will die if you drink it..

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Take a pic

Tnoodle said:

I would let it sit as long as possible, it will clear. If it doesn't just stick it in the fridge for a couple of days and then bottle.

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asderferjerkel said:

Thanks for the advice! I'll update in a few weeks if all goes well

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I agree with letting it sit longer, but I would rack it to a secondary to get it off of the dead yeast.