Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

How did this come out? I also used the sweet mead yeast but I used a little bit more honey. Hoping it doesn't get TOO sweet.

How long did you leave it in primary? The original post says to leave it in primary for two months but I'm a little nervous to do that with all the sediment in there.

gedion said:

How did this come out? I also used the sweet mead yeast but I used a little bit more honey. Hoping it doesn't get TOO sweet.



How long did you leave it in primary? The original post says to leave it in primary for two months but I'm a little nervous to do that with all the sediment in there.

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I am not a mead person but the recipe was so simple, I figured why not?

I didn't keep good notes which is a shame since I am quite the opposite with brewing beer. I remember following the exact recipe except I used ground cinnamon so I lowered the amount from what the recipe calls for. I used bread yeast per the recipe.

Once the solids began to drop, maybe 3 months later, I simply dump the liquids, as gently as possible, into another, sanitized, jug. I did that 2 or 3 times until it seem clear.

15 months later and it is beautifully crystal clear. It tastes better now than it has before. It's difficult for me to describe the flavor since I've never had mead before. I had a sipped of hopped mead once and I simply did not like it. This, though, it tastes good, like I would imagine a honey drink would taste! Sorry for being so non-descriptive!

hio3791 said:

I am not a mead person but the recipe was so simple, I figured why not?

I didn't keep good notes which is a shame since I am quite the opposite with brewing beer. I remember following the exact recipe except I used ground cinnamon so I lowered the amount from what the recipe calls for. I used bread yeast per the recipe.

Once the solids began to drop, maybe 3 months later, I simply dump the liquids, as gently as possible, into another, sanitized, jug. I did that 2 or 3 times until it seem clear.

15 months later and it is beautifully crystal clear. It tastes better now than it has before. It's difficult for me to describe the flavor since I've never had mead before. I had a sipped of hopped mead once and I simply did not like it. This, though, it tastes good, like I would imagine a honey drink would taste! Sorry for being so non-descriptive!

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Nah I think you were descriptive enough! I would have racked with rubber tubing and an autosyphon to maintain clarity, but hell, if your process works keep at it I say. Are you going to make more?

I followed this recipe to the letter, and a year later it is unbelievably great. I did add the bit of spices. Definitely went very light on the pinches, so they're there but complimented overall by the other flavors.

This is a very tasty and easy mead.

gedion said:

How did this come out? I also used the sweet mead yeast but I used a little bit more honey. Hoping it doesn't get TOO sweet.



How long did you leave it in primary? The original post says to leave it in primary for two months but I'm a little nervous to do that with all the sediment in there.

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It's fine with the sediment for a couple months. You don't run into serious yeast autolysis problems for quite some time on standard homebrew equipment like pro Brewers do.

Almost 7years after reading this post for the first time I finally started a batch tonight. My first mead ever, no less... I increased to 2 gallons, only because I'm using a 3 gallon carboy and didn't want 2 gallons of head space. For the orange, I (actually The Wife did it) zested the orange and the cut the segments from the pith. And I had some raspberries in the fridge so I pasteurized 4oz of them and also threw the raisins in with them to sanitize them. I didn't have whole cloves (and I don't care for over powering clove) or cinnamon sticks so I used a dash each of the ground stuff. I have a bunch of whole nutmeg so I used the good stuff there. Lastly, I used US 05 instead of baker's yeast. I'm hoping this turns out well, but at the very least I was able to get the wife involved in the booze making process for once so that's a positive right there.

Thanks for the recipe Yoops

Nice! Sounds like it's going to be good. I'd be interested to see how the berries add to it.

My currently fermenting batch I did the same thing as far as keeping the pith out of it. So we'll see.

There's no turning back now

Cleared up nicely, gonna need to mellow out a bit though still somewhat bitter.

Looks great!

I actually just bottled my mead. Nearly one month to the day. The thing that amazed me was the lack of off flavors. I tasted it and the only thing that's not good about it is how hot it is, but that should settle down with age I hope. At about the three week mark I noticed an orange had settled out and through out the following week everything else fell and the mead cleared up substantially. I probably could have left it longer but I got to excited and impatient. My first bottle got more air in it than I wanted unfortunately so I'm crossing my fingers with that one.

I followed this recipe almost exactly except I added a package of frozen blueberries on top of the orange into the 1 gallon glass carboy. Bought fresh "active dry yeast" - Baker's Choice from the grocery and pitched a whole packet. Got CO2 out of the airlock for about 4 weeks and then waited another month or so for it to clear. Went to bottle it last night and man is it beautiful! But took a gravity sample just in case, and its 1.090!!! There is some taste of alcohol but it is wayyyy too sweet. Anyone know what went wrong?

I ended up transferring it back into the growler and pitched some older WLP001 I had laying around (use before 12/21) which probably wasn't the best idea. Didn't really want to waste a US-05 packet but I may be headed in that direction. 24 hrs later no sign of fermentation...

Never had problems with a busted fermentation before. Don't know where to head from here. Sure would be a shame to dump it all out, as its not contaminated. Anyone have any advice?????

I'm confused. .. CO2 doesn't come out of the airlock for 4 weeks without a huge drop in gravity. Repitch is the only reasonable thing to do.

1.090? Check your hydro; is it off or could it have read 1.009? Never had an issue with the bakers yeast not doing its job. The 3 JAOM batches I have done have end up near 1.000.

After you bottle how do you all end up storing? I know some folks just stick in a dark stable-temp (70-80) area, but I've heard some say you can put it in a cool location like a basement?

malkore said:

I updated this recipe and brewed it today.

Omit the raisins and crappy bread yeast.

use wyeast sweet mead yeast. just hand squeeze the orange, and take off the top zest.
steep for 10 minutes at 140F with the honey, then cool and strain it when you put it in the fermenter.

also use yeast nutrient and energizer. its not as 'ancient' but it should be a little nicer. no sourness from the rind to age out, and a cleaner yeast that's meant for alcohol, but only to 11%. so use a little less honey. 3lbs tops.

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My good man, could your changes be adjusted up easily for a humongous batch of say, 5 gallons? In other words, 5 oranges squeezed plus zest, nutrient and energizer to match?

Also, I've been told that this recipe can be proportioned evenly to a 5 gallon batch, however, 5 teaspoons of yeast seems a bit much. Please offer your comments. Thank you.

I believe ONE yeast packet is good for UP TO 5 gallons.
Over 5 gallons you will need an additional packet

JDWebb said:

Also, I've been told that this recipe can be proportioned evenly to a 5 gallon batch, however, 5 teaspoons of yeast seems a bit much. Please offer your comments. Thank you.

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5 Whole Cloves can be rather strong so I hear. In my 3 gallon batch I only used 2 and it was fine.

I just started a 5gal batch of this yesterday. I used four cloves, and an entire packet of Wyeast (decided to nix the Bread Yeast). Everything else I scaled up proportionately to the original instructions.

I have a 1 gallon batch going now, will be starting my 5 gallon later tonight. We went out yesterday and bought 32 pounds of honey, I can't decide yet which one I want to use, the orange blossom or the clover. I'll have to drink on it. Also, I just realized, scaling up the honey takes it to 17.5 pounds, seems like a bit much for 5 gallons.

I think I'm going to go with
D47 yeast
15 pounds honey plus or minus to reach 11-12% ABV
5 oranges
2 tsp Superfood nutrient May break that up into two feedings (skipping the raisins and adding 8oz of bee pollen I think, I also have DAP)

Spring water to fill the fermenter to 5 gallons.

I want a starting ABV of around 11-12% ABV to start, so will adjust the honey accordingly with readings from the hydro.

I am still working on my plan. Any help would be appreciated. Now, where'd I put my lab coat.

TheWadeShow said:

After you bottle how do you all end up storing? I know some folks just stick in a dark stable-temp (70-80) area, but I've heard some say you can put it in a cool location like a basement?

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Store it like you would wine. A cool dark place about 55 to 60 is perfect but if a 67 degree basement is what you have that will work as well. Heat is the enemy of flavor, be it mead, spices, or wine.

JDWebb said:

I have a 1 gallon batch going now, will be starting my 5 gallon later tonight. We went out yesterday and bought 32 pounds of honey, I can't decide yet which one I want to use, the orange blossom or the clover. I'll have to drink on it. Also, I just realized, scaling up the honey takes it to 17.5 pounds, seems like a bit much for 5 gallons.

I think I'm going to go with
D47 yeast
15 pounds honey plus or minus to reach 11-12% ABV
5 oranges
2 tsp Superfood nutrient May break that up into two feedings (skipping the raisins and adding 8oz of bee pollen I think, I also have DAP)

Spring water to fill the fermenter to 5 gallons.

I want a starting ABV of around 11-12% ABV to start, so will adjust the honey accordingly with readings from the hydro.

I am still working on my plan. Any help would be appreciated. Now, where'd I put my lab coat.

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Add he DAP, skip the pollen. Read up on staggered nutrient feeding (that does not mean to do it drunk). But two feedings will work. 3 lb honey per gallon will be fine.

I have used D47 and it works fine, although I didn't see much difference between it and bread yeast. The D47 may have dropped out a bit sooner but I was still waiting for fruit to drop so it didn't make a difference since the fruit was the limiting factor.

Sounds like a plan, thank you. Can you explain about the pollen though? What's your take on it?

JDWebb said:

Sounds like a plan, thank you. Can you explain about the pollen though? What's your take on it?

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Pollen is mostly protein. Protein breaks down into nitrogen compounds so it might help. But I am not sure of the timing of the breakdown as it seems to be pretty stable (they pull pollen out of lake sediment to determine the plant life in the area thousands of years ago). So it seems that adding DAP which is readily available nitrogen and phosphate if I remember correctly would be much better.

Well, its in the brew. I was right in the middle of putting it all together when I saw this, and I put it in anyway!

So here it is

15 pounds of Orange Blossom Honey (pure)
5 medium sized oranges (I zested them without too much pith then juiced them)
1 1/2 tsp of Superfood (it called for 3 tsp but I added the pollen)
8oz bee pollen
D47 with re-hydro nutrient (I read that somewhere)
Enough spring water to bring it to just over 5 gallons (I anticipated the sediment at racking)
SG was about 1.110
ABV at about 14%

I will re-check the gravity in a few weeks to see where its at.

It all hit the fermenter around 3:30pm pst. Now, find my pillow and comforter, pull my overstuffed easy chair around, and watch the bubbler for the next....month...I hope it doesn't turn into one of those science projects you read about in the news sometimes.

Out of curiosity before I have to tell my wife that the white bucket is a top secret chemical for the government, how long should I wait typically before I see any activity from the airlock?

I, um, made a small batch of this in October of 2013 that after 2 or 3 months was finally clear but the fruit had not dropped, so I put in the back of my wine fridge and forgot about... until now. What do you think, too old? It's been in a cheap plastic old apple juice gallon container this whole time... I wonder about oxidation as well as over exposure to clove.

Hanso said:

I, um, made a small batch of this in October of 2013 that after 2 or 3 months was finally clear but the fruit had not dropped, so I put in the back of my wine fridge and forgot about... until now. What do you think, too old? It's been in a cheap plastic old apple juice gallon container this whole time... I wonder about oxidation as well as over exposure to clove.

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One way to know and that is to try it. It will probably be fine. This is a very forgiving recipe. If it were mine I would bottle it and if it is not great I would put it away for six months or a year and try it again.

JDWebb said:

Out of curiosity before I have to tell my wife that the white bucket is a top secret chemical for the government, how long should I wait typically before I see any activity from the airlock?

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It depends on how much yeast you pitched, the temperature and how well you aerated. You should see activity somewhere between 12 and 72 hours. My last batch with D47 was bubbling at 22 bubbles per minute at 24 hours. Two weeks later, the last time I recorded it, it was still at 12 bubbles per minute. Two weeks after that it must have stopped bubbling as I took a gravity and it was 1.006. Two months after that when I bottled it was down to 0.996 so there was still some work going on but the bubbling had stopped.

I made the decision to re-pitch last night at midnight after seeing no activity. I'm getting older by the day and didn't want to waste time sitting around waiting on a bubbler!

So, I re-hydro'd another D47 with some nutrients, slowly, with a shot glass, introduced some must, and it started fermenting right there! So I thought "OK, you're thirsty, I get it." So I kept giving it shot after shot of must until they were screaming with joy and I told them "hang on, you're going for a ride" and tossed them all into the bucket. I could hear screams coming from inside as I secured the lid, and went to bed. When I got up this morning, one of them was standing guard near the airlock as it was churning out CO2. I asked him what he was doing, and he looked at me with glazed over eyes, and kind of nodded towards the airlock. I suppose he was sniffing the CO2.

Hanso said:

I, um, made a small batch of this in October of 2013 that after 2 or 3 months was finally clear but the fruit had not dropped, so I put in the back of my wine fridge and forgot about... until now. What do you think, too old? It's been in a cheap plastic old apple juice gallon container this whole time... I wonder about oxidation as well as over exposure to clove.

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Are you kidding! This is the ideal treatment. When I went into the LHBS we got talking about my batch and I was asking the guys when they would bottle. "Around 5 years" was the response. You may want to move it off the lees for some time, but I'm guessing it's pretty awesome.


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Hanso said:

I, um, made a small batch of this in October of 2013 that after 2 or 3 months was finally clear but the fruit had not dropped, so I put in the back of my wine fridge and forgot about... until now. What do you think, too old? It's been in a cheap plastic old apple juice gallon container this whole time... I wonder about oxidation as well as over exposure to clove.

Click to expand...

Are you kidding! This is the ideal treatment. When I went into the LHBS we got talking about my batch and I was asking the guys when they would bottle. "Around 5 years" was the response. You may want to move it off the lees for some time, but I'm guessing it's pretty awesome.



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tellyho said:

Are you kidding! This is the ideal treatment. When I went into the LHBS we got talking about my batch and I was asking the guys when they would bottle. "Around 5 years" was the response. You may want to move it off the lees for some time, but I'm guessing it's pretty awesome.



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Hmmmm... I think if you ferment honey at very high temperatures and you don't provide sufficient nutrient for the yeast you may want to age the mead several years before drinking but if you ferment at lower temperatures and you provide adequate nutrition for the yeast you don't need to wait nearly as long. In the past (10 years or more ago) received opinion was that mead can take years to adequately age but you can make very delicious mead in a month (see Loveofrose's BOMM recipes.. and I make a hopped mead that is very drinkable in 4 months and a t'ej (Ethiopian mead) that is made to be drunk perhaps in 5-6 months). The secret is fermenting slowly at low temperatures...

tellyho said:

Are you kidding! This is the ideal treatment. When I went into the LHBS we got talking about my batch and I was asking the guys when they would bottle. "Around 5 years" was the response. You may want to move it off the lees for some time, but I'm guessing it's pretty awesome.



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Click to expand...

Hmmmm...Just responding to the LHBS' reference to aging a mead for five years. I think if you ferment honey at very high temperatures and you don't provide sufficient nutrient for the yeast you may want to age the mead several years before drinking but if you ferment at lower temperatures and you provide adequate nutrition for the yeast you don't need to wait nearly as long. In the past (10 years or more ago) received opinion was that mead can take years to adequately age but you can make very delicious mead in a month (see Loveofrose's BOMM recipes.. and I make a hopped mead that is very drinkable in 4 months and a t'ej (Ethiopian mead) that is made to be drunk perhaps in 5-6 months). The secret is fermenting at low temperatures...

Interesting. I suspect part of it hinges on one's definition of drinkable. Could I drink the JAOM I made recently at 2 months? Yes. It was not tasty, but it was drinkable. But I did ferment at higher temps. I'll have to try a cooler fermentation and see what happens. I have to imagine that things will only get better over time, though.


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Attempting two different gallons of this tonight! Been meaning to forever.

One gallon has 3lbs of honey from my father's garage. Seems it had been harvested in '98 and when he passed in 2012 no one wanted it. I used some in a stout a while back, but this was what it was waiting for.

The other gallon is just going to be daisy honey from like Midwest Supplies or somewhere. It looks pretty good an raw, but going to use it as the control (kinda) against that 17yr old honey.

Finally getting bubbles. OP implies that fermentation will start quickly. I used red star instead of flieshmans, and it was the normal yeast lag I'm used to for ales. Ancient mead in back. Front is using pollen as energizer and mino choi's staggered nutrient steps.
Left is daisy honey, right is 17yr old wild flower.

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Started this on October 31st. Then all the fruit dropped to the bottom so I racked it off into this yesterday. Hasn't cleared any, will it end up clearing?

cbell7492 said:

View attachment 248474

Started this on October 31st. Then all the fruit dropped to the bottom so I racked it off into this yesterday. Hasn't cleared any, will it end up clearing?

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If you followed the recipe you should be fine, it will clear.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/index52.html#post6441379

Mine cleared before the fruit dropped and here is how clear it is in the bottle

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/index53.html#post6565190

JINKS said:

Mine cleared before the fruit dropped and here is how clear it is in the bottle

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/index53.html#post6565190

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WOW! Seriously? Gorgeous looking.