Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

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More yeast wouldn't hurt but really not needed. If you're concerned about time, adding more yeast may help out.
 
jak1010 said:
More yeast wouldn't hurt but really not needed. If you're concerned about time, adding more yeast may help out.
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Yeah this has to be done by April 28. Well. It's going to be bottled and drank on the 28th one way or another lol. Viking feast. So I think I'll add 2 gal and 7 lb of honey and 2x Amount of yeast for one gallon. Worst case I cold crash it the night before and hope the members of the Hall of Valhalla do not come forth to smite me!!!



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If you wanted to carb couldnt you just add a cup or two of water at bottling? Dilute the alcohol and give the yeast a little more wiggle room.
 
ImageUploadedByHome Brew1394514201.126265.jpg
Alright, it's been 5 weeks - it's very nicely cleared up, fruit/raisins have not fallen - is that what I should be waiting for to know it's ready to bottle?
Also, I'd like recommendations on when to drink it? I am very anxious to try this so, as much as I've read, it's fantastic after 6 months.....not sure I can make it - when do you guys drink yours?


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zhubbell said:
View attachment 185086
Alright, it's been 5 weeks - it's very nicely cleared up, fruit/raisins have not fallen - is that what I should be waiting for to know it's ready to bottle?
Also, I'd like recommendations on when to drink it? I am very anxious to try this so, as much as I've read, it's fantastic after 6 months.....not sure I can make it - when do you guys drink yours?


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Looks good for 5 weeks. My recommendation is to check on it again on 3 weeks. :) The fruit will have fallen (most of it) and you can then bottle it or transfer it off of the fruit and dead yeast.

I'd say taste a glass of it. Then wait 3 months and taste another glass. It sounds impossible but, forget the rest for 6-9 months. You can do it.

My wife found a bottle last week. It was unlabeled and amongst many other bottles. I held it, scratched my head, wondering what it could be. Held it up to the light and saw a slight cloudy mix of sediment swirl on the bottom.

Cracked open the bottle and smelled it. I knew right away it was JAOM. Figured it's about 11 months in the bottle. Damn it was good. Finished the whole bottle right there.
 
What is the approx OG or ABV on this? I followed the recipe to a T. I just racked it to another bottle and it tested at 1.050. I never thought about testing OG when I made it at beginning of November.


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blancaster said:
What is the approx OG or ABV on this? I followed the recipe to a T. I just racked it to another bottle and it tested at 1.050. I never thought about testing OG when I made it at beginning of November.


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It's been a while since I've measured the OG but my memory is somewhere at 1.120-1.130

If that's where you were and you're at 1.050, I'd say about 9% - 10% abv.

Just a guess..
 
Mine is at 1.050 now and is way too sweet. Anyone else know their estimated fg? I would think 1.020+ would be more like it.
 
Would my ABV have changed much if I left it alone? It had been over 5 mos in there and all the fruit dropped. This stuff tastes like acetone lol


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Bottled three batches a week ago. Three and a half months in the jugs, no fruit drop. Differences from the recipe were the honey (土蜂蜜 in Chinese, local honey where they allow the bees to harvest wherever they please),green raisins instead of black, no cloves (turns out my wife used them all before I brewed), and star anise in each batch. Batch one was otherwise to the recipe, batch two was peeled oranges and the zest from the peels, but no pith. Batch three was ruby pomelo and pomelo zest.

I got 38 bottles (about 1/3 of which were 275 mL and the rest 330 mL, pasteurized in my brew kettle after bottling) and a 20 oz. mug (pomelo variant) on bottling day. It was absolutely tremendous: very mild carbonation from the fermenter, not enough to build a head but enough for a pleasant, faintly-sparkling mouthfeel, and a bit of tartness to balance the sweetness. 20 oz. was enough to make me grin like an idiot when my wife came home and saw me drinking a huge mug of mead, but not enough to harm our relationship, so I'm thinking it's somewhere in the 8-10% range.

I read a lot about the "rocket fuel" nature of young JAOM and expected this to stay in bottles for a year before it was even worth considering popping another one open, but considering how the bottling-day taster came out, I expect this to be on the tables at our wedding (we're registered, so she's my wife, but not "wedded" yet) near the end of April.
 
itsme_timd said:
Question... I brewed a 5 gallon batch of JAOM on 09/28/13 and racked it into secondary on 12/21/13 and as of today it's still pretty hazy. However I have another batch I brewed on 12/28/13 and it's already clearing up.

For the cloudy batch did I possibly rack it over to soon and not let the yeasties finish up? Should I toss another shot of Fleischmann's in there to let it clean up?
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How'd the original batch end up? Did it clear?
 
Great thread. Made it through over 50 pages and then gave up.

I decided over the weekend to start my first batches of mead (before I was directed by a friend to this thread/forum). So I started two batches of a "beginner" mead on Saturday. The recipe I was given called for between 2 and 3 pounds of honey per gallon, so I bought 5 pounds and split it into two batches - you guessed it, one with two pounds and one with three pounds.

But the recipe did not include the oranges, cinnamon, and clove. I was thinking about just adding these ingredients now, 48 hours into the fermentation. Can't think of a reason why this would be a problem at this point?

I am using the one-gallon plastic bottles that the spring water came in. Glass one-gallon jugs show up tomorrow (bought them to rack the batches after primary fermentation).

So maybe just wait until the jugs show up tomorrow and transfer everything, including the fresh ingredients, into the glass jugs. Will this be a problem? Seems that a fair amount of oxygen would get introduced.

I could just add the ingredients to current the plastic bottles, but there isn't a whole lot of room left in there to allow for the oranges.

Also, I really don't want to end up with the bitter taste that people have talked about. So do I add the zest and the orange itself, and leave out the pith?
 
DocPMD said:
Great thread. Made it through over 50 pages and then gave up.

I decided over the weekend to start my first batches of mead (before I was directed by a friend to this thread/forum). So I started two batches of a "beginner" mead on Saturday. The recipe I was given called for between 2 and 3 pounds of honey per gallon, so I bought 5 pounds and split it into two batches - you guessed it, one with two pounds and one with three pounds.

But the recipe did not include the oranges, cinnamon, and clove. I was thinking about just adding these ingredients now, 48 hours into the fermentation. Can't think of a reason why this would be a problem at this point?

I am using the one-gallon plastic bottles that the spring water came in. Glass one-gallon jugs show up tomorrow (bought them to rack the batches after primary fermentation).

So maybe just wait until the jugs show up tomorrow and transfer everything, including the fresh ingredients, into the glass jugs. Will this be a problem? Seems that a fair amount of oxygen would get introduced.

I could just add the ingredients to current the plastic bottles, but there isn't a whole lot of room left in there to allow for the oranges.

Also, I really don't want to end up with the bitter taste that people have talked about. So do I add the zest and the orange itself, and leave out the pith?
Click to expand...

Is the fermentation already going well? I would assume it is. If so your yeast are into anabolic fermentation so you really don't want to add oxygen at this time. So I would just add the fruit to the plastic jugs.

I just bottled my first batch last night after 6 months of bulk aging and it did not have pith flavors. I took the jest off the orange and put it in the batch. Then peeled off the pith, discarding it and just putting the oranges in.

You will have a head space issue if you plan to rack to secondary in a jug of the same size as your primary. By the time you leave behind the fruit and yeast cake you will be a quart low from filling your secondary. I had two batches. One was about 2 gallons in a 3 gal carboy. Since I didn't have anything smaller for secondary I let it go about 6 weeks and just put it directly in bottles. It was pretty hot (jet fuel) when I bottled it. I have not tried it since. The second batch was a bit over three gallons in a 5 gal carboy which I racked into the 3 gal carboy and bulk aged until last night. It was also hot at the time of racking but very nice by last night.

If you really want to rack to secondary you could get some glass beads and put in your secondary jugs to take up the extra head space.
 
rlmiller10 said:
Is the fermentation already going well? I would assume it is. If so your yeast are into anabolic fermentation so you really don't want to add oxygen at this time. So I would just add the fruit to the plastic jugs.

I just bottled my first batch last night after 6 months of bulk aging and it did not have pith flavors. I took the jest off the orange and put it in the batch. Then peeled off the pith, discarding it and just putting the oranges in.

You will have a head space issue if you plan to rack to secondary in a jug of the same size as your primary. By the time you leave behind the fruit and yeast cake you will be a quart low from filling your secondary. I had two batches. One was about 2 gallons in a 3 gal carboy. Since I didn't have anything smaller for secondary I let it go about 6 weeks and just put it directly in bottles. It was pretty hot (jet fuel) when I bottled it. I have not tried it since. The second batch was a bit over three gallons in a 5 gal carboy which I racked into the 3 gal carboy and bulk aged until last night. It was also hot at the time of racking but very nice by last night.

If you really want to rack to secondary you could get some glass beads and put in your secondary jugs to take up the extra head space.
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Makes sense. Thanks for the advice. I'll just add what I can to the existing jugs and see how it goes.
 
hunter_la5 said:
View attachment 166107

Tried my 3+ month old mead last night. Definitely better than it was when i bottled it, but still I find the spices a tad overpowering, and my buddy agreed. I'll probably put this away for another 3 months and try again.
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ImageUploadedByHome Brew1395975109.215203.jpg

Whelp, it's been another 3 months. Cracked open another bottle tonight. The flavor has definitely improved over that time. The spices, which were a bit strong at last taste, have continued to mellow, but are still fairly prominent. If I did this over again, I would have waited until the 6 month mark for the first taste test. I prefer a dry mead, but this sweet mead is finally starting to hit its prime. Another few months, and I think it will be perfect.


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Hi, I'm new to the site and new to making Mead. I like the looks of this recipe and wanting to try it, but I would like to try a two-gal. batch. I know I need to double up on pretty much everything, but would that include the yeast? From my past experience with Mr.Beer (yes, I really am a newby), I know a little yeast goes a long way. What would you advise?
 
LondoThePoet said:
Hi, I'm new to the site and new to making Mead. I like the looks of this recipe and wanting to try it, but I would like to try a two-gal. batch. I know I need to double up on pretty much everything, but would that include the yeast? From my past experience with Mr.Beer (yes, I really am a newby), I know a little yeast goes a long way. What would you advise?
Click to expand...

Hey there, welcome to the site. And, welcome to this crazy fermenting addiction!

In my experience with larger batches, I've basically doubled the ingredients except for the cloves (only because they can overpower the flavor) and the yeast.

Have you had a taste of this stuff? It may be worth making a one gallon batch according to the original recipe just to get a baseline.

Either way, take good notes of any changes or methods you use, take pics and be sure to keep us updated on your first batch. Lots of interested people here and lots of helpful readers.
 
jak1010 said:
Hey there, welcome to the site. And, welcome to this crazy fermenting addiction!

In my experience with larger batches, I've basically doubled the ingredients except for the cloves (only because they can overpower the flavor) and the yeast.

Have you had a taste of this stuff? It may be worth making a one gallon batch according to the original recipe just to get a baseline.

Either way, take good notes of any changes or methods you use, take pics and be sure to keep us updated on your first batch. Lots of interested people here and lots of helpful readers.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. Looking forward to getting started.

LondoThePoet writes:

There once was a brewer of Mead
Who went on this website to read
All the posts from the pros
And as everyone knows
More free time is what he will need
 
jak1010 said:
Hey there, welcome to the site. And, welcome to this crazy fermenting addiction!

In my experience with larger batches, I've basically doubled the ingredients except for the cloves (only because they can overpower the flavor) and the yeast.

Have you had a taste of this stuff? It may be worth making a one gallon batch according to the original recipe just to get a baseline.

Either way, take good notes of any changes or methods you use, take pics and be sure to keep us updated on your first batch. Lots of interested people here and lots of helpful readers.
Click to expand...

Thanks again. I bought honey and fruit to make 5 gal. of Cherry Berry Mead two days ago (12 lbs. of honey from 3 five-pound jugs). I had some honey leftover from a previous batch of beer, so last night I bought an orange, bread yeast, and some fresh cinnamon sticks. I had everything else in-house to make a 1 gal. batch of JAOM. For a carboy I used a glass gallon jug that contained 1/2 a gallon of White Lightening from the hills of Alabama, for the past 25 years. If it had been a wooden keg, it would have impart a wonderful kerosene-like aroma to the Mead (probably NOT a good thing) :drunk:
With the leftover honey that I had, this 3 1/2 lb. that the recipe calls for came out to be a tough over 3 lbs. 11 oz., so it's closer to 3 3/4 lbs. Time will tell.

PS I didn't drink all of the White Lightening. I poured it over dried apricots in two 1 qt. mason jars and packed them away in the back of my wine cooler.
 
ImageUploadedByHome Brew1396409291.275025.jpg. 2013 mead is all bottled and I wax sealed the tops tonight.

Yesterday I checked the bees and the hives look strong with good numbers and plenty of carry over honey. So hopefully 2014 will be a good mead year as well

Thanks to this forum for all the good info.


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Mine's been in the growler for four months now. Completely forgot about it. Hope it's still ok. Good news is it's super clear. :)
 
TrustyOlJohnson said:
Forgetting about it was probably the best thing you could do for it. This brew just takes time.


"Sometimes Im right half of the time..."
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Nice! Thanks for the confirmation. Planning to bottle it tonight after work. Might take a little sip to see how it tastes.
 
tg123 said:
Nice! Thanks for the confirmation. Planning to bottle it tonight after work. Might take a little sip to see how it tastes.
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seems it works out there is always a glass or two extra in the bottom of the carboy that is just not enough to fill another bottle. Of course I drink that to keep it from going to waste
 
Just started some of this yesterday, not a bit of foam. But it's bubbling, so I topped or off and put it in the closet.
 
Think it's a problem if I never topped up? I made a 5 gallon batch with a few inches of head space. If it wasn't for this thread I would probably have forgotten about it. It's 2 months and 2 days old. Clear but everything is still floating.
 
It's fine. You can bottle if it's clear but I think most will recommend aging it for a while still before doing anything. Mine never dropped the fruit and was quite nice at 18 months after bottling with a light carbonation to it (on purpose)


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I think you can bottle now. You can also leave it alone for a couple more months if you want to.


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So I made 3 1 gallon batches of this with slight variations from the original recipe, namely i made one with bread yeast/oranges, one wine yeast/lemons, one champagn yeast/oranges. I did his early February and all 3 are already clear and fruit is dropping. Im planning on bottlin in August and start drinking in December. Does that seem like a good schedule?


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."
 
I know the general consensus is to let it age for a few months but I'm wondering how this tastes when bottled?


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Pkrd said:
Bottled mine today, though its been sitting for over four months. Tastes not bad. :ban:

Gonna be hard to leave this until christmas.
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Ok I'm just wondering because I brewed this for a "viking feast" because I saw it takes two months and it was exactly two months until the feast when I found out. Got it in the fermenter ASAP before reading on that most people let them sit months at a time. Now I'm worried :-/
 
You should be fine. Taste some before taking it just to be safe. Honestly, I would bring it in bulk, like a secondary, and serve it that way. The more you do to it, the longer it has to age to be drinkable in my opinion.
 
NinjaMedic said:
Ok I'm just wondering because I brewed this for a "viking feast" because I saw it takes two months and it was exactly two months until the feast when I found out. Got it in the fermenter ASAP before reading on that most people let them sit months at a time. Now I'm worried :-/
Click to expand...

It will be fine. My first batch I did for a "Rennaisance" wedding and everybody loved it. Served it about three weeks after I bottled it. People wanted to buy bottles of it! I honestly didn't think anyone would like it because it doesn't taste like wine you get from a store. But they did. I was so happy I got hammered.
 

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