Jaom

I am making 2 1 gallon versions of this 1 with everything but the cinnamon stick, using wildflower honey instead of Clover Honey and 3 pounds instead of 3.5 pounds....tomorrow I am making the 2nd with 3 pounds of wild blueberry honey, 1 pint of blueberries, skipping the orange, clove and cinnamon. Hope all goes well


Joe's Ancient Orange Mead
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Bread yeast
Yeast Starter: nope
Batch Size (Gallons): 1
Original Gravity: 1.100????
Final Gravity: 1.030?????
Boiling Time (Minutes): 1
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 2 months

Ancient Orange Mead (by Joe Mattioli)
1 gallon batch

3 1/2 lbs Clover or your choice honey or blend (will finish sweet)
1 Large orange (later cut in eights or smaller rind and all)
1 small handful of raisins (25 if you count but more or less ok)
1 stick of cinnamon
1 whole clove ( or 2 if you like - these are potent critters)
optional (a pinch of nutmeg and allspice )( very small )
1 teaspoon of Fleishmann’s bread yeast ( now don't get holy on me--- after all this is an ancient mead and that's all we had back then)
Balance water to one gallon

Process:
Use a clean 1 gallon carboy
Dissolve honey in some warm water and put in carboy
Wash orange well to remove any pesticides and slice in eights --add orange (you can push em through opening big boy -- rinds included -- its ok for this mead -- take my word for it -- ignore the experts)

Put in raisins, clove, cinnamon stick, any optional ingredients and fill to 3 inches from the top with cold water. ( need room for some foam -- you can top off with more water after the first few day frenzy)

Shake the heck out of the jug with top on, of course. This is your sophisticated aeration process.

When at room temperature in your kitchen, put in 1 teaspoon of bread yeast. ( No you don't have to rehydrate it first-- the ancients didn't even have that word in their vocabulary-- just put it in and give it a gentle swirl or not)(The yeast can fight for their own territory)

Install water airlock. Put in dark place. It will start working immediately or in an hour. (Don't use grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away in the 90's)( Wait 3 hours before you panic or call me) After major foaming stops in a few days add some water and then keep your hands off of it. (Don't shake it! Don't mess with them yeastees! Let them alone except its okay to open your cabinet to smell every once in a while.

Racking --- Don't you dare
additional feeding --- NO NO
More stirring or shaking -- Your not listening, don't touch

After 2 months and maybe a few days it will slow down to a stop and clear all by itself. (How about that) (You are not so important after all) Then you can put a hose in with a small cloth filter on the end into the clear part and siphon off the golden nectar. If you wait long enough even the oranges will sink to the bottom but I never waited that long. If it is clear it is ready. You don't need a cold basement. It does better in a kitchen in the dark. (Like in a cabinet) likes a little heat (70-80). If it didn't work out... you screwed up and didn't read my instructions (or used grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away) . If it didn't work out then take up another hobby. Mead is not for you. It is too complicated.
If you were successful, which I am 99% certain you will be, then enjoy your mead. When you get ready to make different mead you will probably have to unlearn some of these practices I have taught you, but hey--- This recipe and procedure works with these ingredients so don't knock it. It was your first mead. It was my tenth. Sometimes, even the experts can forget all they know and make good ancient mead.

According to what I've read here and on gotmead JAOM really relies on the leftover sweetness from the honey to balance out the bitter pithiness from the orange. People who have dropped the honey below 3.5 lbs haven't been to happy with the outcome, due to the yeast taking it dry. But, if you enjoy those flavors have at, they may even age out over time.

056r said:

According to what I've read here and on gotmead JAOM really relies on the leftover sweetness from the honey to balance out the bitter pithiness from the orange. People who have dropped the honey below 3.5 lbs haven't been to happy with the outcome, due to the yeast taking it dry. But, if you enjoy those flavors have at, they may even age out over time.

Click to expand...

Actually, the usual problem is that people either want to zest and juice the Orange or they want to use wine yeast, one gives too much sweetness, the other ferments dry which highlight the pithy bitterness..

Whereas, I just stick to the numbers, but use an imperial gallon instead so while everything else is the same, it ends up as a total of 4.55litres instead of 3.78 but it usually comes out fine so it wouldn't ne much different to dropping the odd half pound of honey.....

When I did it in also was working to an imperial gallon, but I scaled everything up. Turned out too sweet for me, so losing the half pound might even be an improvement.

any thoughts on the blueberry version?

Ingredients sound OK for the blueberry one, but it's nothing like a JAOM anymore so the basic instructions for that won't realy apply, your in standard melomel teritory. I would have thought for that you would want to use a wine yeast rather than bread yeast and add the blueberrys in secondary to keep their flavour. If you were to throw it all in together at the start I would expect it to taste more like a red wine than a blueberry mead. At least thats what happened with my blackberry melomel.

i made a 5gal (US) batch using our wildflower honey. turned out great! should have made 4 batches.

cheers,

robin850

Should I be worried, looks like a thin layer of pellicle on the top

If it's been airlocked, it's probably some of the yeast scum forming before it drops out.....