In The Bottle

[Red Hawke]

Hey guys, our first mead is in the bottle. The wife and I gave Joe's Ancient Orange, Cinnamon & Clove mead a try. Everything went just like the receipe called for, we put it in the fermenter on 4-9-06 and put it in the bottles on 5-28-06. It was very clear with a kind of sour honey raisiny flavor. It was our first mead so not sure if this is the targeted flavor or if we made a mistake somewhere along the way. I find the taste very pleasing, the wife was a little reluctant to say much as we sipped the small amount that would not fill the last bottle. We plan to open the first bottle on 8-27-06 just to see how it is progressing. The wife hopes the flavor will settle somewhat and take on a smoother character than the raw mead had at bottling time. I feel that all will be fine as it ages some and the flavors have time to fuze, but still cant wait until the end of the month to taste it......
I do have one question for you guys, will a bottle of mead keep for a few days after you open it ???? This mead taste very sweet to me and I dont feel that the wife and I could drink an entire bottle in one evening.
It has been a while since we posted on this site but we really want to thank all the folks here that helped us get started back in March of this year, we have enjoyed brewing one beer, one mead and look forward to many more in the future.
Thanks Again to everyone
Red Hawke & Red

 

[Red Hawke]

WE are impressed with the flavor of our Joes Ancient Orange. The wife (Red) says it has just enough sweet to be delicious and just the right amount of Orange to bring out the tartness to off-set the sweetness. Very clean on the palate, no real lingering after taste. The sourness we first tasted when we bottled it is completely gone and we hope it just keeps getting better with time (3 months in bottle now) My only problem is I keep going back to get more and the bottle is getting low and I feel very good right now. It does have a little alcohol bite to it but its very nice overall and we are very happy with it and now plan to go on to other meads as we enjoy the one we have.
Color- Golden
Taste- Delicious
Temp.-62F
SG-1.035 (worried is this too high)
ACV- 4.5
It has small air bubbles rising to the top in the glass. Normal or not????

Final thoughts: Darn good stuff, where has mead been all our lives...........
Thanks to everyone again
RedHawke & Red

 

[God Emporer BillyBrew]

Where'd you find the recipe? I've been thinking about making either a mead or a barley wine. I was looking at Papazian's prickly pear one, but it locks down a fermentor for up to a year. I don't have enough of those yet.

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

I believe GotMead's got the Joe's Ancient recipe- let me check real quick...
Ya- here it is, they moved it so I couldn't find it for a bit!

 

[Red Hawke]

That is the same place I got the recipe and it is very much worth doing. We ended up drinking two bottles and enjoyed them both. We plan to wait until Nov. to open the next bottle if we can stand to wait that long. Take your time and enjoy a bottle after only a few months.