Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

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I have a 6 pack left of a batch I made over a year ago. Cracked one the other day and it was carbed nicely! Popped the rest in the fridge for the holidays. What a nice surprise! Man this is some good stuff. :D
 
Just finished making my first batch of JAOM but i had a moment of dyslexia and pitched the ENTIRE packet of bread yeast instead of 1 tsp....do you guys think it will be alright? fermentation has already begun...
 
Yup no problem. Even if you add 1tsp,the yeast will eat and reproduce so much that, eventually you'll have more yeast in your brew than the entire original package of yeast.

For the most part, you're fine.
 
I just finished my 3rd batch of this stuff. I followed the recipe except for I added pomegranate. I did this last year and it came out really good but I only put in 1. This time I used 3. Also I juiced the fruit so it wont take up to much room.
 
I made this a few nights back. I cut the rind off the oranges and used two oranges instead of one. Other than that, the recipe is the same as Yooper's original, including the bread yeast. This is my first go at making mead. So far, so good - it's fermenting like crazy.
 
FatDragon said:
I'm sure this has been answered a million times, but what's the suggestion for temp control for the winter? As an "ancient" mead, should I just let it sit whatever the temp, or should I go for a water bath with an aquarium heater to try to keep it in the seventies? This is purely theoretical until I actually make the stuff, but that's coming in the near future, so I might as well get a jump start on the research.
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Sorry to be like an annoying fly buzzing around here, but I'm still hoping for an answer here:

It's about 60-65 ambient here recently, and it's only getting colder. I heat with wall-mounted AC units which means I only heat the apartment when I'm home, and not the rooms I'm not in. Should I just let this stuff ride in the colder temperatures through the winter, or should I give it some localized heating? Basically, how cold can the yeasties survive/keep working?
 
FatDragon said:
Sorry to be like an annoying fly buzzing around here, but I'm still hoping for an answer here:

It's about 60-65 ambient here recently, and it's only getting colder. I heat with wall-mounted AC units which means I only heat the apartment when I'm home, and not the rooms I'm not in. Should I just let this stuff ride in the colder temperatures through the winter, or should I give it some localized heating? Basically, how cold can the yeasties survive/keep working?
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If you can control the temps for the first few weeks or month I would try maybe but after that it may not matter too much. My temps started dropping the last few weeks on the second month in the mid-sixties temps- I feel it maybe helped clarifiy it maybe a bit more and my yeast happend to be pretty solid on the bottom also. If you do have the means, I would try to keep it around 70 if you can. Bread yeast like warm thats all I know about bread yeast. I also dont know how a Joam in the 80's would differ between one fermented at 70 deg. All I know is mine was 70's ambient temps and at bottleing 2 months it tasted really good and was very clear.
 
My efforts.

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This one was made in February last year.
 
jonmohno said:
If you can control the temps for the first few weeks or month I would try maybe but after that it may not matter too much. My temps started dropping the last few weeks on the second month in the mid-sixties temps- I feel it maybe helped clarifiy it maybe a bit more and my yeast happend to be pretty solid on the bottom also. If you do have the means, I would try to keep it around 70 if you can. Bread yeast like warm thats all I know about bread yeast. I also dont know how a Joam in the 80's would differ between one fermented at 70 deg. All I know is mine was 70's ambient temps and at bottleing 2 months it tasted really good and was very clear.
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So I'm gathering from this that I should probably keep things warmer, at least early on. I'll probably keep it safe with an aquarium heater in a tub and try to ferment around 70-80 for the first month. My main concern is that too-cool temperatures will prevent any fermentation from occurring, meaning I'll have unfermented must sitting around all winter.
 
I want to rack this to a secondary to let it age another few months off of the yeast. Has anyone done this? If so, I assume there is a lot of head space because of all the fruit. Do you top up with water, water and more honey, or something else?
 
Yeah I cheated and racked into a secondary that's smaller than my primary so there was minimal head space.
 
jstampler said:
I want to rack this to a secondary to let it age another few months off of the yeast. Has anyone done this? If so, I assume there is a lot of head space because of all the fruit. Do you top up with water, water and more honey, or something else?
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I'm curious about this as well. I have a 5 week old JAOM in a water jug. It looks like it's starting to clear but it's hard to tell through the opaque walls of the jug. My plan is to leave it for another couple weeks, transfer it to a glass jug for two weeks and then bottle. I'm hoping any headspace won't be a problem since I only plan on keeping it in the glass jug for two weeks.
 
RhodySeth said:
I'm curious about this as well. I have a 5 week old JAOM in a water jug. It looks like it's starting to clear but it's hard to tell through the opaque walls of the jug. My plan is to leave it for another couple weeks, transfer it to a glass jug for two weeks and then bottle. I'm hoping any headspace won't be a problem since I only plan on keeping it in the glass jug for two weeks.
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I would get out out of that water jug soon. I did one like that, one day opened the closet to find it had all leaked out through a tiny hole in the bottom of the jug.
I also had a plain jug of water sitting around for a few months that got a hole in the bottom, so I no longer trust them for too long
 
FatDragon said:
Why do I ever read this site? So many amazingly easy fermentibles. Now I'm gonna have to buy several kilos of honey and a handful of extra airlocks and try out a few one-gallon batches with different adjuncts - I foresee ancient pomelo mead in my future, and a chagrined fiancee.
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Until she drinks it, then she'll be happy!!
 
tx-brewer said:
I would get out out of that water jug soon. I did one like that, one day opened the closet to find it had all leaked out through a tiny hole in the bottom of the jug.
I also had a plain jug of water sitting around for a few months that got a hole in the bottom, so I no longer trust them for too long
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Yeah, I remember reading your tale of woe. We have lots of water jugs we keep in case of an emergency and have never had a leak issue but it's something I'll be aware of. I like using the water jugs because 1) we've got lots of 'em and 2) I don't have to worry about getting the fruit and stuff out afterwards - I can just cut 'em up and use another one. But in case of leaks I keep my jugs on a table I built that's got plastic sheeting which drains into a bucket.

IMG_1006.JPG


I think on Friday I'll transfer my 6 week old JAOM to a 1 gallon glass jug for two weeks. Then bottle.
 
RhodySeth said:
Yeah, I remember reading your tale of woe. We have lots of water jugs we keep in case of an emergency and have never had a leak issue but it's something I'll be aware of. I like using the water jugs because 1) we've got lots of 'em and 2) I don't have to worry about getting the fruit and stuff out afterwards - I can just cut 'em up and use another one. But in case of leaks I keep my jugs on a table I built that's got plastic sheeting which drains into a bucket. I think on Friday I'll transfer my 6 week old JAOM to a 1 gallon glass jug for two weeks. Then bottle.
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I like that water bottle idea. Did you just modify the lid to fit a rubber grommet? Can't tell by the pic. But it looks custom
 
divrguy said:
I like that water bottle idea. Did you just modify the lid to fit a rubber grommet? Can't tell by the pic. But it looks custom
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Yup, I just drilled a hole in the cap and then squeezed a grommet on there (Before drilling I put the cap on another jug that wasn't being used for brewing since the drilling creates plastic specs.) The one on my left was my first attempt and I made the hole just a bit too big because the airlock never bubbled (you can see my half-arsed attempts to add duct tape around the grommet. Airlock still never bubbled so I've just let it be.) The one on the right worked as intended and the airlock is still a bubblin'.
 
So, I have encountered a little problem. I made a gallon of cherry JAOM variant and there was so much fruit and lees that after I finished racking off 2/3 of the gallon the last bit was really cloudy. I poured the rest out through paper towels because the siphon hole kept getting plugged by fruit. Now I have a 750 ml bottle that is settling and I tried to rack it off the other day but could not. I put a tube into and tried siphoning it out with my mouth. A little fell into the gallon carboy but it pulled the rest back down into the 750 ml bottle? Maybe I am missing something? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Scratch all of that, I just kind made a make shift seal with my mouth over a straw stuck down the side of the small grommet. hahaha

IMG_20131122_120322.jpg
 
How long was it in the primary? My batch of JAOM took about 5 months before it was clear and ready to rack/bottle.
 
Cheesy_Goodness said:
How long was it in the primary? My batch of JAOM took about 5 months before it was clear and ready to rack/bottle.
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Mine?(Probably the post above mine haha) Like exactly 30 days. It was really clear(More clear than my last batch, which was also my first.) and most of the fruit had fallen. I just got the last of that 750 bottle into the gallon and plugged it back up. I plan on letting it sit for another handful of days and rack it again as I see a build up of lees settling in secondary.
 
If it was only one month I would guess that it wasn't quite ready yet. Could you read text through it? Someone on here suggested that be the standard test and it seems to be a good standard to stick by.
 
I fell prey to that great rookie mistake of impatience. After six weeks, I thought my JAOM was clear enough. But since I fermented in a plastic water jug, it was hard to tell. I racked to a glass jug and it's definitely not as clear as I thought it would be. But I also added some water since it was so low after racking. Anywho, below you can see what it looks like now. I had originally planned to leave it in there for two weeks before bottling. Is there going to be any issue with the headspace if I want to leave it in longer?

IMG_1097.JPG
 
I started an experiment 9 weeks ago.

Batch A- exactly as described but using only zest and flesh, no rind.

Batch B- exactly as describes but using grapefruit zest and flesh.

Batch C- exactly as described but using only zest and flesh and sweet mead yeast.

Batch A performed as expected. Batch B never had the grapefruit drop but otherwise seems the same. Batch C performed as expected, but didn't clarify as much.

I also cold crashed in the fridge for several days, seems to help settle the yeast. But definitely put it at the bottling location for a few days prior to bottling.

Bottling tomorrow, tasting to come soon.

image-1265447510.jpg
 
RhodySeth said:
I fell prey to that great rookie mistake of impatience. After six weeks, I thought my JAOM was clear enough. But since I fermented in a plastic water jug, it was hard to tell. I racked to a glass jug and it's definitely not as clear as I thought it would be.
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Hmmph. Maybe I spoke too soon. Turns out that the racked mead is pretty clear now - I can ready text easily through the top 75% of the carboy. Guess the yeast just needed time to settle. Think I'll stick to the original plan of two more weeks in the carboy and then bottle.
 
RhodySeth said:
Yup, I just drilled a hole in the cap and then squeezed a grommet on there (Before drilling I put the cap on another jug that wasn't being used for brewing since the drilling creates plastic specs.) The one on my left was my first attempt and I made the hole just a bit too big because the airlock never bubbled (you can see my half-arsed attempts to add duct tape around the grommet. Airlock still never bubbled so I've just let it be.) The one on the right worked as intended and the airlock is still a bubblin'.
Click to expand...

Sweet! I may have to rig up a few of those!


ffd520 said:
From start to finish.
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My buddy is a beekeeper and this JOAM got me wanting to give it a go too! He's got a Langstroth hive!
 
One more day as I wait for a couple extra airlocks to arrive for these jugs...

Has anybody tried star anise in JAOM or other meads? My girlfriend's aunt sells whole spices in bulk and whenever we visit she gives us way more spices than we can use. Star anise is a nice addition to a lot of things, and complements the cinnamon and clove, but I'm wondering if it might be too much. If I do use it, I'm a little lost on how much I should use, as well. I'm thinking one point of the star for each gallon would be safe, but I'm not certain if it would be enough.
 
Cheesy_Goodness said:
If it was only one month I would guess that it wasn't quite ready yet. Could you read text through it? Someone on here suggested that be the standard test and it seems to be a good standard to stick by.
Click to expand...

I know, I had a hard time listening growing up also! haha This is the final product...I am eager to let it sit a bit as it taste a little like Cherry medicine at the moment. Hmmm hm it is tasty already though!!

IMG_20131118_193901.jpg


IMG_20131203_100140.jpg


IMG_20131202_223232.jpg
 

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