Orange creamsicle mead?

[Bugeaud]

I've read a few posts here on orange creamsicle mead, but everyone uses water. What if.. you were to use milk and honey to create a Kumis type beverage, and then after fermenting it dry, sorbate, and then add orange concentrate to taste and then back sweeten with more honey if necessary. I'll probably want it pretty high ABV because the orange concentrate will water it down a bit. I'm thinking a final ABV of around %12 after adding the orange concentrate. The recipe I'm thinking:

Primary:
3.5 pounds Orange blossom honey
1 Gallon Milk (Maybe cream?)
High Tolerance Champagne Yeast
Yeast nutrient

Secondary:
Orange concentrate (to taste)
Possibility of vanilla beans or other spices

How high will the ABV come out to with that amount of honey? Will I need more? Less? Any suggestions are really appreciated.

 

[luhrks]

I'd skip the milk and go for lactose.

 

[Tomico]

O.K., I've been dwelling on this for a while. I thought about using almond milk or soy milk as the milk type base but when I read about people trying to ferment them, they had a really nasty smell. The almond milk smelled like stinky feet (I suppose you could use ragweed honey to emphasize this but why). So then I thought of using coconut milk. I looked up the effect and there were people in South America that would actually use this for a tasty fermented beverage. I don't know how real milk would turn out but my worry would be that it could also have a strange smell thus negating the orange creme cycle flavor. I also wonder if there is a big chance for lumps and weird mouth feel. I have to admit, I've never tasted a fermented milk drink so not sure of the in and outs of the flavor and texture.

My plan is to use the coconut milk, some vanilla extract or beans, orange juice and zest and add to the honey must after the yeast has been added. It may have a more tropical flavor with the coconut but I would rather take a chance with that. I'll let you know how my experiment goes and I hope you keep us informed as well.

Tomico

 

[Bugeaud]

Hmm, well, it surely couldn't hurt or be expensive for me to try to make kumis out of cows milk or cream, so I will try that and see how it goes first off. The reason for not wanting to just use lactose or use an alternative is I want a genuine and exact milk/creme flavour and texture. But as you say fermenting could greatly effect the flavour of the milk. But, if I could get the yeast to eat up all the sugar from the honey first, I could bring weird milk flavours to a minimal.