Questions about adding orange zest/juice to mead

[Kasrkin]

Hello!

I'm planning on brewing up Bray's One-month mead, and i was hoping to give it an orange flavor to it, I'm going to be doing a 5 gallon batch, and I had a couple of questions.

I was planning on adding the fruit to secondary for a relatively short amount of time (depending on what my time frame is, there's a reason i'm doing the one-month recipe after all

1. do you guys have any recommendation on the amount and form of the oranges? should i just do zest and squeeze the juice? or slice and then freeze the orange and add that into secondary?

2. If i'm not freezing whatever i'm adding, what sanitation concerns or practices should i have with the fruit?

3. is there anything wrong with using a flavor extract? and if not what amount should I use for a 5 gallon batch?

Thank you very much for you help, I appreciate it!

-k

 

[Stinky-Beaver]

I just started a 5 gal recipe 3 days ago utilizing the "burnt mead" and added 7 naval oranges along with some other spices. In doing this recipe I decided to take the sliced oranges and give them a boil for about 10 minutes with all the spices to incorporate the juices into the water easier and to kill off the wild yeasts that were on the fruit. It is now on day 2 of fermenting and has a great aroma with very active bubble.

I haven't dealt with extracts to chime in on that but good luck with everything else!!

 

[Kasrkin]

thank you! I'll have to give that same method a shot, did you do all that during primary fermentation?

 

[Stinky-Beaver]

Its day 3 of fermenting. Once I rack into a secondary I'm going to remove all the fruit but hang the spice bag to attempt to get more of the vanilla and cinnamon aromas into it

 

[loveofrose]

If you look in the Brays One Month Mead post, there is a recipe for a JAO BOMM. I add zest and fruit of 1 orange per gallon with NO PITH. If you add pith, it will not be drinkable for at least 8 months.


Better brewing through science!

 

[Kasrkin]

awesome! Thanks for the advice, I definitely would have made the mistake of adding the pith!!