Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

[Tnoodle]

ive just made my first ever batch of Mead following this recipe. Its currently fermenting away. After 2 months of fermenting and i take it out of the demijon and bottle it. Do i need to leave it for 6 months to let it age or can i drink it straight away?

You can drink it if you would like, but it is much better after about 6 months and it only gets better after that. Mine only made it to 8 months before it was all gone.

 

[Chevey0]

cheers, i will see how long i can last then, does it matter what colour the glass bottle is for ageing?

 

[Tnoodle]

cheers, i will see how long i can last then, does it matter what colour the glass bottle is for ageing?

If you keep them in a dark place no. But you should normally keep them in the dark anyway. I use clear so when I take one out to share with my friends it gets ooohs and awwws for the color.

 

[Chevey0]

didnt know it should be kept in the dark, cheers for that

its been bubbling for the last week now which is great but now its turned a little milky, is that normal?

 

[Tnoodle]

didnt know it should be kept in the dark, cheers for that

its been bubbling for the last week now which is great but now its turned a little milky, is that normal?

It won't get clear until it is almost 1 1/2 months old. Could be more, I have a 5 gallon batch going that is almost 3 months old and still has a haze to it. I'm going to let it set for a few more weeks and then rack it to help it clear.

 

[Theshorey]

Starting a 1 gallon batch this weekend!

 

[veritas524]

I keep reading how cheap this recipe.is, how much are you guys paying for honey? I just went to the organic food store and a 5 lb tub of honey was $37... went to Walmart and bought 7 24 oz (3 gallon batch) bottles for $48.... effing hawaii prices.

 

[hoppymonkey]

I keep reading how cheap this recipe.is, how much are you guys paying for honey? I just went to the organic food store and a 5 lb tub of honey was $37... went to Walmart and bought 7 24 oz (3 gallon batch) bottles for $48.... effing hawaii prices.

Holy crap!!! Its $2-$5/lb over here depending on what you get

 

[Tnoodle]

I'm paying around $4 a pound for good local honey

 

[veritas524]

Yeah, I love getting slapped upside the head with the luxury tax... Waiting for my JAOM to cool, only thing I varied on was the oranges. Used 3 naval oranges; one full orange, one peeled and meet (no pith), and one just the meat. I also went down to my liquor store and picked up the only bottle of mead they carry.... Holy crap is it sweet! If I would have made it I would have thought it hadn't finished fermenting type sweet.... hrmm

 

[huesmann]

Uh, it's HAWAII. Have you checked Costco? A 5lb bottle is $12 here on the mainland.

 

[veritas524]

Lies! This not hawaii! Oh.... nevermind. I'm sending my roommate to Costco to investigate for future batches. I don't have a membership

 

[vahallasbrew2]

I must be lucky Im paying a little over 2 bucks for a pound of that sugary gold stuff

 

[kevokie]

I'm paying around $4 a pound for good local honey

Hey, where you getting your honey at up there? I'm in Tulsa quite a bit and would like to find a source.

 

[Tnoodle]

Hey, where you getting your honey at up there? I'm in Tulsa quite a bit and would like to find a source.

High gravity sells it in 1-5lbs buckets, and I have a friend that works a SAMs club, so I will have him buy it for me to get his discount.

 

[Bigbeavk]

I just put together a 5 gallon batch of this stuff. Is a 9gram packet of bread yeast enough?

 

[kevokie]

I'm sure that will be plenty

 

[Unibrow]

Ok, yooper has never steered me wrong before.why would she start now?

My first mead attempt was this recipe scaled up to three gallons. I used the bread yeast, only one tsp. only one cinnamon stick and one clove. Six pounds of honey cause I spilled some on my kitchen floor :cross:

 

[Jukas]

I want to make a 3 gallon batch of this, but would prefer it a bit on the dryer side than sweeter. I was thinking of bringing the honey down to 9 - 10# for a 3 gallon batch and was also thinking of something other than brewers yeast for the mead in order to try and take it a bit drier.

What's the consensus for alternate yeasts? D47? EC-1118?

 

[Tnoodle]

I want to make a 3 gallon batch of this, but would prefer it a bit on the dryer side than sweeter. I was thinking of bringing the honey down to 9 - 10# for a 3 gallon batch and was also thinking of something other than brewers yeast for the mead in order to try and take it a bit drier.

What's the consensus for alternate yeasts? D47? EC-1118?

Both the 1118 and D47 will dry it out with the normal amount of honey. It will take much longer to age than if you use the bread yeast. I prefer the D47 because it will retains more of the citrus than the 1118.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

I gotta tell ya I'm rapidly becoming a JAOM fiend. I have about 8 gallons with various fruits and honeys bubbling and inflating balloons as we speak.

 

[Hazroth]

You can always stabilize at whatever FG you want so it doesnt completely dry it. 1118 is very aggressive and has a high abv%'tage

 

[STLExpat]

Just finished making this. Only things I did different were adding the nutmeg, omitting the cloves (couldn't find it at the store and was running out of patience lol) chopped up the orange into smaller pieces so it wouldn't get stuck in the fermentor and did it over the dissolved honey so a little juice got in it. A question comes to mind though. Has anybody ever tried mixing in fruit juice or one of those fruit smoothies that they sell in the grocery store like Bolthouse or Naked? How do you think that would turn out? More of a newb question of curiosity than anything.

 

[Unibrow]

here is my first attempt - the original recipe scaled up to 3 gallons

 

[Jukas]

I want to make a 3 gallon batch of this, but would prefer it a bit on the dryer side than sweeter. I was thinking of bringing the honey down to 9 - 10# for a 3 gallon batch and was also thinking of something other than brewers yeast for the mead in order to try and take it a bit drier.

What's the consensus for alternate yeasts? D47? EC-1118?

Both the 1118 and D47 will dry it out with the normal amount of honey. It will take much longer to age than if you use the bread yeast. I prefer the D47 because it will retains more of the citrus than the 1118.

My LHBS doesn't carry D47, nor do they normally stock any of the Wyeast Mead yeasts.

So my choices are either 71B, or EC-1118. The biggest difference I could find between the two is the total potential ABV for 14% (71B) vs 18% (EC-1118).

I'm leaning towards going with the 71B (and maybe making a 1g control batch exactly to recipe with bread yeast to compare) but I'd love to hear any feedback on those two yeasts for this mead.

 

[Tnoodle]

My LHBS doesn't carry D47, nor do they normally stock any of the Wyeast Mead yeasts.

So my choices are either 71B, or EC-1118. The biggest difference I could find between the two is the total potential ABV for 14% (71B) vs 18% (EC-1118).

I'm leaning towards going with the 71B (and maybe making a 1g control batch exactly to recipe with bread yeast to compare) but I'd love to hear any feedback on those two yeasts for this mead.

1118 is very aggressive, I only use it for very acidic brews and other brews that have the potential to be a tough ferment. I use 71b for most of the other wines I make because it really brings out the fruit flavors.

 

[Bigbeavk]

I just made a 5 gallon batch and have it in a 6 1/2 gallon carboy 2 weeks ago. Should I worry about having that much head space in there? I see the picture above having a lot more space than mine so do we rack it early or leave it alone?

 

[Hazroth]

Less headspace is always best.

 

[Bigbeavk]

I was just playing it safe not knowing what to expect. Should I top off with some honey and water? Of course we wouldn't want to water it down any. lol

 

[Brokinarrow]

Just bottled my first 2 gallon batch of this. Since I'm a bit impatient and didn't want to wait for the possible bitterness from the orange peels to peter out, I peeled my oranges before adding them in. Tastes great after the recommended 3 months of fermentation!