Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

SSBrew - 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
brewski09 said:
I would go with a braggot. Toast off unsalted sunflower seeds, crush them up, use a 2 row base malt and mash all together. I don't know if this works, but it's how I would do it. There may be some recipes out there too. I would use a fragrant wildflower honey for this to go with the nutty sunflower seeds.


Thank you!
Click to expand...
 
1 month in, starting to clear up nicely.

_MG_0001.jpg
 
I need help. This is my first ever mead. It was recommended to be because it was supposed to the "fool proof ". I am on day 3 and there is no activity that I can see from the yeasties? I Added another 1/2 tsp of yeast and some nutrients yesterday. I followed the recipe exact except for using 4 pounds of honey and US-05 for the yeast. Any words of wisdom?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Rehlgood said:
I need help. This is my first ever mead. It was recommended to be because it was supposed to the "fool proof ". I am on day 3 and there is no activity that I can see from the yeasties? I Added another 1/2 tsp of yeast and some nutrients yesterday. I followed the recipe exact except for using 4 pounds of honey and US-05 for the yeast. Any words of wisdom?
Click to expand...

Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew? :) The only real way to know if it's going is to take gravity readings. I never see any airlock activity with meads, including the three I have in gallon jugs now, and I'm also using a beer yeast with them. Just let it sit, it may take a while but the yeast should do their job.
 
ayrlander said:
Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew? :) The only real way to know if it's going is to take gravity readings. I never see any airlock activity with meads, including the three I have in gallon jugs now, and I'm also using a beer yeast with them. Just let it sit, it may take a while but the yeast should do their job.
Click to expand...


I was expecting to see a flurry of activity and a krausen. I have a few small bubbles on the surface. Nothing that looks like fermentation in progress though.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Rehlgood said:
I was expecting to see a flurry of activity and a krausen. I have a few small bubbles on the surface. Nothing that looks like fermentation in progress though.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
Click to expand...


That is your fermentation activity. Not all yeasts kick off huge krausens. Also, check the water level in your airlock, fit of the airlock/stopper, and your bucket lid if using a bucket. 3 areas for co2 to release that are frequently missed.




Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Think of bread yeast like great danes, and Nottingham (for example) like a Jack Russell. Bread yeasties are slow and lumbering, and appear to take a few naps along the way. Nottingham or Montreact or whatever else attacks the sugar like a small child at the county fair attacks cotton candy.
 
Edit: You used US-05? I dont have any advice in that case other than just wait it out. When you switch out the yeast you are essentially changing the recipe completely. Its almost as dramatic as switching out chicken for beef in a cooking recipe.
 
CreamyGoodness said:
Edit: You used US-05? I dont have any advice in that case other than just wait it out. When you switch out the yeast you are essentially changing the recipe completely. Its almost as dramatic as switching out chicken for beef in a cooking recipe.
Click to expand...


US-05 usually takes off fairly quickly in beer. I haven't had any yeast take 3 days to start. Stopped and airlock are gorilla tight. "Water" in airlock is up to the line. I guess I will just keep waiting.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Irish_Renegade said:
Pardon the question but does anyone know of a recipe for sunflower flavored mead? It is my girlfriend and my 4 year anniversary this year and sunflower is her favorite flavor/plant. I would like to surprise her with her favorite flavor as mead.
Click to expand...

If you can get the flower petals I would use a dandelion wine recipe but substitute the sunflower in place of dandelion
 
So how do you guys bottle this? I know we're not supposed to secondary but curious as to how you all get it to the bottles mice and clear.
 
scrub0bk said:
So how do you guys bottle this? I know we're not supposed to secondary but curious as to how you all get it to the bottles mice and clear.
Click to expand...

I racked it out of the primary into a secondary being very careful not to stir up any yeast. Than bottled from the secondary into wine bottles and corked. Could probably use a bottling bucket but I don't have one so just use my auto-siphon with a bottling wand.
 
I had some JAOM yesterday that I aged with 2 oak cubes and it was fantastic! Problem is my notes are very empty for this batch and I do not know how many months went by with oak before bottling. :smack: I know the original batch was 3 gallons and I bottled 2 gallons at some point.
It was very smooth with good honey and orange aromatics/flavor. Have to chill a bottle of the original batch that was not oaked and see how big the difference is (color, aroma and flavor).

:mug:
 
It's pretty much a wait and see game with oak. Even if you let it go 7 days last time, you may be good after 4 days or may have to wait 14 days next time to get the character you are looking for.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
I just got done making this. It's my first time making Mead. I didn't have whole cloves so I subbed a pinch of ground. Other than that I made it spot on. I'm looking forward to it since I've never had Mead before.
 
fuzzy2133 said:
I had some JAOM yesterday that I aged with 2 oak cubes and it was fantastic! Problem is my notes are very empty for this batch and I do not know how many months went by with oak before bottling. :smack: I know the original batch was 3 gallons and I bottled 2 gallons at some point.
It was very smooth with good honey and orange aromatics/flavor. Have to chill a bottle of the original batch that was not oaked and see how big the difference is (color, aroma and flavor).

:mug:
Click to expand...

Now that's a good idea. This definitely sounds like something I want to side-by-side as well.

*eyes a couple 3 gallon carboys suspiciously as they scurry nervously back towards the corner of the room*
 
Rehlgood said:
I need help. This is my first ever mead. It was recommended to be because it was supposed to the "fool proof ". I am on day 3 and there is no activity that I can see from the yeasties? I Added another 1/2 tsp of yeast and some nutrients yesterday. I followed the recipe exact except for using 4 pounds of honey and US-05 for the yeast. Any words of wisdom?
Click to expand...

I don't think changing out bread yeast for ale yeast counts as following the recipe exactly. As far as I am aware S-O5 yeast is not suitable for a mead. Perhaps other have had success with it in meads and can chime in. Bread yeast started showing activity within the hour in my JAOM.

Hope it works out for you. Might be an interesting experimental yeast with the Safale 05.

Cheers
 
Bread yeast and us-05 are the same thing, just different mutations (as all yeasts of the same variety are). I've used Nottingham with good results. I think my next batches will use wine yeasts though. Anyone try k1-1116?


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Eves said:
Has anyone determined if removing the rind (using only the zest and orange 'meat') helped or hurt their version of the Ancient Orange Mead? I'm planning on making a batch in the next couple days and am curious if SuperiorBrew's idea of skipping the rind was a good idea.
Click to expand...

Brewed ?? this up December '13 exactly as posted. Bottled last night and it has a pilthy aftertaste. Seems like leaving the rind off would benefit this drink.

Anyone tried it both ways & have an opinion?
 
sloanfamilydsm said:
Brewed ?? this up December '13 exactly as posted. Bottled last night and it has a pilthy aftertaste. Seems like leaving the rind off would benefit this drink.

Anyone tried it both ways & have an opinion?
Click to expand...

I know this will be hard advice to stomache, seeing as how you dutifully waited as long as you did, but I would just give it a bit more time. The recipe takes into account the rind's less desirable flavors and counteracts them naturally over time. I'm a purist when it comes to JAOM... except for when Im not ;).
 
sloanfamilydsm said:
Brewed ?? this up December '13 exactly as posted. Bottled last night and it has a pilthy aftertaste. Seems like leaving the rind off would benefit this drink.

Anyone tried it both ways & have an opinion?
Click to expand...

I made my batches without the rind or any white flesh and havnt experienced anything like a pithy taste. Mostly the time has jus had to smooth out the solventy flavor
 
I imagine pulling the pith off would help. BUT I haven't had any issues.

Just brought a bunch to my Dad's place this past weekend and he and his wife loved it. They've got a pretty persnickety palate, so that's about as great a success as I could imagine.

I'm going to start a 5 gallon batch probably this weekend. Based on the last few posts my tentative plan is to zest the oranges (include the zest) and pull the rind off first, so that the zest and flesh both go in. Hopefully I'll have some of my previous batch left so that I can do a side-by-side (age differential notwithstanding.)

I'll report back.

o7
 
madwilliamflint said:
I imagine pulling the pith off would help. BUT I haven't had any issues.

Just brought a bunch to my Dad's place this past weekend and he and his wife loved it. They've got a pretty persnickety palate, so that's about as great a success as I could imagine.

I'm going to start a 5 gallon batch probably this weekend. Based on the last few posts my tentative plan is to zest the oranges (include the zest) and pull the rind off first, so that the zest and flesh both go in. Hopefully I'll have some of my previous batch left so that I can do a side-by-side (age differential notwithstanding.)

I'll report back.

o7
Click to expand...

Same with my results. Never had a pith problem but I've done the zesting method and was pleased. I actually do a hybrid of it. I zest the entire orange, slice and put 1/2 of it into the carboy (2 quarter pieces) and then take the remaining 1/2 of the orange and squeeze the juice of it into carboy and discard it. While it is different, it has become my favorite way of making a 1 gallon batch.
 
Question about the yeast, for three gallons do I use three of the bread yeast packets?

Also, would it be a mistake to use montacharet ? I have a few packages sitting around.
 
I made a modified version of this this past weekend with my brother-in-law. We made a 5-gallon batch. Recipe was:

9 lbs. Polish wildflower honey (came from my wife's grandparents farm in Poland)
5 lbs. of clover honey
3 oranges sliced
3 sticks of cinnamon
Wyeast Sweet Mead yeast

I'll post some about it as it's going.
 
frankjones said:
Question about the yeast, for three gallons do I use three of the bread yeast packets?

Also, would it be a mistake to use montacharet ? I have a few packages sitting around.
Click to expand...

The amount of yeast remains constant. 1 packet per batch regardless of size.

I'd save the montreact for apfelwein. Using any other yeast than breadyeast for this particular recipe is a mistake only because the results become unpredictable.
 
CreamyGoodness said:
The amount of yeast remains constant. 1 packet per batch regardless of size.

I'd save the montreact for apfelwein. Using any other yeast than breadyeast for this particular recipe is a mistake only because the results become unpredictable.
Click to expand...

Sorry but I disagree. The results are fairly predictable. The use of bread yeast is deliberate. It won't manage to ferment the mead dry so there will be some (significant ) residual sweetness. Wine yeasts are very capable of fermenting dry, musts with high sugar content (such as this one) and so if you use a wine yeast the mead will ferment dry.

I have never tried to make Joe's recipe but every detail (including the use of chunks of fruit rather than say , fruit juice) has been designed to provide very specific results**. If you have a good enough grasp of what each element is in the recipe for then you can modify it with predictable results. If you think that each element is there just by chance or happenstance then modifying the recipe may not result in quite the mead you are looking for.

** the fact that you should wait for the fruit to drop is because this will happen when the yeast is no longer producing enough CO2 to keep the fruit in suspension AND the CO2 is already dissipating enough to allow you to bottle the mead with less risk of flying corks and (worst case) bottle bombs
 
bernardsmith said:
Sorry but I disagree. The results are fairly predictable. The use of bread yeast is deliberate. It won't manage to ferment the mead dry so there will be some (significant ) residual sweetness. Wine yeasts are very capable of fermenting dry, musts with high sugar content (such as this one) and so if you use a wine yeast the mead will ferment dry.

I have never tried to make Joe's recipe but every detail (including the use of chunks of fruit rather than say , fruit juice) has been designed to provide very specific results**. If you have a good enough grasp of what each element is in the recipe for then you can modify it with predictable results. If you think that each element is there just by chance or happenstance then modifying the recipe may not result in quite the mead you are looking for.

** the fact that you should wait for the fruit to drop is because this will happen when the yeast is no longer producing enough CO2 to keep the fruit in suspension AND the CO2 is already dissipating enough to allow you to bottle the mead with less risk of flying corks and (worst case) bottle bombs
Click to expand...

Perhaps I should rephrase to "I wouldnt fix what isnt broken and risk breaking it."
 
Does the bread yeast make a big messy krausen?

I'll be making a 3 gallon batch in a the gallon carboy.
 
Also. I am big into experimenting.

How would this recipe turn out if I substituted peaches for the oranges. Was thinking about making a one gallon batch with peaches.
 
With one package of yeast for three gallons of high test I would be worried about a stuck fermentation.
 

Similar threads

superpig0
Mead Recipe Concern
Replies
2
Views
498
Dan O
Dan O
D
Restart fermentation to fix my mead?
Replies
9
Views
586
Raptor99
Raptor99
D
Dabbling experimenter I can get into this!
Replies
3
Views
516
ncbrewer
N
L
Unique "shaken baby" mead issue
Replies
5
Views
395
MightyMosin
MightyMosin
blake_carnai
First time making mead - possibly messed up
Replies
2
Views
1K
CKuhns
CKuhns
SSBrew 300

Latest posts

Back
Top