Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

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.
To quote from the original post:



After 2 months and maybe a few days it will slow down to a stop and clear all by itself. (How about that) (You are not so important after all) Then you can put a hose in with a small cloth filter on the end into the clear part and siphon off the golden nectar. If you wait long enough even the oranges will sink to the bottom but I never waited that long. If it is clear it is ready. You don't need a cold basement. It does better in a kitchen in the dark. (Like in a cabinet) likes a little heat (70-80). If it didn't work out... you screwed up and didn't read my instructions (or used grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away) . If it didn't work out then take up another hobby. Mead is not for you. It is too complicated.

In other words, if it's clear, it can be bottled. I always wait until the fruit drops, but you should be good to go.
 
Thanks Harrke!

Maybe I'll wait for the oranges to sink.

If you have a hydrometer now, test it a few times over a week or so and if the gravity readings don't change then it's no longer fermenting. Maybe post your readings and we can comment on whether it seems normal or if you are just stalled.
 
With the bread yeast it will be hard to tell if it's just stalled even with a high gravity (not to mention not knowing the SG). One person's bread yeast may have a different tolerance than another person's. I'd make sure it got warm at the like the OP recommends and call it good.
 
Hi,
First time brewer here.
I did all the steps except I had bought the Red Star Champagne yeast, I read that I was only supposed to use 1/5 the pack for 1 gallon. It has frothed up around the oranges and I see a bubble in the air lock every minute or so.
It's been going for a week now.
Do I need to add more yeast? Should I let it ride? Thoughts?

I'm just curious as I see people commenting that theirs bubbles like 20 times in a minute or so...

Thanks a ton in advance for helping a new brewer.
 
Just had a bottle from my september 2012 batch. Over 3 years old and its wonderful with no ill affects from age. Still need to bottle a couple varieties I had sitting for over a year. I am super lazy when it comes to mead and always have some I need to bottle.

Raspberries added so far has been my favorite variation. May need to start another raspberry batch sometime, this years raspberries are fantastic. Haven't tried my blood orange batch yet either, need to bottle that also.
 
IMG_20160101_124710749-picsay[1].jpg

Honey from around early June or so, local honey from one of the farmer's markets stands. Bottled since Aug. Getting really smooth, no harsh alcohols. It is actually tasting a bit sweeter now. As an experiment I added a tablespoon of an organic cranberry juice (as in no added sweetners) and it helped a lot. Something I might think about again in the future.
 
Thanks, Amazon actually had a nice price on a case of them with free shipping. They worked out great and are pretty thick glass.

Dang. You probably got a better deal than I did through a bottle supplier. Something like $3 a bottle and I got 24. It was pricey and only covers like one and a half brews. I have two right now that need bottling and no more 8oz avail...sigh.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Haha was making a "Deliverance" reference, but y'all might be too young. Sigh. Old I am. However, I now have a case of those in my cart. Darn you MH! Lol. My batch has been in since October, but no fruit drop. Little hot at tasting a couple weeks ago. Point being ready to bottle but no bottles, til now.
 
Haha was making a "Deliverance" reference, but y'all might be too young. Sigh. Old I am. However, I now have a case of those in my cart. Darn you MH! Lol. My batch has been in since October, but no fruit drop. Little hot at tasting a couple weeks ago. Point being ready to bottle but no bottles, til now.

Should have said he had a purty mouth...
 
I started my AOM on New Year's Eve (it seemed apropos). I went with just the orange zest and used a navel orange, since I already had a few - in fact, other than the hardware, I had ALL of the ingredients on-hand! I'm guesstimating that I used 3 - 3 1/2 lbs of honey. After I put in the yeast (insert Three Stooges reference), I noticed the dry yeast floating on a small cloud of foam. A few hours later, shortly after midnight, it looked like someone poured pancake batter over the orange pieces. I left it in my kitchen sink overnight, just in case it overflowed through the airlock. I have two cats and having that all over the floor didn't seem like it would end well.
Anyway, the next morning, I put the jug away in my cupboard, wrapped in a heavy blanket. Unfortunately, after 70 degrees on Christmas, a severe cold snap has hit Eastern Pennsylvania and there isn't anywhere on my house that's really all that warm right now.
Flash forward, today I topped off the jug with more water and put it away. The foam is pretty much gone, but there's been a turtle steady stream of bubbles coming from through the airlock.
Hopefully, but mid-March, I should have something to gloat about! It'll be interesting if having it slow ferment at a lower temperature will effect the taste?
 
My 1st mead. I followed the op to the letter and it couldn't have been any easier. Now I just gotta hide it someplace and forget about it! Can't wait!
 
OK, so maybe a dumb question, but is there any reason why I have to dump the orange and raisin debris out? Can I just add more ingredients on top of it for another batch?
 
OK, so maybe a dumb question, but is there any reason why I have to dump the orange and raisin debris out? Can I just add more ingredients on top of it for another batch?

My first "guess" is that the raisins are providing nutrients for the yeast. From what I can read up, that is my mostly educated guess. The orange is to set the ph correctly for the yeast to work.

So....the raisins may be used up, the orange...might still work?
 
My first "guess" is that the raisins are providing nutrients for the yeast. From what I can read up, that is my mostly educated guess. The orange is to set the ph correctly for the yeast to work.

So....the raisins may be used up, the orange...might still work?

Ah, Thanks sablesurfer. I appreciate it. The oranges from the previous batch do look fresh. Maybe I'll just add more of everything.
 
My first "guess" is that the raisins are providing nutrients for the yeast. From what I can read up, that is my mostly educated guess. The orange is to set the ph correctly for the yeast to work.



So....the raisins may be used up, the orange...might still work?


Traditional mead has no ph adjusters like orange. Yes, the raisins provide nutrients (I still add more) and some flavor too.
 
Wouldn't most of the flavor from the orange be used up in the first batch? I could be missing something obvious, but other than the cost savings of a fruit, what's the advantage to reusing it?

Plus I think youd get all the stuff you didn't want from the old fruit... like bitter pith flavor and less of the stuff you want like orange flavor. Now as for the yeast lees and raisins I GUESS you could leave them in there if you added more raisons and yeast (I bet a lot of those yeasties have had it after that wild ride they just had), but Id think theyd just be taking up space in the jug.

Sure keeping one's ex-girlfriend in the house after they marry someone else could... ehhhh... see what I mean? :ban:
 
My JAOM is finally in the bottle. I let it sit the the LBK for 3 months instead of 2. I found that I can shine a light through the LBK and judge clarity pretty well. After three months it was clear and all the fruit and dropped.

It tasted pretty good. Had a nice warming effect :) I'm going to let it sit in the bottle for a while and try it again. Not bad for my first attempt at mead.

Dave

After reading this thread I decided to give JAOM a try. I followed the directions to a tee except I doubled it because I used a Mr. Beer keg to ferment in.

I also made a mistake and forgot to shake it before adding the yeast.

I am using a Mr. Beer LBK for this because I did not want to tie up my 1 gallon jug for 2 months. I kind of regret that decision now because I cannot really watch the fermentation as easily. I have to shine a lite on it to really see how things look. It's been going for about 2 weeks now. My plan is to put it away and forget about it for a while now.

Dave
 
hey guys, stupid question. I think my JOAM has been fermenting for about 4 months - I've kind of forgotten about it. With my "regular" 5g fermenters, I have spouts on them and that's how I transfer the beer. I have never had to draw liquid out of a thin-neck 1g glass bottle like what I am using for my meads.

Do I want an autosiphon? Something like this?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064ODELI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
Last edited by a moderator:
hey guys, stupid question. I think my JOAM has been fermenting for about 4 months - I've kind of forgotten about it. With my "regular" 5g fermenters, I have spouts on them and that's how I transfer the beer. I have never had to draw liquid out of a thin-neck 1g glass bottle like what I am using for my meads.

Do I want an autosiphon? Something like this?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064ODELI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

You don't have to have an autosiphon, but they really help. You can use a sanitized tube with sanitized water in it, push it down in the mead, and start the siphoning that way if you're only going to use it for this, but I like my autosiphon.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You don't have to have an autosiphon, but they really help. You can use a sanitized tube with sanitized water in it, push it down in the mead, and start the siphoning that way if you're only going to use it for this, but I like my autosiphon.

totally agree with this!

If you do buy a auto siphon get the mini version.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Or just ferment 5 gallons so you can use your regular autosiphon. 5 gallon bonus: you'll still probably have some mead around when it tastes good (2+ years).
 
I made a gallon of JAOM last Saturday, it's now three days later and fermentation seems to have settled down, (foam has dropped, more space in the jug..., I had to clean my air lock and remove some of the must with a sanitized turkey baster twice). :smack:

I thought I read online somewhere to top it off once the fermentation settles down.

What about topping it off with distilled water and more honey, sugar, or corn syrup (i.e. karo syrup) Heated to 165* to pasteurize the sugar and cooled to room temp of course.

Or just plain old distilled water at room temp, if at all...:confused:

thanks
 
If you have an airlock on there then just leave it alone. If you add fermentables it may take off again.

Also, not that I necessarily follow the directions myself, pretty sure it says to leave it alone several times.

RDWHAHB (or a craft brew if you don't have homebrew yet)
 
Started my first batch in October, cleared by about Christmas but the fruit was still floating, so I left it. Last week, noticed oranges had dropped, looked like time to bottle. Brought it up out of the basement Friday evening, set it on the counter to settle down for bottling on Sunday. Didn't happen, no biggie, out of town for work til tonight. Come in, my oranges are floating again, and it's now cloudy. No one messed with it, so my only conclusion is that the combination of little bit o' shaky shaky, plus warmer environment it has now decided it needs a little more time. Oh well, got plenty to drink and this was for next Christmas anyway.
 
So, on Sunday, I pulled the New Year's Eve mead out of the cupboard, unwrapped the blanket and gave it a quick inspection (I saw another article about looking for a grey ring in the foam as a sign of a brew gone bad). The mead is still quietly fizzing along, looks a little lighter in color than when I started. I wrapped it back in the blanket and put it back into rear of the cupboard. Should be clear by the end of February/first week of March.

Mead 1 NYE.jpg


Mead 1 Jan.jpg
 
If you have an airlock on there then just leave it alone. If you add fermentables it may take off again.

Also, not that I necessarily follow the directions myself, pretty sure it says to leave it alone several times.

RDWHAHB (or a craft brew if you don't have homebrew yet)

"...RDWHAHB...":p Being a brewing noob I had to google it, that's great. :D

No home brew,,, yet, "Classic American Light" carbonating in bottles, and "Aztec Mexican Cerveza" fermenting in my Mr Beer "LBK", and of course JAOM bubbling away in a jug.:ban:
 
Hey, does anyone know if Joseph Mattioli of Pocono Raceway is the same Joseph Mattioli that came up with JAOM? :confused: just wonderin...
 
I bottled my first batch of JOAM Sunday, I started it back in October. Now I admit I've had a few glasses tonight, its very strong. I might be a little incoherent. Tasty, tasty stuff. It is smooth, lots of body, great mouth feel, Bottom line, I love it!
 
Trying to find where I posted about bottling these, but since I have done a side by side of them, well I will probably not find anything tonight!

OMG! So my bottle dates are...the darker one on 8/30/15 and the lighter one on 9/1/15. Just tried a vertical of the two on 2/13. SOOOOO.....SMOOOOOOTH. Dangerous, both of them. The lighter one lets more of the citrus through....but not in a "orange" way, just as a highlight under the florals. The darker one is much more HONEY still, with big lavender/honey suckle florals and hints of raisin. The darker one feels more alcoholic while the lighter one smells a bit hot.

So...if you are considering JOAM over 'traditional' mead...wow, this is less than a year from start to 'i'd make friends drink this'... :)

Yes, I am breaking the do not touch rule again. Moving over to secondary so that I can get the bigger 1gal carboys back into rotation. Both honeys from the farmers market, one from a place with light honey and other from a place with nice dark wildflower. Even at a month, these are tasting great and completely different from each other.

View attachment 287157
View attachment 287158

((Decided to open one of my first ever batch to drink as I went, it has changed for the better in just a few months! Clean now and whatever the 'olive' taste was when first bottled is gone now.))

The first two batches are running into about 2 months in bottle and flavors are cleaning up nicely there. Not sure why these two batches are already super clean.

(ps....for these plastic carboys, orange bits come out mostly by filling 1/3 with rinse water and squeezing just as orange gets to neck to pop it out into sink.)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top