Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

[Dominic1920]

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?

 

[sablesurfer]

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?

 

[Dominic1920]

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.

 

[brewski09]

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.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

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?

 

[CreamyGoodness]

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?

 

[Fizzie]

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

 

[heckofagator]

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

 

[lumpher]

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.

 

[fuzzy2133]

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.

 

[tellyho]

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).

 

[olephart]

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...

thanks

 

[brewski09]

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)

 

[beernbourbon]

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.

 

[TrekMedic]

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.

 

[olephart]

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

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.

 

[olephart]

Hey, does anyone know if Joseph Mattioli of Pocono Raceway is the same Joseph Mattioli that came up with JAOM? just wonderin...

 

[Dominic1920]

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!

 

[sablesurfer]

Ooooo.....look what I get to experiment with!!!

View attachment 297377

Since my JOAMs are coming out pretty neutral, just going to use each of these as part of the honey in the batch. Blend both with same base honey and see what happens.

Hopefully bottling these tomorrow. Haven't even messed with them in forever.

 

[sablesurfer]

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.)

 

[sablesurfer]

Bottled both the chipotle and habanero meads today.

- Chipotle has some interesting light chocolate and raisin notes, but I have no idea what chipotle the store used, so could be right. A bit of warmth, from like a good chili heat. OG1.112, FG1.022
- Habanero is deceptively clean on aroma, but when all that habanero fruit flavor hits your tongue you realize you might be in trouble. A sip and my throat was tingling for 10 minutes. OG1.108, FG1.018

They both dropped right at 90 points, kinda neat since they both came from same store here in town. That puts them at just under 12%. I'll let these sit for a long time and come back to them.

(Edit, well sorry, seems I cannot up load attachments again for some reason.)

 

[ncpierced]

I pulled a little yeaterday to see how it was coming along and i can't believe how smooth this is.

View attachment 1455485280314.jpg

 

[EmptyVessel]

Decided to give this a go today. Used Arizona wild flower honey and tangerines. It was a nice afternoon project spent with my Valentine��

 

[beernbourbon]

Finally bottled batch started back first of September (found my notes). FG of 1.048. Seems a bit high but really not 100% on the SG. It's pretty warm to taste. I get the orange pith on back end. Bottled will sit til Christmas so it should mellow quite a bit by then. The cellar will keep it out of sight, out of mind.

 

[diverkiwi]

So I have a question, I think I did something wrong...
So I started my mead on 11/26/15
My hydrometer readings were as follows:
Potential alcohol 22%
Gravity 1.16
Balling 36

I took the readings today 2/15/16
Potential alcohol, just under 0
Gravity is at 1.0
Balling is at 0

It is still cloudy, I haven't seen it bubble in ages. It has kind of a sharp taste, no where near as sugary as it originally was, it is definitely alcohol though.
Did I foul something up? Should I do anything? Let it sit longer? Thoughts?
Thanks!

 

[rlmiller10]

So I have a question, I think I did something wrong...
So I started my mead on 11/26/15
My hydrometer readings were as follows:
Potential alcohol 22%
Gravity 1.16
Balling 36

I took the readings today 2/15/16
Potential alcohol, just under 0
Gravity is at 1.0
Balling is at 0

It is still cloudy, I haven't seen it bubble in ages. It has kind of a sharp taste, no where near as sugary as it originally was, it is definitely alcohol though.
Did I foul something up? Should I do anything? Let it sit longer? Thoughts?
Thanks!

Not enough info to say if you screwed up. But I would be really surprised if bread yeast knocked a specific gravity from 1.160 to 1.000. It should have passed its alcohol tolerance some place around 10% at best. That would leave a final gravity of 1.083. I suspect you calculated your initial gravity incorrectly. How many lb of honey per gallon did you add? You should get around 35 points of gravity per lb of honey, although I have read of as much as 40 points (http://www.brew-dudes.com/specific-gravity-of-honey-water-solution/546)

 

[diverkiwi]

Not enough info to say if you screwed up. But I would be really surprised if bread yeast knocked a specific gravity from 1.160 to 1.000. It should have passed its alcohol tolerance some place around 10% at best. That would leave a final gravity of 1.083. I suspect you calculated your initial gravity incorrectly. How many lb of honey per gallon did you add? You should get around 35 points of gravity per lb of honey, although I have read of as much as 40 points (http://www.brew-dudes.com/specific-gravity-of-honey-water-solution/546)

Started with 3 lbs of honey and I had used champagne yeast cause that's what I had originally read to use before I saw the recipe for JOAM.

First time brewing. So I'm learning...

 

[passedpawn]

I had no idea what this thread was about. Then, @Gavin_C sent me a bottle. Super yum!

 

[brewski09]

Started with 3 lbs of honey and I had used champagne yeast cause that's what I had originally read to use before I saw the recipe for JOAM.



First time brewing. So I'm learning...

Champagne yeast commonly is accepted to have 18% ABV tolerance.

 

[ten80]

Champagne yeast commonly is accepted to have 18% ABV tolerance.

I've pushed EC1118 Champagne yeast up to 18% without any trouble. Just occasional swirling of the carboy to rouse the yeast. Bread yeast should indeed peter out before 18%.