Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

[rlmiller10]

Oh, and using the whole orange you will get some bitter pith flavors that will need to age out. I jest half of my oranges, then peal all the orange and white off all the oranges adding the jest from half and the meat from all to avoid the pith flavors.

 

[Mothman]

Just wanted to add to the many posts here and say I started a batch of the op recipe last night before supper.

Finally found a glass gallon jug (2 actually) after weeks of searching and threw this together.

So simple! Started to gurgle a bit a couple hours after mixing it all, and today it is happily burping away.

I've got it wrapped in a towel on the kitchen counter for a day or so more until I'm sure the foam has settled down a bit, then will top it up near the top and put it up on the pantry top shelf.

Think I better set an email reminder for me for a couple months from now so I don't forget about it.

 

[Justin201]

I would cut back to about 15 lb honey. Using 17.5 will be quite sweet. And the raisins, says 5 small handfuls which would be at least 50 raisins even with child sized hands so not sure where the 25 number came from.

But it should make a very good mead.

Thank you

 

[RPh_Guy]

I would like to have a drinkable mead in around 2-3 months or less.

However I see a lot of folks posting about needing to age JAOM 6 months to several years... usually due to the fusel alcohols produced (jet fuel/"hot" taste). Forgive me for stating the obvious but this is almost certainly due to yeast fermenting at non-optimal temperatures, assuming the recipe was followed.

Can anyone using fleischmann's active dry yeast share your fermentation temperature and the fusel quality of the mead at 2 months? Joe's recipe says to ferment at 70-80F. Are the people getting high fusels fermenting outside of this range or did you otherwise change the recipe?

I am looking forward to feedback!

Also surprised I haven't seen any mention of the 1-month JAOM-variant (BOMM) that I am considering either instead of or in addition to this recipe.

 

[Baabaadoo]

Got mine going around 64F, which is perfect for the lavlin d47 brews I got going next to my JAOM. We'll find out. It's bubbling about every 5 seconds at about 3 days. First round of mead brewing for me.

 

[jmneill]

I know this is supposed to be a bulletproof recipe, but my first batch just didn't take. Hyper slow fermentation for a few days, then stuck. Pitched some more yeast, but it just didn't take. Eventually dumped the gallon of swill and started fresh. 2nd go-round, again following the recipe to the T, with the exception of adding an 1/8 teaspoon of Wyeast nutrient to the mix. This batch kicked off within 30 minutes and is going strong on what is now day 5.

I don't get it, as all the ingredients in the second batch replicated the first, sans the nutrient..

 

[brewit75]

I know this is supposed to be a bulletproof recipe, but my first batch just didn't take. Hyper slow fermentation for a few days, then stuck. Pitched some more yeast, but it just didn't take. Eventually dumped the gallon of swill and started fresh. 2nd go-round, again following the recipe to the T, with the exception of adding an 1/8 teaspoon of Wyeast nutrient to the mix. This batch kicked off within 30 minutes and is going strong on what is now day 5.

I don't get it, as all the ingredients in the second batch replicated the first, sans the nutrient..

That is strange. The first thing that comes to mind is the yeast and if it was viable. For the 2nd batch, was it the same batch of yeast? This happened to me once. The yeast was sold as a sleeve of 5 packs. When the first package didn't take, I pitched a second from the same sleeve and it worked.

 

[jmneill]

That is strange. The first thing that comes to mind is the yeast and if it was viable. For the 2nd batch, was it the same batch of yeast? This happened to me once. The yeast was sold as a sleeve of 5 packs. When the first package didn't take, I pitched a second from the same sleeve and it worked.

You know, before reading your post I would have said yes, same yeast. However, I too purchased the yeast by the sleeve. I would have bet good money that you wouldn't get one bad pack followed by a good one in the same sleeve. (or in my case, two bad packs followed by a good one) Again, my first batch did take, albeit VERY slowly before becoming stuck, so I dunno. With less than a couple dozen batches of wine under my belt, and this being my first mead, I'm not qualified to even make an educated guess.

 

[rlmiller10]

You know, before reading your post I would have said yes, same yeast. However, I too purchased the yeast by the sleeve. I would have bet good money that you wouldn't get one bad pack followed by a good one in the same sleeve. (or in my case, two bad packs followed by a good one) Again, my first batch did take, albeit VERY slowly before becoming stuck, so I dunno. With less than a couple dozen batches of wine under my belt, and this being my first mead, I'm not qualified to even make an educated guess.

For JAOM and bread I recommend going to Sam's and getting the bricks of yeast. Even baking weekly it will last you for over a year. But it just seems to be more fresh and I have certainly had better luck with it when making bread then with the strip packs from the grocery store. I was using it by the time I started making mead and have never had any trouble there either.

 

[Dorkusmalorkus]

I made a batch of this a while ago and it was not bad. The one thing I struggled with was getting rid of the very fine wispy lees/sediment completely.

Ended up with a slightly cloudy mead that, according to my friend who has never had mead, had a light beer-like aftertaste but was quite good. It must have been strong for a mead because he felt as if he had drunk two and a half regular beers from drinking a small 250ml bottle

 

[Anon111]

Gonna try this as soon as I finished reading this thread! (on page 97 now)

 

[RPh_Guy]

It's a three-month recipe if you count reading the thread.

 

[honeycon]

It's a three-month recipe if you count reading the thread.

Love that. So true. I guess it is popular for a reason. Just got back from a family Easter dinner and everyone who tried my JAOM really liked it. A first for my family and the other meads I have made.

 

[Baabaadoo]

I wouldn't wait on reading the entire thread to start making this mead. Just read the recipe and do it. lol

 

[Anon111]

Waiting for an available demijohn. Next weekend the Belgium Dark should be ready for bottling, so I could launch a JAOM within a week! Only need an orange, rest is in the house.

 

[Mothman]

This may be answered elsewhere in the thread, but...

I'm a couple weeks away from 2 months in the primary.

The mead is already clearing out nicely, but I'm game to leave it the full 2 months.

At the 2 month mark, do I want to rack to a new gallon jug? Or go right to bottles? What's the preferred method?

And if I end up racking to a jug and bulk aging, should I be topping up that jug to get rid of most of the headspace? If so... with what? Just boiled/cooled water? In the primary, it's full up to within a couple inches of the airlock, but after I rack off the goop and fruit, there will be significant headspace.

 

[Anon111]

JAOM in demijohn 'Runaround', few things differ from the original:
-the yeast, it's a local bread yeast, not the brand mentioned in the recipe
-the raisins were cut in half, so my daughter (and partner in crime) could contribute too
-because of the loss of a bit of orange due to being too large for the neck, I added a slice of a 16th, for compensation, from second orange
The rest of that orange (15/16th) were consequently consumed by juniorette.
Gravity was off the scale, 1130? 1135? The silicon tube did not quite fit in the cork so I did something with saran wrap and 2 elastic bands (it won't do **** but it kept SWMBO quiet).

And now we wait

 

[Anon111]

This may be answered elsewhere in the thread, but...

I'm a couple weeks away from 2 months in the primary.

The mead is already clearing out nicely, but I'm game to leave it the full 2 months.

At the 2 month mark, do I want to rack to a new gallon jug? Or go right to bottles? What's the preferred method?

And if I end up racking to a jug and bulk aging, should I be topping up that jug to get rid of most of the headspace? If so... with what? Just boiled/cooled water? In the primary, it's full up to within a couple inches of the airlock, but after I rack off the goop and fruit, there will be significant headspace.

Some people use sanitised glass marbles (so I've read somewhere, I think). I don't know how and also wether it works. But it's the closest to the recipe I can recall.

 

[Mothman]

Thanks for that suggestion. I think to keep things simple, once it's ready I'll just put it into bottles.

On that note, my JAOM is coming along nicely (I think anyways) lol.

I'm 10 days shy of 2 months in the primary.

It's cleared up pretty nicely. Well... it WAS pretty dang clear up until a few days ago. I've got the jug stored on the pantry top shelf, and while moving a big old bag of flour I accidentally knocked the jug. It didn't tip over, but it came darn close, gave the bottle a big ol' shake. Oops!

So it clouded all up, of course.

Now, a few days later, it's pretty clear again.

Still not quite newspaper clear, but getting close. The jug is green glass so it is a little tough to gauge exactly the clarity.

Only a single orange piece has fallen so far, the rest are still suspended on a blanket of bubbles at the top. And if I shine a light behind the jug I can still see a lot of tiny little bubbles constantly rising. Amazing to me that this is still working away, over 6 weeks later... with bread yeast! =O

Hopefully the next couple weeks will see the bubbling stop, allowing the fruit to drop, and I'll be ready to rock for bottling.

I'm a little afraid of the bottling process... I don't have a small enough auto-siphon to fit in the jug so will be doing it the old fashioned way, just a tube and cane (or maybe just a tube, not sure yet) trying as best I can to not disturb the lees in the process.

 

[RPh_Guy]

If it's clear the yeast is basically done. The bubbles are pure CO2 that won't dissolve because the mead is saturated with CO2.
Once it was clear I moved mine to a colder ambient (increasing the CO2 capacity of the mead) and the fruit dropped -- all but a few raisins. I'm sure if I moved it to warm and back to cold they would all drop. The amount of ambient temperature variance likely accounts for people's differing times for the fruit dropping.

As far as bottling, I'm planning to rack directly to bottles and if it starts to get cloudy I'll rack to a secondary to let it settle again for however long it takes to clear.

@Gerrit LOL nice improvisational airlock!
Gravity readings might calculate a poor approximation of the ABV because the OG doesn't account for all the sugar in the orange and raisins.

 

[Anon111]

Finally got around to attach a proper airlock: exchanged cork-and-tube for cork-and-airlock like Indiana Jones :rockin:
The cork from the tube had a VERY typical smell, very orangey, very promising. I think I gonna need a bigger demi!

And it's bubbling nice and easy: https://goo.gl/photos/vhVhqfpd5UkNGe2j6

 

[Baabaadoo]

I accidentally only added 3lbs of honey instead of 3.5. Will this ferment dry then? I want a sweeter mead. If it isn't sweet enough, could I rack it into a secondary with the extra honey and let it resettle or would that mess it up? XP

 

[Maylar]

Yes you can add more honey in secondary. Let it finish though so you know where you stand with the sweetness.

 

[Baabaadoo]

Of course. Thank you!

 

[Anon111]

JOAM here is still bubbling happily once every 2 seconds, nine days after launch.

 

[Kshock]

Just started a 3 gal batch 2hr ago. 72degreeish
2 cloves

Pinch of nutmeg
3 oranges (no peel)
3 mini boxes of raisins
10lbs of honey (not cheap)
Glacier water
1 1/2 teaspoon bread yeast..
I'm seeing good activity, but my honey has separated to the bottom.. will this be ok?

 

[brewit75]

Just started a 3 gal batch 2hr ago. 72degreeish
2 cloves

Pinch of nutmeg
3 oranges (no peel)
3 mini boxes of raisins
10lbs of honey (not cheap)
Glacier water
1 1/2 teaspoon bread yeast..
I'm seeing good activity, but my honey has separated to the bottom.. will this be ok?

Yup, this is fine. I've done many batches and maybe 1 or 2 didn’t separate. The rest have all separated no matter how well they were originally shaken. The yeast will power right through it. It's actually pretty cool to watch the yeast make it's way down and get to the honey as it progresses. Fun to see. Can you post pictures?

 

[TrekMedic]

Just started a 3 gal batch 2hr ago. 72degreeish
2 cloves

Pinch of nutmeg
3 oranges (no peel)
3 mini boxes of raisins
10lbs of honey (not cheap)
Glacier water
1 1/2 teaspoon bread yeast..
I'm seeing good activity, but my honey has separated to the bottom.. will this be ok?

It didn't happen with my gallon of JAOM, but I recently started a 2-gallon run of strawberry melomel and the honey went straight to the bottom. Once the yeast starts settling downward, it'll find it.

 

[Kshock]

Very fun to watch. I can see now it working some honey up. This bread yeast is doing work lol making me worry about my blow off tube

 

[Anon111]

A bit off topic: I was looking the other weekend for a cork that would fit the silicon hose for blowoff purposes, and the nice lady told me (in a rather stern way), that if I needed a hose for that, I prolly overfilled it. I couldn't disagree with her.
So, is there any consensus about the application of blowoff setups?