Joe's Ancient Orange Mead

[Kshock]

I like them for when your pitching something that will stir up good, quick fermentation . Then exchange for a sanitized air lock when it dies down in a day or two.

 

[brewit75]

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

Nice....after a few days, the yeast will be so active that you'll get a "current" flowing.

When my batches are in full action, the cinnamon stick will actually drift around from side to side and top to bottom and swirl around the carboy.

 

[Mothman]

Today is two months since throwing my batch together.

Only a bit of fruit gas fallen, but it is fairly clear.

It's in a green jug, and some sediment has clung on to the sides of the jug inside, so it's not looking as clear as other photos I've seen here.

The photo makes it look more murky than it is I think, as I can read the cereal box just fine through the mead.

Think I'm OK to rack to a bottling bucket and bottle this, or should I wait some more?

 

[rlmiller10]

Mothman - that is pretty. I would bottle that. My last two batches have refused to clean. My present one is working in 9 months and is still cloudy. So I think yours looks great.

 

[Baabaadoo]

My 1 gallon batch is looking similar to Mothman's. I'm tempted to bottle it soon too.

 

[Maylar]

Today is two months since throwing my batch together.

Only a bit of fruit gas fallen, but it is fairly clear.

It's in a green jug, and some sediment has clung on to the sides of the jug inside, so it's not looking as clear as other photos I've seen here.

The photo makes it look more murky than it is I think, as I can read the cereal box just fine through the mead.

Think I'm OK to rack to a bottling bucket and bottle this, or should I wait some more?

I'd rack it to a clear jug if you can, and see if it clears a bit more without the lees and fruit. You'll be tempted to siphon off as much as you can get, and that will likely pick up a bit of lees too.

Be aware that bread yeast is very light and fluffy and easily disturbed, if you move the carboy you'll kick up sediment and need to wait a few days before racking.

As an example of what people can expect, here's a photo record of my first JAOM. Temperature matters in timing, mine was a summer brew starting on July 4th.

1 day after pitching:

30 days:

At 65 days:

Racked to secondary, 70 days. Yield from 1 gallon was 4 wine bottles:

Bottled it a week later. Mead!

 

[Mothman]

I wrapped a damp towel around my jug to cool it a bit.and now, a day later, most of the fruit has dropped.

Will bottle as soon as life gives me a bit of time to get 'er done.

 

[Mothman]

Bottled my Joe's Ancient tonight.

Two months + 1 day in primary, and all but one orange dropped overnight last night, nice and clear.

I was afraid of racking it, that I'd end up with a load of yeast schmutz, but it actually went really smoothly.

I used my auto-siphon (just barely fits in the gallon jug neck), and started an inch or so above the lees and fruit, but realized I'd be leaving behind a lot of goodness, so very gently dropped the siphon right down on top of the lees/fruit, and it must have luckily landed right on an orange peel, because I found a nice solid seat for the siphon, and got all but the last little bit (maybe a cup), and only a tiny, tiny amount of debris made it into the bottling bucket.

I got 4 full bomber bottles full, to put away, plus another about 1/2 full, which I put in the fridge to enjoy over the next number of days.

I've only ever tried mead once before, many years ago, and recall not enjoying it.

I don't know what mead is supposed to taste like, but this is very drinkable, right out of primary. It smells and tastes very slightly hot, but not extremely so. The orange and spice is coming through quite strong, but also balanced against the sweetness.

Overall I'm very happy with my first attempt at mead, and I'm interested to see how these taste after some months in the bottle.

On that note, should these be stored/aged at room temperature? I could put them in our crawl space which is significantly cooler, maybe around 55F or so.

 

[Kshock]

3gallon started about 5 days agp

 

[RPh_Guy]

No airlock?

 

[rlmiller10]

On that note, should these be stored/aged at room temperature? I could put them in our crawl space which is significantly cooler, maybe around 55F or so.

I treat mine like wine. I put it in a cool dark place and leave it. JAOM seems to age well and the 2013 I am drinking now is quite good. I had some mojito mead that the mint and lime flavors faded rather fast to aging it was not a good thing.

I also make a Christmas mead with nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon and that seems to age Ok but the most I have done is two years. I worry the spice might fade after that.

 

[Kshock]

No airlock?

Pic is of when I got all ingredients into the carboy ,before air lock , and putting it in cupboard. Lol

 

[Mothman]

I treat mine like wine. I put it in a cool dark place and leave it. JAOM seems to age well and the 2013 I am drinking now is quite good. I had some mojito mead that the mint and lime flavors faded rather fast to aging it was not a good thing.

I also make a Christmas mead with nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon and that seems to age Ok but the most I have done is two years. I worry the spice might fade after that.

Thanks, I'll move it down into the cool crawl space.

 

[flb_78]

Just "bottled" my first gallon last weekend. Started it Dec 1, 2012. I filtered it through coffee filters 3 times to remove any solids. Im not a wine drinker so Im not sure how this is. It tastes "hot" to me. I vacuum sealed the jars with a FoodSaver and Im going to let it sit a couple months now.

Do you think it will be safe to drink over 4 years later? Its been sitting on a dark shelf, still in the same bottles...

 

[RPh_Guy]

Do you think it will be safe to drink over 4 years later? Its been sitting on a dark shelf, still in the same bottles...

Absolutely, just drink responsibly.

 

[rlmiller10]

Do you think it will be safe to drink over 4 years later? Its been sitting on a dark shelf, still in the same bottles...

Definitely not. I recommend you send it all to me for proper disposal.

Depending on how your yeast performed, you should have upward of 10% alcohol. That is a pretty good preservative. It will be fine but you probably don't want to chance it, thus the first two sentences.

 

[ethics_gradient]

I made this for the first time 3.5 weeks ago. I don't think my fermentation space has been warm enough (probably not over 16C), seems to have been very little activity.

I've only got 4 demis, 2 of which are tied up with what I assume is a failing batch of mead. Can I repitch more yeast (just dump in and shake?) if I move it somewhere warmer? I've got an aquarium heater that I should be able to use to keep the temp anywhere between 18-28C.

FWIW, I am doing a side-by-side comparison between Fleischmann's and regular bread yeast (I am in Australia and the Fleischmann's is normally unavailable, ordered it from the US).

 

[rlmiller10]

I made this for the first time 3.5 weeks ago. I don't think my fermentation space has been warm enough (probably not over 16C), seems to have been very little activity.

I've only got 4 demis, 2 of which are tied up with what I assume is a failing batch of mead. Can I repitch more yeast (just dump in and shake?) if I move it somewhere warmer? I've got an aquarium heater that I should be able to use to keep the temp anywhere between 18-28C.

FWIW, I am doing a side-by-side comparison between Fleischmann's and regular bread yeast (I am in Australia and the Fleischmann's is normally unavailable, ordered it from the US).

The yeast if probably just going slow but not dead. I would use the heater and get it warmed up to 20C or so and give it a few days. I bet it takes off.

 

[ethics_gradient]

The yeast if probably just going slow but not dead. I would use the heater and get it warmed up to 20C or so and give it a few days. I bet it takes off.

Thanks, will try this!

 

[RPh_Guy]

Just bottled my first batch of JAOM after 2 months 18 days in the primary.

I followed the recipe exactly (including fermentation temp around 74-78 F).
It cleared up nicely after maybe 2-3 weeks of fermentation and the fruit dropped quite quickly after I moved it to a slightly cooler temperature (64-68 F).

I racked directly from the carboy into clear 6oz glass bottles (with an auto-siphon) and this worked very well. Once it started to get cloudy toward the very bottom I put the remainder in a glass jar in the fridge to try to salvage it later.

I was afraid there would be too much pith, cinnamon, clove or that it may be too sweet. I had only a small taste when I bottled but I must say I was extremely pleased with how well it came out. Not overly sweet, nice honey and orange with only a light taste of the spice blend. I put in all the pith but couldn't really taste it -- maybe I got lucky with the orange I used. It is very drinkable but I will still be aging it for a while to see how it improves over time (that's what everyone says anyway).

Any idea of what the alcohol tolerance of the Fleishmann's yeast is? I'd be curious to know the ABV. I wouldn't really trust gravity readings because they don't account for the sugar in the fruit extracted during fermentation.
rlmiller10, how did you decide it's probably 10%? A simple experiment would be to put some of the yeast in different alcohol concentrations with sugar and see if the yeast start fermentation.

Thanks everyone. I will probably make this again in the future.

 

[rlmiller10]

Just bottled my first batch of JAOM after 2 months 18 days in the primary.

I followed the recipe exactly (including fermentation temp around 74-78 F).
It cleared up nicely after maybe 2-3 weeks of fermentation and the fruit dropped quite quickly after I moved it to a slightly cooler temperature (64-68 F).

I racked directly from the carboy into clear 6oz glass bottles (with an auto-siphon) and this worked very well. Once it started to get cloudy toward the very bottom I put the remainder in a glass jar in the fridge to try to salvage it later.

I was afraid there would be too much pith, cinnamon, clove or that it may be too sweet. I had only a small taste when I bottled but I must say I was extremely pleased with how well it came out. Not overly sweet, nice honey and orange with only a light taste of the spice blend. I put in all the pith but couldn't really taste it -- maybe I got lucky with the orange I used. It is very drinkable but I will still be aging it for a while to see how it improves over time (that's what everyone says anyway).

Any idea of what the alcohol tolerance of the Fleishmann's yeast is? I'd be curious to know the ABV. I wouldn't really trust gravity readings because they don't account for the sugar in the fruit extracted during fermentation.
rlmiller10, how did you decide it's probably 10%? A simple experiment would be to put some of the yeast in different alcohol concentrations with sugar and see if the yeast start fermentation.

Thanks everyone. I will probably make this again in the future.

I based the 10% on gravity readings from the ones I have made. There is some variability. I have had from 12% to 8%. In all cases I have ignored the small amount of sugar the orange would have added.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I based the 10% on gravity readings from the ones I have made. There is some variability. I have had from 12% to 8%. In all cases I have ignored the small amount of sugar the orange would have added.

Thank you. After looking at some nutrition info I suppose it's fair to ignore the fruit sugar.... Should be only around 25g.

I bet mine is towards the upper end. It tastes fairly dry and alcoholic. I would guess around 11-14% just by taste. In retrospect I should have taken gravity readings but I thought the fruit sugar would invalidate the sugar content measurement only in solution. No biggie: it tastes great.

Cheers

 

[ethics_gradient]

The yeast if probably just going slow but not dead. I would use the heater and get it warmed up to 20C or so and give it a few days. I bet it takes off.

Just an update: the Fleishmann's started bubbling after a day or so, the Coles yeast is showing no airlock activity. Just gonna let them hang out at 22C until they clear!

 

[rlmiller10]

Just an update: the Fleishmann's started bubbling after a day or so, the Coles yeast is showing no airlock activity. Just gonna let them hang out at 22C until they clear!

Can you get a gravity reading of the Coles? Just to see if it is done or not.

 

[ethics_gradient]

Can you get a gravity reading of the Coles? Just to see if it is done or not.

The fruit's still at the top, so it'd be a bit tricky. I don't know that it ever really started properly, to be honest.

 

[rlmiller10]

The fruit's still at the top, so it'd be a bit tricky. I don't know that it ever really started properly, to be honest.

A wine thief or turkey baster to suck up a sample? Or you could just pitch new yeast. If it is don't, it will just fall out. If not, it should start up.

 

[Anon111]

Pretty clear, apart from the floaties. I'll coldcrash it overnight and bottle tomorrow. Looking forward to tasting it :rockin:

 

[RPh_Guy]

Pretty clear, apart from the floaties. I'll coldcrash it overnight and bottle tomorrow. Looking forward to tasting it :rockin:

To maximize the clarity you may consider leaving it set for a day or more where you will be bottling it, since the yeast may kick up a little when you move it.

 

[Anon111]

To maximize the clarity you may consider leaving it set for a day or more where you will be bottling it, since the yeast may kick up a little when you move it.

I already moved it, hence the floaties. But I'll have to figure out a way to minimise my losses with the fruit still hanging high and the yeasty boys below.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Good chance the fruit will drop when you cold crash. The CO2 keeping it up will dissolve.
Good luck!