Malkore's (not so) Ancient Orange Mead

[malkore]

D47 would work as would 71B.

Ken Scramm's book has a great yeast pairing guide (some yeasts accentuate the fruits in a melomel, for example). if you have a high ABV in mind go with champagne or EC-1118

 

[sharpstick]

You can choose a yeast for it's flavor properties, then after it reaches its tolerance level and dies, you can pitch with a higher level one like EC 1118 that has more neutral flavors but can go to a higher alcohol level.

 

[GurraG]

I went with the white wine yeast. I have since found a Swedish online shop that sells Lalvin yeast. I'll use it next time!

 

[GurraG]

I don't want to sound lika a paranoid newbie, but...
I made a batch of MAOM last night, trying to follow the recipe as accurately as I could. Now it's been in the carboy for twelve hours, and I can't detect any signs of fermenting. There is a little bit of foaming, but no sounds/signs of bubbling and no airlock activity. Is this normal?

 

[malkore]

Fermentation can take 72 hours to kick off.

Yeast grow the colony size first, which consumes oxygen, and doesn't make CO2 to bubble the airlock.

that's why aeration is so important at first, and why rehydrating the yeast first in water before pitching...as thick, sweet mead must can be hard on the dry yeast.

 

[sorefingers23]

how long does this mead have to age??

 

[dustinface]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is this degassing and staggering nutrients of which you speak?

 

[GurraG]

Newbie question about when to rack to secondary. Malkore, when you write:

Going to secondary just depends. It might be ready in 3 weeks...might take 5. Trust the hydrometer, and your tongue. If its way too sweet, its still got sugar to ferment, and racking will just stall or halt fermentation, especially if you're past 50%. that much alcohol, and removing that much healthy yeast....not good.

Do you mean that the mead should be racked to secondary when it is more or less as sweet as one would want the finished brew to be? Or do you mean that that it should go into secondary when the SG is more or less where the FG will be (I'm suspecting this is pretty much the same as my first alternative)? Or do you mean something else?

 

[malkore]

dustinface: there's info on the board an google on 'staggered nutrient additions'. essentially you are feeding small doses of nutrient and energizer the first week of primary.

degassing is just that: degassing the CO2 out of the must, usually with a wine whip or a drill mounted degasser. too much CO2 is quite unhealthy for the yeast.


GurraG: you do not want to rack to secondary until the mead is done fermenting. hydrometer readings are what you need, but if the gravity is not moving but the mead tastes way too sweet, you likely have a stuck fermentation and should not rack but re-pitch/rouse the yeast cake, etc.

if you rack early you can stall the mead, or think its done. but once in the bottle, it has a nasty habit of resuming.

 

[usfmikeb]

Chose this as my first mead, with some minor tweaks on the spices. Instead of cinnamon and cloves, I used 6 crushed green cardamom pods, to accentuate the floral essence of the honey. tasted the must, and it was awesome, with just a slight hint of cardamom, and a nice balanced orange flavor. My OG is 1.101, haven't pitched the yeast yet, the temp was still 90 degrees. Figured I'd give it an hour and then pitch.

 

[usfmikeb]

A little under three weeks later, and I just did my last nutrient addition. Gravity today was 1.055.

 

[huesmann]

I just did a combo of JAOM and MAOM on Monday. I used 3.5 lb of honey (2.5 lb clover, 1 lb mesquite), an orange, a clove, Hodgson Mill bakers yeast, and a cinnamon stick, and 1 g of Fermaid K.

I zested the orange using a vegetable peeler, so I ended up with one long coil of zest. (I make limoncello, which involves zesting citrus fruits without taking the white pith, so I'm pretty skilled at it by now.) I sliced the naked orange in half and used my citrus squeezer to juice each half into the must. Dumped the honey into my gallon jar, added some warm water to help it dissolve, shook it up to dissolve, and added all the other stuff. Pitched the yeast using the directions on the packet, dumped it in, screwed the cap on the jar, and jammed a bung and airlock on top. Started bubbling within an hour or so.

 

[25Chuck]

Greetings! This is my first post and first batch of mead.

I made the batch yesterday but because I have the curse of tinkering, I didn't follow the recipe exactly and now I'm a bit worried and I have a few questions.

I only changed a few things,
1) I split the batch into two one gallon carboys so I could try two different types of yeast. In one carboy I pitched Wyeast's sweet mead and in the other I pitched Wyeast's dry mead.
2) I didn't have any yeast nutrients so I added juice but not zest from a second orange. I also added a few raisins into the carboys. In my rudimentary understanding, this should give the yeast something to snack on in lieu of yeast nutrients or am I totally off base?

I ended up with an OG of 1.106 and I read somewhere that standard mead should have an OG between 1.080 and 1.120, so I should be good there right?

My only other concern is that it has been 12 hours and I still don't see any activity in the airlock. Now I know the airlock isn't always a good indicator of fermentation but the few beer brews I've done always had airlock activity shortly after pitching. Is this behavior normal for mead?

Thanks in advance for entertaining this worried newbies questions.

 

[huesmann]

I think the wine yeasts start slowly to begin with (compared to, say, bread yeast), and I've heard that the mead-specific yeasts are pretty finicky.

 

[Mia]

I'm interested in trying a batch but wondered if anyone had suggestions to cut down on the sweetness? Yes, I know it's mead but am not crazy but overly sweet drinks. If I cut back on the honey and increase the fruits will it effect the sugars available for fermentation?
Thanks in advance!
Mia

 

[sharpstick]

i've cut back on the honey and had good results.(with the original joe recipe. i think i used about 15 lbs instead of 17 on a 5 gallon batch) i've also replaced the oranges with red raspberries, added cranberries and cayenne to counter the sweetness.

I'm interested in trying a batch but wondered if anyone had suggestions to cut down on the sweetness? Yes, I know it's mead but am not crazy but overly sweet drinks. If I cut back on the honey and increase the fruits will it effect the sugars available for fermentation?
Thanks in advance!
Mia

 

[malkore]

I'm interested in trying a batch but wondered if anyone had suggestions to cut down on the sweetness? Yes, I know it's mead but am not crazy but overly sweet drinks. If I cut back on the honey and increase the fruits will it effect the sugars available for fermentation?
Thanks in advance!
Mia

You also have to make sure you've actually fully attenuated. What was the OG, and FG? What yeast was used?

Looking at the posts in my thread, it looks like many people are still unfamiliar with early staggered nutrients, CO2 removal for teh first 7 days, and pitching plenty of HYDRATED yeast.

Mead yeast isn't finicky...mead must is just a poor nutrient for them, hence the staggered additions.

Being down to 1.055 after 3 weeks is a slow fermentation and I'd wager the yeasts are throwing many off flavors that will have to age out. I've tasted meads that are only 4 weeks old (from pitching) and they're smooth and not overly sweet.

Main point: there's a TON of variables you need to consider when tweaking your recipe. Less honey also means less body, which can leave a mead thin and watery.

 

[Cambone]

MAOM was my first mead, and this is how i went for me:

2 Months - This is terrible; did I waste my time?

6 Months - Less Terrible, but I still can't drink this. Glad I only made a gallon.

9 Months - This is delightful! Why did I only make a gallon!?

 

[Mia]

Any ideas on how to make it less sweet but with the same flavor? I'm not a big sweet wine drinker.

I bottled my JAOM today and was disappointed with the slightly rotted fruit after taste. The raspberry mead turned out better.
Mea

 

[Cambone]

I bottled my JAOM today and was disappointed with the slightly rotted fruit after taste. The raspberry mead turned out better.
Mea

This goes away. Mine had a similar taste for a month or so and it eventually dissipated. Don't dump it and reserve judgement till at least 6 months has passed. Maybe 12.

 

[huesmann]

Any ideas on how to make it less sweet but with the same flavor? I'm not a big sweet wine drinker.

Less honey?

 

[Mia]

you wrote:
You also have to make sure you've actually fully attenuated. What was the OG, and FG? What yeast was used?

Looking at the posts in my thread, it looks like many people are still unfamiliar with early staggered nutrients, CO2 removal for teh first 7 days, and pitching plenty of HYDRATED yeast.


Any ideas on where I can read and learn more this?

 

[Atek]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/what-i-learned-nhc-183897/

Here

 

[SauceBoss]

I was just curious. I was planning on making my first mead with my brother this leap year and letting it chill to the following leap year. Do you think there would be any issues in keeping mead made from this recipe around for 4 years? Thanks in advance for any advice you can give

 

[huesmann]

As long as you take it off the lees.

 

[malkore]

I still have a bottle of mead from 1999, so yeah, it'll keep.
You might want to read up a little bit on sulfiting mead, as this will help preserve it (mainly stave off oxidation).

 

[SauceBoss]

thanks for the feedback. What does 'take it off the lees' mean?

I will def look into sulfiting it for sure

 

[huesmann]

Lees. All the crud that settles to the bottom, especially dead yeast. Rack the fluid off that stuff.

 

[malkore]

Lees. All the crud that settles to the bottom, especially dead yeast. Rack the fluid off that stuff.

But ONLY after fermentation ends, which shouldn't take more than about 3 weeks if everything is 'perfect' for yeast health and its not a huge O.G.

 

[Alien1099]

I tried using Wyeast sweet mead yeast in my two of my three gallons of JAOM I have fermenting. It didn't activate. After doing some reading, I saw lots of references to this strain being problematic resulting in many stuck fermentations or even no fermentation whatsoever. I repitched with bread yeast and all three are bubbling nicely now.