Mandarin Mead Take 2: Orange Blossom Honey Boogaloo

[jkuhl]

So my last venture in mandarin mead ended up with just an acidic jar of fermented honey. No orange flavor whatsoever.

I've decided I'm going to reattempt the whole thing. First, a hydromel traditional as a primary, with plenty of orange zest. Something like 1.050-1.040 O.G. for a 5% final product. And I was thinking of adding mandarin oranges to secondary, after primary shoots below 1.000.

My question is, how to I get a good orange flavor from the mandarins without the yeast eating them up? Since most yeast go to ~15%, even if primary goes dry, the addition of mandarins will cause fermentation to kick off again. The only thing I can think of, is investing in a mini-keg, treating the mead with sulfites, or pasteurizing, then, adding the mandarins and carbing in a keg. But is there a way to bottle carb and get a mandarin flavor out of the oranges without the yeast eating the oranges and leaving just a nasty acid residue?

 

[Dan O]

So my last venture in mandarin mead ended up with just an acidic jar of fermented honey. No orange flavor whatsoever.

I've decided I'm going to reattempt the whole thing. First, a hydromel traditional as a primary, with plenty of orange zest. Something like 1.050-1.040 O.G. for a 5% final product. And I was thinking of adding mandarin oranges to secondary, after primary shoots below 1.000.

My question is, how to I get a good orange flavor from the mandarins without the yeast eating them up? Since most yeast go to ~15%, even if primary goes dry, the addition of mandarins will cause fermentation to kick off again. The only thing I can think of, is investing in a mini-keg, treating the mead with sulfites, or pasteurizing, then, adding the mandarins and carbing in a keg. But is there a way to bottle carb and get a mandarin flavor out of the oranges without the yeast eating the oranges and leaving just a nasty acid residue?

I can't speak about bottle/keg carbing, but, as far as the orange flavor, I would suggest more zest, (without pith) or you could look into freeze dried zest, (usually in the spice aisle). Also, there are several yeasts that don't go to the 15% mark. I believe 71B is good for about 12%. But, if you're that concerned about abv%, try using less honey & stabilizing @ the end, (when it goes dry, 1.000 or below), cold crash & re-rack before adding anything else. That's all I got. Wish it could be more.
I hope this helps you.
Happy meading

 

[Raptor99]

I would try adding orange zest after the fermentation is complete. The zest contains very little sugar, so there wouldn't be a lot of renewed fermentation.