# my first mead



## outdoorsmadness (Nov 22, 2009)

im planning to make my first batch of mead,ill be using Joe Mattioli's Ancient Orange Mead recipie. should i use the fleishmans yeast as recomended in the recipe or should i use an ale yeast? i have both and am not sure which one i should use. any advice would be very appreciative. 
thanks Bryan


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## Wade E (Nov 22, 2009)

Go with the Fleishmans! I strayed and used wine yeast and so far Im sorry I did!


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## TheTooth (Nov 23, 2009)

I've never made the ubiquitous Ancient Orange Mead that everyone else seems to make first, but from what I understand the recipe is designed very specifically to obtain the final product.

In other words, don't stray from the recipe or disaster will happen.


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## Malkore (Nov 23, 2009)

I strayed from JAOM recipe, but I've also been making mead a while...it was the first thing I ever fermented in fact.

the bread yeast is pretty low attentuation, so if you do swap it out, go for a similar alcohol tolerance. I make my MAOM clone using Wyeast sweet mead yeast, as it craps out at about 12% abv (well below most wine yeasts). for an ale yeast you'd need something beefy, like fermentis S-33 (i've used it plenty).

JAOM can be a bit pithy when young, due to the whole orange slices. My variation used the juice of 2 oranges, and a bunch of orange zest (my wife has this awesome zester). i also used no orange blossom honey but still it has a nice orange background to it.


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## outdoorsmadness (Nov 23, 2009)

thanks for all the advice, i guess i will stick with the recipie exactly then and see if i like mead. i guess i will save my ale yeast for some afplewine.


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## Malkore (Nov 24, 2009)

stick with the recommended yeast for apfelwein or something close (I used a red star montrachet and it turned out great).

apfelwein is a wine, not a hard cider, so give it the wine yeast and you'll be very happy. Just age it 6 months...it improves immensely.


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## St Allie (Nov 24, 2009)

we don't have fleishmans yeast.. local beer yeasts are aimed at about 9% max as far as I am aware.

Question from me encompassing your personal opinions..

could I swap a cider specific yeast in and get away with it? They generally don't go above 12% either, lucky to make 10%..


thoughts please?

Allie


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## TheTooth (Nov 25, 2009)

As I understand it, the problem with swapping yeasts in the Ancient Orange recipe revolves around the original creator specifically creating the recipe to make a quickly-ready-to-drink mead. Other yeasts may be just fine, but you might need more aging before you can enjoy it.

I personally haven't made this recipe, but I remember reading the original creator's notes about not straying from the yeast selection in his recipe if you want to get the desired quick-drinking results.

It may be that he was simply aiming at beginners with less knowledge of yeast strains and their alcohol tolerances. Give it a try... the worst that could happen is it ends up a bit dryer than you want, or that you have to let it age a bit longer.


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## nursejohn (Dec 10, 2009)

I used the Fleishman's as directed. I started (my first mead also) about a week ago and the airlock is bubbling away. Good luck with yours, John.


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## outdoorsmadness (Dec 30, 2009)

*what is og in jaom*

I followed recipie to a t but i didnt use my hydrometer(dont know why just didnt think about it). i was wondering what the og would be. according to the bottle it has 16 grams of sugar per serving and 3 and a half pounds has 73 servings(73x16=1168grams of sugar)and according to luc 18 grams of sugar produces 1% alcohol per liter. theres 3.75 liters in a gallon(1168/3.75=311grams per liter)(311/18=17% alcohol)if fermented to dry but by using flieshmans baker yeast it supposed to finish sweet, how far will bakers yeast ferment to, sounds like its going to be really sweet or really potent.

Bryan


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## mmadmikes1 (Dec 30, 2009)

St Allie said:


> we don't have fleishmans yeast.. local beer yeasts are aimed at about 9% max as far as I am aware.
> 
> Question from me encompassing your personal opinions..
> 
> ...


Fleishmems is bread yeast sold at grocery store, pretty sure you all have a similar product


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## ffemt128 (Dec 31, 2009)

So what is the average ABV % for the mead? Just curuous as we are considering starting a batch of this also.


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## TheTooth (Dec 31, 2009)

outdoorsmadness said:


> I followed recipie to a t but i didnt use my hydrometer(dont know why just didnt think about it). i was wondering what the og would be. according to the bottle it has 16 grams of sugar per serving and 3 and a half pounds has 73 servings(73x16=1168grams of sugar)and according to luc 18 grams of sugar produces 1% alcohol per liter. theres 3.75 liters in a gallon(1168/3.75=311grams per liter)(311/18=17% alcohol)if fermented to dry but by using flieshmans baker yeast it supposed to finish sweet, how far will bakers yeast ferment to, sounds like its going to be really sweet or really potent.
> 
> Bryan



The Fleishmans yeast won't ferment out your sugar and you'll end up with a sweet mead. This is by design. Sweet meads ready to drink faster, and it's a big contributor as to how that mead is ready to drink in only 3 months. Most meads won't really be good for 6 months to a year at minimum.


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