# Trying my own recipe



## Jc5066 (Dec 28, 2015)

17.5 lbs honey
Zest and juice of 5 oranges
2 cinnamon sticks
Water to 5 gallons
5 tsp year nutrient
EEC-1118 yeast

SG 1.130 potential alcohol of 17%

If it makes it goes dry I will back sweeten with honey. I really like JAOM mead except it's a little too sweet for me to sit down and drink more then a glass or two. I'm wanting to make a good tasting mead that's sweet but not a dessert wine. 

I'm also hoping for something that can be drinkable fairly quick. I know the higher alcohol content will need some time to mellow out, but if I back sweeten then that will help mask it a bit. I also want to save some to age too.

Any thoughts or opinions on my recipe would be appreciated.


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## Arne (Dec 29, 2015)

I would imagine it is going to be really light on the orange flavor. Also betting this will take quite a while to mellow out with the high alcohol. Let us know how it comes out. Arne.


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## wineforfun (Dec 29, 2015)

Agree with Arne, going to take awhile to mellow with that high of alcohol. I think quite awhile.
Personally, I would lower the SG to around 1.090-1.095, run it dry, then backsweeten to your liking. 
It will be drinkable sooner and you have more control over the end product.

Even with using EC-1118 you may have trouble getting it completely dry with that high of a starting SG.

And in my short tenure as a winemaker, I have learned that mead in general is not a quick drinker. No matter how it is made, it needs time.

If you want a quick drinker, look at making a version of Dragon Blood and use honey.............making a sort of melomel.


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## BernardSmith (Dec 29, 2015)

Hi Jc5066, If you are experimenting with a recipe or testing a recipe would it not make better sense to make a gallon batch rather than go for broke using 17 or 18 lbs of honey? If you make 5 one gallon batches you can play with the various ingredients (a true experiment controls everything but one variable) . So for example, you could keep everything the same but vary the amount of honey from 2 lbs to 3.5 lbs by increasing the amount by 1/3 lb (about 12 or 13 points of gravity) and see which mead is truly ready to drink sooner... But that said, EC-1118 is a battering ram of a yeast... You may want something with a little more .. um... finesse..for example, 71B, or D47, or QA23, perhaps even an ale yeast.


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## Jc5066 (Dec 29, 2015)

BernardSmith said:


> Hi Jc5066, If you are experimenting with a recipe or testing a recipe would it not make better sense to make a gallon batch rather than go for broke using 17 or 18 lbs of honey? If you make 5 one gallon batches you can play with the various ingredients (a true experiment controls everything but one variable) . So for example, you could keep everything the same but vary the amount of honey from 2 lbs to 3.5 lbs by increasing the amount by 1/3 lb (about 12 or 13 points of gravity) and see which mead is truly ready to drink sooner... But that said, EC-1118 is a battering ram of a yeast... You may want something with a little more .. um... finesse..for example, 71B, or D47, or QA23, perhaps even an ale yeast.




I'm sure it will turn out. If it takes a year to drink I'm ok. My JAOM took a year plus, so I don't think I'm risking much if anything using 17.5# of honey. If it ends up on the sweet side I'm fine with that. I like both sweet and dry.

What I like about 1118 is it that fact. Honey can be a bit difficult to ferment. It also doesn't really embark any flavors as some yeasts can. The one down side is it can produce some high octane flavors. Being I plan to back sweeten if it does go dry that will mask some of that and make it drinkable sooner. I plan to keep the fermentation temps down to 70 so that will help with the high octane flavor.


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## Jc5066 (Dec 29, 2015)

Arne said:


> I would imagine it is going to be really light on the orange flavor. Also betting this will take quite a while to mellow out with the high alcohol. Let us know how it comes out. Arne.




I'm not looking for much orange flavor, looking more for the honey flavor over anything else. I do have another 18# of honey and a lot more oranges! Lol


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## Jc5066 (Dec 29, 2015)

wineforfun said:


> .
> 
> Personally, I would lower the SG to around 1.090-1.095, run it dry, then backsweeten to your liking.
> 
> ...




I wanted a mead with a good strong alcohol content. I purposely wanted the SG that high even if it means a longer wait to drink?

I have plenty of dry wines that I have to be patient with. That's why I make cheaper sweet kits too. Lol


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## Jc5066 (Dec 29, 2015)

Went ahead and did a batch of JAOM. Now I can compare the two!


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## Jc5066 (Jan 13, 2016)

Racked to secondary. Current gravity reading is 1.05. ~10% alcohol.


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## BernardSmith (Jan 13, 2016)

Jc5066 said:


> Racked to secondary. Current gravity reading is 1.05. ~10% alcohol.



I don't pretend to be an expert but one of the problems that can happen when you rack too quickly (a gravity of 1.050 means that there is about 20 oz of sugar in every gallon still to be fermented) is that a) you leave behind a huge percentage of the yeast so the fermentation now slows down and b) while removing the mead from lees and sediment is often touted as a good idea, dead yeast is a source of nutrient for the yeast and while the decomposing yeast CAN produce off flavors and aromas presence of lees can in fact enhance the flavors of the mead and aid the yeast in metabolizing all kinds of other chemicals they have produced as they go about their business...


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