Herbal Orange Metheglin

BobF · Dec 1, 2009

Started my first mead a couple of days ago.

1 qt buckwheat honey
1 cup sugar (sg = 1099)
1 tsp nutrient
1 pt orange herbal tea (strong, 2 bags)
rc212
water to ~5 quarts

This tasted AWESOME (but very sweet) prior to pitching yeast.
Slowly bubbling away on day 3

arcticsid · Dec 1, 2009

Thats sounds real interesting Bob, hope you keep us posted on this one. There was someone talking about a coffee mead a while ago, I like you approach, keep us posted.

BobF · Dec 1, 2009

arcticsid said:
Thats sounds real interesting Bob, hope you keep us posted on this one. There was someone talking about a coffee mead a while ago, I like you approach, keep us posted.

Will do. While trying to decide what to do with it, I read the ingredients in the tea. It includes a variety of things different mead recipes call for. I figger this is an easy way to add mild spice.

The orange herbal ingrediaents (from lipton site):
Orange peel, hibiscus flowers, cinnamon, roasted chicory root, clove, licorice root, natural orange flavor

Time will tell!

arcticsid · Dec 1, 2009

Sounds good, you may be on to something for sure.
I am going to start a cranberry/pomegranate in the next couple days and was thinking about an experiment to go along with it, you got the gears working now.

BobF · Dec 13, 2009

MOHM Update

BobF said:
Started my first mead a couple of days ago.

1 qt buckwheat honey
1 cup sugar (sg = 1099)
1 tsp nutrient
1 pt orange herbal tea (strong, 2 bags)
rc212
water to ~5 quarts

This tasted AWESOME (but very sweet) prior to pitching yeast.
Slowly bubbling away on day 3

Here it is after ~10 days:

BobF · Feb 28, 2011

BobF said:
Started my first mead a couple of days ago.

1 qt buckwheat honey
1 cup sugar (sg = 1099)
1 tsp nutrient
1 pt orange herbal tea (strong, 2 bags)
rc212
water to ~5 quarts

This tasted AWESOME (but very sweet) prior to pitching yeast.
Slowly bubbling away on day 3

Well, it's been over a year now. This cleared up very nicely and is ready to bottle any time. It's been clear for several months.

When I tasted it Feb 2010, it was tasty but harsh. It's now very smooth, very tasty, with a hint of residual sweetness on the finish. Subtle orange and licorice along with a couple of other pleasant but subtle flavors. As this was a small batch, I plan to let it go for another year before pouring a glass slightly chilled.

I started a 3g (+1q) batch with Raspberry Zinger yesterday. 8 tea bags, 7pts of honey (no sugar this time

), SG=1105, D47 yeast. Hoping for .5-1% residual when it's done.

Foaming away this morning ... I'll let you know how it turns out next year!

Based on the results of the herbal orange, I'll be doing several of these this year.

fatbloke · Mar 5, 2011

BobF said:
Well, it's been over a year now. This cleared up very nicely and is ready to bottle any time. It's been clear for several months.

When I tasted it Feb 2010, it was tasty but harsh. It's now very smooth, very tasty, with a hint of residual sweetness on the finish. Subtle orange and licorice along with a couple of other pleasant but subtle flavors. As this was a small batch, I plan to let it go for another year before pouring a glass slightly chilled.

I started a 3g (+1q) batch with Raspberry Zinger yesterday. 8 tea bags, 7pts of honey (no sugar this time ), SG=1105, D47 yeast. Hoping for .5-1% residual when it's done.

Foaming away this morning ... I'll let you know how it turns out next year!

Based on the results of the herbal orange, I'll be doing several of these this year.

Well done if it's all turning out good. I'd suggest it's actually easier and infinitely less hassle to make the brew, ferment it dry and then just back sweeten it too taste.

It's quite hard to stop an active ferment, even if you sorbate/sulphite and cold crash it. By fermenting dry, it's much more controllable to get the flavours and levels of sweetness you require.

Oh, and don't forget, D47 isn't too bad, but RC-212 is very nutrient hungry and can often cause sulphurous smells (rotten eggs) if it's under nourished. I've got into the habit of using the yeasts that the late Brother Adam (Buckfast Abbey, bee breeding and mead making fame) used. The closest to the much fabled "Maury" yeast he originally used, is Lalvin D21 (can be obtained in small, home brew sized packs from morewine) and laterly, once the "Maury" yeast became unobtainable here, he moved to using Gervin Varietal E, which is probably more easily obtainable as Lalvin K1V-1116. Both will do high(ish) alcohol levels and with low to medium nutrient requirements and age brilliantly once the ferment is finished.....

regards

fatbloke

BobF · Mar 5, 2011

fatbloke said:
Well done if it's all turning out good. I'd suggest it's actually easier and infinitely less hassle to make the brew, ferment it dry and then just back sweeten it too taste.

It's quite hard to stop an active ferment, even if you sorbate/sulphite and cold crash it. By fermenting dry, it's much more controllable to get the flavours and levels of sweetness you require.

I agree. That is my normal approach to making other wines. Based on the accidental results from the first mead, I thought I'd give this a try and see how it works out.

Oh, and don't forget, D47 isn't too bad, but RC-212 is very nutrient hungry and can often cause sulphurous smells (rotten eggs) if it's under nourished. I've got into the habit of using the yeasts that the late Brother Adam (Buckfast Abbey, bee breeding and mead making fame) used. The closest to the much fabled "Maury" yeast he originally used, is Lalvin D21 (can be obtained in small, home brew sized packs from morewine) and laterly, once the "Maury" yeast became unobtainable here, he moved to using Gervin Varietal E, which is probably more easily obtainable as Lalvin K1V-1116. Both will do high(ish) alcohol levels and with low to medium nutrient requirements and age brilliantly once the ferment is finished.....

regards

fatbloke

I've never had a problem with 212. Montrachet is the one that's given me more H2S problems than any other. I don't use it any more.

I too have gravitated to K1V. I love what it does with elderberry! K1V is my go to yeast these days with the exception of high malic fruit like sour cherry. For this I've used 1122 with great results. Same with apple-based ferments.

fatbloke · Mar 5, 2011

BobF said:
-----%<-----
I've never had a problem with 212. Montrachet is the one that's given me more H2S problems than any other. I don't use it any more.

Ah, well that might be more luck than judgement....... I've tried it a couple of times with nice dark red fruit, with the intention of retaining plenty of the colour, but both times I'd mis-calculated the amount of YAN (and other nutrients etc) and got stinky batches, that were cured with just additional nitrogen......

I too have gravitated to K1V. I love what it does with elderberry! K1V is my go to yeast these days with the exception of high malic fruit like sour cherry. For this I've used 1122 with great results. Same with apple-based ferments.

I'd suggest that you also try the D21, which, as it would appear, is of the "Maury" region AOC accreditation, well actually, it seems Maury is a sub area of the Roussillon region (which seems to have it's own AOC accreditation), and while Montpellier (home of the K1V-1116 strain) isn't too far away, it's probably got different enough properties. After all, if you look at a map of France, the Roussillon/Maury area is around the Perpignan district, but just up the road (figuratively speaking) is Narbonne, before you get as far as Montpellier. Narbonne being the home of 71B......

And of course, 71B does do well with high malic type fruit (apples come to mind as they're considerably bigger here than cherries of any description), as it metabolises something like 40% of the malic acid, making wines like that much smoother etc etc.

But all that is just academic, as it's best if there's enough info out there to make a decision on what to use with what, and of course, if it's available.....

regards

fatbloke

Herbal Orange Metheglin

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