I AM A NEWBIE FOR JOE’S ANCIENT ORANGE RECIPE:

[Bharat Amarnani]

1) Will be using Himalayan raw wild forest honey collected from mountain cliffs and trees by traditional harvesting methods.
2) Is it possible to home brew it without heating the honey to retain natural flavors and nutrition, then what would it be?
3) What it takes to make it drinkable in two weeks time. As for couple of months ageing want to keep it as an option
4) First batch want to brew it with minimal additives/ingredients available with regards to the above targets

Can some please advice how to go about it

 

[Arne]

I have only made it one time. Thought when it was newly born that it tasted like sin. Had one bottle that got stuck away for a few years, it came out really good. With mine, aging worked wonders. You dont have to heat the honey. That being said, maybe warm it just a bit so it will mix with the water. Arne.

 

[d v]

Perfectly okay to not heat the honey - most meadmakers don't anymore. Just add the honey to the water and stir until it is fully dissolved.

That said, you'll want to follow the rest of JAOM to the letter. Orange, clover, cinnamon stick, and even the raisins (ugh!). This is a recipe that intentionally does everything wrong in a balanced way to get a good outcome, and one small change can throw it all off-kilter.

JAOM is also highly unlikely to be drinkable in two weeks time. In general, unless one is making an ultra-low ABV mead (like 5%) and doesn't mind drinking it cloudy with yeast particles hanging about, there isn't a way to make a good drinkable mead in such a short time frame. A month? Maybe. Three months, absolutely! But at two weeks, primary fermentation is sometimes not even complete, especially if the yeast isn't being given proper nutrients. JAOM usually takes several months to be drinkable; the fastest recipe I've seen for a wine-strength mead is Brayer's One Month Mead (BOMM), which calls for yeast nutrients to speed things along and says it is drinkable within 4 weeks. In general, time is a mead's best friend; the longer you wait, the better it will be.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Honey flavors/ aromas are improved by one to two years of age. Many mead makers regret drinking young mead when they open the last bottle.

 

[Bharat Amarnani]

Perfectly okay to not heat the honey - most meadmakers don't anymore. Just add the honey to the water and stir until it is fully dissolved.

That said, you'll want to follow the rest of JAOM to the letter. Orange, clover, cinnamon stick, and even the raisins (ugh!). This is a recipe that intentionally does everything wrong in a balanced way to get a good outcome, and one small change can throw it all off-kilter.

JAOM is also highly unlikely to be drinkable in two weeks time. In general, unless one is making an ultra-low ABV mead (like 5%) and doesn't mind drinking it cloudy with yeast particles hanging about, there isn't a way to make a good drinkable mead in such a short time frame. A month? Maybe. Three months, absolutely! But at two weeks, primary fermentation is sometimes not even complete, especially if the yeast isn't being given proper nutrients. JAOM usually takes several months to be drinkable; the fastest recipe I've seen for a wine-strength mead is Brayer's One Month Mead (BOMM), which calls for yeast nutrients to speed things along and says it is drinkable within 4 weeks. In general, time is a mead's best friend; the longer you wait, the better it will be.

Thanks D V you cleared my doubt's once and for all

 

[dralarms]

That said, you'll want to follow the rest of JAOM to the letter. Orange, clover, cinnamon stick, and even the raisins (ugh!). This is a recipe that intentionally does everything wrong in a balanced way to get a good outcome, and one small change can throw it all off-kilter.

I have to disagree, I made it according to the recipe the first time, the second I tweaked it some. Third time tweaked a little more. After that I use the last recipe as my standard.
the beauty of this hobby is the only way to do it wrong is if it comes out totally UN drinkable

 

[Bharat Amarnani]

I have to disagree, I made it according to the recipe the first time, the second I tweaked it some. Third time tweaked a little more. After that I use the last recipe as my standard.
the beauty of this hobby is the only way to do it wrong is if it comes out totally UN drinkable

Dear can you please share your standard recipe with me would be starting with 3 liters batch of 1 liters each
1) without raisins and D.A.P
2) with raisins
2) with and a pinch of D.A.P

 

[BernardSmith]

The thing about JAOM is that this is really a novelty mead. By that I mean that the recipe is 100 percent counter-intuitive but it works. More: you simply CANNOT use this recipe to improve your processes and practices for making any other meads. The key idea with JOAM is that you follow directions and leave the mead alone. It is really meant for folk who have never made a mead before and the recipe itself IF FOLLOWED holds your hand until you bottle BUT the idea of using orange peel WITH the bitter pith and raisins is not something that seasoned mead makers would add without knowing PRECISELY what and why they were doing. In the case of this novelty mead the pieces of orange stay afloat as long as the CO2 saturates the mead. The oranges drop to the bottom when much of the CO2 has escaped. (the mead will have self-degassed). The raisins in this recipe (I think) were because there was a belief (CORRECTLY) that honey has no nutrients for the yeast. The added belief was that a handful of raisins would provide enough nutrients. THAT belief is beyond wrong. In a gallon, perhaps 5 lbs of raisins MIGHT provide the nutrient load the yeast needs but that amount of raisins will also add enough OXIDIZED fruit to dominate the flavor of your mead. The recipe calls for bread yeast and the idea here is that the yeast will croak before all the sugar will have been fermented so the mead will finish sweet AND bitter (the orange peel) and so be balanced.
All that said, there are folk who make JOAM regularly and if they enjoy what they make more power to them. If I want to make an orange flavored mead I will zest my oranges or mandarins and use the outer layer of the skin to do all the flavoring.

To make a good mead you need honey (about 2.5 lbs pounds /gallon (US)), spring water (or water with no chlorine), yeast and nutrients. The wine will clear by itself and the final ABV will be about 12%. You may want to back sweeten this and if so you must stabilize the mead with K-meta and K-sorbate and then add more honey to taste.
If you chose to use a wild flower or no varietal honey then you may want to sweeten the mead with a varietal honey to highlight flavors. If you used a varietal honey to make the mead then you should use the same varietal to back sweeten or a complementary flavored honey.