Joes ancient orange mead

[Arne]

Paul, I have 4.5lb imp of honey, what do I need to do with it to make mead/melomel as I have 9 small oranges and lots of sugar?

Go to the recipe section and scroll down til you get to Joe Mattioli's Ancient Orange Mead. That will give you something to do with your honey. Arne.

 

[wineforfun]

Quick question for those of you that have made this mead. I see it calls for only 1 tsp of yeast, is that correct? I have seen a similar recipe to this that calls for the whole package. Just curious.
Also, could I back off the honey to 3lb., instead of 3 1/2 so it isn't quite as sweet?
Thanks for the help.

 

[fatbloke]

Quick question for those of you that have made this mead. I see it calls for only 1 tsp of yeast, is that correct? I have seen a similar recipe to this that calls for the whole package. Just curious.
Also, could I back off the honey to 3lb., instead of 3 1/2 so it isn't quite as sweet?
Thanks for the help.

Don't see why not...... it wouldn't be much different from me using all the same weights and quantities, but making it up to 1 imp gallon a.k.a. 4.55 litres rather than 1 US gallon or 3.78 litres is it.

 

[Arne]

This post came back from the dead. The JAOM is still sitting on the shelf in bottles. Think I saw 3 there the other day. Some day before spring will open a bottle. Will let everybody know how it is then. Arne.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

I started a batch of this tonight; I have seen the same recipe on a couple of forums and finally decided that - given the time frame involving mead - I am not getting any younger. Everything went well, and I think it will turn out quite good.

A couple of deviations, more from necessity than anything else:

The amount of honey I used was probably an ounce or three shy of 3.5 pounds, but I am sure it will be fine. The biggest share of it was raw, unfiltered Montana honey, while half a pound of it was a blend of Montana honey and Montana huckleberry, just because that is what I had on hand.

I grated what looked like a pinch of nutmeg off of a whole...nugget? Nut? I am not sure what it is called. It might have been a bit more, but I am sure this will be fine, too.

I wanted to zest and then juice the orange, but couldn't find one part of my juicer that was needed; so, I zested it, then peeled it (pulling off any substantial "strings" of pith), then cut the segments into chunks and tossed everything in. My logic was that this would be much easier to remove from the fermenter, and also would eliminate any potential bitterness from the pith. My son, who has made this before, said that he noticed no bitterness when he made his (pith and all), but by then I had already done it, so we will see how it goes. It will be fine, I am sure.

Having no Fleischmann's yeast, I used a generous teaspoon of "Western Family" yeast, which is distributed by a regional grocery chain. As with everything else above, I am willing to bet that this will be fine.

Between the honey and about half a gallon of water (i used a local spring water that makes great beer), I had about 3/4 of the fermenter filled by the time I was finished. I will leave this alone for 3 days or so until the most active period of fermentation is complete, then will top up to a gallon.

More as it happens, etc. &c...

Ron

 

[meadmaker1]

Sounds like you didnt read the recipie lol
Youll be fine.
Juicing might have hurt you.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Well, I didn't juice the orange - I intended to, but my kids lost a critical part to the juicer. I did remove the pith, though. I cut it out of the skin and peeled most of it off the meat of the orange. The segments I cut in chunks for easy removal.

As for the yeast, I am going to gamble that the honey won't know the difference. it started up quickly and is going great this morning.

 

[scodoublet]

Newbie to the site here!
Saw this thread and had to reply.

I have actually made this a bunch of years ago.
It tasted really good, but too sweet for me.

It also led me down a path of fermenting everything I could find to make different flavored meads.
Blueberries, strawberries, rhubarb, dandelions, maple sap, vanilla beans, watermelon....

Some came out good, or at least drinkable, but that watermelon batch still makes me shiver!

 

[Arne]

Newbie to the site here!
Saw this thread and had to reply.

I have actually made this a bunch of years ago.
It tasted really good, but too sweet for me.

It also led me down a path of fermenting everything I could find to make different flavored meads.
Blueberries, strawberries, rhubarb, dandelions, maple sap, vanilla beans, watermelon....

Some came out good, or at least drinkable, but that watermelon batch still makes me shiver!

If it came out too sweet, cut down on the honey you put in up front. You can ferment it dry and add honey back after ferment to sweeten it to your taste. Arne.

 

[Jocelyn]

Just started a batch of this on Sunday. Looks beautiful fermenting nicely. I followed the recipe to a T.

I made my first batch of mead a few months ago it's very bitter and very potent. Had a buddy crawling on the floor after a few glasses. Really hoping this one taste better can't be much worse LOL

I followed a super traditional recipe for the first one just honey water and yeast I think part of my issue is using a workhorse wine yeast. The other part is it's only a couple months old

 

[Arne]

Just started a batch of this on Sunday. Looks beautiful fermenting nicely. I followed the recipe to a T.

I made my first batch of mead a few months ago it's very bitter and very potent. Had a buddy crawling on the floor after a few glasses. Really hoping this one taste better can't be much worse LOL

I followed a super traditional recipe for the first one just honey water and yeast I think part of my issue is using a workhorse wine yeast. The other part is it's only a couple months old

Probably going to have to let it sit. It will probably get better after a year or two. Make sure if bulk aging you keep your sulfites up. Arne.

 

[CrownedBee]

I'm with Arne - letting it age will help. We have a JAOM that's nearing 2 years old, and it is so mellow. Lovely to sip, sweet and citrusy, with no bitterness. I did a grapefruit variant that is closer to 20 months old. Even though I removed a lot of the pith at fermentation, it was still too bitter last time I had a bottle. Admittedly, that was several months ago. Maybe I'll taste again at the 2 year mark and see where it's at!

 

[Jocelyn]

My mead is clearing pretty nicely crazy enough it still seems to be having some action in the airlock. Is it OK that some of the fruit appears to be exposed at the top? I have it filled pretty high but A couple of the raisins are sitting on top of the orange. Should I rack it off?

 

[Donatelo]

I put this recipe together last night and wish I had read this subject stream here before I got started. I would have peeled the orange and zested the peeling leaving behind the pith. I used a packet of Red Star Cote des Blanc yeast, which has an alcohol tolerance of around 12%.
I intend to leave it sitting until October 27, 2018.

Do you think the bitter taste from the pith will dissipate by then?

 

[Burton Kent]

Why hasn't anyone simply zested the orange then peeled it when making JAOM? Tossed the pith in the trash and avoid the bitterness?

I've made limoncello, and the one thing you learn is to zest the lemons and have no pith at all. Pith introduces bitterness. The recipe I used is at https://limoncelloquest.com/, and currently on the first page he shows a lemon microplane zester. That thing works amazingly well, cuts into the zest without picking up pith unless you're pressing hard.

Some oranges have very thin skins with very small amounts of pith. Some oranges have really thick skins with lots of pith. Seems to me that the folks not liking the bitterness probably had thick peels?

 

[meadmaker1]

JOA is a love/hate wine.
Ive had people ask if they could buy some and had someone standing next to them looking for some place to spit it out.
If you would tend to leave orange zest out of a recipe it probably wont be your favorite.

 

[Burton Kent]

JOA is a love/hate wine.
Ive had people ask if they could buy some and had someone standing next to them looking for some place to spit it out.
If you would tend to leave orange zest out of a recipe it probably wont be your favorite.

I said leave out pith, not zest. Zest is awesome.

But ok, I get it's part of the recipe.