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They're all meads! Just different names for differnt types, same as Bordeaux is a wine.

Quote from: Tea on January 26, 2009, 06:15:54 AM
Hi LadyLiberty, technically you are right, it is not a mead.  Although I wouldn't call it a methaglin either as the spices are almost not there in the end.  With the predominate flavours being orange and honey I would tend to think that it would come under the melomel catogory.  How ever what ever it is, it is usually just refered to as  JAO or Joe's Ancient Orange, after the gentleman that came up with the recipe.  THe original recipe is about 2 pages long with a lot of banter and humor in between everything, so I will just give you the bare bones.

1 gallon batch  Sterilise absolutely everything as usual.

3 1/2lb Clover honey or your choice honey
1 large orange (cut into 1/8th)  Choose a nice orange and leave out the pith or an orange with almost no pith.  You need the zest though, so if you cut off the pith don't forget to include the zest.
@ 25 raisins approx
1 stick cinnamon
1 whole clove
pinch of nutmeg and allspice (optional)
1 tsp fleishmann bread yeast (not the rapid rise one)
water to 1 gallon

Dissolve honey and put in carboy.

Wash orange well (pesticides??).  Cut into pieces, and push into the carboy along with the raisins, cinnamon, and spices.  Top up with water leaving around a 3inch head room.

Shake very very well to aerate must.

When at room temp put in 1tsp of the yeast (fresh and in date).  Shake again to incorporate.  Put in airlock and store in a dark cupboard that is out of the way.  Leave it do it's thing for around 8 weeks at which time it should have stopped fermenting, and started to clear.  When the fruit has dropped (sometime between then and 3mths) rack into a clean glass carboy for storage.
You can drink it when it starts to clear if you want.  Depending on the yeast this usually ferments out around 11-13%.


This is fool proof recipe and a great one for those that haven't made a mead before.  This is a sweet one.  Hope you enjoy.

I just started a traditional mead this afternoon, with just water and honey and nutrients.  It is just starting to come out of lag, so I am watching this one anxiously.

Thanks so much for going to the trouble of posting this!  We are due to make a new mead soon, so I would love to try this, and short of meeting you and sharing a glass, this is the next best way to enjoy your creativity.  Thanks again, that was very kind of you

Cheers!

Well I hope it turns out and you enjoy it.  This is a mead to have on the go at all times, as it gives you something to drink while allowing the long term meads to get to their full maturity before being consumed.  Oh just a thought, if you are going to scale up this recipe, scale up everything expect the yeast.  You might want to add maybe another 1/2 tsp for a 5 gallon batch, but that would be all.

My traditional mead is blipping along merrily this morning, so that is encouraging.

Carter just to clear up the confusion, I put in three doses of camden tab and potasium sorbate, then as a last ditch effort cold crashed.  That mead is sitting in a dark corner, learning to behave itself at the moment.

Well on Monday I racked the 15lt JAO that had finally cleared and dropped it's fruit.  Finished in only 6 weeks, but I think that is due more to the temps here than anything else.  I also made a 5ltr test batch using some honey that Bundy had given me.  This mead is just honey, water yeast and nutrient, and is bubbling along nicely at the moment.
Yesterday I racked the mango mead and lost only a couple of litre to fruit and yeast sediment, as down to around 28 ltr, but many more racking to do yet, so that will decrease.  Also racked the apple honey and date one, and was left with 26.5ltr.  So between sterilising, cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning, it finally got done.

LadyLiberty took a photo of the JAO for you.  It never ceased to amaze me how these things clear up.  They start out so murky and end up clear and sparkling.

Sounds good Tea. I would crash clear it, by that I assume you put it in a refrigerator and let the particles settle, then add the Psorbate and or sulfite so it doesn't have to work so hard before clearing.

Also next time you can take your target Specific gravity and work backwards then either put in enough honey so that the yeast you're using doesn't go over it's alcohol limit, thereby leaving residual sugar. Or get a less aggressive yeast and find out it's alcohol tolerance and work backward from there. Although with adding so much fruit you won't know before hand so you might have to have a couple different strains on hand and add more honey before pitching the yeast.

Carter did you see my note to you on page four, where you could see one of the bees that I use as my "signature"?  Just wondering.  Have a look in the thread "For the ladies".

Very cute. I did look but I looked at the wrong thread originally, I looked at the "quilts" one, and I didn't want to say anything in case the bee was large as life, then I would have felt stupid...

Well the honey only mead has finished fermenting and the FG is 1.004, so it ended fairly dry too.  After I get a couple of these into their aging containers I would like to start a berry mead.
Carter any advice on making a berry mead?  The base recipe that I am using says to add the fruit after fermentation and let sit for a couple of weeks.  Would it be best to add the fruit in a bag or free in the carboy?

Tracey, can-o-worms, can-worms, Tracey. Now that you've been introduced...LOL Actually its not a can of worms but there are lots of option. Let's first discuss when to add. If you add the fruit in the beginning at primary fermentation you get more "berry" alcohol and more of an essence in the nose and mouth but not the taste, so much, of fruit. If you add it after primary fermentation, after the initial sugar has been used and the yeast are near their limit of alcohol tolerance, then you get more berry flavor and some of the essence. If you add it after everything is said and down, and after you've stopped the yeast from making more alcohol, then that really is flavoring and to me that's not a melomel. So choose what end result you want.

Next use fresh fuit if you can, if you can't use frozen. No frozen? then use natural fuit extract from a home brew store, it's basically concentrated juice.

If you don't have a plate filter for filtering your meads so they're crystal clear then use a hop bag, found at any home brew store. While you're at the home brew store get a 7 gallon plastic bucket with air tight lid, have them or your DH drill a 1 1/4" (hole saw) in the top and get a #7 drilled rubber bung (rubber cork with a hole in the center for an air lock). Most home brew stores have lid with the hole already in it. You can do both primary and secondary (if you choose to do a secondary ferm) in the bucket. It makes it real easy to do fruit. Actually you really can't do it in a carboy unless you're up for a huge mess. Make sure you use pectic enzyme when using fruit or you'll never get your mead clear. If you need clarification on any of this sutff let me know.

mm well I might have to re-think, as I only have access to the frozen variety.

Nothing wrong with frozen, I'm sure you'll love it.

mmm well now you've planted doubt in my mind, so I am still undecided.

TRACEY!!!LOL I don't know what I said in the orignal post to make you think that but get it out of your head. Sometimes I get a little exuberant...

But the truth is a lot of wine makers, wine of this type, will tell you to freeze fresh fruit anyway. The process of freezing creates ice crystal in the fruit helping to break down the cell walls releaseing more fruit and juice.

I rarely make mead from fresh. I have a few fruit trees and bushes and I always freeze them as I'm not ready to make mead right then and there.

Sorry Carter my mistake, I read this sentence and missed this IF...

QuoteNext use fresh fuit if you can, if you can't use frozen. No frozen?

.

Ok so I am feeling relieved, I can use frozen, great, and also some bottled tart cherries.  Have been eyeing everything off for a couple of months now, so will start getting everything together.

One lesson that I have learnt is to balance the OSG against the yeast that I am using.  Did the traditional mead, and even though it was supposed to be a sweet mead, I used the EC1118 yeast which ferments to 18%, and as I didn't add extra honey to compensate for this, I now have a dry honey mead.  So I have learnt a valuable lesson.   I am hoping to use RC212 as it is supposed to be good for the retention of fruit flavours and colour.  Have you used this yeast before, and what are your thoughts?

I use all sorts, EC1118, D47, Priesse De Mousse (which is called something else now, don't remember).

If you need help calculating final gravity before you start let me know.