Skip to main content

Joe's Ancient Orange Mead 1.0

For some time now, I've read about Joe's Ancient Orange Mead, but I've never taken the time to actually create a batch of it.  This year, I had the time and the ingredients on hand.

Ingredients

3.5 pounds of honey (mostly orange blossom, some clover)
1 large orange
1 cinnamon stick
1 clove
A small pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
25 raisins
Enough water to make 1 gallon
1 package of Fleischmann's bread yeast

Making the must:

  • Wash the orange and remove the zest.  Peel the orange, throw away the pith, then thinly slice the orange across the segments,
  • Collect one gallon of reverse osmosis water
  • Add the honey and about half of the water to a sanitized fermenter
  • Shake to aerate the must and mix in the honey
  • Add the orange, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and raisins
  • Add water to the one gallon mark
  • Shake the fermenter again to mix in the yeast and aerate further
  • Add an airlock and allow it to ferment until the liquid is clear
  • Strain out the solid ingredients and bottle
Post-Brew Notes and Observations

12/25/2020:  Brewed the must and sealed up in the fermenter.

12/27/2020:  The airlock is showing steady signs of activity. The mead itself is cloudy, which I expected this early in the process.

12/29/2020:  The airlock continues to show signs of activity. The mead is still cloudy, and the fruit (and cinnamon stick) is still floating.

01/12/2021:  Fermentation seems to still be going on. The mead remains cloudy and the fruit is still floating.

02/19/2021:  Fermentation seems to be over, and the mead is clearing nicely.  Looks like it's time to strain and bottle.

02/27/2021:  The mead was bottled today in 9 bottles of 12-ounces each.  The aroma inside the fermenter after bottling was very impressive, and I'm looking forward to trying this.

Comments

Post a Comment

Note that comments to this blog are moderated in order to minimize spam comments and things that might be offensive to readers.

Popular posts from this blog

2021 Batch 16/17 - Horseman's Pumpkin Ale Kit from Great Fermentations

Although there are a few pumpkin spice ales on the market that I enjoy (Hoppin' Frog's Double Pumpkin, Samuel Adams Fat Jack, and Heavy Seas Great'r Pumpkin come to mind first), I've yet to brew a pumpkin spice ale that I have been happy with.  Either I didn't feel like the base beer was quite right, or the spice mix was too "something" (insert random pie spice there) forward, it was too hop-forward, or it was wrong in some other way.  This year, I decided to try the kit from Great Fermentations in Indiana to see if I liked that any better than previous brews. Ingredients 9 pounds 2-row Brewer's Malt 1 pound Munich Malt 8 ounces Crystal 40L Malt 15 ounces Canned Pumpkin (not included in kit) 1/4 tsp. Brewtan B (my addition to kit) 1 ounce Glacier Hops 1/2 tsp. Brewtan B (my addition to kit) 1 tsp. Irish Moss (15 min.) 0.5 tsp. Ground Cinnamon (not included in kit) 0.5 tsp. Vanilla extract (not included in kit) 0.5 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice (not included i...
Post a Comment
Read more

What I Learned About Brewing in 2021

Last year, I brewed 20 batches of adult beverages (primarily beer and test mashes). In no particular order, here are things I learned during the year: The COVID-19 pandemic left me with more time at home to brew, but at the same time made doing so a bit less enjoyable.  Why?  Because I could not share my homebrew with family and friends as easily as I could pre-pandemic.  Without feedback from my friends about what they did (and didn't) like in my beer, I was less motivated to brew and less able to improve my beer than in prior years. The pump on The Grainfather has a life span (in my experience) of around 200 brews before it dies, and the "official" replacement is way too expensive to suit me (like $190).  I was able to replace it with a pump from Amazon for about $70 that seems to flow much better and stronger than the official pump.  It took some redneck-looking jerry-rigging to fix it, but the system flows better now and I can continue brewing. On a personal...
Post a Comment
Read more

2022 Batch 01 - St. Gambrinus Spiced Holiday Ale (Kit)

I purchased a St. Gambrinus Spiced Holiday Ale Kit from Great Fermentations in Indianapolis a few weeks ago and decided to get it made today... a tad late for the holidays, but it will give me a good idea if I like the recipe for next Christmas. The kit basically comes as a bag of crushed grain with a packet of Northern Brewer hops.  You supply your own spices and order yeast separately. Ingredients 8.5 pounds Two-Row Brewer's Malt 2 pounds Munich Dark Malt 1 pound Honey Malt 8 ounces Simpsons Dark Crystal Malt 0.5 ounces Northern Brewer hops (60 min.) 0.5 ounces Northern Brewer hops (30 min.) 1 package White Labs Edinburgh Scottish Ale yeast 1 tsp. Irish Moss (15 min.) 0.5 oz. Bitter Orange Peel (10 min.) 2 cinnamon sticks (I used 3) (10 min.) 0.5 tsp. Ground Ginger (10 min.) 0.25 tsp. Allspice (secondary) 0.25 oz. Ground Cardamom (secondary) 0.25 oz. Ground Cinnamon (secondary) 1 Tbsp. pH 5.2 Stabilizer added to mash after grain 6.8 gallons of RO water, treated with: 3 grams Gyps...
Post a Comment
Read more