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

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Begin Brewing!

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