joes anceint orange ???

Welcome to the forums
first thing you should be aware of is that Joe spent a veeeerrry loooong time developing that recipe. It was designed as a very simple, good for beginners recipe that would yield good results. The bread yeast will take the meat to about 14% - 16 % ABV. I would encourage you to try a 1 gallon first and then ramp it up to a 5 gal batch. Some on the forum reported using Red Star baking yeast that resulted in a drier mead (higher ABV???) If you decide to use Fleishmans yeast, you might try to use 3lb honey/gallon instead of 31/2, the mulling spices sound really good...as for sparkling, I have no clue how the CO2 carbonation will affect the mead. By all means, plase try it and let the rest of us know.

Hope this helps,
Brewbear

Brewbear said:

Some on the forum reported using Red Star baking yeast that resulted in a drier mead (higher ABV???)

Click to expand...

It was probably me. I used a Red Star fast rising yeast and ended up with a dry OA.

No idea what the ABV was, since it's a melomel.

TheShadowHammer,

Seems like everyone was being polite and being helpful, so I'll ask you a couple of questions.

Have you ever made this mead before?

Have you made mead before?

Did you read Joe's recipe, including the obvious admonitions to follow the recipe exactly to the letter without deviating the first time you make it?

There's a reason, it's because this mead is designed to be made exactly as it was posted, no deviations or all bets are off. So if you want to experiment that's fine, just don't expect the experiment to be ready in the same amount of time, behave as expected, or taste as good as the original posted recipe.

In other words, take a chance, Custer did!

Cheers,

Oskaar

Location is in recipes (http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=103&topic=600.0). There's quite alot of posts about it and various comments about how people have gone with making it. You could also check the brewlog as there are posts in there about it as well.

I would also recommend that you stick to the original recipe as well. After making that, you can try experimenting. At least then, you will have a point of reference to compare with.

I'm not sure about doing a one gallon batch in a five gallon bottle. The amount of carbon dioxide created should be enough to protect the brew, but it to me it seems to be wasteful of space.

I hope you like those AO batches. I have my second batch of AO brewing. The first I ended up drinking before it was ready (winter solstice didn't want to wait for me this year ). Anyways, it was 'okay' then, so I just can't wait to taste it when it's actually finished! I have the notes posted in the brewlog section at http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=103&topic=3371.0

Good luck!

Lots of observations and comments in the Ancient Orange thread in the recipe section. Some of them answer questions you are asking. I will try to post more thoughts there...

Good luck,
Pewter

I started my first batch of mead (JAO) two months ago tomorrow. It's been clear for about two weeks. Any idea how long it should take for the fruit to fall?

Welcome to Gotmead Allen. If you followed Joe's recipe to the letter and the JAO is fermenting at a more or less moderated temperature in the high 60's to low 70's, the oranges should drop suddenly during the next week. Shadowhammer, your recipes look good. But don't do a one gallon batch in a five gallon container. It may work alright for the first few days to a week but then I'd quickly rack it to a gallon glass jug because the extra air space becomes your enemy after the active fermentation subsides. Oxygen in the airspace is not good after the first week or two in a mead. When it's in a more refined secondary fermentation, your mead needs less available airspace than more because there's less carbon dioxide being produced by the yeast and more oxygen in the remaining air available to mix. The idea is to limit the surface area of the mead in contact with oxygen. So I'd rack your mead to a gallon glass jug if you have it (check Craigslist if you don't) and top up your mead to reduce available airspace and you'll end up with better mead. One other note - using the 71B yeast in your plum/pear melomel will end up with a much nicer, easier to handle yeast layer on the bottom of your container (the lees) than the bread yeast. The bread yeast doesn't flocculate as well so it kicks up more easily when you rack it. Just take a little more care with racking your almost JAO batch and you'll be fine. You'll recognize what I'm talking about when you get the stage to rack both your meads. One other benefit to limit the airspace with JAO is the oranges float in this recipe. Floating oranges in contact with air can spoil and spoilage in your fruit while making your mead is not what you're looking for. That ruined my first JAO batch and with care you can avoid that. Otherwise welcome to the group and read all you can especially the complete Joe's Ancient Orange thread and the Newbee Guide. You can learn from our mistakes and get some great advice to make all your meads successful.

Buzzer