My First Ancient Orange

[montyfox]

Just whipped up a batch of Joe's Ancient Orange and Spice Mead last night. I only made a 1 gallon batch to start with, but I may have to make another as this looks good!
It's all mixed together and looking good. The shaking was quiet fun but very exhausting.

All the raisins sunk to the botttom when I put them in. I don't know why I expected them to float. Gave it just a little swirl to get all the yeast under the oranges.

It's fermenting nicely now. All the raisins came up from the bottom of the jar. The airlock is going crazy!

I'm really excited about this one. Hope it tastes as good as it looks.

 

[Wade E]

Looks good, I used golden raisins so as that it wouldnt turn the wine a brownish color.

 

[PolishWineP]

Congratulations Montyfox!

It's fun to start something like this.

 

[NorthernWinos]

OOOOOHH!!! I bet that one smells good.


Does this come out sweet???? Mead is sweet, right???Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[Wade E]

This 1 will come out sweet if directions are followed. Meads are typically sweet but you can make them however you want.

 

[Spidy67]

I have a batch going and its been just over a month. Still smells great and is very clear already. I hope it tastes as good as it smells. This is my first mead, i have 2 more batches going. One is a recipe for a 5 week mead by Joe M and the other is my own creation.

 

[rgecaprock]

I have 6 gallons going. I just keep mine in the dark and before you know it....it will be clear and pretty and little grapes and oranges suspened in the middle like it is made of jello.


Enjoy it....it is a great mead....Ramona

 

[Joanie]

You mean the fruit and all doesn't eventually settle to the bottom?

 

[rgecaprock]

Joan,
The last batch I made was perfectly clear but there were a few grapes and oranges floating in the middle....made me think of jello....lol. All of the rest was on the bottom.


Ramona

 

[Joanie]

So do you rack around them?

 

[acesover]

 

[acesover]

this is my first mead and ran into a little problem recipe calls for 6 tsp bread yeast i only had to packages and it only turned out to be about 4 tsp. can i add the rest thursday? started tuesday. yeast was fleichmans rapid rise? we did add nutreint but not enegizer.

 

[Wade E]

I have never used bread yeast but would say that adding a little more would be fine as we do it all the time when we add another starter yeast when the first yeast does not take well.

 

[Poacher]

I can't wait to get and empty carboy or jug so I can try this. It looks so good.!!!

 

[acesover]

just dont add to much water at first as mine was so active it bubbled out threw the air lock. on my 1 gallon batch, after a couple of days i toped off and it took off again threw the air lock. so definetly put less water than i did, you can see how far i filled it below.

 

[Poacher]

just don't add to much water at first as mine was so active it bubbled out threw the air lock. on my 1 gallon batch, after a couple of days i toped off and it took off again threw the air lock. so definitely put less water than i did, you can see how far i filled it below.

So would it be better to put it in a bucket for awhile than to put straight into the glass jug? I'm still trying to figure out why sometimes you start in a bucket and sometimes not. But the bucket handles the violent fermentations better than the jug right.

 

[montyfox]

I made mine right in the glass. I only filled it to just below where the glass starts to curve to the top. That was 4 days ago. Today I topped it off with water and it really started bubbling again. I had to clean out the airlock after about an hour, but so far it seems to have settled to the point that this won't happen again. It probably won't make a difference as to where you start this one, but I'd probably make this one in the glass carboy as that is what the recipe has been calibrated to.
I do have an ordinary batch of straight mead that I started in the plastic fermentor and just racked it into the carboy today. It's looking great and now it just needs to bulk age.


Now a question for the experts. With Mead, do you all find that it is self clearing, or do you add clearing agents towards the end?


Monty

 

[Dean]

Mead is generally self clearing, and there is really only 1 quick drinking mead, and you are making it. Most other meads that I do, sit in carboys for 1 year minimum, and I now have some that were started in Jan 2006 that is still in carboys. Most mead takes at least 1 year to be "nice", but it gets even better at 3 or 4 years old.

so, based on that, they usually clear in that timeframe!Edited by: Dean

 

[LeiniePrincess]

I think we need to start having our pictures taken while we shake. I think every picture posted would be highly entertaining!

Edited by: LeiniePrincess

 

[montyfox]

Ok guys, its been almost two months and the fruit has started sinking. The wine is VERY clear and I'm ready to bottle. I need some advice on this one. This is a TON of sediment in the bottom of the gallon carboy along with the oranges and rasins. My question is, what should I use as a filter on the end of my hose or would my wine rack cap be good enough? Also, has anyone poured the remaining lees through a coffee filter in an attempt to capture as much wine as possible? Since I don't own a filter machine, I'm trying to be as creative as possible.


Looking forward to some advice from the experts and I'll post some pictures later.


Monty