Joe Mattioli's Ancient Orange and spice Mead recipe

[lockwood1956]

If you have US gallon jar then use that and US measurements
If imperial demijohn (4.54 litres) use that and imperial measurements

you should then be OK

hope this helps

cheers
Bob

[jcnoren]

If imperial demijohn (4.54 litres) use that and imperial measurements

you should then be OK

hope this helps

cheers
Bob

I have a Imperial gallon. So when you say use imperial measurements do you simply mean when first filling it, fill it up to within 3 inches of the neck of the imperial gallon? So simply more water? OR add more of everything?
3 1/2lb = 1 US gallon.......????lb honey =1 Imperial gallon

JC

[lockwood1956]

I would just use the same ingredients and make it up to 1 (imp) gallon, thats what I did and it tastes just fab, I racked it today for the final time, I will bottle it just before christmas.

[lockwood1956]

Here are some pics of it

one of them looks a bit red....dodgy flash.....the bottom picture is the real colour
it's in a 3 gallon (US) carbuoy

[jcnoren]

Thanks for clearifying....

JC

[ms.spain]

I was just wondering if anyone has tried their mead yet? My mother and I absolutely love it!Mine finished semisweet, and the orange and spices really came through.
Here is a tip I kind of discovered by luck. I had a 1 gallon batch I started back in mid October.Me, being the impatient person that I am, decided I wanted to try to have this ready for the end of November during Thanksgiving.The only fining agent I had was bentonite.So in mid November, I racked my Ancient Orange mead. I then added 1 tsp. bentonite dissolve in 1/2 cup of hot water.I was SHOCKED at how quickly this began to clear!Within an hour, the bentonite and cloudy lees had settled into the bottom 3 inches of the jug.I let it set 10 days to compact the lees.It came out so clear,so we served a bottle at Thanksgiving, and saved some to age longer.

[Prairie Wine]

Here's my Joe M Orange Mead that I started 4 Nov. Going to rack it.

[Prairie Wine]

My son helped me rack this and he's the one who got all the fruit out of the carboy. What a kid!

[Prairie Wine]

Added some marbles to bring the level up a bit. S.G. was 1.030 and it tastes nice. I even tried a raisin and it tasted of orange.

[Prairie Wine]

Yesterday I added some bentonite to help it clear. The sediment if very fine and if you looked at it too hard it would stir up again.

[RAMROD]

They all look good now I wish I had started more than a gal.

[hong]

Really would like a try at this, it sounds simple enough and ever so tasty!
Just one question ( for now )
3 1/2 lbs of honey sounds a lot of honey to me, apart from from supermarkets in jars is there anywhere else i could buy this amount of honey from?

[lockwood1956]

I made mine using Morrissons honey, and plain bread yeast, it turned out just fine.

regards
Bob

[ms.spain]

Well, I thought I'd post this little bit of info I discovered.The first gallon of Joe's AO I made, came out semisweet to sweet.I used Store-bought honey.
The second gallon batch I did, I used the same type of bread yeast, but I used organic raw honey. This batch fermented completely out! I didn't think bread yeast would be able to handle that kind of alcohol!
I sweetened that batch back up a bit, so it is still aging in the gallon jug.
Moral of the story, I guess, is that some bread yeasts can handle more alcohol content than others!

[jcnoren]

If you wait long enough even the oranges will sink to the bottom but I never waited that long. If it is clear it is ready..[/FONT][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

Today makes it 3 months since I started my batch of mead. It has cleared and the majority of the raisons have dropped BUT the oranges are all still at the top. When I started making this I was determined to wait until the oranges dropped. Has anyone made this and had the oranges drop???

JC