English: A bee sit on the sunflower, collect h...

English: A bee sits on the sunflower, collects honey. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It turns out a friend on my street keeps a beehive. We got to talking and he gave me 4.5 lbs of sunflower honey he had harvested last summer. I’m making some mead and I’ll share the fruits of this labour with him when it’s done. (Not a bad deal, for either of us, eh? ;-))

Joe’s Ancient Orange Mead is quick, ready in just a few months. It’s growing on me but I find it a little too sweet so I’m playing with the honey content. Joe’s recipe calls for 3.5 lbs of honey/US gallon. My JAOM v3 has 3 lbs of honey & v4 has 2.5 lbs of honey. We’ll see how it turns out.

You can find the full details for making JAOM here. This is how these two short meads were put together this time around …

JAOM v3

3 lbs Sunflower Honey
Spring water to 1 US gallon
1 Large navel orange in 12 slices (this is usually 8 slices but the oranges were BIG)
1 cinnamon stick
1 clove
1 snack box package of raisins
1 tsp bread yeast

OG: 1.140

JAOM v4

1.5 lbs Sunflower Honey
1 lbs Wildflower Honey
Spring water to 1 US gallon
1 Large navel orange in 12 slices (the rind fell off two slices)
1 cinnamon stick
1 clove
1 snack box package of raisins
1 tsp bread yeast

OG: 1.114