JAOM Variants v3 and v4

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

Sunflower Honey

3lbs of Sunflower Honey

Hydrometer Reading

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

JAOM v4 Hydrometer Reading

Racking JAOM v2

I made this second batch of Ancient Orange Mead to share with my buddy Rex. He gave me about 6 lbs of wildflower honey and I’m turning it into mead.The wildflower honey is different from the honey (mostly from canola flowers) I’ve used in all my other meads; it’s darker and had a more full bodied flavour.

I first pitched it together on Nov 25. It’s cleared and, according to Joe, that means it’s ready. I’m not convinced. You can see from the pictures just how much sediment has accumulated. SO, I’ve racked it and I’ll let it sit for at least another two months. In a recent conversation I had with another brewer he told me that mead generally has a significant flavour jump after 3 months, 6 months and 10 months. I know JAOM is supposed to be a quicker mead to make but I want to give it at least 3 months before I bottle it and share it with Rex.

The pictures show:

• Two views of the new and old (bottled on Dec 16, pitched Oct 7) JOAMs side by side.
• A before racking shot from above.
• The detritus left behind after racking.
• An after racking shot; it’ll need some time to clear again.
• Two after racking shots side-by-side with my first JAOM.
• The SG reading: 1.040

I topped it all up with about 500ml of spring water after racking.

 

The dark colour of the wildflower honey will make this a darker mead. I made it exactly the same way I did my first JAOM except for this change in the honey. It’ll be interesting to see what effect that has on the flavour.

Bottling JAOM v1

I bottled my first mead; Joe’s Ancient Orange Mead.

I’ve read and received lots of different advice about bottling; specifically how to sanitize the corks. Some folks say don’t bother. I boiled the corks for 5 min before bottling. I’ve seen others suggest steaming them. I’ve learned that by boiling or steaming you can get “cork water” dripping into you mead which can impart a “corky” flavour to it. I’m thinking next time I’ll just cork the bottles and not worry about sanitizing them but I’ll read up on it more before then.

The original SG was about 1.128. I took a hydrometer reading: 1.034; which is weird because it was 1.030 when I racked it. I’ve got pictures of it; can’t explain.

Pictures show:

• The SG reading: 1.034
• Three different views of a glass of the mead. It’s golden and very clear.
• The mead bottled.

I actually got 4 full wine bottles and a little more. The smaller bottle in the last picture was almost full after bottling. We drank the rest.

 

 

 

I’m still ambivalent about the taste of this mead. It’s … interesting. I keep coming back to it but I’m not convinced I like it. I guess I was hoping for more of an orange-like flavour and that’s not really there.

Racking JAOM

I racked the Orange Spice mead I brewed back at the start of October. It’s been clear for a little more than a week. There’s a lot of sediment and “stuff” from the fermenting process.

You can see in the pictures how clear the mead became and:

• the cinnamon stick sitting in the lees.
• the orange slices, raisins & clove sitting on top.
• all the stuff leftover after racking.
• the racked mead, which got cloudy from some of the sediment that got mixed into it.
• the hydrometer reading: 1.030

I’ve also got a short video from the taste test I did. I’ll add that to the bottom of this post too.

Ancient Orange Mead v2

My buddy Rex gave me about 6lbs of farm fresh wildflower honey. I’m making some more of Joe’s Ancient Orange Mead with it (because its the fastest mead I’ve learned how to make to date; 2.5 months) which we’ll share.

RECIPE
3.5 lbs of honey
1 cinnamon stick
1 clove
1 orange cut into eighth pieces
Spring water to fill a gallon jug
1 teaspoon of bread yeast

I put everything into a jug, except the yeast, and shook it up like crazy for 5-6 min (sore arms). I left a good 4-5 inches of head space in the jug. Then I added the yeast and put an airlock on top.

The yeast action was quite intense for the first few days. As it settled down I topped up the water until it was a few centimeters from the stopper.

Now we wait. About three months.

The last picture below shows this mead side by side with the one I made about two months back. It’s almost done.

JAOM @ 6 Days

Short video showing how the ancient orange mead is coming along and a brief explanation of how to make your own at home.

JAOM: Joe’s Ancient Orange Mead

This recipe is shared and talked about all over the mead making internet. It’s fondly referred to as JAOM.

 

Three things attracted me to trying it out:

 

• Everyone who has made it seems to love it.

• It’s dead simple to make with household ingredients.

• It’s ready to drink in two months. (Most meads need at least 6 months to finish.)

 

If you’re starting out making mead this recipe seems to be the one to start with.

 

I followed the recipe below which I found and copied from the GotMead website here.

 

FYI: I didn’t use any nutmeg; feh! (I’m surprised I used the clove!)

 

Hydrometer reading approx. 1.128; hard to be certain with all the foam in the jug.

Ingredients

3 1/2 lbs Clover or your choice honey or blend (will finish sweet)

1 Large orange (later cut in eights or smaller rind and all)

1 small handful of raisins (25 if you count but more or less ok)

1 stick of cinnamon

1 whole clove (or 2 if you like – these are potent critters)

optional (a pinch of nutmeg and allspice)(very small)

1 teaspoon of Fleishmanns bread yeast (now don’t get holy on me— after all this is an ancient mead and that’s all we had back then)

Balance water to one gallon

Methods/steps

This is one I have shared before but it may have got lost in the rebuild. It is so simple to make and you can make it without much equipment and with a multitude of variations. This could be a first Mead for the novice as it is almost fool proof. It is a bit unorthodox but it has never failed me or the friends I have shared it with.

Process:

Use a clean 1 gallon carboy

Dissolve honey in some warm water and put in carboy

Wash orange well to remove any pesticides and slice in eights –add orange (you can push em through opening big boy — rinds included — its ok for this mead — take my word for it — ignore the experts)

Put in raisins, clove, cinnamon stick, any optional ingredients and fill to 3 inches from the top with cold water (need room for some foam — you can top off with more water after the first few day frenzy)

Shake the heck out of the jug with top on, of course. This is your sophisticated aeration process.

When at room temperature in your kitchen. Put in 1 teaspoon of bread yeast. (No you don’t have to rehydrate it first– the ancients didn’t even have that word in their vocabulary– just put it in and give it a gentle swirl or not)(The yeast can fight for their own territory)

Install water airlock. Put in dark place. It will start working immediately or in an hour. (Don’t use grandma’s bread yeast she bought years before she passed away in the 90’s)(Wait 3 hours before you panic or call me) After major foaming stops in a few days add some water and then keep your hands off of it. (Don’t shake it! Don’t mess with them yeastees! Let them alone except its okay to open your cabinet to smell every once in a while.

Racking — Don’t you dare
additional feeding — NO NO
More stirring or shaking — Your not listening, don’t touch

After 2 months and maybe a few days it will slow down to a stop and clear all by itself. (How about that) (You are not so important after all) Then you can put a hose in with a small cloth filter on the end into the clear part and siphon off the golden nectar. 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. You don’t need a cold basement. It does better in a kitchen in the dark. (like in a cabinet) likes a little heat (70-80).
If it didn’t work out… you screwed up and didn’t read my instructions (or used grandma’s bread yeast she bought years before she passed away). If it didn’t work out then take up another hobby. Mead is not for you. It is too complicated.
If you were successful, which I am 99% certain you will be, then enjoy your mead. When you get ready to make a different mead you will probably have to unlearn some of these practices I have taught you, but hey— This recipe and procedure works with these ingredients so don’t knock it. It was your first mead. It was my tenth. Sometimes, even the experts can forget all they know and make a good ancient mead.

Enjoy, Joe
— submitted by Joe Mattioli