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Bottled some orange spiced mead tonight (similar to JAOM). It's hard to see with the 12:30am lighting but it had a beautiful color and was super clear. iPotato quality picture. Now I suppose I need to make some labels so I remember in a couple years what batch this is.
http://i.imgur.com/MVFQCgS.jpg?2
http://i.imgur.com/QkQ6BzU.jpg?2
You may have a little too much to handle there. I'll help you drink it...
When you start your random number raffle to give away a few, I pick 17.
I've always wanted to try Mead wine (albeit a bit pricey in stores). I inquired about it in the "sippin" thread, but apparently that was the wrong place.
Yeah it's the price of the honey that kills you. Figure $50-100 of honey per carboy. Even though you get 20+ bottles, it's not cheap.
Planning to age these a bit longer in the bottles now, but we can plan on tasting party later this fall... I've got a few more stashed in a dark corner of the basement waiting for bottles.
It looks tasty. I'm not much of a wine person though.
Me either, so we'll see how this goes. LOL.Quote:
Originally Posted by ray1970
I think it's mandatory that I buy a Norse Thor costume or something and drink this wearing it, from what people tell me.
I'm down for your drinking party. We can raid a college and steal some wenches.. I'd say virgins but who wants to deal with that bs
Sent by a free-range electronic weasel, with no sense of personal space.
You should do a write up on ingredients and the process.
Like Herman said...Quote:
Originally Posted by Herman
Tasting party...When are you doing a brewing party?
I have tried to get several people to teach me and nothing yet.
cask ageing mine:) it wont see the light of day till around christmas
Nice.
Really cool photos as well. My brother made mead around twenty years ago. Pretty tasty. Hope yours works out.
Good to see you making good use of that stuff. What kind of honey and yeast did you use for that? Make sure those bottles are on a rack soon.
Need the horn goblet to drink from. Mead was the drink of choice for much of the time men have made brews. Nectar of the Gods
Warning: Possible side effect of mead include singing drinking songs in a language that sounds vaguely like Norwegian, a desire to actually use that battle axe hanging in the hallway, and pillaging villages for gold and wenches...[Viking]
Yeah, congratulations on your next child. That stuffs worse than tequila for fertility or so I've heard.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian
Looks great, Brian. Have never made mead but would like to try yours. Save a bottle once it ages and we'll make a trade.
It's looking like a good fruit and wine grape year here. We're expecting a bumper crop of Riesling, along with the Cabernet Franc, Cab Sauv and Merlot I'll crush a ton and half or two of grapes for wine this fall. Gotta take advantage of a good harvest because it doesn't happen every year in Colorado. But when it happens we've got the quality. I'll make some apple and peach wines, too.
We also have a bumper crop of bees so it should be a good year for local honey producers. More mead, more better.
One thing I had planned to do but forgot about until it was too late was to bottle a few in the skinny 375ml bottles instead of the normal 750s. Have had several guys recommend that to me, whether to enter them in contests, or share with friends/gifts - 2x the bottles on hand would be nice.
My problem is I have a hard time going "half way" into a project/hobby. Several of the guys on the board here have lent me advice or helped me acquire gear over the last year or two, so there's quite a pile of "stuff" in the basement right now, not to mention 35-40gal of various mead or wine chemistry experiments going.
Sounds good! BTW I did pick up a like-new floor corker off CL, and bought the capper attachment for it as well. Wow, it really is a lot easier vs. the handhelds.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hummer
Only thing I noticed the other night was I had one or two bottles where the cork was pushing back up a bit almost immediately. The mead is 100% dead so it's not carbonation - I'm guessing it has something to do with either the starsan rinse, which I've noticed does tend to make bungs slippery as well (heyoo!) or maybe my corks were too soft or something. Replaced one of the corks with a fresh one and all was good. The other I just shoved down with my thumb and watched it for 12 hours or so to make sure it wasn't coming back up.
They're horizontal in a rack now, will keep an eye on them to make sure I don't have any corks popping. Since this batch is going to be a little sweet due to the style, that would make a heck of a sticky mess.
Will have to go back and double check my notes on the honey, but this was an odd one that used grocery store fleischmanns bread yeast. I made a gallon of it back when I was getting started and liked it, so I decided to do a full 5gal this time. Doesn't finish as far as some of the others of course and the lees are pretty loose and fluffy compared to others which is annoying, but it worked out well in the end. The leftovers once I drained all the mead out made the house smell awesome for 24 hours though, assuming you like the smell of mulled cider or whatever. Will be great here in the fall - 6mo should be around October, so maybe I drink a bottle or two for Halloween.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave
Mead is awesome! My cousin in Washington home brews that stuff. It was like 18% alcohol. Ridiculously good.
Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk
Hmm, my fermenter is going to be free in about 10 days. Looks like a fun change of pace from wine.
Looks like I need to show this to my mom as she is always making wine and giving us batches but some mead sounds awesome! Great work, that stuff looks great!
Bottled another batch over the weekend - a great clear red color on this one. Also labeled a couple batches with some custom-made labels. This one isn't as sweet as the last (on purpose), and it tastes pretty good already - even though it's only about 5mo old. Wish I had made more than 3gal on this batch. Guess I'd better start another batch. 13% on this one but I have a few that are higher.
http://i.imgur.com/hEIUWf4.jpg?1
Nice work. I've got two carboys of mead sitting and about ready to rack again for bottling. Are you on gotmead? A few of us in the front range gm are going to try and setup a sit and sip to sample each others experiments and talk about yeast pee.
Yep, but I've been pretty much lurking only, and a couple of the other forums too. I saw a post the other day about a get together, just hadn't responded yet, but I will. sounds awesome. I've got a few I need to rack too - I need to reinforce the shelving I'm using, as it's bowing pretty bad from all the weight and I didn't want to stir up any lees moving stuff around if I could rack first instead. There's a strawberry down there that I swear clouds up if I breathe funny.Quote:
Originally Posted by jdranchman
That looks fantastic, Brian, great label, too.
My young cousin visited today and toured the orchard and garage winery. He's now working at a north Boulder winery that will be showing off their mead at the Colorado Mountain Winefest in Palisade next month. Will have to try it. Usually there are some great meads and fruit wines at the winefest which draws about 8000 visitors to the Grand Valley.
Right now I'm sipping on a 2009 apple wine. Still pretty good.
I have fun making custom labels for our homemade wines, too.
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...eWines2008.jpg
I've been wanting to do this! The guys at Old West in the Springs are big proponents. They said you need to put your carbouy away and let it ferment for a year or more to get it right. Is that what you're doing?
There are methods to make a drinkable mead in a couple months. However, even with those they still get better with age. Two quick methods/recipes you can do at home are named JAOM and BOMM. The JAOM (Joe's Ancient Orange Mead) is a mix it and forget recipe and is ready in a couple of months (don't move it or stir it or nothing till its done). The BOMM (Bray's One Month Mead) is more a recipe and protocol that includes staggered nutrient additions (SNA) to help feed yeasties optimally during their short life. BOMM gives you a tasty drinkable mead in about 30 days. If you are interested, I recommend you surf to gotmead.com and read some of the forum articles - lots of good stuff. I wish I read some of that before I made my first batch last year. I did it the old school way and it might be drinkable in a year or two or three...
Wow, looks great. Hopefully I'll make it out there to see in person this Spring. I do like how you've tied your hummingbirds into all the labels too - at some point if I get semi-serious I will probably need to be thinking about how to provide some consistency or at least some sort of link between all the various labels.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hummer
I'd also be interested in your apple wine recipe. I have a carboy full of Ed Wort's dry German apfelwein stashed in a dark corner somewhere. My wife tends to like ciders and apple-based wines, so I try to keep her happy, but I'm thinking a dry cider may be more to my liking than hers... we'll see. It helps when she gets frustrated with all the "stuff" involved in my hobbies that's scattered all over the house if I can tempt her with something she likes.
Yep, that first picture I posted above is JAOM-based and was drinkable quite a while ago. It is honestly extremely simple, and you can do it without all the normal brewer's gear. Herman mentioned posting a recipe - I'll try to provide my recipe and a link to a few tips tonight when I have a few minutes.Quote:
Originally Posted by jdranchman
Some links:
This guy runs stormthecastle.com which is full of mead ideas, among a heck of a lot of other stuff. His video is great for a beginner, and is more or less a JAOM. You can even skip the airlock if you don't have one and use a baloon with a tiny pinhole poked in it. I made my first mead with an old plastic jug and a baloon, and it turned out great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2ueyNQfnfE
http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/f...ead-making.htm
Joe Mattioli's JAOM is all over the place:
200+ pages at HBT: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=49106
76 pages at GM: http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthr...ancient+orange
WMT has a number of links too, here's one: http://www.winemakingtalk.com/joes-a...-gift-kit.html
Joe's Recipe:
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Bread yeast
Yeast Starter: nope
Batch Size (Gallons): 1
Original Gravity: 1.100????
Final Gravity: 1.030?????
Boiling Time (Minutes): 1
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 2 months
Ancient Orange Mead (by Joe Mattioli)
1 gallon batch
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 Fleishmann’s 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
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 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 good ancient mead.
Good lord the stuff I made in the first post is crazy good warmed up. Added some apple cider, cinnamon sticks, some sliced and peeled peaches and a bit 'o brown sugar and boiled it a bit. Had some friends over and we might have gone through a "few" bottles tonight.
You missed a perfect opportunity there! Should have named it "Dragon Blood Aged Mead" :PQuote:
Originally Posted by Brian
(Even though it's only 9am, now I think I'll go pull out some mead myself)
I have to bump this thread just to brag on Brian's Ancient Orange Mead. On his way to Moab recently, Brian stopped by with his family to say hello and to share some of his home brew wares. We really enjoyed meeting Brian and his wonderful family. What a fine fellow!
Brian brought a bottle of his spiced orange mead (pictured on page 1 in this thread), the Dragon Blood Mead (above) and a couple lemon wine coolers. We enjoyed one of the lemon wine coolers, very nice, and opened the spiced orange sweet mead. Wow, what flavor, it's awesome stuff! It's a sweet, honey rich sipper. Still have a little left which will be gone before I finish typing. Sorry, guys. We haven't opened the other cooler or the Dragon's Blood yet. That will wait to be shared with other wine & home brew friends when they visit.
Thanks again, Brian, for the fun of your visit and the delicious mead. I hope to source honey from a neighbor this summer and try making a mead for the first time.
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...pscm5q5sgt.jpg
Wow you can't beat a backyard view like that! We were all super jealous of your homestead there in Palisade. Don't be surprised if my daughter shows up there someday with a suitcase asking where she can sleep. :)
I'm glad the mead was a positive experience - and definitely appreciate your help and advice as I'm experimenting with this "hobby". I can't wait to try the bottles you sent back with me, but I did promise my buddy that I'd wait until our calendar's aligned so we could enjoy together.
Side note about sweet mead - we did stop by at Meadery of the Rockies on our way through, and I picked up a couple things. The only one I've tried so far that was a bit unique was the "Honey Shere" desert mead. As far as I can tell, it's honey wine that was finished, had a significant amount of additional honey to it, and then also had distilled grape spirits added - ends up almost 20% ABV. It's extremely thick (literally dripping in the glass), and potent - but if you're looking for a little after dinner dessert, it was very good.
On a related note, I've been trying to coordinate a small group to get together to experiment with some apple juice we recently acquired - around 50 gallons of it. I have not been able to get everyone together at the same time, but a few of us did get together on Saturday (apparently, which was also "national homebrew day") and managed to get started. There are now about 10 buckets fermenting underway in the basement, with more to come.
A bit of bubbles for hypnotic enjoyment. If I had room, I'd ferment in my office so I could hear the bubbles plop all day long...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycTmJqUiCIA
Thread revival!
I just prepared my first 2 gallons of mead. One bluberry amd one strawberry. This recipe says it can be enjoyed in about 45 days. Hope it comes out ok. I'm tempted to get a bunch more going. Once I taste this stuff I'm not gonna want to run out. [Beer]
Sounds cool, man, I hope to hear that it turned out as you expect.
How did I not see this? I love Mead
I think I just found another hobby I can't afford!