Homebrew Mead Wine

[Brian]

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...

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.

[Brian]

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.

[Brian]

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.

[RblDiver]

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.

You missed a perfect opportunity there! Should have named it "Dragon Blood Aged Mead" :P

(Even though it's only 9am, now I think I'll go pull out some mead myself)

[Hummer]

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.

[Brian]

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...

[GilpinGuy]

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.

[OtterbatHellcat]

Sounds cool, man, I hope to hear that it turned out as you expect.

[KevDen2005]

How did I not see this? I love Mead

[Double00]

I think I just found another hobby I can't afford!