OVHA Chat

Here is a recipe that has been passed around and posted on various other boards. I mixed up a gallon batch last Saturday using the exact recipe, something I rarely do.

Ancient Orange Cinnamon & Clove Mead

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. Wikdwaze, you might like this one better than your Chancers since it will be both sweet, complex and tastey.

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 Fleismanns 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 syphon off the golden nectar. If you wait long enough even the oranges will sink to the bottom but I never waitied 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 sucessful, 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 Mattioli

What is going on with the batch you mixed up?

It is still slowly bubbling. It has cleared some, but has a ways to go. I've thieved some to sample. Not bad; sweet with a definite spice flavor but not too overpowering and a bit of orange. I think it just needs more time.

Bottled the stuff today. I really don't have anything that I can compare it to; it's pretty unique. It is sweet with a good balance of flavors. I kinda like it and will probably be making a larger batch soon. I was surprised how well the Fleischmann's yeast worked......watch out White Labs!

I'll bring a bottle to the meeting Wed. night.

So fella's what's the verdict from the tastings at the meeting? I missed out on trying this. I like the simplicity of this recipe.

I liked my sample of this ... a great cold weather one.

I actually really liked it. I thought it had a ton of different flavors going on. I do seem to remember it having a bite at the end. Which makes me agree with Chris, a good winter warmer. I wonder if that would be good at a higher temp?
I definitely will be making that.

I made this today. Stuck pretty close to the recipe. Maybe a little too much cinnamon, and hell I do not know what a large orange is.
I did add to rubber stoppers to the mix. Wonder how those will add to the complexity. Darn new gallon carboy.

I mixed up a 5 gal batch tonight. I just scaled up the ingredients except the yeast. I also decreased the honey from 3.5 pounds per gallon to 3 pounds per gallon.

Now we wait.........

I have been curious about doing that. I thought the taste warranted that. Did you prime at all when you bottled? I am half scared to see your carboy when that stuff starts going. Mine started instantly. How much headspace did you leave?

I wasn't looking to make a sparkling mead this time, so I didn't prime.
You usually don't need as much head space for mead and wine as you do with beer, so for the gallon, I left 3 inches or so.

Well I finally made the leap to mead making. This smelled wonderful. I had to make some slight changes to the basic recipie. I ramped it up to a full 5 gallon batch, and I couldn't find my cinnamon sticks, but a quick google search revealed that 1/2 tsp cinnamon= 1 stick cinnamon, and I only had 1 small handfull of raisins, but I had a whole bunch of golden raisins. The raisin combination looked really good at the bottom of the carboy. I only had 1 other problem, and possibly somebody might have the answer.

HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU REMOVE 5 GALLONS OF THIS SWEET STICKY MESS FROM CARPET!!!

I was carrying the carboy to its final resting place for the next 3 months, anticipating a festive 4th of July, and the the damn carboy neck broke off. It was one of those events that happens in super slow motion. Watching the topless carboy slowly falling to the floor. Knowing full well I couldn't catch it, and if I did, I wouldn't have that apendage attached to my body any longer. Having that long deep slow NOOOOOOOOO!!!! sound in my head.
The shop vac got up about a gallon. (Do you think the extra glass shards and dirt will settle out if I put this in a small carboy?) There is glass shards and sticky orange liquid in a 15 ft radius of ground zero.

My wife was real supportive. She just casually said "It's ok, you can make it again" I think it she knows it might be easier to put down new flooring.

Do we have a forum for brewing nightmares? I think this one would be for the books.

Glass shards will definitely become part of the trub. Actually, looks like this batch has become part of Meadmaker's Nightmare Part !. Look for new carpet, but explain that new home furnishings are not usually involved in making mead

Definitely makes the case for the BetterBottle.

I've always had this fear and have read on other boards of some serious injury resulting from such a nightmare. I think I'll step up my timetable for making some "Brew Haulers". http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products ... rodID=6028

Hay,I wondered if a carboy handle has the potential of breaking the neck,but I thought,' just paranoid 'Anyway,a 'rug doctor'carpet cleaner might get you by for a while,don't know if it will cure the odor,though...maybe