Joe Mattioli's Ancient Orange and spice Mead recipe

[Winenoob]

I am going to have a go myself today - trying it with orange blossom honey and with the bread yeast, exactly as the recipe.

[ms67]

i never looked at this thread before, never been tempted to try mead making (honey costs too much for me to get serious about it, much rather eat it!). but i'm glad i looked, its got me very curious. so many broken rules ... pith, bread yeast. and also follows ayurvedic principles of not boiling honey, or adding boiling water to honey. so ... i'm very curious and may make a one gallon batch now.

are modern fast acting bread yeasts preferable to brewing yeasts for this recipe?

[lockwood1956]

Yes, because they will expire early and leave residual sweetness. This recipe isn't anywhere near as good made with a wine yeast, which will of course ferment it to dry.

regards
Bob

[ms67]

cheers

[crusher]

Put a gallon on a couple of days ago.
Done to the recipe except I used Dove Farm Quick bread yeast, not Fleishmann's. There has not been any "major foaming" at all. In fact very little action. (Made some bread from same packet of yeast and that was OK.)
Hardly any foam on top and air lock plopping slowly, about every 45 seconds or so.
Should I just top it up (at present the DJ is filled to 3inches below full) and leave it or should I be doing something?
It's my first attempt at mead, any advice please?

[jcnoren]

I am unfamilar with brand of yeast used. I always error on the side of " what will lead to less of a mess" .... I would give it a few more days, just incase it foams up.

JC

[Winenoob]

I started a gallon a couple of weeks ago and also could not find any Fleishmann's yeast. I used a fast action bread yeast, Allinsons I think. Mine was also a slow starter, I did not see any major foaming, just a gradual increase in the bubbling rate. I topped mine up after a week or so. It is now blooping every 6 seconds or so and seems to be doing o.k.
Perhaps it is the cooler weather which accounts for the slow start and lack of major foaming?

[Cellar_Rat]

.... surely this needs teabag ! in it to balance the tannin?

[crusher]

OK, I'll leave it and see what happens. Thanks

[crusher]

Just to update, all seems to be well. No foaming or vigorous activity but it is fermenting steadily now I don't know why the slow start as it is in a heated cabinet with others that started normally Might just be the type of yeast.

[fatbloke]

Just to update, all seems to be well. No foaming or vigorous activity but it is fermenting steadily now I don't know why the slow start as it is in a heated cabinet with others that started normally Might just be the type of yeast.

I'd suggest that the slow start is more likely a nutrients thing. It would logically take longer for the nutrient in the orange and raisins etc to disseminate out into the rest of the mix. Honey is famous for being low in nutrients - it's why, if you really wanted to make a "proper traditional" mead with just water, honey and yeast, you can expect a very long, slow fermentation.

Besides, it doesn't really matter, just keep an eye on it with hydrometer testing.

The whole point of the recipe, is that it's supposed to be an easy, straight forward, yet tasty result. All of my own efforts with the JAO recipe have come out Ok but it does seem to need ageing. I've yet to have a batch that can be ready for drinking once it's cleared and the fruit dropped........

regards

jtfb

[crusher]

Well it might have been a slow start but 6 weeks on from pitching the yeast and it's finished. My oranges have dropped (absolutely painless, never felt a thing) and it has started clearing already!
Finished at 1012 and has a very good spicy, citrus, honey flavour.

[fatbloke]

Well it might have been a slow start but 6 weeks on from pitching the yeast and it's finished. My oranges have dropped (absolutely painless, never felt a thing) and it has started clearing already!
Finished at 1012 and has a very good spicy, citrus, honey flavour.

Well I'd still age it crusher. It's done well to get to 1012, on (presumably) bread yeast.

Just so you follow my point, the 4 commercial meads I tried last year or the year before, were all cloyingly sweet "dessert" meads.

When I measured them, they all had gravity of about 1040, so although 1012 is technically "sweet" (according to the numbers like that anyway) it won't actually be that sweet.

If you can manage it, once it's clear, bottle it and put some out the way, where, if possible, you can forget about them. You'll be surprised the differences that 12 months ageing can make.

I've been making meads for 4 or 5 years now and I still find it amazing that something that tasted hideous when it was "fresh", is absolutely marvellous 12 months or so later......

regards

jtfb

[fatbloke]

Bread yeasts......

Just for anyone who isn't sure, Fleishmann's yeast just happens to be a brand that was originally used by Joe Mattioli when he originally developed the recipe (as far as I can find out.....)

So it would also correlate that any good quality bread yeast should be fine.

Here in the UK, I'd suggest one of the Allinsons yeasts will probably be the most easily available.

That seems to work fine......

regards

jtfb

p.s. and yes, I'd suggest that even with bread yeasts, there's likely to be differing ranges of alcohol tolerance, but I doubt whether there's any published data relating to that, like there is with some of the wine yeasts....

[crusher]

JTFB, thanks for the advice. I will put some away as I am mainly a dry wine/beer man. This will be for occasional drinking (I think)
How does it keep when open, days, weeks, months?
The yeast I used was Doves Farm Dried Baking Yeast, they do a good range of speciality flours, gluten free, organic, etc.
If I wanted to enter a show which class would this be in? sweet wine, dessert wine, mead, etc?