Joe Mattioli's Ancient Orange and spice Mead recipe

[Platypus]

So I'd say that it's probably best to leave it and don't entertain the idea of racking and de-gassing. That'd be a "wine people" thing to do, meadsters tend to pay lip service to "that lot"

DOH!
Read this literally five minutes too late
Just got back on here after racking it off the fruit

Having said that it gave me the opportunity to check its gravity (1.020) and give it a little sneak tasting

WOW if its this good now I can't wait till its done

[fatbloke]

DOH!
Read this literally five minutes too late
Just got back on here after racking it off the fruit

Having said that it gave me the opportunity to check its gravity (1.020) and give it a little sneak tasting

WOW if its this good now I can't wait till its done

Well, the other thing then, is once it's racked off the fruit/lees etc, use the current conditions and get it outside in the snow for as long as the snow lasts. It won't freeze.....

Then start another batch, but let it complete exactly as the recipe says (don't worry about the branding of ingredients, just that they're as close the the same as you can manage).

At 1.020, it'll probably be a goodie (I like my meads between 1.010 and 1.020).

Plus, you might get to wanting to make a batch but start changing the recipe/ingredients, well I'd say don't bother, lots have tried, but modified versions usually don't turn out good (this recipe doesn't make for a good dry mead at all........)

Good luck with it though....

regards

jtfb

[lockwood1956]

Plus, you might get to wanting to make a batch but start changing the recipe/ingredients, well I'd say don't bother, lots have tried, but modified versions usually don't turn out good (this recipe doesn't make for a good dry mead at all........)

Totally agree with John, I have made many modified versions, and not a single one of them is as good as the original (they may get better over a very long ageing period though)

[Pad]

Just a note to say thanks and report that my misses called this "beautiful" . Which it is . My first escapade into mead, but one i (she) am (is nagging) already planning on repeating . :-)

[waggoner]

Wow..just tried my first bottle,,what a difference!!
It was bottled on the 23/11/10, so 3 1/2 months in the bottle. Tasted not very nice at the begining, but now its very much different,,i'll have to leave the others alone for a few more months and see how they turn out,,if this one is anything to go by,,then their going to be pretty good

[crusher]

Made a few lots of this, very, very good but I have just had a suprise. I went into my winery yesterday to find wine all over the floor and a VERY strong smell of Old Joe's !
Sure enough one of the bottles in the rack had blown it's cork.
Looked at another, the cork came out almost like a Champagne bottle.
It's started fermenting again (not much gets past me, eh)
Now this was made exactly to the recipe, as I usually do and was bottled September 2010, nearly 9 months ago.
Never happened before. Is it a fluke or should I start adding stabilizer?
I don't want to as my wife is allergic to them.

[fatbloke]

Made a few lots of this, very, very good but I have just had a suprise. I went into my winery yesterday to find wine all over the floor and a VERY strong smell of Old Joe's !
Sure enough one of the bottles in the rack had blown it's cork.
Looked at another, the cork came out almost like a Champagne bottle.
It's started fermenting again (not much gets past me, eh)
Now this was made exactly to the recipe, as I usually do and was bottled September 2010, nearly 9 months ago.
Never happened before. Is it a fluke or should I start adding stabilizer?
I don't want to as my wife is allergic to them.

Rather bizarre, especially if you stuck to the recipe and used bread yeast. That'd normally have pooped out having reached its tolerance.

Possibly, just rack it off the fruit, clear, etc, but then bulk age it under airlock.....

That way you get all the benefits but avoid any allergy issues...

regards

jtfb

[koomber]

I had a bottle of JAOM blow its cork last year. I put it down to not degassing and an increase in temperature causing the gas to come out of solution and then pop.

Not that I would degas though, I'd probably just leave mead for longer under airlock before bottling.

[lockwood1956]

Not that I would degas though, I'd probably just leave mead for longer under airlock before bottling.

I don't subscribe to the belief that the wine will degass itself.

I have a batch of cherry wine that has been under airlock for 5 years, and it is unbelievably saturated in CO2. I attempted degassing it last year, but gave up, It got racked to another DJ, sulphited and sits in my cellar awaiting degassing, I tried and tried but couldn't get all the CO2 to shift....might leave it till grapefest so you can all observe it

Regular racking and storage in barrels will do it, but left to its own devices the CO2 will stay in suspension surely?

[crusher]

Thanks for the replies,
I normally bulk age my wines until they have been racked a couple of times and are clear.
This Old Joes was left in DJ untill the fruit dropped and it was clear. I then left it about a month longer and bottled it.
It was made with bread yeast and is about 15% ABV. Just shows how determind yeast can be!!
From now on, when it's finished, I will age under airlock for 12 months to be sure.

[Cellar_Rat]

I don't subscribe to the belief that the wine will degass itself.

Oh no - you know I have trouble with this subject !!

Commercial wineries have all manner of stainless steel gadgets to pick, crush, press, rack, pump, filter and generally fart about with wine in bulk. So my question then is - why are there no commercial degassing machines ?

Further evidence could be sought in the fact that I have never seen it mentioned the big, expensive commercial winery books.

I have never experienced it.

I am not saying it doesn't exist, and I am not saying you don't have a shining example. But there is something afoot here.

Does it only apply to fruit/country wines?
Have people seen it in grape wines?
Does you analmatic not degas it by vacuum ?
I cannot help but think this is not the obvious co2 we think it is and is instead caused by something else.
Is this a new thread?
Will it be moved?


So many questions...

[lockwood1956]

lol

commercial wineries store in barrels, allowing the wine to breathe and the wine is moved about by pump etc, this is the main reason i feel that they dont suffer problems.

we store in glass and seal the wine from the outside world completely.

Grape wines do not suffer the same as country or fruit wines.

Commercial wineries actually inject CO2 into whites occasionally to give the wines a fruit lift.

it is perfectly possible to make wines without degassing, but i find the carbonic acid present too prickly on my tongue (i seem to be quite sensitive to it) and for me it spoils the fruit.

cherry wine is the worst i have come across for hanging on to CO2

I feel that my wines are improved greastly by getting most of the CO2 out....you can try it woth commercial wines (dont do this unless you want to end up obsessed like me) pour a glass from the bottle, place thumb over the hole and shake hard, when you release the pressure under your thumb.....if there is a large "pop" then there is much CO2 present.....keep removing CO2 (i use a vacuvin) and see how the taste changes.

but be warned, once you start on this there lies madness ahead...

I became totally obsessed by it at one pooint....im (a little ) better now

[lockwood1956]

Forgot to add......

My main reason for buying the enolmatic was to rack under vacuum, removing heaps of CO2 as i did it.

[Cellar_Rat]

"we store in glass and seal the wine from the outside world completely."

Hmm. We may have an answer here. I never ever bung anything, in glass or stainless I always have breathers and use pumps.

Don't get me wrong I am not feeling left out but I want to understand why. And I think we have it here.

PS sorry about the typo !! LOL

[jayv]

Nearly finished making my first batch of Ancient Orange Mead (just need to add the yeast) and realised that I've run out of airlocks . I presume it will be ok for a few days with a loose fitting lid.