Joe Mattioli's Ancient Orange and spice Mead recipe

[Dead Squirrel Running]

Holy holy holy

Joe Mattioli's Ancient Orange and Spice Mead

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

I know that technically this is a Melomel!

Sir Wobbly Robert, this looks like something I want to try and I of sorts, made and ancient wine from some of my bad vine years, after reading "Ancient Wine", written by Patrick McGovern, which had more to do with dna visa archeology, than actual wine making. Just adding the spices and some oranges turned it into something drinkable.

http://www.museum.upenn.edu/new/exhibits/online_exhibits/wine/wineintro.html

But of course as always I have a concern. I have this holy fixation foible and abhorrence of the use of grandma’s bread yeast in wine. I’m thinking that the ancients probably did throw in some grapes and hence wal la, did have wine yeast available, as much so as bread. Nine thousand years ago before mutating their separate ways, possible they were the same yeast. My question is, if I use a wine yeast will you ban me from Wines at Home?

Lastly, one gallon? I’m sorry Bobster, that just won’t do, and I can multiply times five and that won’t do either. I pee more wine everyday . Let’s make these recipes realistic for the professional wino.

“I know that technically this is a Melomel!”

Well I had no idea. There is a language problem here. I, after a weak and failed attempt by the American schools to teach we nitwits the decimals, actually in old age, have mastered it. If you throw a little calculus or Latin at me, I can still stumble through the conversation. I’m also as you know bi-lingual, speaking fluent gibberish and English, but when it comes to understanding the slang, buzzwords and local bar colloquialisms of the Brits, I’m lost. Please start a Brit dictionary for American dummies thread and start with “tinned” fruit. I can only guess that means it comes in a can. From watching movies I know about “trunk vs. boot”. God save the Queen.

[lockwood1956]

LOL

Well as far as melomel etc goes

see here

http://www.solorb.com/mead/mead.html

The reason (I think) the bread yeast is used is because it will die out sooner than a wine yeast and leave some residual sugar, I made some with bread yeast and some with Lalvin EC-1118 the batch with the EC-1118 was very dry and had no fruit taste (although that may have changed had it aged more than a month) and required sweetening before it was as nice as the "standard" batch

[lockwood1956]

Holy Holy Holy?

Well nearly Mead was reputed to have been brewed on the Island of Lindisfarne (Holy Island) many many centuries ago by the Venerable St Aidan

Mead is still made and sold there to this day

see here

http://www.lindisfarne.org.uk/

Holy Island is just off the coast of Northumberland ....place of my birth and Gods back garden

[Dead Squirrel Running]

LOL



The reason (I think) the bread yeast is used is because it will die out sooner than a wine yeast and leave some residual sugar, I made some with bread yeast and some with Lalvin EC-1118 the batch with the EC-1118 was very dry and had no fruit taste (although that may have changed had it aged more than a month) and required sweetening before it was as nice as the "standard" batch

Yes that makes sense. The first wine I ever made was peach wine and bread yeast, syrupy sweet.

[lockwood1956]

Although I suppose if you just kept feeding it honey till the yeasties died, you would have the same effect, and would be more stable, no chance of restart of ferment, although it would boost the alcohol and thats probably not a good thing with mead.

regards
Bob

[Dead Squirrel Running]

My kind of town #1

1 gal recipes

Holy Island is just off the coast of Northumberland ....place of my birth and Gods back garden

Sir Bobster, I really can't let you get away with the claim of being born on Holy Island, without at least showing you where I was born. Hell Town. Actually it was called Underwood in the beautiful state of North Dakota. Of course the pic I'm putting up I believe is about twenty or thirty years before I was born. The first time I visited ND I was about seven and we still had our wheat farm, and Underwood looked basically like the pix - the streets unpaved. Now I know the pix makes it look like a grey dull place, but believe me it enhances it. Still Underwood was a large burg of about 2,500 people. We came from Coleharbor with about 100 residents. Actually we didn't live in Coleharbor either, but 5 1/2 miles SW near Garrison Dam visa the Missouri River. My mom sold the place in 1973 after my dad passed away.

This could be a new thread. Which poster was born in the most beautiful city? Hardly fair - handicap me. One more item: I just realized I'm off topic again as the pix of my Strawberry Wine does not contain mead. Still these 3L bottles with the genuine screw top lids for no hassle service is where you need to start concentrating your thinking. Scale one notch up. Yes I know there's too much air under the cap, but I like to age my wine for several days, and the extra oxygen helps. ha ha

[lockwood1956]

Yes I know there's too much air under the cap, but I like to age my wine for several days, and the extra oxygen helps. ha ha

Now there you go...a man after my own heart...

it would be too dangerous for me to bottle in anything bigger than standard bottles cos I'm the only drinker in the house and once the top is off...............

Good idea on the I was born here thread although I wasn't born on holy island, just in the same county.

I think there may be a way to use the member map (still not finished ....sorry) to highlight where you were born by taking a screenshot

I will start a "I was born here" threead and we can play with it.

regards
Bob

[Duffbeer]

Well I had to give the mead a try, and for once stuck to the recipe apart from 1/2 a lemon in each gallon. Honey at the moment is 99p in Netto for a 1lb jar cheapest I've found for a while. Made 2 gal even used bread yeast which goes against the grain, but bubbling away like no tommorow, smells good, full of citrus odour and real lively. Will update as things progress.

[Duffbeer]

Sorry for the delay with updating, I left it untouched for two months untill the fruit began to drop.
At this point it had a superb citrus odour and surprisingly the bread yeast had fermented out to dry, my thoughts were a citrus aperitif so saved 1 gal for that and sweetened the other gal as a sweet mead (melomel) which took a commended at the yorkshire show after just a week in the bottle, the judges comments were very impressive and would have been higher placed but was not as sweet as it should have been for a sweet class.
All in all an excellent recipe I would highly recomend.

[fatbloke]

-----%<-----
I’m also as you know bi-lingual, speaking fluent gibberish and English, but when it comes to understanding the slang, buzzwords and local bar colloquialisms of the Brits, I’m lost. Please start a Brit dictionary for American dummies thread and start with “tinned” fruit.
-----%<-----

As I ploughed through this "mega thread" I noticed your plea "DSR" so hopefully these links will make things (and some of the language anomalies clearer).

A "slang" dictionary link
and another "slang" dictionary link

TTFN

fatbloke

[Duffbeer]

Shucks it easy you guys, just talk without using your brain, we do it all the time.

[Mamgiowl]

Brain? What's a brain?

[ttalsma]

5 gallon batch???

I'd like to make a 5 gallon batch of this AOM. Do I just multiply everything by 5? Or are some of the items good for any size batch.

Thanks

[lockwood1956]

Yup multiply everything by 5 except the yeast, the same ammount as you would use in 1 gallon should be good for 5

Are you using the bread yeast or are you going to use a wine yeast?

cheers
Bob

[ttalsma]

Yup multiply everything by 5 except the yeast, the same ammount as you would use in 1 gallon should be good for 5

Are you using the bread yeast or are you going to use a wine yeast?

cheers
Bob

Cool. Thanks.

Not sure yet. I could do either, but if the recipe calls for bread yeast....

I do have some liquid mead yeast. I'm not sure off the top of my head what the brand is, but it was supposed to be for a sweet mead!