i did this with just 3 mandarin orange peels and 3lbs of orange blossom honey. It turned out to be the best thing (beer or mead) that I've ever brewed.
One of the first meads I made was mandarin orange. I bottled it too early and woke up to "wham" and went downstairs to dents in my furnace and mead all over. One exploded in my face but by some miracle I wasn't hurt. I just smelled wonderful. As far as notes go, I started using OneNote (from Microsoft and installed with Windows 10 and 11). It keeps all my notes together and I can copy pages (basically a template) .
Just a thought, from your Tardis discussion: maybe if there's a brew you really like and you'd like to recreate it anyway, make a new batch just before your 1-year tasting is scheduled, so you could actually taste a young and aged brew side by side. Would be an interesting comparison.
Hi fellow meaders, I made two carboys of peach mead this year. I racked it last week. gorgeous, clear amber...but, flavorless. Yep. well....one thing to do, I added dried elderberries and cardamom and cinnamon. Now, the yeast have discovered the elderberries and we are off to the races. in a couple of weeks, it will be superdelicious.
That has happened to me too a few times. I thought I would remake the mead next season with more flavor stuff, since it was so bland. But woe and behold, half a year of aging gave the thing incredibly strong flavor and I was happy I didn't add anything more.
@@HolyPineCone I tried to do a peach one too, with a pound of frozen. Didn't turn out like I hoped either. I had a cinnamon stuck in the beginning too. Then instead of adding a vanilla bean like I wanted, I tried extract. Didn't save it. I plan on revisiting in the near future. Hopefully I'll get better results. Is peach hard to work with?
My favorite part about red star yeast is that it has INCREDIBLE flocculation. Made a dry strawberry wine with it and the clarity/flavor is excellent. 👍
In my first mead almost a year ago, I used oranges, mangos, and a cinnamon stick. It started similar to how you described it but after 6 months it was exponentially better.
I switched to using mandarin zest instead of orange zest months ago. It like the flavor carries thru more than orange. However, I've been making metheglins lately substituting 1 grated Tonka Bean instead of Vanilla Bean (per gallon in secondary) with spectacular success. You get that vanilla flavor but the tonka bean seems to meld all the flavors faster and you get a very smooth mead just 2 weeks after bottling. Besides the vanilla you get a slight hint of cherry and something else like a berry but these are subdued and not prominent.
Another great video! You happened to yet again show a mead I am thinking of trying. I recently made a mead using most of a jar of Honey Citron Tea we had sitting in the back of the refrigerator for a long time. I just opened my first test bottle after 6 months of aging. It was superb, one of the best things I ever brewed. I now want to make something similar with fresh fruit, but I have never seen fresh citron in the store so I planed to make one batch with mandarin orange and another with blood orange. Again, thanks!
A vanilla bean may be awesome, kind of like a Creamsicle. My strawberry one was tasty with a bean. Was exactly like strawberry and cream. Was my best result for intent yet.
In theory yes, but the sheer amount needed isn’t practical. We tried this a few times and it was uber sweet long before it had any kind of milky character.
I used mandarin peels instead of dried orange on the "my first mead" recipe from you all when I first started it turned out great. I bet this is fantastic. Definitely putting it on the list!
"That's our story, and we're sticking to it!" What an underrated line! You made me laugh! I'm definitely going to start using that sentence in the future!😂
Hey guys thanks for the videos im making a mead right now, its been fermenting about 3 weeks. I used a 4 liter jug of carlo rossi wine for a carboy and got 4 liters of wine for free!
I have a bunch of orange marmalade on hand that I need to get rid of somehow. I've been thinking about making your strawberry jam recipe but with marmalade.
I make orange wine fairly regularly. My own recipe. It's delicious! I make all variety of citrus wines. The only one I don't like is grapefruit, because it actually tastes like grapefruit. But it does make a great gift!
Have you done a pear mead/melomel? I picked up some pear juice and want to give it a go. Just got into brewing and have been watching your videos a lot. Have your starter mead going right now and looking to try something else when I rack that out of it's current carboy.
I made an orange mead (fruit minus peel) (peel got used in cello) that I used cheap pure n simple on. I started at 1080, and step fed it a couple times and added Pineapple a couple times along the way as well. It turned out really good at 19% tasting of both the orange and Pineapple and not tasting of strong alcohol.
I did a fortified orange wine almost a year ago. It'll be time to open one bottle this April. The left overs (UN-fortified) in a different bottle were decent when I opened that about 6 months later.
I was well entertained. Thanks for a great presentation. Also, ive noticed with my meads (and heard from others), that meads take a little time to sit and mellow. I think coming back in a couple months would really do wonders for it.
I add an extra spicy chai to my orange mead and use Kveik Voss yeast. When fermented at higher temps, like 85F+ it brings out lots of orange flavor. But that’s for a basic mead made with orange blossom honey. I haven’t tried one with lots of actual orange. I need to. This looks awesome. Though I might use Cara Cara Oranges. They’re my favorite.
When I made your start here mead, I didn't have orange zest available. So I am adding honey zest oil When I rack it. Found out that equal amounts of zest and honey mixed together separates into sugar crystallized zest and slightly sweet orange oil that when tasted starts with a strong orange flavour and finishes with a lite enjoyable bitter finish. If you are a person who bites into the peel to start peeling, you know the taste. I wonder if that could be used to eliminate some peel?
First I love your videos and I am a very very new mead maker - but I found something that seems to work nicely both for combining the yeast and when adding in nutrients like Fermaid O or tannin powder. The tannin powder and the fermaid o seem to be even stickier than the yeast. But what I do is get a very small tupperware container with a lid (think about 1/2 to 1 cup volumn container). Put the yeast or nutrient or tannin powder in it, spoon in enough of the must (or water if it won't effect SG), put the lid on and then shake till everything is combined. Then just pour it into the brew. It seems like this is alot easier than trying to mix them into the fermenter itself. Of course, sanitize everything.
Interesting. I tried WOW once but it did not go well, this may well be a nice alternative. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on possibly replacing the oranges and possibly using something like citra hops instead and getting the citrus from the hops instead? As a side note the whole chocolate thing I really like the idea of. Currently have a batch of Black Cherry and chocolate mead sitting ready for christmas
Thanks for this video. It's filled with excellent information and ideas. My question (probably like many others), could I use orange juice? And would dark brown sugar work instead of honey? Looking forward to seeing more great videos and as we gain control of our economy (once again), hopefully I can become a supporting viewer 😁👍🙏.
The Cointreau addition at the end is interesting. I wonder if you could fortify a regular mead with an orange liquor to get a similar effect to an orange mead. That opens up a whole world of flavour additions via fortification to me.
You guys are awesome. I'm new to this and have learned so much from your videos. I have a question. What do you do if your fruit mead come out watery? Add, more fruit? More time? I'm kinda lost. Thanks
Watery can be descriptive of various things. If it isn't fruity enough, then add more fruit. If it is lacking in mouth feel then it might need more tannins. If sweetness needs to punch up the existing flavors then back sweeten. Unfortunately there isn't one answer.
Thanks for getting back to me. Thats kinda what I've been reading. I think maybe my main problem is like most Americans. Dang it, I want my drink and I want it now. Lol I need to learn patience and trust the process. You all keep up the great work. Thanks again.
I know the flavor you are tasting, Derica because I ran into it when I was making a Raspberry Blood Orange melomel and a Blood Orange Bochet. It’s like a taste of burping up some orange juice and it’s a sour, blech kinda taste. However, it went away both times and both brews were delicious in the end. I bet it’d be perfect in about 6 months time. When y’all do the one year tasting, I think y’all are gonna be blown away. I’m gonna crack open a 12 oz of my bochet to sip tonight as I pass out candy.
Do you ever get bubbles in the auto Symphony tube ?...I always do even with a hose clamp connecting the tube to auto syphon....could this be from off gassing ? Col
Often when bubbles occur in the Auto Siphon it is due to either the seal on the siphon is degrading or the suction end got stuck on a soil like a piece of fruit and it is struggling.
I used orange with a peony flower mead...was decent.....but the BEST mead I made was an elderberry pomegranate mead...so good..had to cook the elderberries but it worked out perfectly 🥰
Been watching your videos for awhile and the knowledge is priceless. Thankyou for every video you guys do. Wondering if you ever done anything with rhubarb?
i dont consume much citrus nowadays but backin the days i would not spit on an Orangina and its very easy to reproduce with kombucha and orange juice. i guess the Orangina funk is what Dericka do not appreciate. Cointreau has only the essential oil while Orangina has more bitterness from the pulp and the bittenress greatly accentuate the funk. Personally i like it since i favor bitter flavors and it made for avery heady orangina 'beer'. to each their own.
Challenge JAOM except use a blood orange and D47. Rack after 3 weeks and age for 5 months. If it isn't an 11, I will eat my shoe. I did that in my first batch of meads and I will be making a large batch again now that blood oranges are back in season.
On the subject of whether or not to use pith: I did on my first few brews, following some recipes, and they added far too much bitterness. The brews were still drinkable, but the other elements in the flavor profile were doing some heavy lifting to compensate. I'll be sticking to zest until we see a test that says otherwise.
Hi guys, Love your channel...I am completely new to home brewing Mead. Your channel has given a lot of great info, but it leaves me with one question. Is there a such thing as to much headspace in your fermenter? I have a 5 gallon fermenter, but only wanna start with a small batch 1 or 2 gallons which would leave a lot of headspace in my 5 gallon fermenter. Wasn't sure if I would be good with such a big fermenter or if I should go with something smaller for primary fermentation.
Interesting project. I might give this a couple gallons go and risk half on the wait for improvement. I love Cointreau so at minimum I can mix cocktails, maybe also mix it with a Leinie's Summer Shandy and see what I get with the product as is.
Cointreau and other triple sec products don't use juice, only peel/zest/oil for flavoring. I've heard citrus is pretty bad before aging but I wish you had tried it before adding the whole fruit.
Awesome video and thanks for all your hard work. You guys are my primary mentors for learning how to home brew. I have my first and second brews still in finishing. 1 your spiced apple wine, turning out great! 2 your apple mead, not so great. I will probably have to back sweeten. VERY DRY! 😂 I have lots of fruit trees and had a ton of pears. I juiced about 20lbs and have a gallon of juice. I want to try a pear wine. As I juiced them the juice oxidized and has a very dark caramel color also the juice SG is 1.050🤔🤔 with a ton of suspended solids and pulp fiber (after running through cheese cloth 2X) I think I will toss in 1 cinnamon stick and one clove for a little spice, also I will use 1/2 pack of 71B yeast. Any other advice before I start this adventure?
It might be best to spice it in Secondary/Conditioning. You might want to add pectic enzyme if you are worried about it clearing. If not, then don't worry about it. As you froze it, you shouldn't need campden tablets.
I noticed you used the pectic enzyme in this last video and worked great, if mine stays dark and cloudy after my first racking I will probably experiment with that as well. That’s for the advice and look forward to your next video.
Hey Guys First of all. Totaly agree to the orange/chocolate crazyness. Love Dericas t-shirt. I cant find it on you website. Is it sold out? What size are you Brian? I'm the same I guess. Thaks, and thank you for doing what you are doing!
What t-shirt as I am wearing four in this video? However, if you are speaking of the mushroom one, here is the link: amzn.to/3UkFObG Also, Bri wears an XL
I once tried a dark chocolate and orange ale and it was the worst ale i ever tasted, and im in the process of making an orange/raisins mead can't wait to try it :D
Was the 13 mandarins a specific choice, or just random? As you put the video out right before Halloween, I could see that being the reason, but I’m just curious.
So something I looked up was the pectin and methanol relationship. It seems that adding the pectin enzyme or pectinase helps make the drink more safe to drink as well as for the clarity. I don't know how true that it, but it may be.
Have you guys ever used Sourdough Starter to make mead? Alternatively, have you ever used the sediment from mead to make bread? I dont think the first would taste good, maybe if you're making an IPA, but im still curious.
I think moist is a great descriptive word. I use it a lot. I work with a lot of people that are uncomfortable with that word. It's amusing to me when it comes up.
We are in the house.... We are careful not to have open containers and spoiled fruit (even overly ripe fruit) in the open. Fruit flies can be a problem but for us with careful practices we keep them to a minimum.
Just out of curiosity when you put fruits in mead to ferment (oranges, raisins blueberries etc.) Should you sanitize the fruit first? Or is it okay to just rinse and then put in the fermenter? Preparing to brew my first mead from inspiration from you two! Thank you!
You talked about having a large amount of head space in your container. I can only imagine you have had issues with this as you stated in the video. Most of my containers are the jug style. I looked for the wide mouth container but was unable to get shipped to Italy. 😢 the large wide mouth you recommended Amazon only had in 2 gal, which I was excited for until I heard you mentioned to much head space can cause problems. So I am off to find a substitute.
Would it be better to utilize the mandarin and peels post fermentation past the months of it it sitting? I could be wrong but I feel like if you let mead sit for however long it needs to sit then you add the fruits so it’s more fresh when it’s ready to bottle.
I have an interesting Idea that I would love your input on, or even if you just add it to your list of experiments. Make 3 different meads in 3 different flavors that compliment each other other well. Before bottling, mix the 3 meads into one 3 gallon jug. Then bottle 1) how would you find the final ABV after mixing them? 2) would it taste good? 3) would this even be a good idea? I just picked up a 3 gallon jug and this experiment was my first thought before making a 3 gallon batch of 1 mead.
1) If you had equal volumes of each brew then you would simply add the three ABV's and then divide by three. 2) I have no idea if it would taste good, but if the flavors work well together then it should? 3) You could make this a lot easier on yourself and simply brewing the ingredients together to start out with.
After we did the comparison with my beloved Cointreau, I was thinking perhaps the same. But afterwards I can always add a sweetener at the time of drinking if need be.
So I have several meads that I bottled 5 months ago in swing top bottles an they have cleared out nicely and smell fine but they have a thin white line at the top and I'm not sure what it is since I'm new to brewing
Newbie here, would bringing the orange peels to almost a boil for some time help extract more of the oils and flavor to help add that pithy orange smell? Obviously it would have to cool down before proceeding but would heating the peels first help some with extracting the flavor?
Brian! 🙏 Unrelated question. Someone was being nice, and thought they were doing me a favor and bought me four bottles of Welch's grape juice cocktail. It is 20% juice. Is there anything I can do with this? No sulfates but corn soap and some other artificial sweetener. Can I perhaps use as a base to make Barry wine out of frozen berries? Or am I just going to have a lot of sugary grapish flavor stuff in my future? Lots of love guys!
i made a (15ish ABV) spiced mead with spices for mulled wine or "Glögg" as we call it in Sweden (ginger, cinnamon, clove, cardamom, star anise, dried bitter orange peel and black pepper), the yuletide drink of choice over here, two years ago, first year it was too much clove, last year, mellowed out, looking forward to this years yule and tasting it again, after that i´m going to be saving five bottles, one for each coming year and one for the ten year anniversary... in the middle of a move, so wont be fermenting anything until february....
i did this with just 3 mandarin orange peels and 3lbs of orange blossom honey. It turned out to be the best thing (beer or mead) that I've ever brewed.
Did you use water? Or orange juice?
One of the first meads I made was mandarin orange. I bottled it too early and woke up to "wham" and went downstairs to dents in my furnace and mead all over. One exploded in my face but by some miracle I wasn't hurt. I just smelled wonderful.
As far as notes go, I started using OneNote (from Microsoft and installed with Windows 10 and 11). It keeps all my notes together and I can copy pages (basically a template) .
Just a thought, from your Tardis discussion: maybe if there's a brew you really like and you'd like to recreate it anyway, make a new batch just before your 1-year tasting is scheduled, so you could actually taste a young and aged brew side by side. Would be an interesting comparison.
Hi fellow meaders, I made two carboys of peach mead this year. I racked it last week. gorgeous, clear amber...but, flavorless. Yep. well....one thing to do, I added dried elderberries and cardamom and cinnamon. Now, the yeast have discovered the elderberries and we are off to the races. in a couple of weeks, it will be superdelicious.
That has happened to me too a few times. I thought I would remake the mead next season with more flavor stuff, since it was so bland. But woe and behold, half a year of aging gave the thing incredibly strong flavor and I was happy I didn't add anything more.
@@HolyPineCone I tried to do a peach one too, with a pound of frozen. Didn't turn out like I hoped either. I had a cinnamon stuck in the beginning too. Then instead of adding a vanilla bean like I wanted, I tried extract. Didn't save it. I plan on revisiting in the near future. Hopefully I'll get better results. Is peach hard to work with?
Cool take on an Orange Mead, can’t wait for the one year tasting!
My favorite part about red star yeast is that it has INCREDIBLE flocculation. Made a dry strawberry wine with it and the clarity/flavor is excellent. 👍
In my first mead almost a year ago, I used oranges, mangos, and a cinnamon stick. It started similar to how you described it but after 6 months it was exponentially better.
I've been waiting for this for so long
Looks moist delicious
Can’t wait to try one of these recipes. Maybe in the new year. You guys are so great for making it feel like such an approachable hobby.
I switched to using mandarin zest instead of orange zest months ago. It like the flavor carries thru more than orange.
However, I've been making metheglins lately substituting 1 grated Tonka Bean instead of Vanilla Bean (per gallon in secondary) with spectacular success. You get that vanilla flavor but the tonka bean seems to meld all the flavors faster and you get a very smooth mead just 2 weeks after bottling. Besides the vanilla you get a slight hint of cherry and something else like a berry but these are subdued and not prominent.
great timing with this video planning a strawberry orange wine going into next year for a friend and the orange worried me so thank you.
25:57 mix them, mix them, mix them!
27:40 YES! Perfection
Another great video! You happened to yet again show a mead I am thinking of trying. I recently made a mead using most of a jar of Honey Citron Tea we had sitting in the back of the refrigerator for a long time. I just opened my first test bottle after 6 months of aging. It was superb, one of the best things I ever brewed. I now want to make something similar with fresh fruit, but I have never seen fresh citron in the store so I planed to make one batch with mandarin orange and another with blood orange. Again, thanks!
A vanilla bean may be awesome, kind of like a Creamsicle. My strawberry one was tasty with a bean. Was exactly like strawberry and cream. Was my best result for intent yet.
Sounds great!
In theory yes, but the sheer amount needed isn’t practical. We tried this a few times and it was uber sweet long before it had any kind of milky character.
@@littlebones88 as someone who has tested this... I'm saying the creamy feel of lactose is greatly overstated by many.
Blood orange workout awesome for me
That really was a beautiful fermenter prerack, the video next year is going to be interesting as well.
Nice, that's the main type of fermenter I have and use. Perfect for primary (just had to buy plastic lids and fit an airlock on them).
You two are great, I love your channel. Thanks for all the awesome content, keep up the great work, and stay awesome!
Just put this down for primary. Can't wait!
Love you guys you always brighten up my day ❤
Aww! Thank you!
Drink looks delicious.
I used mandarin peels instead of dried orange on the "my first mead" recipe from you all when I first started it turned out great. I bet this is fantastic. Definitely putting it on the list!
Ahhh the list that never gets shorter!!😊
@@jakesharp5510 isn't that the truth!
Looks awesome!! Have to try and make!!Right now working on my 1 gallon Traditional Mead!!! Sooo excited 😜
"That's our story, and we're sticking to it!"
What an underrated line! You made me laugh! I'm definitely going to start using that sentence in the future!😂
Hey guys thanks for the videos im making a mead right now, its been fermenting about 3 weeks. I used a 4 liter jug of carlo rossi wine for a carboy and got 4 liters of wine for free!
Nice! :D
I literally thwacked my packet the other day in honor of you guys. 😁
proof it down to 1/2 for a sample will make a huge difference.
I have a bunch of orange marmalade on hand that I need to get rid of somehow. I've been thinking about making your strawberry jam recipe but with marmalade.
I make orange wine fairly regularly. My own recipe. It's delicious! I make all variety of citrus wines. The only one I don't like is grapefruit, because it actually tastes like grapefruit. But it does make a great gift!
I would fortify it with the Cointreau I bet it would amazing; and the word moist is one of my favorite word say because it bothers so many people.
Some situations make my blood boil but in general the temperature is pretty stable ;)
Have you done a pear mead/melomel? I picked up some pear juice and want to give it a go. Just got into brewing and have been watching your videos a lot. Have your starter mead going right now and looking to try something else when I rack that out of it's current carboy.
I made an orange mead (fruit minus peel) (peel got used in cello) that I used cheap pure n simple on. I started at 1080, and step fed it a couple times and added Pineapple a couple times along the way as well. It turned out really good at 19% tasting of both the orange and Pineapple and not tasting of strong alcohol.
I did a fortified orange wine almost a year ago. It'll be time to open one bottle this April. The left overs (UN-fortified) in a different bottle were decent when I opened that about 6 months later.
This has to be my favorite video you have done. Y'all were getting drunk and had to end. LOL
I don't think we've ever gotten drunk in a video....
What tea should you use? Tea, Earl Gray, Hot ;)
Black, nothing else, black.
@@CitySteadingBrews :)
I was well entertained. Thanks for a great presentation. Also, ive noticed with my meads (and heard from others), that meads take a little time to sit and mellow. I think coming back in a couple months would really do wonders for it.
I add an extra spicy chai to my orange mead and use Kveik Voss yeast. When fermented at higher temps, like 85F+ it brings out lots of orange flavor. But that’s for a basic mead made with orange blossom honey. I haven’t tried one with lots of actual orange.
I need to. This looks awesome. Though I might use Cara Cara Oranges. They’re my favorite.
Could you make a eggnog mead? If so can you guys make one for Christmas 😊
When I made your start here mead, I didn't have orange zest available. So I am adding honey zest oil When I rack it. Found out that equal amounts of zest and honey mixed together separates into sugar crystallized zest and slightly sweet orange oil that when tasted starts with a strong orange flavour and finishes with a lite enjoyable bitter finish. If you are a person who bites into the peel to start peeling, you know the taste. I wonder if that could be used to eliminate some peel?
I will use an elastic and cheese cloth on my auto-siphon to not suck up any small particles. It really helps to stop the floaties :)
First I love your videos and I am a very very new mead maker - but I found something that seems to work nicely both for combining the yeast and when adding in nutrients like Fermaid O or tannin powder. The tannin powder and the fermaid o seem to be even stickier than the yeast. But what I do is get a very small tupperware container with a lid (think about 1/2 to 1 cup volumn container). Put the yeast or nutrient or tannin powder in it, spoon in enough of the must (or water if it won't effect SG), put the lid on and then shake till everything is combined. Then just pour it into the brew. It seems like this is alot easier than trying to mix them into the fermenter itself. Of course, sanitize everything.
Interesting. I tried WOW once but it did not go well, this may well be a nice alternative. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on possibly replacing the oranges and possibly using something like citra hops instead and getting the citrus from the hops instead?
As a side note the whole chocolate thing I really like the idea of. Currently have a batch of Black Cherry and chocolate mead sitting ready for christmas
Thanks for this video. It's filled with excellent information and ideas.
My question (probably like many others), could I use orange juice? And would dark brown sugar work instead of honey?
Looking forward to seeing more great videos and as we gain control of our economy (once again), hopefully I can become a supporting viewer 😁👍🙏.
did you clean the mandarins in the sanitizing fluid too?
I scrubbed the skins with a brush and then we froze the fruit.
The Cointreau addition at the end is interesting. I wonder if you could fortify a regular mead with an orange liquor to get a similar effect to an orange mead. That opens up a whole world of flavour additions via fortification to me.
I get a chocolate orange EVERY christmas time. ;)
Did you eat the Mandarins after the racking
Nice video. You need to start maintaining a top ten list of your brews, I guess that would make good content as well.
You guys are awesome. I'm new to this and have learned so much from your videos.
I have a question. What do you do if your fruit mead come out watery? Add, more fruit? More time? I'm kinda lost. Thanks
Watery can be descriptive of various things. If it isn't fruity enough, then add more fruit. If it is lacking in mouth feel then it might need more tannins. If sweetness needs to punch up the existing flavors then back sweeten. Unfortunately there isn't one answer.
Thanks for getting back to me.
Thats kinda what I've been reading. I think maybe my main problem is like most Americans. Dang it, I want my drink and I want it now. Lol
I need to learn patience and trust the process. You all keep up the great work.
Thanks again.
I know the flavor you are tasting, Derica because I ran into it when I was making a Raspberry Blood Orange melomel and a Blood Orange Bochet. It’s like a taste of burping up some orange juice and it’s a sour, blech kinda taste. However, it went away both times and both brews were delicious in the end. I bet it’d be perfect in about 6 months time. When y’all do the one year tasting, I think y’all are gonna be blown away. I’m gonna crack open a 12 oz of my bochet to sip tonight as I pass out candy.
Do you ever get bubbles in the auto Symphony tube ?...I always do even with a hose clamp connecting the tube to auto syphon....could this be from off gassing ?
Col
Often when bubbles occur in the Auto Siphon it is due to either the seal on the siphon is degrading or the suction end got stuck on a soil like a piece of fruit and it is struggling.
Is secondary fermentation required? Or can I leave my mead on primary and bottle from there
You can if you like. Secondary/Conditioning is used mostly for additives and clearing.
"Moist" makes me giggle like a school girl. Mainly because I know how it bothers certain people!
It's moist!
im working on a Bochette blueberry mead right now! :D 3.5 pounds of wildflower and 1.5 pounds of blueberry in 1 1/2 gallon container
I used orange with a peony flower mead...was decent.....but the BEST mead I made was an elderberry pomegranate mead...so good..had to cook the elderberries but it worked out perfectly 🥰
I wonder if there’s any fruit that you should not ferment (poisonous/smell bad after ferment)
Been watching your videos for awhile and the knowledge is priceless. Thankyou for every video you guys do. Wondering if you ever done anything with rhubarb?
Thanks! We have not worked with rhubarb. It's not something we get here fresh very easily.
Can you try to make a wine with woodruff/woodruff sirup?
Can't wait to see the follow up tasting. Maybe at the 1 year mark?
We do one year, yup!
i dont consume much citrus nowadays but backin the days i would not spit on an Orangina and its very easy to reproduce with kombucha and orange juice.
i guess the Orangina funk is what Dericka do not appreciate. Cointreau has only the essential oil while Orangina has more bitterness from the pulp and the bittenress greatly accentuate the funk. Personally i like it since i favor bitter flavors and it made for avery heady orangina 'beer'. to each their own.
There are 100s of tangerines on my trees right now. When I get home I'll be starting a 5 gallon batch.
Challenge JAOM except use a blood orange and D47. Rack after 3 weeks and age for 5 months. If it isn't an 11, I will eat my shoe. I did that in my first batch of meads and I will be making a large batch again now that blood oranges are back in season.
On the subject of whether or not to use pith: I did on my first few brews, following some recipes, and they added far too much bitterness. The brews were still drinkable, but the other elements in the flavor profile were doing some heavy lifting to compensate. I'll be sticking to zest until we see a test that says otherwise.
Hi guys, Love your channel...I am completely new to home brewing Mead. Your channel has given a lot of great info, but it leaves me with one question. Is there a such thing as to much headspace in your fermenter? I have a 5 gallon fermenter, but only wanna start with a small batch 1 or 2 gallons which would leave a lot of headspace in my 5 gallon fermenter. Wasn't sure if I would be good with such a big fermenter or if I should go with something smaller for primary fermentation.
Makes no difference in primary. After that it matters.
Interesting project. I might give this a couple gallons go and risk half on the wait for improvement. I love Cointreau so at minimum I can mix cocktails, maybe also mix it with a Leinie's Summer Shandy and see what I get with the product as is.
Cointreau and other triple sec products don't use juice, only peel/zest/oil for flavoring. I've heard citrus is pretty bad before aging but I wish you had tried it before adding the whole fruit.
In reference to the wine tannin used,
Have you ever used it AFTER fermentation if there was sufficient mouth feel?
Awesome video and thanks for all your hard work. You guys are my primary mentors for learning how to home brew. I have my first and second brews still in finishing. 1 your spiced apple wine, turning out great! 2 your apple mead, not so great. I will probably have to back sweeten. VERY DRY! 😂 I have lots of fruit trees and had a ton of pears. I juiced about 20lbs and have a gallon of juice. I want to try a pear wine. As I juiced them the juice oxidized and has a very dark caramel color also the juice SG is 1.050🤔🤔 with a ton of suspended solids and pulp fiber (after running through cheese cloth 2X) I think I will toss in 1 cinnamon stick and one clove for a little spice, also I will use 1/2 pack of 71B yeast. Any other advice before I start this adventure?
It might be best to spice it in Secondary/Conditioning. You might want to add pectic enzyme if you are worried about it clearing. If not, then don't worry about it. As you froze it, you shouldn't need campden tablets.
I noticed you used the pectic enzyme in this last video and worked great, if mine stays dark and cloudy after my first racking I will probably experiment with that as well. That’s for the advice and look forward to your next video.
Brian's teacher watching all the videos on the chanel: "Will you give it a rest!" :)
Lol
How do you think it would turn out if you use blood oranges? My partner really likes them and I’m debating trying to make him some blood orange mead
Many viewers have mentioned using blood oranges and liking it very much.
@@CitySteadingBrews Thank you so much for the feed back! If I can find some this year I’ll have to make it😁
How about kumquats? Did one awhile ago and was one of my favorite brews I've made. Needless to say. it didn't last long lol. Just an idea.
I've been planning on trying a batch with orange and cardamom. This makes me think I might need more oranges, and some pectic enzyme
Hey Guys
First of all. Totaly agree to the orange/chocolate crazyness.
Love Dericas t-shirt. I cant find it on you website. Is it sold out?
What size are you Brian? I'm the same I guess.
Thaks, and thank you for doing what you are doing!
What t-shirt as I am wearing four in this video? However, if you are speaking of the mushroom one, here is the link: amzn.to/3UkFObG Also, Bri wears an XL
@@CitySteadingBrews awesome, thanks alot Derica truly appreciated.
Yeah it's the one with mushrooms.
I once tried a dark chocolate and orange ale and it was the worst ale i ever tasted, and im in the process of making an orange/raisins mead can't wait to try it :D
Was the 13 mandarins a specific choice, or just random? As you put the video out right before Halloween, I could see that being the reason, but I’m just curious.
So something I looked up was the pectin and methanol relationship. It seems that adding the pectin enzyme or pectinase helps make the drink more safe to drink as well as for the clarity. I don't know how true that it, but it may be.
It does reduce methyl alcohol but the minute amount of methanol in homebrew almost makes no difference really.
Have you guys ever used Sourdough Starter to make mead? Alternatively, have you ever used the sediment from mead to make bread? I dont think the first would taste good, maybe if you're making an IPA, but im still curious.
I think moist is a great descriptive word. I use it a lot. I work with a lot of people that are uncomfortable with that word. It's amusing to me when it comes up.
How do you prevent fruit flies from flying around while you are making your wine?
We are in the house.... We are careful not to have open containers and spoiled fruit (even overly ripe fruit) in the open. Fruit flies can be a problem but for us with careful practices we keep them to a minimum.
Just out of curiosity when you put fruits in mead to ferment (oranges, raisins blueberries etc.) Should you sanitize the fruit first? Or is it okay to just rinse and then put in the fermenter?
Preparing to brew my first mead from inspiration from you two! Thank you!
You talked about having a large amount of head space in your container. I can only imagine you have had issues with this as you stated in the video. Most of my containers are the jug style. I looked for the wide mouth container but was unable to get shipped to Italy. 😢 the large wide mouth you recommended Amazon only had in 2 gal, which I was excited for until I heard you mentioned to much head space can cause problems. So I am off to find a substitute.
I haven’t made it through all your videos yet, but have you ever tried to make Key Lime Meade? Just curious because I love Ley Limes.
We have not, but it is on "The List!"
@@CitySteadingBrews awesome thank you so much.
I’ve done it with a pith… just a bit bitter.
WTF. That’s so clear. I’ve never had it that clear.
That’s some MOIST-looking mead. Love you guys!
Would it be better to utilize the mandarin and peels post fermentation past the months of it it sitting? I could be wrong but I feel like if you let mead sit for however long it needs to sit then you add the fruits so it’s more fresh when it’s ready to bottle.
That's another option. However the bottles are going to age too so...
I have an interesting Idea that I would love your input on, or even if you just add it to your list of experiments. Make 3 different meads in 3 different flavors that compliment each other other well. Before bottling, mix the 3 meads into one 3 gallon jug. Then bottle
1) how would you find the final ABV after mixing them?
2) would it taste good?
3) would this even be a good idea?
I just picked up a 3 gallon jug and this experiment was my first thought before making a 3 gallon batch of 1 mead.
1) If you had equal volumes of each brew then you would simply add the three ABV's and then divide by three.
2) I have no idea if it would taste good, but if the flavors work well together then it should?
3) You could make this a lot easier on yourself and simply brewing the ingredients together to start out with.
Hi guys. Love the channel. Looks like another mead I'll try. Could use a new calculator joke, haha
Can you throw activated charcoal in to make it extra clear? Will that change the flavour? And can't you weigh down the fruit or orange peels?
I don’t think that will make it clear.
I wonder if back sweetening would help this brew but I understand why you choose to wait a year to see if it mellows
After we did the comparison with my beloved Cointreau, I was thinking perhaps the same. But afterwards I can always add a sweetener at the time of drinking if need be.
Concerning the curious case of moist: well, some things can't be, some shouldn't be, some can be, some should be and some will be moist 😅
Orange is a tough one. Let it sit for 2-3 years and it's killer.
Do you think using about 1/3 to 1/4 the amount of peels would cut that tart/bitter taste?
So I have several meads that I bottled 5 months ago in swing top bottles an they have cleared out nicely and smell fine but they have a thin white line at the top and I'm not sure what it is since I'm new to brewing
Newbie here, would bringing the orange peels to almost a boil for some time help extract more of the oils and flavor to help add that pithy orange smell? Obviously it would have to cool down before proceeding but would heating the peels first help some with extracting the flavor?
I don’t think it would help. The peels give off tons of flavor and we really don’t want the pithy flavor or smell.
@@CitySteadingBrews got it! thanks for responding!
Did the mandarins get soaked and scubbed in starsan to sanitize, or did you just use soap and water?
Probably just soap and water.
Brian! 🙏 Unrelated question.
Someone was being nice, and thought they were doing me a favor and bought me four bottles of Welch's grape juice cocktail. It is 20% juice. Is there anything I can do with this? No sulfates but corn soap and some other artificial sweetener.
Can I perhaps use as a base to make Barry wine out of frozen berries? Or am I just going to have a lot of sugary grapish flavor stuff in my future?
Lots of love guys!
You can try? Corn syrup will ferment, but it's uncertain the taste in the end. Some have loved it, some not so much.
@@CitySteadingBrews So basically, anything will ferment, even orange juice (😂), it's just a matter if it tastes good or not??? 😂
Well, yeah!
i made a (15ish ABV) spiced mead with spices for mulled wine or "Glögg" as we call it in Sweden (ginger, cinnamon, clove, cardamom, star anise, dried bitter orange peel and black pepper), the yuletide drink of choice over here, two years ago, first year it was too much clove, last year, mellowed out, looking forward to this years yule and tasting it again, after that i´m going to be saving five bottles, one for each coming year and one for the ten year anniversary... in the middle of a move, so wont be fermenting anything until february....