Finally brewing my first mead. Wanted to do something special but decided instead to try the very popular Joe's Ancient Orange Mead (JAOM) found on many homebrew forums. Recipe below. It will be interesting to see how this comes out as others' results have widely varied; it should also give me something to compare future meads against. Using a Carlo Rossi jug - seems like a good container but not worth the price since the wine inside was not worth drinking. Within the next few weeks I hope to buy some local honey at a farmer's market and will likely try a show mead if it seems high quality. I will be swirling the jug as often as possible during initial fermentation to drive off CO2 as I read some recent meadmakers of the year stressed degassing for making great mead.
JAOM
~3.5 lb Sue Bee clover honey
1 navel orange (fruit and skin only, rind removed)
1.5 cloves
1 stick cinnamon (split open)
2/3 packet fleishmann's bread yeast
OG 1.150 (before slight topoff)
UPDATE (8/15/10):
It's been 4 weeks. Transfered to new 1 gallon carboy and topped off (about a pint). Light golden color but still opaque. Sample tasted slightly solventy with pronounced orange acidity and clove. Did not notice cinnamon. High hopes for the melding of flavors and a reduction in alcohol heat and sweetness due to topping off and more aging. Will do a second transfer when the mead clears.
UPDATE (10/10/11):
After a couple more months of trying to be patient, the mead was not improving and was dumped. Fun experiment, but would not bother trying to make something with so little effort for undrinkable results.
