The five-gallon carboy of Ancient Orange and Spice III is now in its new home. It’ll sit there for the next six or seven months while it ferments, settles, and clears.
It’s fun to watch the progress. It’s very, very slow. But it’s cool.
This batch should produce 20 to 23 standard-sized bottles of mead. Eventually.
Quox, Vlad and Pogonip enjoying a day on the patio. Posers.
In case you’ve wondered, yes, we have three dogs. Quox, Vlad and Pogonip.
Yes, they’re the inspiration for the name of our mead. And no, the photo hasn’t been altered; they were all hanging out on the patio and happened to stop in just the right spots. Thank goodness for ultra-convenient, always-at-the-ready, cell-phone cameras.
A newly-corked bottle of Ancient Orange & Spice mead. It's probably the best stuff we've made so far!
Let the bottling begin (again)!
We racked and bottled the seven-month-old jugs of Vanilla Metheglyn and Ancient Orange & Spice this morning. The more I do this, the less I seem to be spilling, so, it would seem, we are developing some skills.
The vanilla has a good flavor that will most certainly improve with age. The batch of Ancient Orange that had been racked is also very nice.
But the unracked Ancient Orange is downright phenomenal. It cleared on its own better than any of the batches that had been racked. And the flavor just jumps out of the bottle. With some age, it could be an award winner.
Sadly, there are only four 750ml bottles (and one less-than-perfect split) of the good stuff. We will have to save it for the right occasions. But that’s also why I’ve started a five-gallon batch of it!
The newly-bottled Ancient Orange & Spice is so clear (even though it's never been racked) that you can still see the rest of the room through the bottle. It has a beautiful amber color and a vivid flavor.
None of these bottles include sulfates to kill off the yeast and prevent the possibility of more fermentation. The fermentation stopped quite a while ago and the jugs have been aging in place. As quiet as these batches have been for the past few months, there doesn’t seem to be any danger of re-activation in the bottles. Watch me be wrong. That’ll be a real mess.
The foaming eventually became so ferocious that the carboy had to be moved outside for a bit. When it came back into the house, it was plunked down into a five-gallon primary-fermenting bucket in order to contain any spillage, keeping the mess to a minimum.
At one point, I put a towel over the top of the airlock just to contain the splattering. As the towel became saturated, though, it formed a seal over the top of the valve. When the towel was removed, a small geyser erupted from the top of the airlock, spraying the table with a combination of foam and must. Despite the mess, it elicited a pretty good chuckle. The yeasties are going nuts!
The must has been topped up in the carboy to bring it to the base of the neck. That helps keep the fruit down in the must instead of floating on top.
The new batch seems to be coming along nicely. The foaming has remained under control so the carboy has been topped up with about a gallon of water. That actually helps keep more of the fruit down in the must where it can stay in better contact with the yeast and ferment its little heart out.
Now all we have to do is wait about six or seven months. That’s the most difficult part of the entire process.
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It has begun. The first five-gallon batch was pitched this afternoon and should begin fermenting in the next few days. It’s a huge jug of Ancient Oranage and Spice.
What we taste tested last night was so yummy, I decided there’s no time like the present. Besides, once the first two batches are bottled (which could probably be done any time now), they’ll probably disappear pretty quickly. So we need to get started on the backup supply!
As we’ve discovered, it takes about seven months for this stuff to actually be worth drinking. But it is most definitely worth the wait. It’s delish!
We’ve done a little taste testing in the past few days. The Blue Heaven and the Citrus Mead are both okay but the flavors are a bit weak. Both brews probably needed to sit on the fruit and yeast a little longer to take on more of the fruity characteristics.
The first batch of Ancient Orange and Spice is still in the fermenting jug. We used the wine thief to pull out a few samples. It has a much stronger flavor and it’s very tasty, but it doesn’t really knock your socks off.
Last night, though, we stole a sample of the second batch of Ancient Orange and Spice. This one was pitched on September 18 and hasn’t been touched until now. The orange slices, the cloves, the yeast, etc., are all still in the carboy. This batch, per the original recipe, has not been racked at all.
It was absolutely delicious! The orange aroma bursts forth from the glass in a delightful bouquet and the orange and clove flavors are wonderfully distinct.
Apparently, it takes about seven months in the fermenter to become fabulous. There’s a major lesson learned. This one will definitely become a large batch.
The waiting continues. Five gallons of mead are sitting in the dining room, just waiting for the day they get to be bottled. Several of them have been waiting since August. A couple since October.
How do you know when it’s time? In short, we don’t. It’s all an experiment. But the longer the mead sits, the better. Time is its friend. The flavors and complexity erupt with age.
We’ll give it at least another month and then bottle the oldest remaining jugs. The newer meads can wait a little while longer.
What was it that Carly Simon said about, “Anticipation?”
It fermented for three months and it’s been aging in the bottles for another three. So, we decided it was time for a little taste test.
We uncorked a bottle of the Cherry Vanilla mead.
Not bad, actually. You can already tell that the flavors are going to be pretty good… but they need more time. More age. The cherry comes through, as does the vanilla, but they’ll develop a more robust bouquet and palette as they get older.
The waiting is the most difficult part of the process. But it’s going to be worth it in the end!
Stay tuned!
Just look at the clarity in that jug! It’s incredible. It’s clearer than any of the other meads we’ve created so far… and we’ve done absolutely nothing to it! You can read the labels behind it, for crying out loud! Wow!
The instructions were to NOT rack it. At all. Ever. DON’T take the fruit out of it. “DON’T touch it!” the recipe said.
Now we know why. It clarifies itself. Somehow.
This is the second batch of the Ancient Orange and Spice. The first batch didn’t turn out nearly as crystal clear. It was racked and handled like all the other meads. Obviously, that was a mistake.
Lesson learned. Follow the recipe!
