Orange Clove Mead

I became intrigued with a recipe for mead that I saw at Storm The Castle. They outline a fermentation method using the jug that the spring water comes in and an ordinary balloon with holes punched in it as an airlock. I decided to try the recipe but invested in a 1 gallon glass jug, stopper, and a glass airlock. (The brew store near me, Brew and Grow, only had glass ones in stock the day I was there. I'd really prefer a plastic one, since I'm scared as hell of breaking the glass one. It is pretty cool though.) I knew that I'd likely end up using the 1 gallon jug for other brewing experiments, so I figured it would be a good investment.

The issue with making mead, like making wine, is that honey doesn't contain the nutrients needed for yeast to proliferate properly. From what I understand, the raisins and oranges take the place of the yeast nutrient and yeast energizer, respectively, that you find in typical mead recipes.

One thing that I love about this recipe is that you can find all of the ingredients at almost any grocery store. In fact, we got all of ours at Trader Joe's. For that reason, they all also happen to be organic (if that matters to you at all). I bought the clover honey, per the recipe, but Trader Joe's also has mesquite honey, which I'm thinking I might try out in my next batch of mead. The only thing that Trader Joe's didn't have was water in sufficient sizes, which we got at the local grocery store.

Preparation was as simple as sanitizing, mixing all of the ingredients, shaking, then fixing the airlock. Fermentation took off within a day and has been going strong since.

I'm reprinting the recipe here (same recipe, but from another section of the Storm the Castle site, with other mead recipes):

Orange Clove Mead

Interesting flavor and makes 1 gallon

• 1 gallon of Spring Water
• Yeast: Fleishcmanns (1 packet)
• 25 Raisins
• 1 Cinnamon stick
• 1 whole orange, sliced and peels included
• 1 pinch of allspice
• 1 pinch of nutmeg
• 3 1/2 pounds of clover honey

Simply mix all the ingredients then pitch your yeast. Caring for this mead? The beautiful thing about this mead is that you can rack it off of all the oranges and raisins any time you want to, or you can just leave it all in there. When the oranges sink to the bottom you are ready to drink it or bottle it.. Simple as that. I recommend you bottle it and let it age for a couple more months. This recipe is just simply delicious.

Be sure to check out their site for tons of great info on mead making. If you've never homebrewed or made mead before, make sure to look at the method outlined in the first page I posted for a super easy method that doesn't require a lot of upfront cost on equipment.

Fermentation Start: 9/19/2009
Estimated Fermentation End: 11/14/2009
Original Gravity: ???
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.000

My setup:

Once we're done with this batch, I think I'm going to try the sweet raspberry mead that they list in their recipe section as well.

UPDATE - 11/9/2009

Been almost two months on this one. Primary fermentation appeared to end about 3 weeks ago and it's cleared up nicely. The fruit still hasn't sank to the bottom, per the recipe, so I'm just waiting for that to happen, then it's bottling time.