Orange Spiced Mead

[Raistlin Majere]

making a list
thanks for the help Don
general figure/geusstimate here, but what could all the supplies be had for price wise ?
just for making this here mead

 

[vintner]

Sorry I missed the up-date Don, but glad to year you liked the spiced mead. What kind of corker are you getting? I talked my wife into buying me a floor corker the first year I started making wine. I was a lot of money, but I don't regret it at all.
So what steps did you take to resweeten the mead? Did you rack it first? Stabalize? How did you determine how much sugar to add? When to you plan to bottle?
Raistlin: Supplies, meaning ingredients or equipment? The basic equipment might cost you $40-50 not including bottles (I get friends and family to save me their empties) and not including a carboy. In addition to the equipment Don mentioned, you'll also need the appropriate sized brushes to clean your carboy(s) and bottles and some Potasium Meta bi Sulfate (sanitizer). I have a MESS of extra 4Lt (1 gallon) jugs I'd be willing to give you to get started making smaller batches when you're ready. Making smaller batches is a bit more work, and of course you don't get as much wine, but it gives you a chance to try different recipes at the same time. For instance, I like strawberry wine, so the last time I got a bunch of straw berries, I made 4 gallons of wine and tweeked the recipe 4 different ways.
The racking tube in the link above can certainly be substitued w/a piece of food grade PVC from HD. The one in the link has a nice cap on the end that goes into the wine to help prevent sucking up too much sediments, and this is nice, but not nessessary. Basically, to make the mead, you need a long handled spoon, a bung, an air lock, a carboy (or water jug) some camden tablets (or the potasium meta bi sulfate) a bottle brush to wash your jug, a funel like Don mentioned, and a tube and hose to syphon the wine from one jug to the next, and the ingredients and yeast. You'll need to have a second carboy a few weeks to a month after you start your first batch. Bottles, corks, and a corker wont be needed for a couple 3 months after you start.

 

[Don Cotyle]

Time to celatrate!!!!!, and have a blast...LOL

It's my 1/2 scale reproduction 2.75" bore 3pounder Cohorn Mortar...It'll launch a tenis ball filled with hardened cement over 1100 yards useing a 500 gram #1 Black Powder charge!!!

 

[Endo]

tagged... awesome.... will doo... just mead some supplies

 

[vintner]

Don: that thing looks WICKED! Do you have to weight it down some? I'll bet it's really loud too. Did you mean 500 grains or grams?

 

[Don Cotyle]

OOOPS my bad, 500 grains of #1 black powder! 500 grams would blow the darned thing up...lol!

Back to the Mead! I did rack it so it would be easier to sweeten and stir! I didn't really stabilize it I just added 8 crushed campden tablets per the 5 gallons. I then syphoned out a 750ml botte and poured it out into a pitcher and added 1 tablespoon of brown sugar,stired and tasted...to dry still. I then added 1 tablespoon of white sugar and stired and tasted...not to dry or sweet. I then figured out how many bottles I could get out of the 5 galons and added the sugars to the whole batch and stired it in!!! I'm letting it sit till I get my supplies in, I ordered 24 750ml green bordeau bottles, 100 #8 corks, the Handy Palm corker and a S-airlock brush! When they arrive I'll sanitize the bottles and soak the corks in a campden solution for 24 hours and bottle!!! I'll make sure to take some pix of the Mead in a glass so you'll be able t see the clarity and color!!!

I finally got the Tropical Raisin Jack going in the grow closet and hooked up the the dispersing halo system to get the Co2 onto the Burmese Dream plant...WEEEEEEEdogies!!! It's an experimental batch, my own reciepe so I won't give it out till it's done and I have time to taste it =P...lol If it's up to snuff I'll put the reciepe up!!! Don

 

[vintner]

Cool Don I was just thinking today about asking you if you got the raisn jack/CO2 boost up and running. You'll have to let us know how you think it's working. So you put your exhaust fan on a timer right? What kind of cycles are you running it in? Thanks for the info on resweetening the mead. I'll have to try that. How long do you plan to let it sit before you bottle? And how long to age? You tasted it, was it fizzy? Sorry so many Q's.

 

[Don Cotyle]

Let's see, not fizzy at all, fermentation came to a dead stop and very dry as expected, so all the sugars and carbs were turned into alcohol! It has a wonderful floral bouquet and after sweetening a nice complex taste came thru, but not overpowering on the orange or spice side a very nice blended taste! I'll bottle as soon as my new supplies arrive, so after the 2 month run it'll sit for say 2-3 weeks. I'll probably let about half age for at least a year...the rest will probably be consumed from now till then!

WEEEEEdogies!!! The Tropical Rasin Jack is up and running!!! I only let fans run with lights off but temps climbed to high for me so I'm letting them run on low all the time but I sealed the room 15'x3' that the closet is in up and the Co2 is steadly building almost to the point of feeling it in my throut and eyes, I know it's colorless,colorless and tasteless but due to the wine smells I can definatly feel it in my throut and eyes =P It looks like there may be small changes takeing place allready, the bud sites are swelling up slightly and starting to get ramdom new growth, almost as in a sativa with the calaxs starting to form in stacks offshooting from the main buds =P I sure hope this is an indication of things to come!!! I'll know more later!!! Stop buy the thread and check it out! Sorry for some reason I've been unable to upload opix all week!!??!!

 

[Don Cotyle]

Well my supplies came today!!! They shipped it in a Vintner's Best Equipment Box...Hey you in the bz?...lol I'll have it bottled by the weekend WEEEdogies!!!
When can we post pix again???

Here's a shot of the finished Orange Spiced Mead

 

[Don Cotyle]

Oh yea and a shot of my supplies, the 2 dozen bottles are in the boxs on the left and the corks and the el cheay corker in red. It all cane in the box with your namesake on it...lol!

 

[vintner]

Looks really tastey Don! Congrats. I hope you enjoy it

 

[Don Cotyle]

Thanks for the kind words BRO, and the reciepe!!!!! I'll post the reciepe for my Tropical Raisin Jack as soon as it's finished, as it's an experimental reciepe I'm trying out and I want to make sure it tastes good before I post it =P lol

 

[mjcuresall]

Cool thread, vintner. Filed the recipe for when I'm ready...

Don- that mortar is SICK!!! One hellofa toy...

 

[Don Cotyle]

Thanks MJcuresall, We shoot off blank loads from the back yard on Indenpendence Day all day long!!!!!

 

[Don Cotyle]

Yo Vin, I'm just about finished bottleing, heres a shot of the first 13 bottles all thats left to do is lable em!!! Thanks again Bro for the great reciepe, I'll definatly be making more in the future!!!

 

[vintner]

YVW Friend. Glad you like it. I plan to make it again too soon. Tell me a bit more about your cellaring if you don't mind. I don't put lables on my bottles. I put letter and number codes on the corks w/a fine point sharpie cause where I cellar my wine (the crawl space under my house) is usually pretty damp in all but the dead of summer. Unless I bought expensive lable paper, they would just mold. I don't often lable my wine anyway.

 

[Endo]

well i have my 5 gal water jugs secured.. so as soon as those get in, im going to start a batch. is there a way to make my own airlock of sorts? i dont wanna wait to order one. and a bung would just be a big cork to put in the top of the jug right?
i cant wait to get started.. so for 5 gal, i just 5x your recipe? vin?

 

[vintner]

Yes, you just 5x the recipe, though I would sujest reading back a few pages and use the changes that Don suggested. The original comes out VERY sweet.
Yes, a bung is just a large "cork" w/a hole in the center for the air lock. They're made from rubber though. Can you make and air lock? Well, an air lock is just to keep bugs, germs, and dust out of your wine. In the old days they used to just prick a tiny hole in a ballon near the end you blow into, then stretch that over the mouth of the jug. Or you can just cover the mouth of the jug w/a few layers of paper towel and hold them in place w/a rubber band. These will suffice durring primary/vigorous fermentation (lasts 5-10 days), but once fermentation slows down, you really should get an air lock, because they also keep oxygen out of the wine, and oxygen + wine = vinegar LOL. If you have a bung and a racking hose that fints into the hole for the air lock, you can jam one end of the hose into the bung, and sink the other end into a class of water.
Hope that helps.

 

[Endo]

helps alot thanks vin.. now the bottles are secure and the jugs.. now i just need to get stuff started. ill find a bung and make an airlock.. i was thinking some bent copper tubing, with a balloon on the end.. then doing the thing you said with the water.. but a bottle of water over the end of the copper tubing.. i think it will work.. but maybe ill order one in the mean time.. thanks alot

Endo

 

[Don Cotyle]

Hi Vin, I think I'll try your trick of codeing the corks instead of wasteing time and money on labeling! My "cellar" is the due north faceing utility room in the back of the house. It never gets any sun or light unless I turn one on. It's also nice and dry and the coolest place in the house, when t's 90 outside it's 64-65 in that room, being shaded by trees on the left side and the right side has a downstairs full bathroom running the length of the room! I built a cealing to wall shelf there when we first moved in about 10 years ago for tool storage but since I got a nice top, bottom and side box It stayed empty except my wines! Works for me!