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Joe's Ancient Orange Mead - A Few Questions (sorry, long post!)

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did i use the right yeast?

so, i used flieshman's rapid rise bread yeast. is that a bad thing. i have never seen anyone make mention of the specific difference between rapid rise and regular bread yeast. in addition, i started my JAO on 30 AUG 13 and it is now only the 16th of SEPT and it has already cleared quite a lot under the fruit. the fruit has not dropped and it is still slowly bubbling, just wondering if i messed up with the rapid rise.
 
moyer442 said:
so, i used flieshman's rapid rise bread yeast. is that a bad thing. i have never seen anyone make mention of the specific difference between rapid rise and regular bread yeast. in addition, i started my JAO on 30 AUG 13 and it is now only the 16th of SEPT and it has already cleared quite a lot under the fruit. the fruit has not dropped and it is still slowly bubbling, just wondering if i messed up with the rapid rise.
Click to expand...

I have used both Fleischmann's Active Dry and Rapid Rise yeast in baking, and I can tell you that the Rapid Rise does not seem to have the... longevity of the 'regular' Active Dry.... when dealing with gluten. It seems to do its job more quickly, then peter out.

As far as using it for mead, the same does not seem to hold. I have been told by several people who have used it for JAOMs that the results are indistinguishable from using Active Dry.

Of course, to purists, using Rapid Rise yeast may "void the warranty", but that just means you can go ahead and make another batch shortly. ;)


Joe
 
few months

I started a batch in March of this year, and it fermented slow and steady for more than 2 months. It only really dropped clear at the end of June, and after racking once and leaving it I bottled it in July....so depending how the fermentation goes it can take several months to achieve clarity. When it stopped fermenting i did give it the odd gentle knock/swirl to make sure that any particles adhering to the oranges was freed, but I didn't wait until the fruit had dropped before racking, just until it had cleared.

Have patience- it will get there, there are no hard and fast rules about how long it will take but 3-4 months is perfectly possible.
 
My bubbling has officially stopped, started my mead on 30 Aug and CO2 production has stopped as of 8 Oct. I still plan to wait until the oranges drop. I am just surprised that at only 6 weeks it is clear and done bubbling. Any thoughts?
 
so apparently just a cruel trick of mother nature is what stopped my JAO from bubbling, three nights of lower temps and atmospheric pressure changes then the damn stuff started to bubble again. and I don't want to bottle up some glass grenades. so back to the waiting game I shall return. it is still bubbling maybe once every 5 minutes or more- really slow.
 
moyer442 said:
so apparently just a cruel trick of mother nature is what stopped my JAO from bubbling, three nights of lower temps and atmospheric pressure changes then the damn stuff started to bubble again. and I don't want to bottle up some glass grenades. so back to the waiting game I shall return. it is still bubbling maybe once every 5 minutes or more- really slow.
Click to expand...

This "could" be just degassing. See if you can steal a half a glass and give a taste.
 
When it originaly stopped, I have the S shaped airlock and all the water in it went over to the fermenter side, then leveled out the next day and then yesterday or the it might have been the day before started bubbling again. What am I looking for when I taste it? Good taste go ahead and bottle?
 
Good flavor, but this is my very first making not to mention the first mead I've ever tasted. I'd bottle it and knock a bunch down right now if I wasn't worried about exploding bottles.
 
moyer442 said:
When it originaly stopped, I have the S shaped airlock and all the water in it went over to the fermenter side, then leveled out the next day and then yesterday or the it might have been the day before started bubbling again. What am I looking for when I taste it? Good taste go ahead and bottle?
Click to expand...

You said it in your next post (good flavor). If you want to bottle it and drink itm, then you're ready to start your next batch. I made my first JAOM with orange blossom honey so it was double orange mead technically, but it was delicious.

What I did because I couldn't wait was I took a siphon and drew out a 750ml bottle full and put it in the fridge overnight. Yum! I predict it will dissapear before you have to worry about bottle bombs.
 
i did bottle it two weeks ago, one bottle got drank right down the next night, one went with my mom back home on a ten hour car ride to be enjoyed, the third got slowly sipped down over the week and i have 3/4 of the last bottle sitting on my counter being slowly picked at. damn stuff goes too quick for as long as it takes to make but it sure is tasty!
i used
3 1/2 lbs Suebee brand clover honey
one cinnamon stick
one clove
one teaspoon fleishman's rapid rise bread yeast
one naval orange
distilled water to fill jug
used no heat just shook the crap out of the jug with it all in there then added the yeast.
it fermented from 30 august to 17 october- was still bubbling slowly (every 9.5 minutes) next batch wont get bottled until completely done.
 
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