question before taking the plunge!

[dixiehellcat]

Hello y'all! I've been fascinated with mead for a while and finally assembled everything to make this recipe:

https://amazingmead.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/orange-spiced-short-mead-drinkable-in-3-weeks/

I know it's a variation on Joe's Ancient Orange, and what I'm wondering is if there's much of a bitter taste from putting the white pith of the orange in, or if the spices etc work that out.

 

[Kody_Wulfe]

I have not tried that exact recipe... I did make a blood orange mead.. and the recipe told me to only put in the fruit.. not the pith... so maybe pith is bad???

Kody

 

[darigoni]

I would stick with the JAOM recipe. It's a recipe for one gallon, so you'll end up with twice the amount of drinkable product and it's a little more structured than the 2L recipe you are thinking about using. A JAOM is constructed to be sweet, which offsets the bitterness of the pith. For your first batch I would follow the recipe EXACTLY and then make some minor modifications (to your preference) on future batches. Also, while the fermentation may be done in 3 weeks, I would not even think about drinking it until the 2 month point. It really needs a little bit of aging for the flavors to emerge and meld. Typically the older the mead is, the better. So letting it age beyond 2 months would even be better. Another reason for making more than 2L.

dave

 

[caduseus]

If you are going with a "pitch-and-leave" mead then go with the one most tried and true- JAOM.
This can be tweaked later.
The most common tweak is to leave out the pith which brings some astringency.