Orange Blossom Mead Recipe

Orange Blossom Mead Recipe – 5-6 gallon batch

Ingredients:

• 15 lb wildflower or orange blossom honey
• 5 whole oranges, sliced
• 1 pack of Lalvin D-47 Wine Yeast
• clean drinking water or distilled water

Optional Ingredients:

• 1 cup raisins
• 5 whole cloves
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp allspice
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1 vanilla bean (split)

Equipment:

• 5 or 6 gallon glass carboy
• Funnel
• Airlock
• Stopper
• Sanitizer
• Small, Fine Straining bag
• Spoon, spatula, pot to boil water, additional container

Directions:

1. Clean and sanitize all equipment you will need.
2. Bring 3 liters of water to a boil, turn off heat.
3. Use the water 1-2 cups at a time to dissolve 2-3 lb honey in a separate container, so that you can poor the honey-water must mixture into the carboy using a funnel. Save 2 cups of the warm water for pitching the yeast.
4. Once all honey has been poured into the carboy, add all other ingredients except the yeast into a small, fine nylon straining bag. Drop or hang in carboy so that it’s suspended in the middle of the carboy (ideally).
5. Top off the carboy with additional water as necessary to fill. Mix well with must.
6. Use remaining 1-2 cups lukewarm water to rehydrate the yeast. Stir gently, let sit 30 mins, then pour into the top of the carboy (yeast nutrient, energizer, etc. optional).
7. Seal your carboy with the stopper and airlock.
8. Ferment for 8-10 weeks, remove nylon straining bag.
9. Age 6+ months for best results, racking to a second carboy if possible or necessary (as there may be a little lees in the bottom of the fermentation carboy).
10. Bottle and serve cold.