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Mead Making: Determining the Ideal Juice to Honey Ratio
Google search pulled precious little information, so coming to you guys for some advice. I have some Orange Juice and Grape Juice that I want to mix with honey and possibly some water if needed to make a mead. I tested the SG of the OJ and it is 1.050. I have a full gallon of the grape and a half gallon of the OJ. Is there a calculator that can help me to figure out the amount of honey needed to mix with the juices to make a mead? I don’t want to distill it as I think the distillation process would strip a lot of the honey and juice flavors. Advice or to point me in the direction of a calculator to mix the right ratio would be appreciated. I have not yet SG’d the grape juice as I want to do the OJ first as sort of a test.
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14 Replies
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I’m not surprised, it doesn’t sound like a mead to me. You might get better search results if you leave the word ‘mead’ out.Sometimes you have to be the first. Make something to trial, adjust your method for the next batch.
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Search the word Pyment.”Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.Shine on you crazy diamond.”
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I did and learned something new. Guess I need to make some, for the confusion caused when friends try to figure out what it is and if it’s free or I’ve suddenly started to expect payment…
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Shady, pegged you more of a cyser guy. Mead variations go deep.”Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.Shine on you crazy diamond.”
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Had to look that up also. https://www.vikingalchemist.com/mead-bl … mp-melomelNow that you mention it, I have dabbled in cider and honey.Even did a few apple sauce + honey that never cleared but tasted damn good if your eyes were closed.
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I’m not a fan of fermented OJ it has a wang to it that honey can’t hide.
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In the Cook Islands it was called Bush Beer and was often supplied by the orchard owner at the end of the harvest. Smashed oranges, sugar and water. Powerful stuff going by the workers staggering home past our house. I have accidentally fermented OJ, thinking that the juice was cider. It had the same smell as Bush Beer and probably tasted the same. It’s not something I would choose to ferment unless I was stranded on a desert island or in the hoosegow.
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I suspect that the natural acidity in many fruits makes their juice unsuitable for certain types of product.I’ve given up on several ideas that I thought would be wonderful when I invented them. Now, I’m guessing that the reason nobody already makes them and/or posts their methods on forums is that many have tried and failed before me.
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When I was experimenting with meads/melomels/metheglins I used to feed the honey through the ferment, not put it all in at the start. So I’d work out volumes needed for approx 1.120sg then start the ferment at approx 1.070, and add honey daily, melted into some of the juice or just hot water. Worked well to prevent the yeast starting out unhappy.Multiply the weight of the honey by 1.1 and you will be close enough to std sugar additions for calculating potential ABV.What you are making is strictly speaking a Melomel, so if you do a good Google around you should find plenty of info on it.Make Booze, not War!
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A plain mead generally is from 2 to 3 pounds honey per gallon, depending upon how sweet you want it to be. Raw honey will give you the most aromatic qualities if you don’t boil.A melomel or pyment can be whatever ratio you want, depending upon whether you want a winey mead or a meady wine (or some variation). Since you said mead, I’d think a reasonable approach would be to use 2 pounds per gallon, substituting from half to all of the water with the juice, depending upon much contribution you want from the juices.You can also just look up other people’s recipes that they’ve had success with. The internet is cool.
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Okay, my mead/ melomel/ cyser experts – I found this general recipe looking for apple cyser mead. Do you think this would work for juices OTHER than apple? __________Ingredients:3 gallon glass container (a food-grade, sanitized gallon container will work if you don’t have a glass carboy)1 to 2 cups of honey (light honey like clover or orange blossom works well)( 1 pound equals 1.3 cups honey so thinking of using two pounds honey)1 large pot1 gallon of filtered apple juice (make sure it doesn’t contain potassium sorbate)Wine yeast (such as the brewsy bag, which includes yeast, nutrients, energizer, and other additives for a successful fermentation)Instructions:Heat the Apple Juice: In a large pot, gently heat 1/2 gallon (1.9L) of apple juice. Heat it slowly, making sure it doesn’t boil1.Mix Honey and Apple Juice: Pour the heated apple juice into your gallon container. Add 1 to 2 cups of raw honey to the container. Close the container and shake it to blend the honey and apple juice together. Add in your yeast blend. Complete the Volume: Open the container and add additional apple juice to fill the gallon container.Fermentation: Seal the container with an airlock and rubber stopper. The airlock allows carbonation to escape during fermentation while preventing contaminants from entering. Make sure the airlock is filled with water and the stopper forms a tight seal.Wait: Let the mixture ferment for about a couple weeks. After this time, you’ll have a deliciously alcoholic honey wine (usually 10% to 12% ABV) with apple flavors.____________using other juices such as orange juice/ grape juice – making sure the juices do not have additional preservatives or additives in place of the apple juice in the recipe? I have all three juices btw.
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Honey is roughly 70% sugar, and a gallon of honey weighs about 12 lbs so there is about 8.4 lbs of sugar in a gallon of honey. So now you can use a sugar wash calculator to figure out how much honey you need to add to reach your desired starting gravity.There are two types of people in this world.1. Those that can extrapolate from incomplete information.
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If you’re using grape juice, make a Pyment. And go to the experts. Here’s a little searching for you. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/jo … ead.57190/”Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.Shine on you crazy diamond.”
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Here’s another site you could try. It’s an actual mead-making Forum. If you visit this site and happen to see a member asking distilling questions, help him out and point him to Homedistiller.“Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite, and furthermore, always carry a small snake.”- W.C. Fields My EZ Solder Shotgun My Steam Rig and Manometer
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