Four and a half years ago I began my meadmaking journey with the following recipe. It comes highly recommended in the Gotmead world as a beginner mead, especially for those who have never tried commercial meads and are experimenting to see if mead is something you could like. You will have to relearn/forget much of the process to make this mead when you transition to making traditional meads and melomels with wine yeasts, but nonetheless, this is a good starting point to understand mead’s potential. It finishes in a mere three months, compared to those pesky traditionals that may take a year or two to finally round out into something good. And the recipe is nearly foolproof. Without further ado, here is a great first mead recipe. A big thanks to Joe Mattioli who developed this recipe many years ago!

Joe’s Ancient Orange Mead, aka JAO or JAOM

This recipe makes one gallon, and I implore you to follow the recipe exactly if it is your first time making mead. No shaking the must, no early samples. Just let it ferment until clear, and bottle it or drink directly from the jug. (No worries, I won’t tell anyone!)

1 gallon batch

• 3.5 pounds of clover honey, or your choice honey or blend
• 1 large orange
• 25 raisins, or thereabouts (a small handful)
• 1 cinnamon stick (find the real stuff, not the fancy looking cassia parroted as cinnamon)
• 1 whole clove
• Optional, a pinch of nutmeg and/or allspice
• 1 teaspoon of Fleischmann’s bread yeast (Active Dry is a better option than Rapid Rise)
• Water to 1 gallon

Gather the materials outlined last week (see here). Sanitize your carboy and airlock, and all materials that may come in contact with your ingredients listed above. This includes a knife to cut the orange, any pot or bucket to mix the honey and water, a spoon to stir the mix, and possibly a funnel that may be used to help pour the must (unfermented mead) into the carboy.  Wash your orange well to remove dirt or pesticides from the exterior.

Pour honey and a small amount of water (2 cups) into a mixing pot or bucket, or directly into your fermenter if feasible. Stir the pot, or shake the carboy, until honey is completely dissolved. Pour honey-water mixture into your fermenter.

Cut orange into eighths or smaller. If you are prone to heartburn, you can remove the pith, but it is not necessary. Cram the orange slices down the neck of the carboy into the must. Add your cinnamon stick, raisins, and any optional ingredients into the must.

Fill your carboy with room temperature water until it is 3 inches from the carboy opening. Shake the carboy with all ingredients for a few minutes to aerate the must (you will need an airtight cap for the carboy so it doesn’t splash everywhere or through the airlock). I will cover the fancy ways to accomplish aeration in future batches at a later date. For now, just shaking the carboy for a few minutes is enough for this batch. Remove the carboy cap and install your airlock.

Place your carboy in a dark place out of the way. Bread yeast prefer warmer environments than most wine yeasts, so fermenting between 70-80 is ideal. After the initial burst of fermentation (a few days after you have pitched your yeast), add a bit more water to the must (about 1.5-2 inches from the airlock). Now leave the must to ferment. No racking, no stirring, no additional feedings. Leave it be!

After about two months, the mead should be clear. At this point, it is ready to drink. You may wait additional time until all the oranges sink to the bottom, or not. Once the mead has cleared, it is drinkable. This mead does age well, but don’t worry about that. You will have plenty of future batches to wait for.

I recommend racking the finished product into another carboy, leaving it a week at the location you plan to bottle, then bottling from the second carboy. This is not necessary, it just creates a better looking (clearer) finished product. You may also bottle the mead directly from the original carboy, or pour the mead out carefully into a glass to drink. Both of these may result in a little cloudiness in the finished product, but the mead will still be drinkable. (If you are pouring out of the carboy, expect to get some cloudiness from the yeast. You will also need to drink the full carboy immediately, as any leftover mead will spoil from oxidation.)

Now sit back, relax, and have a drink. I can’t guarantee 100% success with this recipe, but it is darn near foolproof.

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Well, there you have it. A great first recipe to begin your meadmaking journey. Let me know what you think in the comments section, or let us know if you have any other great first meads to make. Thanks for reading, and thank you again Joe Mattioli, for providing a great recipe for all of us to enjoy.