Blood orange melomel

[Bluespark]

I was debating giving this a go. What if you made a traditional mead, say 12% abv, using 1122, adding the zest of say 3 oranges per gallon. Ferment dry. Take the juice and reduce with honey to a syrup. Transfer to secondary, racking onto blood orange syrup " concentrate" , end product being a blood orange scented, light citrusy mead with a nice color and subtle flavour, gravity around 1.020.

Does this sound doable? Am I way off base with this idea, or would this come out even close to the product I want ?


I'm still so new at this I would love any advice I can get.

 

[saramc]

In the mead recipe section there is a Cuties Mead recipe which I am using blood oranges in. So we will see how it works out. Going to go ahead and do the original recipe also.

 

[Bluespark]

Stopped at the store to find a few bags of blood oranges on sale. Had 3.5 lb clover honey, so why not give it a try. Recipe is:

Zest of 3 blood oranges.
2 cups blood orange juice
3.5lb clover honey
Nutrient, energizer, pectin enzyme
Water to 1 gallon
Lalvins D47 yeast

SG 1.095.

At present it is a foggy redish orange color, hopefully the color improves. Smells and tastes fantastic. We'll see how she goes...

The inspiration:

 

[HermeticHealer]

Stopped at the store to find a few bags of blood oranges on sale. Had 3.5 lb clover honey, so why not give it a try. Recipe is:

Zest of 3 blood oranges.
2 cups blood orange juice
3.5lb clover honey
Nutrient, energizer, pectin enzyme
Water to 1 gallon
Lalvins D47 yeast

SG 1.095.

At present it is a foggy redish orange color, hopefully the color improves. Smells and tastes fantastic. We'll see how she goes...

The inspiration:

That sounds great. I'd be interested to hear how it turns out. How long do you plan to ferment it?

 

[Bluespark]

It'll be fermented out completely. I will have to add a bit more honey to have it finish semi sweet , then it will be fermented until done, racked into secondary, racked every so often until clear then bottled.

 

[scottv]

Where are blood oranges from ? Only thing I herd was its similar to a grapefruit ?

 

[Bluespark]

This particular batch was very sweet, orange flavour with floral notes. Very fragrant. I've heard people say they can be bitter, but I've never found that. Not sure about origins

 

[smertz001]

Nice! I too have a blood orange melomel going currently. I juiced 20 of them, and kept step feeding it honey until it didn't budged from 1.020. The colour was off putting and not what I was hoping for whilst in the primary. But now that it is racked into the secondary (on Saturday) the colour is much better. I also racked 3 gallons onto the zest of 4 of the oranges.

Scottv: Blood Oranges, or Moro Oranges are originally for Italy. Their season is December through March in the US here. Getting their name from the color of their fruit much like OPs picture shows.

 

[Bluespark]

Just a quick update, this fermented out dry, then i added more honey, a 1/4 cup blood orange juice and the innards of a passion fruit. I will rack off the fruit this week. Looks....really weird. The burgundy color faded to a weird redish-brownish-orange. Aroma is good. Passion fruit looks like moldy, lumpy grey jello.

 

[Bluespark]

And bottled! This is very young, but shows slots of promise. Fascinating, unique flavor.