Hi guys, I was fascinated with this recipe so thought I'd give it a try.
I went out to purchase a demijohn from (if you're in Adelaide) Gaganis brothers, a great shop by the way with lots of stuff for wine making and heaps of hard to get ethnic food supplies and herbs and spices in bulk, all at good prices.
Couldn't get a 5 litre , but found they had good stocks of the 10 litre versions in those horrible made of plastic fake cane baskets, which I immediately tossed as the bottle looks great by itself. Also picked up a bung while I was there.
And of course made up a double batch of JAO with some lovely lavender honey from a Apiarists supply shop on Prospect road.
Started fermenting on 27th May, the weather was pretty cold and because SWMBO liked the look of the demijohn I was able to keep it inside.
Being so cold I put it on a heater pad and watched the fun in a bottle. Fermentation went mad for about 3 days, it had a good 25mm of krausen. After 5 days it started to slow a little and after 7 days I took it off the heater pad.
I let it just slowly "bloop ............................ bloop" away for about 6 weeks, until a particularly cold day and I thought "lets put the heater pad back on", fermentation picked up quite a bit, not mad but "blooping" away quite nicely for after so many weeks.
Switched off the pad overnight and in the morning the fruit had all dropped and the mead was showing the first signs of clearing.
I left it go until today (just over 7 weeks) and it was lovely and clear.
I gave some thought to how to get it out and dug out a "jiggle siphon" and a bottling wand, which I believe was suggested by some other forum member who is much wiser and more experienced than me (as you shall see shortly).
Grabbed enough "pick axe" long necks to more than cover my volume needs, cleaned and sterilised every thing in sight, even bought another portable light into the room to make it easier to work.
And so begins the trials and tribulations of Creedy, which nearly ended in divorce from SWMBO and included large amounts of mess over a significant portion of the room.
First trouble was the silicone hose I'd bought, it was still coiled, attempted to straighten it a little with hot water, largely unsuccessfully.
Second trouble was I thought I'd better check out the "jiggle siphon" and used it to suck up some of the sterilising fluid from the bucket, this was my first warning, little alarm bells were ringing in my head as I realised how much I had to disturb the water to make the "jiggle siphon" work. But I thought "Nah, it'll be all right, how else can I do it anyway?".
Next mistake was asking SWMBO to help with the siphoning effort, explained (I thought clearly) that I'd start the siphon, then She should keep the tube in the mead but not let it touch the bottom and not let it suck up the yeast, enter the extra lighting to make this easy (or so I thought).
Then I tried to start the siphon, jiggling immediately disturbed the yeast pack on the bottom which clouded the mead.
This only got worse. But we were committed now so had to continue, (Titanic approaching iceberg, shouts from the lookouts ignored). Much spilling ensued as the damned jiggle siphon refused to work, even though it was worked successfully in the water just previously.
More clouding of mead.
SWMBO pulls out the jiggle siphon and quite rightly (as it turns out) questions it's functionality, then proceeds to poke the marble inside it and (as I yell out a long fading Nooooooooooo) puts the end back into the mead.
I hang my head and shake it slowly while I sigh loudly. I start to talk about sanitation and keeping things clean and get a "But you never said that, if it was important you should have said!".
So I had to "yes dear, your right, I'm wrong, I should have made it clearer". Divorce narrowly averted.
So I rip the jiggle siphon off the end and the bottle filler off the other, struggle with the demented python of a silicone hose and after cleaning and sterilising (as best I can) my hands, try to create a siphon by plunging the tube and timing the thumb release on the other end. Much better than the stupid jiggle siphon, spilling and splashing a little less now.
However my efforts to create a siphon resulted in vibrating a jar lemongrass oil off the table which the mead is on and onto the floor.
As my luck would have it the lid was off and it rolled half was across the dining room floor, leaving a considerable trail of oil behind it.
I ask SWMBO to get the mop, strangely I get a "but it's a new mop", it crossed my mind to ask what the hell a mop is for if not for cleaning up messes such as this, but with considerable effort I bite my tongue.
The demented python of a silicone tube then struck out at SWMBO as she "forgot" how to use a siphon.
Forgot that the end of the tube had to be below the surface of the mead.
Three times.
The spillage continued, mostly into the deep sided tray or onto the plastic sheet I had the forethought to put down in case of emergency, but I didn't think emergency would happen so soon or in such a major fashion.
So after bottling as much as was decent and not ridiculously cloudy, we ended up with 4 1/2 long necks, from a double batch, a pretty poor yield I'd say, but at least it's bottled.
Dubious sanitation, cloudy, messy, destructive, kids asking "what's happening Dad?", but it's done now.
So at the moment I've tried my first JAO, not too bad, got some hot alcohol taste so I'll probably forego the heated pad in future and let it ferment slower. Also a little bit too much bitterness so I might drop back the 1 1/2 oranges for a double batch, might reduce the cinnamon a bit too, as we had quite long sticks to start with and it's quite prominent but not overwhelming at all, just tuning.
LESSONS LEARNED
1. If I can't do it myself, don't enrolled SWMBO as an assistant, kids maybe, but not SWMBO.
2. burn my existing jiggle siphon head, jump on the ashes, then burn the ashes, then piss on the burnt ashes
3. hang the friggin silicone hose with a weight on the end for at least 3 weeks before using the damned thing so is at least straight (it's in the shed like this now)
4. ask very politely how the hell people have managed to get their JAO out from demijohns without going from "crystal clear" to "Coopers Sparking Ale"
So, thank you those who have read to the end of my little rant and please, ..... pretty please ...... with sugar and a cherry on top...... how does one remove the JAO cleanly from a demijohn?
Cheers,
Creedy
