Jao The Ultimate Beginners Mead Recipe

[KudaPucat]

I only have SN9 and D47...
either of these any good?
How about pitching more bread yeast at it?

Interesting that you said 'was'... indeed you didn, I just checked. But I read "Wasn't" perhaps it was your tone... odd.

 

[brettprevans]

i pitched more bread yeast with nutrient and nadda.
D47 is sometimes reccomendded for ciders given its a chardy style wine yeast, so it could be interesting
so could SN9 given its used in fortifieds etc. its probably a little less attenuative than D47, so if you wanted a slightly sweeter JOA then id try SN9.

 

[KudaPucat]

i pitched more bread yeast with nutrient and nadda.
D47 is sometimes reccomendded for ciders given its a chardy style wine yeast, so it could be interesting
so could SN9 given its used in fortifieds etc. its probably a little less attenuative than D47, so if you wanted a slightly sweeter JOA then id try SN9.

Cool thanks,
I'm going to give the recipe a bit more of a chance, it is bubbling once every 26 seconds or so, still. It's been pretty constant since I pitched it, which is why i feared there was insufficient live yeast, and it had not been able to multiply.
I'll pitch some more, rehydrated, with some nutrient and see if I have the same result as you.
We'll try to make this a controlled experiment between us eh?

 

[McFly]

Hmmm... I didn't think of splitting up the original must into two bottles (bread yeast and EC-1118) - that would have reduced the risk substantially. Oh well.

Both are bubbling away, so now I just sit and wait...

 

[KudaPucat]

Well, I pitched 1tsp rehydrated yeast at my JAO, and 2/3 tsp of DAP.
now to see what happens. The DAP should not have been necessary, but I figure, it can't hurt.

I'll let you all know how it turns out. Hopefully it fires up ;-)

 

[stuchambers]

Hey all,

I started a batch on the 27/10 over the past week the bottle has become clear and half of the fruit has dropped.
Is this ready to bottle now?
Or shall I wait longer, I am wanting to give some as christmas presents will the flavour change much over the next and a bit.

Cheers Stu

 

[gareth]

Hey all,

I started a batch on the 27/10 over the past week the bottle has become clear and half of the fruit has dropped.
Is this ready to bottle now?
Or shall I wait longer, I am wanting to give some as christmas presents will the flavour change much over the next and a bit.

Cheers Stu

It's good to bottle however letting it mature in the bottle for a few months makes a big difference to the final taste.

 

[stuchambers]

Hey all,
I bottled my first batch of JAO or as I will be calling it Spiced Orange Mead.
It tasted good different to the mead I had tried previous very subtle orange and spice with an alcoholic warmth and a sweet honey finish.
Here are some pictures of the almost finished product, the small bottles hold about 200ml and I have sealed them with Bees Wax.
The larger bottles are brandy bottle 700ml.




I am giving the small bottles as gifts the labels are on page 15 or this thread. (I think)

EDIT: what do most of you get as ABV% I didn't take any reading but to me it seems kinda high much higher than 12% wine, it has a little warmth/ burn to it.

Cheers Stu

 

[KudaPucat]

Well, I pitched 1tsp rehydrated yeast at my JAO, and 2/3 tsp of DAP.
now to see what happens. The DAP should not have been necessary, but I figure, it can't hurt.

I'll let you all know how it turns out. Hopefully it fires up ;-)

Well, nothing happened.
So I took an SG reading and got 1050 down from 1142
so I think I know now why there was no activity. :unsure:
No clearing yet. No fruit dropping yet. Bubble rate down to once/40s
Not much patience left ;-)

That's looking nice stu! It's good to have an idea of the clarity I'm to expect. Thanks for posting pics

 

[felten]

12% is about the limit that bread yeast can reach. My fruit didn't drop out until 14 weeks or so, and then a few pieces floated back up again, trapped co2 can take ages to dissipate. IIRC mine finished at 1034 but I estimated it started at 1121, so that's around 11.5%

 

[Chookers]

I scaled this recipe down so far, I only got 1x750ml bottle full.. in total it probably would have come to 800ml. I used 500g of rainforest honey and the lowan brand of yeast in the cylinder.

I did such a small batch for two reasons, one incase I didnt like it and two even if it was as good as everyone says, sweet wines are'nt usually to my taste..

I was surprised how clear it came out and how blonde, as the honey I used was quite dark.. and this recipe performed exactly as said it would.. cleared in its last week.. and tastes lovely. I like it despite its sweetness and would catagorise it as a sweet sherry or port.

If I was to make it again in these small quantities I would put two clove buds, I use one clove in my scaled down version as its impossible to scale a clove and took a chance that it would'nt over power the mead..

Its a nice drop and in time for Christmas..

 

[KudaPucat]

Well done!
I only wish mine could be ready for Christmas :-(
Some raisins began to drop today, but I fear it wont be ready :-( it's still cloudy.
Such envy I am experiencing. Congrats

 

[Golani51]

I put down this Jao recipe on 22/6/2010 and there are a few floaties on the surface... I tried to take some pics but it is hard through glass.

The mead is otherwise crystal clear - is it normal for bits on the surface? If it was beer I wouldn't even pose the question. I haven't tasted it, nor opened it to smell, it has been closed up since it was made.

I plan to bottle it this weekend, so will find out how it tastes... Just a paranoid newbie

It might be trouble.........why don't you bottle it and I will let you know what I think. Make it two......better safe than sorry!

 

[Rodolphe01]

haha, turns out it is just fine, although I did have a bottle last night that tasted a wee bit sour... planing on having more tonight with the family so here's hoping it was just 1 dud bottle.

i put down 2 more batches 2 weeks ago, the same recipe but in 1 of them I put a few teaspoons of cocoa powder. we'll see, i reckon that the sweet spiced orange flavour will work with a hint of chocolate - it is intended for this time next year, hoping it will taste like european christmas in a bottle

 

[Chookers]

Well done!
I only wish mine could be ready for Christmas :-(
Some raisins began to drop today, but I fear it wont be ready :-( it's still cloudy.
Such envy I am experiencing. Congrats

haha thanks

when mine start to clear.. (I was checking it everyday btw) it cleared in one week. I could have left it longer but it was very clear and my orange slices were still floating.. now I gotta leave it alone until tomorrow.. and I have already had another 60ml out of it (I dont know what the alc% is but it made me feel a little fuzzy) Im thinking I may just have to do a full batch, after all I have an empty demi just sitting around.

 

[KudaPucat]

Well it's clear and drunk now. I have 2 new batches on
It was way too sweet for my liking, and the bread yeast was so fluffy that it made racking a right PITA.
Has anybody successfully used a commercial wine yeast as a substitute?
My bread yeast has a tolerance of almost 14% btw, and it was still too sweet, so I've dropped the OG in the next two batches, but I fear one will ferment completely dry, and I doubt that the flavours will work then.

 

[Chookers]

Well it's clear and drunk now. I have 2 new batches on
It was way too sweet for my liking, and the bread yeast was so fluffy that it made racking a right PITA.
Has anybody successfully used a commercial wine yeast as a substitute?
My bread yeast has a tolerance of almost 14% btw, and it was still too sweet, so I've dropped the OG in the next two batches, but I fear one will ferment completely dry, and I doubt that the flavours will work then.

I used EC-1118 and I used a cider yeast which was also recommended for mead, They both turned out DRY...

I have a smack pack of Wyeast 4184 for Sweet Mead, which I have'nt tried yet.

But after doing some reading Im starting to think the sweetness of your mead, may have more to do with the amount of Honey, rather than the yeast.. My JOAM was sweet but the honey to water ratio was also higher.. When I made my mead with EC-1118, I 1:4 (1L Honey to 3L Water) it was dry.. Im going to do a a 1L honey to 2L water and see how that turns out using the same yeasts again, I think I will also sdo one with beer yeast. As far as flavourings go I will never again boil them with the honey, I'll flavour in bottle and only one or two flavours, like clove and orange or cinnamon. My dry mead tastes like beer and I have no idea why.

 

[KudaPucat]

EC-1118 has an extremely high alcohol tolerance 18% Most bread yeast is 12% or so.
"Cidre Yeasts" are oft very high tolerance also.

Yeah. The honey was heavy and sweet, so following the weight suggestions, it therefore had a very high SG. My two next batches have differing amounts of honey in them as a test.

The dry mead that tastes like beer: is that the EC-1118 batch? I have a dry cidre from EC-1118 and I found it to have a very beery aftertaste, as well as a mango mel that I made.

I'm reliably told that given 6-9 months, the flavours will come back and that beery taste will diminish within the plethora of aromas and flavours.
Dry needs to age I'm told. Which is why the 'ready in 2 months JAO' is a sweet mead.

What I don't get is that all of my sweet meads are still cloudy, some months after the dry ones are clear... but that's a bit OT for the JAO thread.

 

[Tanga]

I'm going to bottle my JAO in the next few days. I didn't use this recipe, so I'm going to have to pasteurise, but the Lavlin D-47 worked really well, and didn't leave that medicinal aftertaste you usually get in a young mead. It will ferment out much too dry for this recipe, but if you do want to use a wine strength yeast I recommend this one. On doing some reading I've found that this seems to be the case for others as well.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Bottled my JAO and have tried it 2 weeks later.

I used Lowan's bread yeast (I put this specifically, so anyone else can search for it) - it obviously has a higher alcohol tolerance.

It turned out a bit like a white wine with fruitiness. I didn't use the raisins in the recipe, but did use some cardamom pods as they are sweetish.

It's really nice, but there isn't any sweetness - it turned out quite dry-ish, but subtlely so, if compared with a chardonnay, for arguments sake.

Conclusion therefore is Lowan's bread yeast has a higher abv tolerance.

I will use a beer yeast such as nottingham next time.

I was fortunate enough to obtain 4kg of honey at $7 a kilo from someone I met through my line of work who is an amateur apiarist.

Goomba