Jao The Ultimate Beginners Mead Recipe

[pdilley]

Patience is a good thing to have with Meads, the good news with JAO is your few months wait is nothing compared to normal Mead recipes you will find out there in book and on forums. Once you can handle the JAO wait, then move up to a traditional recipe with the normal 1 to 2 year wait and see how you go and if its worth it for the result. If you can not wait, just fall back to making a lot more JAO and be happy.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[kjparker]

I was considering putting one of these together, but dont have / cant afford right now a demijohn. Would a 5l empty plastic spring water bottle be ok?

 

[pdilley]

Would a 5l empty plastic spring water bottle be ok?

Yes.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[KudaPucat]

They tend not to break as easy too, and if you cap em off too early they let you know that the pressure is building.
Go for it.

 

[kjparker]

They tend not to break as easy too, and if you cap em off too early they let you know that the pressure is building.
Go for it.

Excellent. Now to just find some inexspensive honey!

 

[kjparker]

Excellent. Now to just find some inexspensive honey!

ok.

Just had a sucessfull hunting trip in Woolies.

All done for $17 including the bottle of water for the "demijohn" (I used the water for the mead!)

Already had an orange and some bread yeast. Will have to see how this turns out!

Is 18 deg too low for this? I have it in my ferment fridge, and have been making ales of late, is this likely to be a problem? I dont care if it takes longer, as it doesnt take much room in the fridge!

 

[KudaPucat]

ok.

Just had a sucessfull hunting trip in Woolies.

All done for $17 including the bottle of water for the "demijohn" (I used the water for the mead!)

Already had an orange and some bread yeast. Will have to see how this turns out!

Is 18 deg too low for this? I have it in my ferment fridge, and have been making ales of late, is this likely to be a problem? I dont care if it takes longer, as it doesnt take much room in the fridge!

That temp shouldn't be an issue. I have JAOs chugging on ATM at 14-16 celcius.
If the bread yeast you have is not a pack of Grandmas from the mid nineties, then you aught to be fine.
I don't know, as I don't brew beer, but I've heard of yeasts cross contaminating through airlocks.
Find out if this is a concern for either your mead or your beer.

 

[kjparker]

That temp shouldn't be an issue. I have JAOs chugging on ATM at 14-16 celcius.
If the bread yeast you have is not a pack of Grandmas from the mid nineties, then you aught to be fine.
I don't know, as I don't brew beer, but I've heard of yeasts cross contaminating through airlocks.
Find out if this is a concern for either your mead or your beer.

I discovered probably 30 minutes after posting that it was certainly fine! Healthy krausen, and positive pressure on the gladwrap airlock. This stuff sure kicks off fast!

Now to wait. To be honest though, I dont mind how long it takes, as long as eventually it gets there.

I doubt there will be any problem with cross contamination with the yeast, both fermenters have positive pressure, so nothing is going to get past that!

 

[TmC]

I discovered probably 30 minutes after posting that it was certainly fine! Healthy krausen, and positive pressure on the gladwrap airlock. This stuff sure kicks off fast!

Now to wait. To be honest though, I dont mind how long it takes, as long as eventually it gets there.

I doubt there will be any problem with cross contamination with the yeast, both fermenters have positive pressure, so nothing is going to get past that!

My hydro samples taste awesome so putting on another 2 batches today with a normal mead.

 

[kjparker]

My hydro samples taste awesome so putting on another 2 batches today with a normal mead.

Why the need for hydro samples? My understanding is that the gravity doesnt matter with meads? They're done when their done? ie when clear?

 

[TmC]

Why the need for hydro samples? My understanding is that the gravity doesnt matter with meads? They're done when their done? ie when clear?

I dont use airlocks so am making sure the yeast doesn't fall asleep.

 

[kjparker]

I dont use airlocks so am making sure the yeast doesn't fall asleep.

Fair enough, I'm not using an airlock either, just gladwrap with an elastic band. I figure whilst the gladwrap is "firm" it's still going. If it is also kept at stable temps it shouldnt fall asleep either...

 

[KudaPucat]

I take hydro readings at the start and at the end (when clear).
For the following reasons
1) you can approximate the alcohol
2) you have a record so you can clinicly reproduce a brew
3) you have a starting point for tweaking the residual sweetness
4) you can be certain the ferment is over - (no being clear is not certainty - take readings 1 week apart when wanting to bottle and ensure it's not dropping)
5) knowing when it's almost done is good for if you want to rack it to encourage clearing of a recalcitrant brew.

there's probably a couple of other good reasons too, but I can't think of em ;-)

 

[McFly]

G'day,

Just a quick update on my brews. I've misplaced my brew book but I wrote some info on the brewing bottles.

I kicked off two batches of JAO in October last year, one with EC-1118 and one with Defiance bakers yeast.

I bottled both a few days ago. The bakers yeast mead is STILL cloudy, but I had everything out and sterilised so I bottled it anyway. This pic is the EC-1118 mead. It is a little bitter on the back of the palate but certainly displays what the recipe is capable of, and is not undrinkable. I knew I was messing with the recipe, hence the two batches.

The bakers yeast mead is sweeter (possibly too sweet for me). I'm interested in experimenting with meads, but it'll take a while to get through this lot, I think.

 

[TmC]

Wow, 8 months? Thats a long wait

Mine just turned one month old.

 

[Tanga]

Was there a 'medicinal' kind of taste to the 1118 mead McFly? I've heard bad things about it as a mead yeast (had to be aged a loooong time for the medicinal flavour to mellow out), longer even than most dry meads.

 

[Smashin]

Mine uses Leather-wood honey straight from the comb, the bee keeper brought it around the day he harvested and I put down the JAO that night. Not sure how well suited leather-wood honey is for mead's or the JOA in-particular but I'll find out soon. I put it down 18/2 so 3 months is nearly up, I'm out of the country at the moment and as it turns out i get home on the 18th, Very eager to get home and have a sip or two while racking.

Smashin :icon_cheers:

View attachment 45785

Well I finally got around to bottling this today. Turns out the date I put it down was actually the 18/3 much to my disappointment when I got home last rotation. Anyway this additional month allowed the fruit to drop as per plan. This certainly tastes very nice from the few sips to snuck from it last night. I didn't take an OG but from the recipe it calculated out at 1.121, and the measured FG was 1.042 (10.4%). I found it well balanced on the sweetness, bitterness and alcohol, not too sweet and not too dry, the bitterness was subdued yet I think I will knock it back ever so slightly next time. The alcohol also came through quite nicely, yet I think I'll push this up slightly on the next batch. The orange aroma and flavor was detectable (not unpleasant but not expected and masked the honey flavor and aroma) which I hope will also drop off next time with the reduced orange addition and slightly increased honey %. Surprisingly I can't detect the Cinnamon or cloves at all. So I'm tossing up either adding more or steeping them in hot water before pitching on the next batch.

Anyway many thanks BP this has proven to be a great recipe to cut my teeth on. Looking forward to a nice big glass tonight. While putting the next batch down.

On the bottling front I wasn't sure if i should leave any head space as I call a discussion earlier on mead oxidizing, so I have left no head space and completely filled the bottles. Hopefully this has reached a terminal FG and stays 'still' and won't turn into a time bomb....


Smashin :icon_cheers:

 

[Smashin]

Well I finally got around to bottling this today. Turns out the date I put it down was actually the 18/3 much to my disappointment when I got home last rotation. Anyway this additional month allowed the fruit to drop as per plan. This certainly tastes very nice from the few sips to snuck from it last night. I didn't take an OG but from the recipe it calculated out at 1.121, and the measured FG was 1.042 (10.4%). I found it well balanced on the sweetness, bitterness and alcohol, not too sweet and not too dry, the bitterness was subdued yet I think I will knock it back ever so slightly next time. The alcohol also came through quite nicely, yet I think I'll push this up slightly on the next batch. The orange aroma and flavor was detectable (not unpleasant but not expected and masked the honey flavor and aroma) which I hope will also drop off next time with the reduced orange addition and slightly increased honey %. Surprisingly I can't detect the Cinnamon or cloves at all. So I'm tossing up either adding more or steeping them in hot water before pitching on the next batch.

Anyway many thanks BP this has proven to be a great recipe to cut my teeth on. Looking forward to a nice big glass tonight. While putting the next batch down.

On the bottling front I wasn't sure if i should leave any head space as I call a discussion earlier on mead oxidizing, so I have left no head space and completely filled the bottles. Hopefully this has reached a terminal FG and stays 'still' and won't turn into a time bomb....


Smashin :icon_cheers:

Must have had a few beers last night, retested the FG just now and I get 1.032 giving 11.7% mmmm did I mention this tastes the bomb...

 

[pdilley]

Sounds more like it, just under or at 12% is what I expect.

Huge grin on your first JAO enjoyment session!

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[McFly]

G'day Tanga,

My brother and I had a little tonight and cannot detect any off flavours in the EC-1118 mead.

I'm yet to make up my mind as to whether I like the mead - both are possibly too sweet for me. They remind me of port - just a night cap type of drink. I'll have to hunt around for some dry recipes.

My brother (a mostly-beer drinker and also home brewer) thought the 1118 was nice and my housemate (23, female) loves the bakers JAO. So maybe it's just me.

Now they're finally bottled I'll give them a month or so and taste again.