Jao The Ultimate Beginners Mead Recipe

[brettprevans]

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.

U could make a dry version of JAO u just need to use a highly attenuativve yeast. There's nothing overly unfermentable in the recipe. Of course u could cut jack on tge fruit that contributes to perceived sweetness, but in the end it's tge yeast that's goingbto eat away thosebremaining sugars and dry it out.

If ur wanting a 'session' mead then ur needing to bring that alc % back down and probable more of a braggot style brew. Even tge Vikings wouldn't have been chugging 12% sweet mead. BYO mag may/June 2011 has an article on brewing like a. Viking. Now it's mostly beer related but it shows typical recipes from that time and they are about 5-6%.

 

[pdilley]

Sack mead styles are fortified dessert wines in character. JAO is a sweet sack mead so its in that style. As you can see women love it, which is why as a first Mead recipe having one's significant other enjoy it is a bonus to convincing her to buy more brewing gear and make more mead

While not the be-all-end-all, the BJCP Style guide for meads is a good place to go to see what sounds to match your preference. Once you have your style sorted out, have a search through the forum here for recipes to suit or if none can be found, ask and we can find something for you.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Mine was dry - I diluted a little more pre-fermentation and used the Lowan's bread yeast. It is very dry, less than 1.000.

Nice though, like a white wine.

 

[brettprevans]

If u keg mead clean ur lines well... My alt is tasting like a honey alt.

 

[KudaPucat]

Ive made a half a dozen JAOs, and I only just racked my first JAO "by the book" exactly as Joe specified. (all others have been trifles with)
And I'm a little disappointed.
The raisins dropped, but the oranges never showed any inclination to.
It cleared beautifully after only 15 days
I left it the two months for fruit to drop.
It's very pretty, has a strong orange bouquet, a pleasant fore taste, an ok mid (a touch hot) and the most astringent repulsive orange pithy bitterness that trails off for minutes after your first sip.
I'm thinking next time I rack it as soon as it goes crystal.
Also: my yeast clapped out at least 20 points shy of any of my previous batches.

I like the recipe, but I'm going to shake it to get better yeast activity, and then rack it once it clears at about 4-6 weeks in the future.
I know the pithyness will age out, but the others have been drinkable immediately.

I think every batch is different and needs to be managed differently. This cleared so fast, is I think the problem. The batches that cleared slower are much tastier.
Also. My brew temp was much lower (it's winter now) than any of my previous JAOs.

Please critique and comment on my assumptions above.

 

[pdilley]

You have the right sort of idea but perhaps toss around a bit more reasoning around the method chosen.

Racking is normally the technique used with slow fermentations to isolate the liquor from the yeast. For flavouring conpounds you wish to remove, they are place in muslin or similar bags and the liquor is tasted at multiple stages and the bag removed when the brewer considers the flavour addition just right. It may be the oranges you want in the bag and leave the spices, raisins and yeast to continue in the fermentation.

If you look at your ingredients, they are rather stable with not a lot of variability. The items that are more variable from each time you brew are the water, honey, and the oranges.

If you look at the make up of sweet orange peel you have olatile oil, hesperidine, fixed oil, resin, gum, and tannin. Bitter orange adds acrid resin, and two or more additional chemical compounds to the peel. With each growth season, as with hops, you will have differing levels of compounds in the peel. Most bitter varieties of edible foods are usually more hardy or disease resistant and what you don't have control of as a consumer is the crosses or hybrids created between varieties or splicing to root stocks of other plants. So it is luck of the draw at times of what is on the shelf. I also used in season fruit at the end of the natural season when the fruit is over ripe and just at the first part of decline into mush.

I have not had a turbo clear or fast fermentation to date and have not encountered a brew that needs ageing out so do keep notes of ingredients, sources, and seasons you bought them to help build a correlation.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[Tanga]

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.

That is good to know (sorry, only just saw this). They say it tastes medicinal (that strange sweetness) rather than off. Hopefully when it mellows out you'll enjoy it more. If it's there. If not, that's good too.

 

[Margrethe]

I don't have a hydrometer- can I trust the JAO recipe to be idiot proof enough to put down without using one? And just trusting that when it goes clear its done?

 

[KudaPucat]

Yes-ish.
When it's clear, rack it into an airlocked jug, just in case, then bottle later. Bulk ageing is often more convenient anyhow.

But...
JAO is a small batch. 1 US gal
If you have a set of kitchen scales that reads to 8-10kg
Then you can just weigh the entire thing.
When it stops getting lighter, you know it's done.

 

[kjparker]

Well, getting towards three weeks in for me, and I am starting to get a dancing raisin. Still cloudy, and the other fruit are still showing no signs of dropping.

I fly out for two weeks tomorrow, will see how it is when I get back... That'll be 5 weeks in the fermenter.

 

[spaced]

Put mine down today, expect an update in a few months time.

 

[KudaPucat]

6 Months old and looking gold!
A bit pithy on the tail though. Orange qty definitely needs to be reduced if you have a lower OG

 

[pdilley]

Very nice photo. You are right on reduced OG, there is much less sweetness to overcome with bitterness and you need to rebalance to compensate or go over bitter.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[McFly]

While not the be-all-end-all, the BJCP Style guide for meads is a good place to go to see what sounds to match your preference. Once you have your style sorted out, have a search through the forum here for recipes to suit or if none can be found, ask and we can find something for you.

Thanks. I had a look, but ended up ordering a book. My copy of 'The Compleat Meadmaker' arrived today, so I'm sure I'll have a few ideas once I've read it.

 

[KudaPucat]

Thanks. I had a look, but ended up ordering a book. My copy of 'The Compleat Meadmaker' arrived today, so I'm sure I'll have a few ideas once I've read it.

That's a great book. A bit verby at the start, with all the history of mead and first brewed beverage and all, but as of page 20 it's not put-down-able.
Stick with it, it's a good read. Not a great book for reference unless you've read it cover to cover first.

 

[McFly]

That's a great book. A bit verby at the start, with all the history of mead and first brewed beverage and all, but as of page 20 it's not put-down-able.

Heh, given for uni I have to read books with titles like 'Fundamentals of the thermo-fluid sciences' and 'Machine component design' I think this will be an interesting diversion!

 

[KudaPucat]

Heh, given for uni I have to read books with titles like 'Fundamentals of the thermo-fluid sciences' and 'Machine component design' I think this will be an interesting diversion!

I see. I was Meant to read those books too.
Yup this book's easier. Plus I actually WANTED to read it which helps

 

[kjparker]

well after just over 4 weeks in the fermenter, this one doesnt look any closer to done.... Fruit still firmly floating.

I do believe it's still going, as the yeast is starting tpo build up a little on the ridges on the side of the bottle, and this wasnt there before i went on holidays. There is still positive pressure on the airlock, so It's just a waiting game for that one....

 

[Golani51]

well after just over 4 weeks in the fermenter, this one doesnt look any closer to done.... Fruit still firmly floating.

I do believe it's still going, as the yeast is starting tpo build up a little on the ridges on the side of the bottle, and this wasnt there before i went on holidays. There is still positive pressure on the airlock, so It's just a waiting game for that one....

Mine has been for three months and very clear BUT everything still floating bar the sediment. Not to worry......although I do check on it every bloody day!

Smells citrusy....cannot wait!

The raisins and orange segments do appear to have been tortured though.

 

[KudaPucat]

Golani
I was beginning to believe that the fruit dropping was a myth. But my maye just had 3 of his drop :-(
None of Mine EVER have.
I'd suggest if it's clear you bottle it.
At least take a sample and see what it's like. I fear there'll be a strong orange bitter tail on it, and am eager to find out if you do have this. Please keep us informed. Also if it is bitter, this should dull with age.
On the forum from which the great Joe Mattioli formulated this recipe, it is insisted that you wait until it has cleared OR the fruit has dropped, as apparently I'm not alone in having stubborn oranges.