Jao The Ultimate Beginners Mead Recipe

[brettprevans]

Bottled mine yesterday and can suggest that lowans bread yeast has a decent alcohol tolerance. The mead was thin, highly potent and the primary flavour seemed to be orange peel, will not be using the whole orange next time! The yeast chewed up all the honey and if I had to compare it to anything it tastes like cask moselle that I imagine is in the high teens as far as alcohol content goes. Wasn't what I expected, it did taste marginally better with a teaspoon of honey whirled around in it though. Couldnt register any spicy notes from the cinnamon, nutmeg or clove, was just hot and orangey. Oh well, one must try these things.

you seemed to missed the part where your to leave it mature for many months. This is something you age fir anywhere up to a year or more. I still have botles thatvare a few years old. Absolutely lovely. You need to wait for hot alcohol to go away.

 

[Deep End]

Well the original recipe indicates its ready to go straight outa the demi, but fear not there's a good chance the remaining bottles will get some good age on them

 

[brettprevans]

Well the original recipe indicates its ready to go straight outa the demi, but fear not there's a good chance the remaining bottles will get some good age on them

no it doesnt. Its been aged. Reread it.

Edit. 2nd last line of petes first post. Age for 6 months

 

[drunkenmonkey]

Bottled mine yesterday and can suggest that lowans bread yeast has a decent alcohol tolerance. The mead was thin, highly potent and the primary flavour seemed to be orange peel, will not be using the whole orange next time! The yeast chewed up all the honey and if I had to compare it to anything it tastes like cask moselle that I imagine is in the high teens as far as alcohol content goes. Wasn't what I expected, it did taste marginally better with a teaspoon of honey whirled around in it though. Couldnt register any spicy notes from the cinnamon, nutmeg or clove, was just hot and orangey. Oh well, one must try these things.

mine was similar when it was finished , but myself and the missus have tried a little every month for the last 3 months and its mellowed more each time, so just put it somewhere out of the way and bring it out at xmas time

 

[surly]

Joined the JAO club today. Now all I have to do is remember to check it

For those playing at home, I used Tandaco dry yeast. 1 Navel orange, but only chucked half the skin in as it was very pithy (peeled half the orange and placed the flesh in).
The honey was local, organic bush honey. Fairly mild flavour and quite sweet.

Dodgy phone pic, just after pitching:

 

[Biggus Dichus]

Just wanted to thank you BP . First batch to your recipe using yellowbox honey, it's bottled at 5 weeks and tastes great (my Dad has placed an order for his birthday.) Second batch I added a tsp of all-spice and a vanilla bean but it's pretty spicey, like a mulled wine I'll give to friends... And then I had to give a third batch a go too, with raspberries in it and it's smelling fantastic.

On a side note, I sourced honey from a local guy with his own hives. His wife asked me what I was doing with the honey and when I told her she gave me a bottle of Duttons Sweet Mead she had purchased in 1985. I took it home and figured it would be off. When I cracked the seal a fortified smell wafted out, but the first little sip just melted in my mouth......it really is incredible and gave me a long term dream benchmark.

 

[DarkFaerytale]

while i have meaded before, many moons ago, i also have jumped on the JAO bandwagon about 3 weeks ago.

looking forward to new years when people will be made to drink it from a drinking horn. good times.

 

[of mice and gods]

A mate (Ashul on this forum) found a place selling bulk bush honey in Maleny for 4 bucks a kilo so I too jumped on the JAO band wagon. I had a lot of honey and no demijohns so I trippled the batch into a standard 30L barrel fermenter.

I was a bit worried about the pith from the Orange being too bitter (particularly because the only available Oranges were Navel). I had a previously horrible experience with one small lime in 1/4's in a Cerveza. So I adjusted that bit.

Here's what I did:
4.8kgs bush honey
1 full navel orange (cut into 8) and the flesh of another full navel orange (about tennis ball size)
3 cinnamon sticks (one was particularly nice and fat)
3 whole cloves
a pinch of nutmeg
topped up to 11.6 L (yeh I over poured a bit..)
Pitched a whole sachet of Tandaco brand bread yeast (2.5 teaspoons) at 20 degrees C

OG 1141

Now to wait!

 

[pt49]

Just started my 1st JAO Honey Mead off in 1.5 litre V8 vegetable juice jars... (1.5 litres is exactly ⅓ of 5 litres)

5kg's of Ironbark/Stringbark honey sourced from Alf Honey at Upper Beaconsfield ($10 a kg)... a very robust dark honey.

In each jar went...

• 0.53 kg honey mixed with warm water.
• ⅓ of a medium orange cut into 3 pieces.
• Just the head of a clove.
• ⅓ of a cinamon stick.
• 1 seed pod of a star annise.
• A smidgin of nutmeg.
• 10 raisins.

I added water to the 1.13 litre mark... at the jars shoulder, then put a cap on it and shook shit outa it.

Once cooled to room temp I added ⅓ of a sachet of Tandaco Dry Yeast to each jar, gave it a swirl, covered it with Glad Wrap and a rubber band and shoved it in a kitchen cupboard.

Because I don't have bungs/corks I used Glad Wrap... I need to put a pin hole on the Gald Wrap no doubt?

 

[Danwood]

No pin hole needed, an elastic band around the neck will let the CO2 escape, so long as it's not super tight

 

[pt49]

Cool... next day and it's frothing beautifully. Now the wait!

 

[Zippidity]

So I got inspired by this recipe and wound up putting down two JAO batches 4 days ago, using different kinds of honey.

I'm worried about two things:

I'm in Melbourne and the ambient temp is around 15 - 16 degrees. Will it still ferment okay? Should I be deploying a heat belt?

I used bread yeast but the only stuff I could find was Fermex bread yeast. Have I totally blown it?

 

[DarkFaerytale]

no, you worry to much, actually i think i'm using the fermex brand in my one at the moment as well, it's all the shop had. it might not be the same as the original recipe but i bet it still makes a pretty tasty mead.

i tried to look up a few websites on the yeast but found nothing on temperature, unless your in a rush, i would not stress to much. just rouse the yeast every couple of weeks if you see no action

 

[kahlerisms]

I'm about two months into primary on my first JAO. About ten days ago it suddenly cleared up. Waiting for the fruit to drop now and then I'll bottle.

 

[AyeBee]

Bottled and tasted mine for the first time today, I used Orange Blossom honey. Looks great in a wine glass, tasted great at 2.5 months old. Sure to be fantastic with same age on it.

I'm a mead convert!

 

[of mice and gods]

haven't seen any action in the airlock for a couple of weeks now (currently been in primary for 37 days) so i thought I'd do a gravity & taste test. OG was 1145, current gravity is 1065. It's brutally sweet and citrus-y.. will check again in another month or two.. hoping it attenuates out a bit more to reduce the sweetness and mellow the citrus out a bit.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

haven't seen any action in the airlock for a couple of weeks now (currently been in primary for 37 days) so i thought I'd do a gravity & taste test. OG was 1145, current gravity is 1065. It's brutally sweet and citrus-y.. will check again in another month or two.. hoping it attenuates out a bit more to reduce the sweetness and mellow the citrus out a bit.

I've had one lot that ended about there. I made some non-conclusive musings on the cause a few pages back: http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/32762-jao-the-ultimate-beginners-mead-recipe/?p=978015

Hope yours drop somewhere...

 

[Blazar]

[SIZE=medium]Hi All,[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]This thread is awesome, and I’ve not yet had the privilege of trying mead before so I’m embarking on a journey to a batch of this down in the coming weeks. I do have what could be a stupid newbie question but I have to ask:[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Does it matter what type of honey is used? I’m guessing that different varieties will result in different end products (much like different malts play a part in the character of a beer). I’m close to a number of local honey producers but am quite confused by which variety to choose:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Stringy Bark[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Iron Bark[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Grey Gum[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Scribbly Gum[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Blue Gum[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Yellow & Red Bloodwood[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Turpentine Tree & Tea Trees[/SIZE]

 

[evildrakey]

I usually avoid anything with too much of a Eucalyptus taste. I'm super-sensitive to the taste in the mead afterwards.

 

[surly]

Just bottled mine, looks pretty good. Will have a sneaky taste this evening because I can