Jao The Ultimate Beginners Mead Recipe

[watchUburn]

If watchUburn's 'JAOtake2' turns out alright I'll definitely be considering this drastic course.

 

[Verbyla]

I still haven't tried mine but it just cleared up over the last few days. I was extremely surprised how it went from being that milky orange to crystal clear in what feels like overnight. I used red gum honey and don't think i had any of that suspended protein. Can't wait to try it!!!

 

[pdilley]

If you stick to the recipe and it comes out you are in for a nice surprise. You will understand why someone has gone off and brewed over 200 litre batch of JAO and was contemplating a 400+ litre batch brew

Clearing Meads are lovely how they just sneak up on you. Shows you how you're not really needed Yeast has survived millennia without brewers present so we need to just make them as perfect as a home as possible to grow inside of and leave them to their devices.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[Verbyla]

Ok so i just looked at my JAO and there is a few white dots of bacteria growing at the top of the jar. The fruit hasn't dropped but its been sitting in there for 4 weeks.

Do i transfer to another container now or do i let it sit until the fruit has dropped and had time to properly soak?

 

[watchUburn]

4 weeks? its barely had time to get its feet wet. Mine's been in for 6 weeks now and the fruit's still floating. I think once the fruit drops, then its ready to bottle / consume

 

[Verbyla]

The main reason i was asking was due to the bacteria.

Any need for concern or should i just leave it?

 

[watchUburn]

I don't think so. Mine has a healthy colony of bread yeast that got stranded there when I pitched it. Just have to be careful when siphoning it out. I reckon we better avoid pouring it

 

[pdilley]

Four weeks is very quick for a fermentation. JAO was a 2 1/2 month fermentation and nearly 3 month fruit drop for me in uncontrolled temperatures on the colder end of the brewing spectrum.

White spots. If this is your first time fermenting in glass fermenters or anything that is not plastic that prevents you from seeing inside then a lot of times you will consider normal yeast and fermentation activity to be contaminations. It is fairly common to have some yeast trapped on the surface and stuck to the sides of the ferment during and immediately after fermentation. Do not be alarmed.

White is also the colour associated with yeast. If you have seen krausen before you will see it throw up white foam and then browning occurs as the krausen dissipates. Edit: You will even see clumps of yeast floating around fermentations be they meads or beers if you start to do your work with all glass fermenters.

If you have something going fuzzy and growing a new coat, or tendrils running down into the mead and looking like a monster trying to crawl out of the fermenter then you would want to worry. But small white spots on its own during fermentation is not a worry.

Also start to use your nose and sniff for vinegar or bad odours in the gas coming out of the airlock to use as a tip off that something is moving off the normal fermentation expectation.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[Verbyla]

Thanks for the advice guys.

It's the first time i've ever used glass as a primary fermenter so i guess you nailed it on the head brewer pete!

 

[3GumsBrewing]

Quick question - what do you guys bottle the JAO in? Mine mead is nice and clear, all the fruit has dropped to the bottom thought i might bottle it this weekend.
Not to sure 750ml or Grolsch bottles really suit.
Thought I might have a few 330ml lying around but they are screw tops, never had to bottle with screwys, will they age ok?

Cheers
DK

 

[pdilley]

DK,

JAO is a young drinking mead and as you notice with hops over time in beers diminishing in aroma and flavour, the same with spices as with JAO. While aging helps with any fast fermented or very young mead mellow out any hot fusel alcohol, the spices will taper off and mellow as well. The balance of JAO spices will peak at or around the six month mark and slowly taper off from there.

So your choice of bottling will be influenced by this and by how much you want in a single bottle. At four times beer strength you won't be wanting to drink a whole 750ml in one session nor would you with a spiced mead like this which is more easily taken in moderation. There are no hops so your choice in bottle is wide open in colours, shapes, seals. If giving JAO as gifts then you can fancy it up in a nice wine bottles with labels but for own use beer bottles are fine. Because you will open and close a container often if only having small amounts then you might want to go with twist tops, grolsch or even PET would be an option as it's not a long aged mead. I use twist top bottles when walking around letting lots of people sample JAO in larger groups.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[watchUburn]

My JAO has gone almost crystal clear, just waiting for that darned fruit to drop and I'll be bottling mine too.

 

[BjornJ]

Just put down my first mead ever!

Followed the recipe to the dot, with 25 (counted) ,the medium-sized Navel orange in 8 parts, 1.6 kg of honey, a cinnamon stick and a single clove, plus a teaspoon of dry bakers yeast.

I don't have a demijon so I just bought a 5 litre water container of Neverfail, used the water for the mead and the container as the fermenter.

Can't wait to see how this turns out!



thanks
Bjorn

 

[pdilley]

Ahh, 1st Taste of Well Made Mead



Making First Time Drinkers Happy since time immemorial!



It even makes reused water containers happy to be brewing it!




Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[pdilley]

Another day and another chance for JAO to impress. A bottle taken to James' birthday celebration went down well with everyone and even got one mate whom James had been working on getting into brewing unsuccessfuly to get up and say he's going to start brewing and start brewing JAO Mead. Even Steve got his first tasting of the mythical JAO

Love days like this and sharing JAO and spreading the love of good Mead!

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[Steve]

Another day and another chance for JAO to impress. A bottle taken to James' birthday celebration went down well with everyone and even got one mate whom James had been working on getting into brewing unsuccessfuly to get up and say he's going to start brewing and start brewing JAO Mead. Even Steve got his first tasting of the mythical JAO

Love days like this and sharing JAO and spreading the love of good Mead!

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

Thanks for sharing! Will be reading this thread from the start now.....and then one will be going into a fermenter!
Cheers
Steve

 

[3GumsBrewing]

Bottled my first JAO yesterday, I found a cache of 5 clear port bottles that all had less than 50ml in each, drank all that, cleaned the bottles and the in went the mead. Only then did I allow a taste and .... bloody hell it is the gods nectar. Very very tasty and sweet, I am really pleased how it turned out.

Going to put another one down this weekend.

Cheers
DK

 

[pdilley]

Steve I do believe we have another fellow Viking Mead Drinker welcomed into the hallowed halls

Way to go DK!

Now you know what all the fuss is about in a big way!

hehe and now you will not listen when anyone tells you the dirty on bread yeast!


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[pdilley]

Install water airlock. Put in dark place. It will start working immediately or in an hour. (Don't use grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away in the 90's -- use the fresh stuff) (Wait 3 hours before you panic or call me) After major foaming stops in a few days add some water and then keep your hands off of it. (Don't shake it! Don't mess with them yeastees! Leave them alone except its okay to open your cabinet to inhale deeply the smell every once in a while.)

love hindsight

"After major foaming stops in a few days add some water if needed if you lost liquid from any foam spewing out your airlock and dropping your liquid level below 3.8 litres ..." is what I was thinking while writing.. Must have not finished typing before brain got onto next sentence...

Just in case that one line ever confused anyone


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[BjornJ]

My mead just sits quietly in the cupboard and ferments without any foam or krausen or anything?
It is definetly fermenting, it smells of yeast and there is a bit of foam around the floating fruit, but nothing like a beer.
is this normal?
(or did I just go "why is my airlock not bubbling??? Hope Butters don't see this)

Bjorn

 

[pdilley]

No vigorous foaming is expected. Its a safety disclaimer Even my Mead Calc is set to calculate decent sized safety head space into most recipes calculated that should not be filled or lead to blow over of yeast krausen except in very rare cases.

When you start doing nutrient additions and making the honey must look like beer wort to the yeast then you'll see some decently thick and high krausen on Meads. This is when the Mead Calc will be rather spot on with head space and you'll really start to appreciate it.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[lokgnar]

wowhoo 2nd atempt lookin good has gone a clear beutiful amber (not like last time) and just waiting for fruit to drop i hope it does b4 weekend leaving my truck job to work in my pet shop that my wife has been running for the last 2.5 years it would be a nice leaveing a great job prezzy

 

[watchUburn]

My fruit won't drop! grrrr

 

[pdilley]

I bet you are glad that this is a very quick Mead

...but oh so worth the wait as DK has found out. He's in heaven!!

It is good training wheels for developing the patience required for traditional Meads where you have years to wait!

At least you can get a lot of JAOs in while waiting for the others to age out properly.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[3GumsBrewing]

Yep total heaven! Really is a top drop.
I have another one in the carboy at the moment with a few tweaks.

By the way BP, what BJCP category would the JAO fit into?
I was thinking the 26C. Open Category Mead because it "combines ingredients from two or more of the other mead sub-categories"

What do you think?

DK

 

[pdilley]

Its a Melomel Mead and a Metheglin Mead and a Sack Mead.

So its a Sack-o-Meth-o-Mel?

It could fit into 26A if you argue the orange peel is for spice, but then what about the orange fruit, or the raisins? so 26C seems the best bet.

They need a new category of Mead for Bloody Beautiful! :lol:

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[upsidefront]

Please Help!!!!!!!!!

PB or anybody!!!

Put my first JAO down on 9th of June. Two weeks ago the fruit starts dropping( very very slowly), dropping continued till only One slice of orange left floating. Everything else, and I mean everything else, including the cinnamon dropped. Had a look today and what have we here?? All the orange slices are floating again!!!!!! WTF!!!!!!! :angry: The cinnamon and all else stayed at the bottom just not the oranges.

What is going on???? Will my JAO work or am I going to have to tip it all out?

 

[pdilley]

You are fine. As any CO2 bubbles come out of the yeast they can collect on fallen fruit and re-float them. If you are eager you can call it done if clear and the fruit fell.

Bottle in the size that's suits you and you can knock off like with a wine after opening a bottle before it oxidises and you'll be set. It's slower to oxidise than most wine but if you don't knock it off then use it for your cooking.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[davewaldo]

I'm sure it will be fine, mead really does take patience, and your's seems to want to reinforce that fact

I would say its best just to wait longer. All sorts of things can make the fruit rise again, anything from CO2 bubbles to the change in atmospheric pressure.

Although, if you REALLY wanted to, you could probably rack off the fruit at this stage, however this is against the ethos of a JAO.

Is it looking really clear yet? Clear enough to read newspaper through the carboy? If not then you need to wait longer anyways... floating fruit or not.

But Pete is the JAO expert here, so he may have better answers from experience.

edit: BP beat me to it

 

[upsidefront]

Thanks PB and davewaldo.

Gee you guys sure are clever!! On closer examination, saw lots and lots of very small bubbles on the oranges. The newspaper trick revealed that it sure is clear could read the whole sport section through the demi!! :lol:

This all begs the question: If the yeast is still releasing co2, to float the oranges, is the fermentation done? I would think not as this seems to indicate yeast activity.