Jao The Ultimate Beginners Mead Recipe

[pdilley]

Thats another good a avenue to explore as oranges can set jelly without additional pectin when boiled. This is a no boil recipe to have set a pectin gel, although we do have the low pH after fermentation and sugars before fermentation that pectin gel likes.. I'll do a pectin test and grab some liquid pectinase next LBHS trip if its positive.

Cheers,
Brewe Pete


EDIT: Photographs


Sample is set up. We will see what precipitates in the test.

Heres some photographs that show why I'm not thinking I will get much from the test:

Mead 1


This mead one has no fruit, no spice, stock standard Mead.
It uses a different yeast and the only thing it shares with JAO is not only Stringy Bark honey but the exact same batch of Stringy Bark honey from the farm.


Mead 2


This mead also has no fruit, no spice and a different yeast.
Again, the only thing it shares with JAO is not only Stringy Bark honey but the exact same batch of Stringy Bark honey from the farm.


I trusted the source enough not to do a honey adulteration test and I'm not about to jump up and say they have been adulterating. But I should have done an iodine test for starch based honey adulteration just to clear my mind and the slate.

Both Meads are going to go through extended ageing so that will also give me clues as they age and precipitate as to what has happened with the last batch of JAOs. It will require a bit of patience but it will be worth it.

I've never had a JAO go cloudy as that before so I'm still thinking proteins in suspension instead of saccharides.

I do have another variety of honey from the farm I can do an Iodine test on but thats not a good control as its a completely different processing batch and variety of honey. Unfortunately my original batch of Stringy Bark from the farm is completely used up.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[pdilley]

ok it was over bitter,i used a large naval ornage which i believe is the start of me problem and i went against ur 1st rule (cause i was goin by a home brew shop at the time) and bought a sn9 yeast suppose to be a sweet wine/mead yeast so it says on packet temps were pretty good though colder months because i oun a pet shop i had a heat mat there so i dont believe me heatin is a problem it many have got to the higher 20's on 1 or 2 days but that was toward the end im in queensland bout 1/2 from ipswich, an 11/2 from brisbane so when i start again this weekend the temp will be perfect for away cause its startin to warm up to around the 24C

thanks
shawn

Ah shawn there we go.

First one. Using a different yeast. (Do not worry I also ended up in a similar brew shop and was "sold the goods" on SN9 and bought one just that I left mine sitting on the shelf). Here is why:

SN9 is an 18% ABV yeast. It is more like using champagne yeast than what the recipe calls for.

The bread yeast is closer to a 12% ABV yeast. It will leave the residual sugars that give the balance to the bitterness the orange gives the recipe.



Second one, orange, we now are not sure if you orange was over bittering as the final residual sugar balance was eaten up by the SN9 yeast substitution.

However, you did add in honey and said you did not find you could get it balanced.

Honey is a bit expensive and a waste to have you keep adding and use a hydro until you hit above 1.030's if you have an over bitter state.



The temperatures sound like you were spot on. Just that you will have to give up all faith and close your eyes and go with the bread yeast if you want this recipe to work.


If you want to use another yeast I can recalculate all the additional honey you will have to put in to get the same finish level of sweetness but you will have something different than JAO as you will have a higher proof. And 18% ABV yeasts will leave higher alcohols that will require a year to age out of your Mead so you will not be drinking it sooner but much later.


Give it a go if your temperatures are in the range and this time close your eyes and pour in a packet of bread yeast.



Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[pdilley]

Nothing has changed haze wise nor any precipitation so far from the Pectin test sample.


As promised, here is a photo of the super simple Mead bottling solution.


A standard bottling wand (spring activated tip) from the LHBS and a length of tubing that goes around it from the LHBS.

To use, simply fill with water during your rinse.

Holding the spring side lower than the open end of the hose, dunk it down into your 5L Demijohn until it is sitting on top of the fruit and at least just above the yeast layer.


Then using the second piece of gear a spare container (bowl, or as I use glass bottom of a coffee plunger) You press the spring loaded tip against the bottom of the container.

Water flows out into the container and pulls JAO mead into the tube. You can see the air gap where the pick up starts and once thats clear you will also smell a strong aroma of lovely mead.

Stop pressing down on the tip.


Lift the tip out of the container and place it into a ready and waiting bottle (I line all mine up next to each other for a production run) and press it down against the bottom of the bottle.

The bottle fills up to the top.

Stop pressing down and lift out. The fluid level will fall a few centimetres as the bulk of the wand is removed from the bottle so fill them all the way to the top before removing the wand.

Add the cap (bench capper or screw on cap depending on your bottle -- or cork if you have a wine setup.)


Done!


Lots of lovely Mead ready to be drunk. Hopefully not all at once over the first weekend!


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[watchUburn]

My second JAO attempt was with an orange that had a much thinner pith. I found with the navel (naval? I dunno) orange I couldn't actually fit the recommended number of slices into the demi-john. I had to slice them smaller just to fit.
I just checked the fridge and the fruit is still floating So the wait goes on...

Thanks for posting how you siphon your mead Pete. I've been a little concerned about this mead. It looks like there's a mouldy yeast colony up in the neck of the container. Probably stranded when I poured the yeast in. I really didn't want to have pour the mead out through the neck and run it over that stuff.

 

[pdilley]

Sounds like yeah, a wet demijohn from pouring all the water and honey in and then dry pitch of yeast stuck to the neck area on a wet spot. Don't stress it too much at this point. It looks a lot nastier when you see the left overs after you bottle your JAO

I'll start to run a table of results showing successful JAOs made from listening to experts who say to change the yeast to something else or change something else in the recipe to something else and then side-by-side show many successful JAOs made from following the instructions as written and using the bread yeast. Hopefully as time progresses those results should be enlightening to all future beginners.

With the number of slices of orange, yeah you need to follow that to the letter of the recipe. If it doesn't fit you smush them in juicing them as it goes and losing some girth from swollen orange juice holding cells bursting open and just keep pushing them through until they fall through and go plop! . No one will grade you for your orange slice pushing-it-in-the-jar technique and you will stuff it up if you decide to deviate from the recipe and slice them down again.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[watchUburn]

Attempt 2 is 'by the book'.

 

[pdilley]

Attempt 2 is 'by the book'.

Good now I have a decent reason to be anxious too

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[lokgnar]

im didoing watchUburn aswell following to the letter this time and i have the bread yeast, im still with the naval ornage but a least half the size as the last 1

 

[pdilley]

Hands raw and red from sewing chicken wire on my chicken coop outside but came in to change the battery on the drill.

I think I will need to change the recipe to say MEDIUM orange instead of LARGE orange. People here seem to be going for the GIGANTIC oranges on the shelf

Safer that way

Other than that the recipe stands.

I gave away some JAO today to someone going overseas to Argentina on holidays.

They smelled and tasted and thought it was one of the most amazing things they have had.

So there is a great reward for doing it right waiting for you!


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[pdilley]

Looks like JAO will be on call for PeteOz77's Birthday in Canberra.

It also looks like the JAO is running out FAST!!!


Time to start thinking about designing a
25 Litre JAO Recipe!

Ok one minor change to the original recipe, when I say large orange, some people are thinking the incredibly large sized oranges Or luck out and get oranges that have not been watered very well by farmers and are all thick pith and very little juicy fruit inside.

I took a look at oranges at the local supermarket and the imported blood orange or pre-bagged stock standard oranges seemed the size I would use. I looked at the individual pick your own oranges for sale like the Aussie Navels and they were huge!

From now on it is Medium Orange! Thin Pith/Skin section in the JAO recipes.


For a 30 Litre Demijohn (or fermenter you have handy)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

10.56 kilograms honey (never boiled or lose the taste and aromas) (should be close to 7.4 Litres of the liquid gold)
6 1/2 medium sized oranges, pick the ones without thick skin/pith (at most cut them into fifty-two pieces and no more! -- rind and all)
6 1/2 small handfuls of raisins (162 of the little buggars if you feel like counting)
6 1/2 sticks of cinnamon (its brown, its wood, its good)
6 whole cloves (or less if you have fresh high potency cloves in your packet)
optional (6 finger pinches of nutmeg and allspice )( very small mind you )
2 Tablespoons of bread yeast (now don't get holy on me about bread yeast -- if you change the yeast we can add your batch to the failed JAO listing)
Balance water to bring batch out to 25 Litres (You should be very close to 17.6 Litres of water added)

Process:

Use a clean 30 litre fermenter.

Dissolve honey in some warm water and put in fermenter.

Wash oranges very well to remove any pesticides and slice each orange into eights until you have 52 slices of orange. Since we are using a large fermenter this time, all the oranges should easily toss right in.

Put in raisins, clove, cinnamon stick (I crush mine first with a rolling pin or by putting them in a plastic baggie then a hammer), any optional ingredients and fill demijohn with water until it reaches the 25 litres mark with cold water (need some room for some foam -- you can top off with more water after the first few days foaming frenzy). (You did remember to pour in a measured 25 litres and mark off the level on the outside of the glass demijohn if your fermenter does not already have liquid levels marked on it?)

Oxygenate before pitching in the yeast using your favourite method.

When liquid is at room temperature, put in 2 Tablespoons of bread yeast (no you don't have to rehydrate it first -- the ancients did not even have that word in their vocabulary -- just put it in and give it a gentle swirl or not)(The yeast can fight for their own territory)

Install your airlock or cling film method of choice. Remember this is a multi-month fermentation so choose your method accordingly.

Brew between 18C to 22C. Now that we have a decent amount of honey money on the line its time to get serious with this sized batch and get it fermenting perfectly "in the Zone".

If you do not have a dedicated brew fridge you can allocate for a few months then do what I do and run them indoors with an immersed fish tank heater that is either properly calibrated with an external thermometer until it constantly holds a temperature of a test batch of water between 18C to 22C and just let it sit in a nice dark spot out of the way for a few months. Best do this before summer hits. If temperatures inside the house go over 25C and are climbing higher each day then you need to buckle down and put the 30 Litre fermenter of JAO in the brew fridge for the last portion of the fermentation.


EDIT: Brewer Pete's Mead Recipe Creator Program's calculated figures:

Honey Needed: 10.56 kilograms
Honey Needed: 7.41 litres
Water Needed: 17.59 litres
Total Volume: 25.00 litres
Fermenter Size: 30 litres
Starting Gravity: 1.126


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[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