Jao The Ultimate Beginners Mead Recipe

[davewaldo]

It might be finished, I would say that it probably is finished if its so clear. The bubbles could just be coming out of solution due to the warming weather. But its hard to know for sure, I usually age my meads for at least 6 months anyways so its not normally an issue.

If you have another demi you could rack into this and age for a little longer. Or, when you are confident its finished fermenting you could bottle direct from the primary demi.

Either way is sounds like you should have mead ready for Christmas! YAY!

 

[davewaldo]

And speaking of Christmas Mead....

I'm currently fermenting a hi-tech JAO. I only started it 2 weeks ago, and I'm trying to have it ready for Christmas (I know, dreaming right...).

So anyways, I've used US05 yeast with staggered nutrient additions and aeration up the 1/3 sugar break. So basically I'm breaking all the rules and not keeping it simple as JAO is meant to be. But there was no way a traditional JAO would be ready for Christmas.

At the moment its just finishing a really nice quick and healthy ferment. Maybe a day or two to go, then I'm going to crash chill it to drop everything and then rack to secondary to finish off and get a little ageing and clearing berfore Christmas.

I doubt it will be ready, but it should be close I hope. Its tasting great so far

 

[watchUburn]

wow, that's really.... red

 

[davewaldo]

Yeah, I think thats just the dodgy colour from my camera on my phone. Its really just a golden yeasty colour.

 

[watchUburn]

Looks like one of those photos taken in black and white then coloured in later...

 

[upsidefront]

Well at long last I bottled my JAO. Put it down early June and waited and waited and ............
Man this stuff is real good!!! :beer:
A new problem has arrived: There is just no way that my next batch will be ready for bottling BEFORE this batch has been dispatched :lol:
It is smooth, flavoursome and not hot at all!!
The sweetness is just right, no bitterness, all's well!!!!

I LOVE MEAD!!!!! :wub:

 

[pdilley]

Sweet news of a sweet reward of a very VERY NOICE recipe!

Now you can see how you can win Mead competitions with this, and you can smile when the old guys screw up their noses when you mention the yeast but now you know what they will be missing out on

Man this stuff is real good!!!
A new problem has arrived: There is just no way that my next batch will be ready for bottling BEFORE this batch has been dispatched

Now you know why I have the recipe scaled up in size just for this moment when the first time JAO brewers realise just how damn noice this mead really is:
Take a look at 25 Litre Batch of JAO Mead Recipe

If you need a custom sized batch recipe for your specific fermenter let me know and I will formulate a JAO just for your gear.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[amiddler]

When bottling a Mead do you need to add and carbonating sugar? I would guess that you don't but still unsure. After reading some of this thread I will look into doing a Mead in the future. What type of honey is everyones favourite to use? Luckily Gero has started a farmers market with local honey so getting fresh honey will be easy.

Drew

 

[Tim F]

Wow, I found this thread at just the right time A friend from a lab just gave me a 10L glass bottle yesterday and I think this will be the first thing I make in it. Should be lovely by Xmas!

 

[pdilley]

When bottling a Mead do you need to add and carbonating sugar? I would guess that you don't but still unsure. After reading some of this thread I will look into doing a Mead in the future. What type of honey is everyones favourite to use? Luckily Gero has started a farmers market with local honey so getting fresh honey will be easy.

A lot of Meads including JAO get bottled still, just like a wine. As you progress through different styles and recipes you will get a chance to do some carbonated. For now just find a nice bottle small enough that you could knock it off when opened like a wine before the Mead starts to oxidise and you will be fine.

Farmers market fresh sounds good. Variation in quality is still present as its hobbyists and backyard beeks making the honey and each individual is well .. individual when it comes to treatment (heat, purity, adulteration aka feeding tons of sugar and water syrup which ends up in the honey instead of nectar). But a good way to test including with any honey variety that no one posts any experience with is to just take some of the honey and dilute it in a glass with water, say 2 1/2 or 3 to one ratio to dilute the honey down. Taste it and see if you like the taste, it will be sweeter as no yeast have eaten the sugars but you have the initial and lingering tastes in the mouth to judge.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[pdilley]

Wow, I found this thread at just the right time A friend from a lab just gave me a 10L glass bottle yesterday and I think this will be the first thing I make in it. Should be lovely by Xmas!

It would be pushing it to make a deadline like XMAS if starting now. Better to let the Mead take its course and finish when its ready. The only way I can see it happening if you let temperatures go high and ferment it out quickly which will get you there quick and also ruin the flavour. So best just control the temperatures and let it sit and do its thing and wait it out.

Starting now means hot weather so temp control will become all the more serious and necessary.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[shonks69]

Thanks Brewer Pete

I've never made mead before but i'm gonna give it a go.
I was thinking about adding a couple of chillies to the recipe, do you see any problems with this?

Cheers
Shonks :icon_cheers:

 

[pdilley]

shonks69,

I see no issues if you like chillies to want to modify the recipe BUT you have to follow the cardinal rule.

You must make the recipe exactly as formulated first or concurrently at the same time as any modified recipe so you have a proper baseline to compare your modifications of the recipe to and also to give the original recipe a chance to impress you with its balance of all ingredients as an example of how to take your mead making to a craftbrewing level.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[lokgnar]

BOTTLE TIME!!!!!!! fruit has setlled to the bottom for the 2 days been cystal clear for the last week and a half the s filter has no pressure so takin that yeast have done there job have me bottles ready go time hope this lot is a lot better then last 1 i made must admit looks a lot better

 

[pdilley]

Congratulations lokgnar!, I'm eager to see you get it bottled . Smaller bottles if only you are drinking so you have a chance to knock it off before it oxidises after opening the bottle and after you are done a little sample of the left over mead is in order.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[lokgnar]

bottling went well taste isnt the gods nectar yet is has a little bitterness to it is there something i could put in the bottles while there in fridge i know when you bottle beer you put a well it looks like barley sugar but cant seem to find them atm so will that work or is there another way?

 

[pdilley]

lokgnar,

Maybe we should start to look at a water report for your local supply and see if we can find anything effecting you. If so it will effect all your brewing and you'll need to adjust. With regard to bottling lollies, what would you be trying to achieve?

I have the bee meeting tomorrow night but will have time after work on Friday to look into the report.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[lokgnar]

report like from dpi? or something that can get from the council if i ask and thought the sugar things to add sweetness to over come the slight bitterness that doesnt quite make the taste quite right it is drinkable not like last time but not quite right

lokgnar,

Maybe we should start to look at a water report for your local supply and see if we can find anything effecting you. If so it will effect all your brewing and you'll need to adjust. With regard to bottling lollies, what would you be trying to achieve?

I have the bee meeting tomorrow night but will have time after work on Friday to look into the report.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[pdilley]

lokgnar,

With brewing when a recipe produces consistent results, even if they are bad and the same recipe produces expected results for other brewers you look at geographical separation and factors that are outside the normal control of brewers in different locations, water being one of the good ones to look at. Water composition can have a lot of different effects so that was the first thing that came to mind when you said you had the same bitterness. Your water may be pulling or enhancing the bitterness drawing out of the oranges.

Another avenue to consider is people have different taste genes. Some people are hyper sensitive to certain flavours that others find normal or can not taste at all very well. Diacetyl is one example, if you are hyper sensitive to diacetyl even the tiniest drop into a full glass could ruin the whole drink for you where others can have drop after drop and not notice anything wrong. For others they are hypersensitive to hops, etc. So even the smallest amount of hops that another person would have difficulty tasting or wanting more of could to the sensitive person seem like too much and be the dominating flavour that comes through for them.

We know the recipe works for other people as written so we need to examine what is unique or specific about your location, and your brewing technique and handling that could account for your perceived differences in the resulting JAO. If it is an environmental like the water it is something that could be corrected. If it is a sensitivity you have then the recipe could be adjusted to say all fruit but only 1/4 worth of the orange fruit with skin on with all the rest being just the orange fruit itself without skins.

Anyway, back from beekeeper meeting so really out of energy so we can keep working on it

EDIT: forgot to finish my sentence, what I was going to say was if we find you are consistent with your brewing of this astringency or bitterness then it would also hint towards another common ingredient, say the water profile that is different to the areas where brewers are having success with the recipe.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[lokgnar]

righto i may have gone a little hay wire when i said it had the bitterness as b4. there is a slight bitterness to it (nothin like last batch were it felt like you were drinkin a warm beer and then times it by a thousand i really hate the taste of beer, again to bitter usally a rum drinker so if that means anything i dont no) but i placed my bottles in the fridge and it has helped with taste its more of an after taste of bitter so while drinkin tastes good . i have a feelin it may have been the heat that has made my yeast a bit more active towards the end (last 3-4 weeks of brewing) i live in SE Queensland o pretty warm even in the bottom of linen cubboard were its the coolest part of my house. Anyway well past my bed time been work in my shop gettin ready for our friday the 13th massive sale upto 60% off if anybody is near boonah queensland come and see looks great anyway enough sellin shop if this little bit of info helps you help me that would be tops.

Thanks pete

Shawn

 

[shonks69]

shonks69,

I see no issues if you like chillies to want to modify the recipe BUT you have to follow the cardinal rule.

You must make the recipe exactly as formulated first or concurrently at the same time as any modified recipe so you have a proper baseline to compare your modifications of the recipe to and also to give the original recipe a chance to impress you with its balance of all ingredients as an example of how to take your mead making to a craftbrewing level.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

Thanks Pete

I just put the modified chilli recipe down tonight (as per recipe with pinch of nutmeg & allspice, 1 clove & 4 Thai hot chillies). I will put down your original recipe this weekend to create a benchmark.
with respect to bottling, can the bottle be resealed after opening or does it hat to be consumed once open.

I will keep you posted on the Chilli recipe

Cheers
Shonks :icon_cheers:

 

[pdilley]

Shawn,

I don't drink Rum, or I should say, never straight and have not for about 20 years it was always mixed into something else when I did. I'm not sure what a Rum bitter flavour tastes like as there was lots of things in it that I didn't agree with taste wise when I did have a sip straight from the bottle :lol:

As you say in SE Qld, your temperatures in the cupboard is not controlled so you may have gotten some fusel bite added at the end. Its hard to describe in words I know so without being able to taste first hand we just rely on general words like bitter

Sounds like getting an old fridge free from the paper or work mates and wiring up a TempMate temperature controller and plugging the fridge power cord into it will take anyone in SE Qld to a massive increase in quality of brewing anything be it beer or mead as you can brew at the same temperatures that someone in say Melbourne could and still enjoy a sub-tropical weather life.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[pdilley]

I will keep you posted on the Chilli recipe

Cheers
Shonks :icon_cheers:

Cheers for that, with all things chillies in recipes you are after the flavour the particular variety of chilli can impart and not after any heat that they could add. A gentle warming is usually plenty enough.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[shonks69]

Hi Pete

I have just realised raisins and sultanas are diffrent, I used 25 sultanas in the recipe. Should I add 12 raisins to the recipe?

The mead is 3 days into the fermentation, about a 5-10mm layer of foam on the surface of the brew but no airlock activity. is this normal?

Cheers
Shonks :icon_cheers:

 

[lokgnar]

thanks pete

i am at the moment keepin an eye out for a fridge so i can have control on the temps. I usally dont drink rum straight from the bottle not 2 well in the night when i have run out of coke and my taste buds have died for the night to notice how bad rum is straight . i have a feelin it maybe just the oranges could have been a bit sour from not enough water etc. because the taste is not over powering that i can not enjoy it that and the last few weeks i have been buying my mead so am more then likely used to that taste, were ours are made from oranges an honey. Well im though half a 700ml bottle at the moment and i dont mind the taste it is growing on me i could be just being a baby and should man up. thanks again for your input and once i find that fridge and cimate controll i shall be makin a new batch ill kepp you all posted.

thanks again
Shawn

 

[shonks69]

Hi All

6 days into fermentation still no airlock activity & minimal amount of foam in surface of brew. There are a small amount miniature bubbles rising to surface in different areas of the brew.
Should I be worried about this or is this normal as I am used to a vigorous fermentation when brewing beers?

Cheers
Shonks :unsure:

 

[pdilley]

Nothing to worry about mate. It is nutritionally devoid compared to beer wort. You will get vigorous fermentation and high krausen when you start to do more advanced Meads where you add nutritrients (SNA) to make it resemble beer wort to the yeast.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[shonks69]

Cheers Pete :icon_cheers:

 

[BjornJ]

I put one of these in the cupboard in a 5 litre water jug a couple of months ago.

Had another look yesterday, it is clear and the fruit has fallen to the bottom.
The exception are the raisins who have blown out to be greenish colored balloons, floating on the top with a little bit of foam.
Everything else is covered in a thick layer of ...silt..? on the bottom.

Chucked it in the fridge last night, will try to get it bottled over the next couple of days.
Didn't smell all that nice, to be honest but will not judge before having a proper taste!

As there is no carbonation happening during bottling, I assume the finished product will taste like the sip I will have during bottling?

Is there any maturation involved here?

thanks again BrewerPeter for nurturing yet another novice mead brewer through the first try

thanks
Bjorn

 

[pdilley]

Bjorn,

Actually it should smell nice. I use my nose as a guide so a non nice smell is an indicator. Also sun dried raisins are those little black shrivelled fruit without sulphur or any colour preservatives. When they are spent they should be swollen so that is fine.

With JAO the smell should be sweet and alluring hinting of oranges and spices to entice the drinker to have a sip where the flavour come in and just amplify the initial hints of flavoirs from the smelling ten fold and just bring on a nice mead smile.

Bad smelling just is not something I would associate with a successful JAO.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete