Jao The Ultimate Beginners Mead Recipe

[BjornJ]

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

Brewer Pete,
this is my first ever try at mead, so not sure about how this smells and tastes compared to what it should taste and smell, sorry

I ended up with 8 x 330 ml glass bottles plus half a bottle I had a taste from.
Then put it back in the fridge for a couple of hours and tried it again now.
Still that strong, warm ..fortified wine (?) taste.
A clear hint of oranges and honey.

No idea what mead is supposed to smell, this smells like a sour(?) honey wine or something similar.

Then again I don't like any wine, found them sour so mead might not be my strongpoint!

Was fun making it though, will keep them in the cupboard and bring out when the discussion somehow end up on mead

 

[barls]

bring a bottle along to the next isb meeting for tasting bjorn and ill swap you a bottle of one of my meads a replacement.

 

[BjornJ]

bring a bottle along to the next isb meeting for tasting bjorn and ill swap you a bottle of one of my meads a replacement.

great, I'll take you up on that one!

Bjorn

 

[barls]

not a problem, which one do you want?
a plain mead
rasperry cyser (honey apple wine)
blackberry cyser
blueberry mead

 

[BjornJ]

plain mead, please.
To see how it is supposed to taste, and if I like it then

Any ISB meetings before christmas?

Thanks
Bjorn

 

[barls]

not that i know of at this stage but should be one in jan??

 

[Synthetase]

Hey Brewer Pete, I found this thread the other week and thought JAO looks like a tasty recipe so I put one down. It smells great and my only regret is that I didn't find it a few months ago so I'd have some ready for new years!



The one on the right is a blueberry/apple melomel and the one behind that is nectarine.

 

[Verbyla]

Hey Brewer Pete, I found this thread the other week and thought JAO looks like a tasty recipe so I put one down. It smells great and my only regret is that I didn't find it a few months ago so I'd have some ready for new years!

View attachment 33913

The one on the right is a blueberry/apple melomel and the one behind that is nectarine.

What were the recipies that you used?

 

[pdilley]

Hey Brewer Pete, I found this thread the other week and thought JAO looks like a tasty recipe so I put one down. It smells great and my only regret is that I didn't find it a few months ago so I'd have some ready for new years!

All good Meads come to those who wait

Nectarine is hidden deep in the shadows but would be interested in sharing recipes in the forum. The more Mead the merrier I say!


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

Not a JAO, but I just bottled 2 x 5L batches of my very high gravity sweet mead. Both batches were started in November 08, both with OGs of around 1.220, one fermented with wyeast sweet mead yeast, the other with champagne yeast.

I've totally neglected these two batches for ages, and have left them on rapidly autolysising yeast for literally years, but I'm still fairly happy with the results. The batch using the wyeast is in particular very nice, but I definitely can detect a background band-aid/rubberband undertone, due probably to the autolysis, or to the massive stress the yeast must have been under when trying to ferment such massively high gravity mead.

I'll stash these away for a few years, and see how they continue to develop.....

Anyone else attempted a mead like this? With more honey than water? results?

 

[pdilley]

Anyone else attempted a mead like this? With more honey than water? results?

I've not done this myself yet. Its more reminiscent to me of the high amounts used in Polish recipes for very long ageing. Sounds a bit of a shame you didn't get it racked off the lees before some autolytic flavours were introduced but on the flip side you will get to share how those flavours progress with ageing with everyone.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[JonnyAnchovy]

I've not done this myself yet. Its more reminiscent to me of the high amounts used in Polish recipes for very long ageing. Sounds a bit of a shame you didn't get it racked off the lees before some autolytic flavours were introduced but on the flip side you will get to share how those flavours progress with ageing with everyone.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

I've got another 5L of a very similar recipe which I did rack - we'll see how that goes. Will bottle in about a year I think, giving it 2.5 years of bulk age.

 

[pdilley]

Keep note of the ratios of honey to water used. With the yeast you used you can get a good ballpark of the maximum capable ABV before it gave up the ghost. Then take the residual amount and if too sweet, water it down to a drinkable ratio and bottle. Alternatively you can determine on paper if its sweetness level once brought under control leaves you with too little ABV and try for a secondary fermentation re-pitch but you will need to be careful so you can calculate the ABV of the 2nd yeast and then determine how much watering down to leave enough sugars for the yeast to consume before giving up while at the same time leaving enough for your desired sweetness. Or save it for on top of ice cream!


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[shonks69]

Hi Pete

I reckon the chilli mead recipe i put down on the 12/11/2009 is ready
All the fruit has dropped (including chillies) except for the sultanas and has cleared to a deep transparent hazel colour. I have finished the mead in my brew fridge @ approx 1 deg for the last week and I now reckon I'm ready to bottle.

I have never experienced mead before and have a couple of questions,

• • Do you carbonate when bottling or just bottle and cap?
  • Do you drink the mead cold or drink it at room temperature?
  • Can I drink it strait away or do I have to age it, if so how long?

I am planning to use 375ml Bundaberg ginger beer bottles for bottling.

Any help would be much appreciated

Cheers
Shonks

 

[pdilley]

Do you carbonate when bottling or just bottle and cap?

bottle and cap

the choice is yours to carbonate or leave still but traditionally this is still


Do you drink the mead cold or drink it at room temperature?

personal preference is room temperature

people drink them chilled, room temperature, or heated up depending on the volatiles in them you want to emphasise or demphasise them


Can I drink it strait away or do I have to age it, if so how long?

this style can be drunk right away but time mellows it out with ageing

the volatiles decrease with age so you need to find a balance point between level of mellowness and diminishing flavours of your additions




Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[shonks69]

Thanks mate

I'll give you an update post tasting

Cheers
Shonks

 

[DanRayner]

Alright. I may not have read any ofthis post. I may be typing clunkily on a brand new iPhone. And I may be wearing an Arrogant Bastard teeshirt. Buti'm sitting in the harmonie German club at the end of a Canberra brewer's club meeting after drinking this amazing drink! It is like Christmas cake in a bottle - so well balanced, cinnamon, orange, cloves, raisins and a hint of alc - just like after lighting up the rum on a Christmas cake but it's 11.5%!

Will post more tomorrow

dan

 

[brettprevans]

Compeyely OT but dan r u the same same dan Rayner who won an award for his k&k RIS? If so, WTF only 18 posts? U have heaps to contribute....

Oh and back on topic.... What's the drink and it's receipe?!

 

[DanRayner]

Compeyely OT but dan r u the same same dan Rayner who won an award for his k&k RIS? If so, WTF only 18 posts? U have heaps to contribute....

Oh and back on topic.... What's the drink and it's receipe?!

heya:

only 18 posts (19 now) on this forum...

but...

I haven't been quiet on other forums:

having done alright in two years of the AABC I'm still happy to share the love though and I judge at any comp I can get to

 

[DanRayner]

PS - I'm still reeling over this JAO

I've never tasted anything like it (beer/wine/cider/anything)

amazing

 

[Swinging Beef]

I got to taste a batch of this brewed by forum member, Sammus, just the other night.
Never have I been so keen to brew mead before.
This recipie, is really great!
Now I need a 5 litre fermenter.

 

[gareth]

I have to agree, this recipe is awesome...
Going to make it just as soon as I can source some honey!

Thanks for the sample last night BrewerPete

 

[brettprevans]

if i can get down to the shops to get a few more cinamon sticks tonight, 25L of JOA is being put into a fermentor tongiht.

plan is to keg 19L (sparkling mead) and have some in bottles as still mead. will see if i chnage my mind and break it up into some more sample bottles and do some other expiermients to it.

my plum melomel with old ale yeast will be going down next weekend.

edit: oh and dont worry BP, the JAO is going down with bread yeast. but i might be tempted to throw some nutrient in. im not sure if i can help myself!

 

[pdilley]

Glad you guys are enjoying it. I am sure the more this is made the more it will start to spread like a bush fire through the brewing clubs as it really is just that good!


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[BrenMcgee]

After reading this thread start to finish, twice now, I am really keen to try this!! Really keen. I understand a bit more about it now. I have a question about this FridgeMate thing you speak of. What is involved in setting one of these up? I live in Toowoomba and at the moment the temperature will be all over the shop. Currently it is rainy, and to be honest probably perfect temperature for this JAO, but it won't stay like that for the next few months.

 

[Martin]

I was lucky enough to taste some of Pete's JAO the other night - WOW that stuff is amazing. Seriously good! I will be making some for sure.

 

[watchUburn]

Don't let the mead ferment out too hot. You wont like the resulting product.

 

[pdilley]

Bren,

I use TempMate as it gives you both cold control and hot control at the same time. FridgeMate will also work but you manually switch it to either hot control or cold control and don't get both at the same time.

They are electronic switches essentially and they switch AC electricity on or off to any device plugged into them. To set them up you need some skills or have a sparky take the unit and wire it up into a nice box for you.

Myself I got my small box from Bunnings. Two AC power cords cut in half gave me the one male plug and two female plugs I needed. One female is wired to the heat switch (relay) and the other to the cold one.

I take a fridge or chest freezer and plug it into the cold female plug instead of the wall socket. I plug the TempMate into the wall socket and put them TempMate thermal sensor inside the fridge. When it gets too bot in the fridge the cold relay switches AC electricity to the fridge and it turns on cooling down the contents. Once the TempMate detects the temperature you set it with has been reached the cold relay turns off AC electricity to the fridge. This repeats continuosly until your fermentation is done.

If you don't have a temperature controlling device you can not brew all-year round. You have to do what I did initially and wait for winter to approach and when temperatures are 20C and not getting any higher start brewing and hope for the best.

With temperature control you can brew in winter by plugging something into the heat plug on the tempmate like a heat belt or heat lamp or fish tank heater, etc. Now you can always brew at optimum temperatures every day of the year.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[gareth]

Ok, put my first mead down, followed the recipe to the tee.
Just waiting for the liquid to drop down to 20 in my ferm fridge.
Used iron bark honey and a Valencia orange.

Mmm... Can't wait for the final product!

 

[brettprevans]

Will post pics of my 25L JAO on Monday.
Few slight mederations. Ran out of raisins at 107 (yes I decided to count them). Sultanas made up the rest. Not enough cinamon so u threw 1 star anise in and a tiny bit a ground cinamon I had.
80% orange blossum 20% iron bark.

Smells nom nom nom