Jao The Ultimate Beginners Mead Recipe

[Alex.Tas]

mine is under the house, so probably around the 16 degree mark at this time of year. maybe 18 through summer

 

[DannyboyDS]

Just bottled my first batch of mead and am enjoying a glass right now. I was a bit naughty and did not 100% follow the instructions, though next batch I will do it to the letter as I want more and better. Have to admit this is pretty damn good though, even if I do say so myself.

Sweet and warming in the mouth, smooth all the way down with a slightly fruity aftertaste. This weekend I will put a 20ltr batch on.

Thank you Joe and thank you Brewer Pete.

 

[plateofboxes]

Went downstairs to check my version of this after two months - crystal clear! Siphoned half a glass, and while a little hot, definitely drinkable and enjoyable. Might start throwing some Tandaco into my stouts...

 

[AshleyDoran]

Is anyone else having issues with the rasins overpowering the taste of everything else?

 

[AshleyDoran]

Im guessing as noone has responded in over a week that the answer to my question is no then... :/

 

[LiquidGold]

Perhaps this is best for another thread but I have acquired some yellow box and orange blossom honey which I plan on turning into mead. Now I've only made mead using bush honey along with the JAO recipe and I'm wondering whether the subtleties of the yellow box and orange blossom will be overpowered by the other ingredients and if I would be better off fermenting them by themselves (actually with nutrients and a wine yeast of some kind). Thoughts?

To bring it back on topic my latest (4th) batch of JAO has turned out wonderful after adding 10 star anise to the original recipe (batch 2 had 1 or 2 star anise added but I couldn't taste it so went a bit harder this time around). Beautiful stuff.

 

[blotto]

I have started a JAO mead and it's down the bottom of the pantry now but I wanted to ask some advise. The pictures below are of the only demijohn I could get from Brewcraft I think it's suitable because it's easy to get the oranges in and out but what should I do for an airlock? I have gladwrap and a lacky band on there at the moment because the blue lid leaked when I was giving it a shake so I'm not sure how good it seals but the original idea was to put the airlock in the blue lid. Will the gladwrap be ok? I know heaps of people use it on full scale brewing but this is going to take 2 months to brew.



Below you can see the bung and the bottom of the airlock that I was going to use.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

That's a cray looking demijon

 

[pk.sax]

Looking to set down some of this.

Opinion please, no raisins at hanf however I have sultanas and dates.
Any chance of that being OK? Just sultanas or dates too?

 

[blotto]

I love dates so I'd be throwing them in if we didn't have a bag of raisins that the kids wont eat.

 

[pk.sax]

Cool, figured its yeast food anyway... a couple of dates per 3L batch.
have had had this tub of honey for about 2 years now! Needed to pop that cherry. Cairns bush honey...

Honey didn't all dissolve straight away but the yeast are having a rocking party.

 

[pk.sax]

Yeasts going mental. And these were out if date sachets of yeast.

 

[carpedaym]

I have started a JAO mead and it's down the bottom of the pantry now but I wanted to ask some advise. The pictures below are of the only demijohn I could get from Brewcraft I think it's suitable because it's easy to get the oranges in and out but what should I do for an airlock? I have gladwrap and a lacky band on there at the moment because the blue lid leaked when I was giving it a shake so I'm not sure how good it seals but the original idea was to put the airlock in the blue lid. Will the gladwrap be ok? I know heaps of people use it on full scale brewing but this is going to take 2 months to brew.

As long as the blue lid didn't leak too much I think you'll be fine. Having said that, I personally would go with a double or triple layer of glad wrap and the rubber band, or maybe even alfoil. Either way I don't think you have big worries.

 

[blotto]

As long as the blue lid didn't leak too much I think you'll be fine. Having said that, I personally would go with a double or triple layer of glad wrap and the rubber band, or maybe even alfoil. Either way I don't think you have big worries.

Thanks carpedaym, I left the glad wrap on it and it's working well as I can hear the gas escaping and nothing has popped yet I'll take your advise and add alfoil when things settle down a little. Next time I'll go with the blue lid and not worry so much.

 

[Alex.Tas]

Yeasts going mental. And these were out if date sachets of yeast.

It looks like you have half a dozen fried eggs on the top of the one on the right!
I've got 5kg of leatherwood honey on order, so i reckon I'll be making up a ~15L batch this weekend.

 

[pk.sax]

It looks like you have half a dozen fried eggs on the top of the one on the right!
I've got 5kg of leatherwood honey on order, so i reckon I'll be making up a ~15L batch this weekend.

Yeah, I remember reading a post from the op of this thread ages ago where he said to use decent oranges. The vegetables shop had these little ones for 2 bucks a small tray so into quarters and in they went. The yeast farts are smelling fantastic.

 

[DannyboyDS]

Just to add, since my last post I have resampled my mead, it has improved in leaps and bounds, what a tasty drop it has become in such a short period of time, second batch is down and this time I have done it to the letter.

 

[zooesk]

I have started a JAO mead and it's down the bottom of the pantry now but I wanted to ask some advise. The pictures below are of the only demijohn I could get from Brewcraft I think it's suitable because it's easy to get the oranges in and out but what should I do for an airlock? I have gladwrap and a lacky band on there at the moment because the blue lid leaked when I was giving it a shake so I'm not sure how good it seals but the original idea was to put the airlock in the blue lid. Will the gladwrap be ok? I know heaps of people use it on full scale brewing but this is going to take 2 months to brew.



Below you can see the bung and the bottom of the airlock that I was going to use.

i had my mead in a plastic mr beer fermenter with glad wrap for the lid people say the plastic will leach air but it turned out great

 

[blotto]

i had my mead in a plastic mr beer fermenter with glad wrap for the lid people say the plastic will leach air but it turned out great

Thanks zooesk, it should keep a good layer of CO2 under the wrap to help protect it from oxygen. It's going great guns but I didn't have a spare temp controller so it's sitting at ambient at the moment 24oC :unsure: The next one I do I should have a spare stc 1000 free after I make my Brewpi. Still looking forward to see what turns out.

 

[Alex.Tas]

Threw together my mead yesterday in my second hand 15L demi (25 bucks form tipshop).
i know this recipe "is in balance" but I wanted to take the essence of this recipe and make it work for me. I mean there are countless variables within the original recipe that could alter the flavour dramatically, just to name a few:

• variation in the composition of honey used based on variety
• orange size, pith content oil content of skin
• size of cloves/cinnamon sticks and how old they are
• huge variation in the strains used in bread any given yeast without any guarantee of consistency.

So aiming for repeatability with such a recipe to me seems pointless.

So i ended up with roughly 3x the dosage of the original recipe
5kg of tassie lake gordon leatherwood honey. Apparently a strongly flavoured honey.
3 Oranges
7 cloves (not 6! - what a badass)
3 crunched up cinnamon sticks
3 handfulls of sultanas - are these the same as raisins? Dunno, I didn't have raisins.
Topped it up to 11.4L with water
3.5 tsp of Lowans bread yeast




Took the gravity reading after some good shaking at it was 1.170 adjusted for hydrometer temp. I had a think and worked out roughly that if the yeast had a tolerance of say 15% then the mead would finish at around 1.055. I dunno how sweet that will be for meads, because my last mead i made was pre hydrometer. If i use beer wort as a yard stick, its damn sweet. I'm certain that the gravity ready was correct, i tested twice after more shaking so i doubt i was just getting an unrepresentative sample.

So i diluted it to 12.25L and ended up with a slightly lower OG 1.159, hopefully for a somewhat drier finish 1.044. Worst comes to worst, i can pitch some champagne/wine yeast that has a higher tolerance to dry it out further. I probably should have done this in the first place, but i wanted to see how bread yeast would go.

Not using any temp control either. I dont want to tie up my ferm fridge for months so i put it in an old bar fridge (not turned on) with the door ajar wrapped in a towel so help it maintain some heat. obviously the yeast action is exothermic so even through the horrible weather in hobart at the moment, it should keep relatively warm.
I love controlling everything to do with my beer brewing down to the nth degree, but with this recipe i wanted to just wing it completely and honestly it was a lot of fun to make.

I'd like to know though what other people got for their OG. was mine about par for the course?
Cheers
Alex