Jao The Ultimate Beginners Mead Recipe

[philmud]

Made a JAO this morning. To recipe but with the inclusion of some yeast nutrient.

 

[superstock]

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1422750699.574914.jpg
Made a JAO this morning. To recipe but with the inclusion of some yeast nutrient.

The raisins are there for yeast nutrient.

 

[philmud]

Ahh ok. I've been reading up on them a bit & I know they also get added to meads for tannins, too. Hopefully they won't be so healthy they forget to crap out before it's fully fermented!

 

[superstock]

Black tea is for tannins.

 

[philmud]

Err, lots of things contain tannins. Besides JAO contains no black tea.

 

[bingggo]

I think it means add water if needed to keep the level at 3.8L

As a comment on the views for and against topping it up to 5L after a few days: I have only done two batches, but I topped up to 5L and all went well. It wasn't particularly foamy at the 3.8L phase. Tastes spicy mid-to-high sweetness and over 13% I'd say.

I imagine it would be unnecessarily intense if kept at 3.8L. Also, it seems a shame not to get more bottles out of it

Pete may have clarified this to the contrary as someone suggested, but to me his original instructions clearly indicate topping up: in choosing a 5L fermenter but only filling to 3.8L as you "need some room for some foam -- you can top off with more water after the first few days foaming frenzy".

B

 

[AshleyDoran]

Well, it has been 3 months since I bottled the 25 litre batch, and am impressed with how it has matured. My only regret is that I was (again) inpatient and probably bottled a bit too early. That being said as per discussion above, if I didnt it would have been completely ruined.

 

[bingggo]

How does this recipes turn out with wine or mead yeast?

 

[carpedaym]

How does this recipes turn out with wine or mead yeast?

I believe the use of bread yeast is intended to leave the mead sweet, somewhere between 1.020 and 1.040, from a quick look around the web. Most wine yeast will have a higher alcohol tolerance and will ferment the honey out more fully, leaving the mead more on the dry side. If you follow this path, perhaps choose a wine yeast with an alcohol tolerance that will rough land you in the aforementioned final gravity range. (I'm guessing 12–14% abv-ish.)

Here's some brief discussion on gotmead: http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php/22475-updated-JAO(ish)
^ Worth a read if you haven't found it.

 

[Golani51]

This was the mead that got me started. I have since moved on to bigger (25L batches) and better (Cactus Fruit Mead) things but always brew this one. It is at the request of my wife who rarely drinks any alcohol. Even leaving it on the yeast for an extra several months (5?) did nothing to taint it. Great stuff. An ideal first mead.

 

[Kingy]

2 batches of this today with some fresh local honey. 1st was made as per original. 2nd i used 1 and half cinnamon sticks and 2 cloves.

 

[Croc_TFNQ]

I know nothing about mead never tasted it . However I love your sense of humor with this bit :lol: (This recipe is designed for beginners. Everyone else with an opinion can just buggar off!)

 

[mr_wibble]

I made the 25 litre batch over easter.

It was difficult to mix $100 worth of top-quality local honey with the ****** oranges coles sells.
(i had to discard 3 rotten ones from a brand new bag)

Anyway, it seems to be fermenting along nicely.
I hope it's making all the clothes in the wardrobe smell spicy-orange

-kt

 

[troopa]

Mr Wibble
I have a wine fridge tucked down the back that i brewed 4 batches of Mead in over 3 years ago.. to this day the fridge still smells So damn good every time i open it, even though the demijohns were taken out 2.5 years ago

 

[Kingy]

Its hard waiting for this stuff to clear and drop out. But the one on the right is clearing up so not long now. It smells and tastes amazing. (Yep pulled a small amount out with a syringe for a tester, i was to inquisitive ) im definately going to make a full sized batch sometime before the weather warms up.

 

[Moad]

I just did a batch with some raw honey a friend had, tastes good unfermented so hopefully it turns out.

I left out the raisins, just threw the oranges and a couple of cloves and cinnamon in. Also did a smaller batch with some oak in there that was left in the demijon from a bourbon.

Great thread

 

[Steed]

Hi Pete, thanks for the recipie! I was hunting for a mead recipie in metric and after reading your fantastic post I knew this was the one. I'm just about to add the yeast and leave it to relax in a cupboard, fairly stable 20c tempreture in there so fingers crossed. My only concern is the yeast I used (Doves Farm Quick Yeast), it includes an emulsifier sorbitan monostearate.... hopefully this won't do anything too scary to the brew.

Also, current room is ~20c and the liquid in the demijohn doesn't want to go down below 25 it seems... I've left it to aclimatise for almost two hours and very little change. Reckon it's alright to throw the yeast in at this tempreture?

Edit: Wow, the forum dreged up that photo... some mankey wort from about 5 years ago!

 

[philmud]

Here's my effort, brewed 6 months and one day ago. It's not too shabby, a bit sweet for mine, but quite smooth and the spices come through in a good amount.
I also did a metheglin that's still in the demijohn & I'm hoping that's drier.
If I do a mead again it'll be a larger batch. As for this one, I think I'll leave it for a few more months before trying again. It's pretty good, but a couple of flavours coming through that I'm hoping will mellow.

 

[NickZed]

Good morning one and all,
Long time lurker, first time poster here....

I just put my first batch of Mead on to brew last night (as per Brewer Pete's recipe on Page 3)...

---------------------------------------
1. 1.5kg Stringy Bark Honey (purchased from Archibald Honey on line...$22 for 2 litre...really dark...yum)
2. Warm water added to Honey. Stirred slowly with spatula until liquid like pancake syrup.
3. Honey poured into 5L demijohn using small plastic funnel.
4. 8 slices of a washed and scrubbed Orange added.
5. 1 clove added.
6. 1 stick of cinnamon, smashed into pieces added.
7. 25 Raisins added.
8. Cold water to bring total volume of must to 3.8L added.
9. Closed Grolsch style lid and shook to oxygenate wort and mix in yeast.
10. S type airlock and bung fitted.
11. Airlock filled with sterilisation mixture.
12. 5L demijohn added to dark cupboard.
13. One sachet (8 grams) of Coles Tandaco dried yeast

This morning this baby was bubbling a treat...roll on Mead.

I was wondering...what are the tell tale signs that the mead is ready for bottling...from my reading I'll be waiting 4-6 weeks until visible bubbling has disappeared and the mixture had settled down. Is there anything else that I should be looking for prior to bottling?

I'm going to bottle in some Grolsch type bottles.

Thanks
Nick

 

[LiquidGold]

Kingy's post above (#815) is a good example of how the mead clears when its ready to bottle. If you wait even longer the fruit will begin to drop to the bottom also.

Both my yellow box and orange blossom attempts have turned out quite well and I have some other honey types to try next although I'm going to go with only 1 kilo of honey for a bit less sweetness.

I'm also really keen on doing a big 20L batch but perhaps not as a JAO.