Jao The Ultimate Beginners Mead Recipe

[kaiserben]

Ah bugger. I've just realised I forgot to measure OG.

 

[jewwie]

Don't you hate that. If you followed the recipe exactly it should have been around 1120 to 1130 otherwise there are calculators online that you can use to get pretty close. Just need honey weight and water volume.

 

[Simdop]

Hey Simdop, I would only use 2 packets of yeast for 20 to 25L (any more would just be an overkill cause those yeasties will double in population as soon as they acclimatise). If you want to deviate from the recipe (which I am not recommending), you could rehydrate your yeast for 10 to 15 minutes then pitch.
As far as "some residual Sweetness" from the WLP720 that would depend on the OG (which is high in this recipe because it is meant to be a sweet mead) but it will still be a lot drier than the bread yeast. If it was me, I'd do one batch original and one with WLP720 to compare because you don't want anyone telling you not to try something that could just turn out to be the best mead ever :super:

I've got a batch of the original recipe with bread yeast going at the moment. I'm also going to do a WLP to compare as well. Given the higher alc tolerance, I was thinking of bumping the honey to 1.8 or 2kg? Any thoughts?

 

[jewwie]

Starting with too high a gravity could mean your yeast will struggle to start or stress them out which can cause "undesirable" characteristics. Also, the more honey you start with could mean a very high alcohol mead which could end up out of balance if it ferments dry. You could add the extra 200g to 400g after a few days once the yeast are bubbling away nicely and if it ferments dry, check the balance and back sweeten if necessary.

 

[fraser_john]

Six kilograms of honey, $30, local amateur bee keeper has way too much honey, taking advantage while I can to make a 15 litre batch! Should give me enough to lay bottles down to age nicely.

 

[Wardcliff]

Have read the entire thread, and five minutes ago finished putting down a (almost) double batch.

Got 3kg of local Blue Gum Honey and bet it all on JAO to win. Hopefully I will be collecting handsome dividends in a few months.

Thanks to Brewer Pete and all the contributors to this thread (and site). I am a novice looking to learn and I believe I've come to the right place.

Cheers.

 

[jewwie]

Hey Wardcliff, good on ya! You're on your way to becoming a mazer, good luck with your mead.

 

[clickeral]

Made the original recipe with 1.6Kg of the Orange gold honey I got off here a while ago hoping it goes well as I had to sub sultanas in for the raisins

Next batch will be the other honey I have (river gold) and then I will make a batch that is 50/50

Hope it goes well

 

[Simdop]

I'm seriously impressed by how it suddenly clarifies when its done. I've got three batches that have all dropped out and gone clear as! One batch is 1.5months old and two are a bit over a month old!

I take it folks just leave it as is to age?

 

[Wardcliff]

So, OT, but I have never tried mead before. I tried this today, and although I didn't have it over ice, which is recommended, it tasted like ass. (Don't ask).
I have much higher hopes for this JAOM!



And further OT (sorry), I tried a couple of beer styles I've never tried before, but this site has opened me up to a whole new world. Yummmmmm!! Not home brew, I know, but the styles are definitely worth aiming for.





Sorry for staying off topic.

Cheers!

 

[Alex.Tas]

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1460808591.342054.jpg

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1460808637.800057.jpg

Sorry for staying off topic.

Cheers!

Both of those beers are awesome!

Good work on the JAO. You will love it...

 

[biggo]

So, OT, but I have never tried mead before. I tried this today, and although I didn't have it over ice, which is recommended, it tasted like ass. (Don't ask).
I have much higher hopes for this JAOM!

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1460808424.092712.jpg

And further OT (sorry), I tried a couple of beer styles I've never tried before, but this site has opened me up to a whole new world. Yummmmmm!! Not home brew, I know, but the styles are definitely worth aiming for.

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1460808591.342054.jpg

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1460808637.800057.jpg

Sorry for staying off topic.

Cheers!

I don't think Maxwell's meads are great commercial example, they are the oldest just not the best, try Stone Dog Meadery in NSW they will be similar in style to the new world SA

 

[Kingy]

had a bit of honey left over after making another 2 batches of mead. So I made this up. Loosely based on a few recipes floating around cyberspace.

Not sure how it's going to taste at the end but it's tasting good as it ferments.

2litres of honey
The juice of 1 and half lemons and limes.
1kg frozen blueberries
1tsp yeast nutrient (brewman)
Uso5
Topped upto 14litres
Sg 1.070 (not sure if accurate or not)
I plan on dry hopping 1.5gm litre of cascade and maybe some more blueberries and maybe 100gms of grated ginger.

After Its finished I'll rack to a glass demijohn with a spoon of sugar and let it sit for a while 2months hopefully.

Carbonate and drink.
Hope it tastes as good as it sounds.

Also home made jao hits maxwells for 6

 

[Wardcliff]

I don't think Maxwell's meads are great commercial example, they are the oldest just not the best, try Stone Dog Meadery in NSW they will be similar in style to the new world SA

Thanks biggo, I'll keep an eye out.

Cheers

 

[kaiserben]

Bottled my first batch of JAOM last night.

It had spent 10 weeks in the demijohn. All the bits and pieces had dropped weeks ago and it looked clear (although after I moved it to prepare for bottling it didn't look so clear anymore. I went ahead and bottled anyway).

It smelled great. Tasted okay at room temperature. There seemed to be a little bit of fusel alcohol present.

From reading this thread I assume it won't benefit from sitting around in bottles for any extra period of time? Just go ahead and drink them all? (and get to making more).

 

[Kingy]

In my experience mead gets better with age. 6-9months it really starts to mellow. I just bottled a batch that I started in September last year haha. I thought it would be shit but it is brilliant.

My experience When bottling this mead, if you move it to a bottling place your better off leaving it a few hours for it to settle down, (even move it a few days before you plan on bottling) the clearer it is going into the bottle the better.
Nothing better than a really clear clean mead.

 

[jewwie]

Your mead will definitely improve with age. If you've bottled them slightly cloudy, the sediment will settle out and you can just decant them when you serve them.

For clearer meads I would recommend bottling from secondary rather than primary. I put them into secondary and then swirl every week for a month or so to get whatever dead yeasts into suspension (IMO it helps with dissipating the fusels too). This seems to pick up any other floaties and drop them to the bottom. After I've done that a few times I'll leave it for another month (or longer if you can wait) and then cold crash for a week. You'll have crystal clear meads then.

 

[Simdop]

So when do you guys recommend moving JAO to secondary?
Once it clears up as indicating that the primary is done do you wait another month then secondary? Or two months?

 

[jewwie]

Personally, I wait until fermentation has stopped and the fruit has dropped. It doesn't matter if it isn't completely clear as you will be clearing mostly in secondary (and tertiary if you're one that wants to keep racking). I want get my mead off the yeast lees and fruit at around the 3 month mark.

 

[GregMeady]

After reading the first 41 pages of this thread I couldn't stand it any longer, so I made up a batch today. Followed the recipe on page 1, the honey I used was the 1.5kg Beechworth Honey from Woolly's. Needing 1.6kg as per recipe, I had to buy 2. It's really dark though I hope it's ok as you can tell from the picture below. The water is from my water delivery guy...Top Drop...reverse osmosis stuff, nothing in it...for now anyway
I had to improvise to make an airlock, using the beechworth honey container with the bottom cut off, Made a hole in the lid, which in the end was too big for the plastic tubing that I used to make a loop with water in it... :unsure:
I now needed a gasket to fill the space out of a baby bottle teet with the top cut off it all came together nicely and my mead is happy because it now has an airlock B)
The waiting is going to kill me