Jao The Ultimate Beginners Mead Recipe

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Rudi: High Osmotic Pressure / High Sugar Content in the beginning and a High Alcohol Content in the end all done in a cleaned and sanitised vessel with a vapour lock device preventing outside air getting in. It's almost a non issue and infections are minimal.

If your yeast is fresh it won't do any better with more yeast pitched. If your yeast is old you may want to pitch more.

Finally, alcohol is fermented by acetic acid bacteria in the air. Usually starts of whitey/translucent whitish on the top and ends with translucent white and brownish floating glob on top with tendrils or sheets of goo extending down into the liquid. Airborne exposure and oxidation as no vapour lock device protecting the scotch :)

Market honey is usually pasteurised or heated to assist blending (non pure honeys). Commercial extraction melts and slices wax caps off, etc. Thats why my building bee hive post I use natural method and just crush the combs in BIAB bag type material and hang it in a jar to drip inside. Only a few days and 95% of the honey is filtered clean, pure and full of original delicate taste and aroma compounds. But your JAO will be fine with store bought honey for your first go. Don't stress it as much until you make a few and want to see what difference better quality honey does.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete
 
I'm all fired up to go, with 2 other non-cooking recipes, and wouldn't you know it my local brewing shop didn't have any bungs! GRRR! Now I have to wait for the ones I bought online to arrive in the post <_<

Same here when I started. I made sure to stock up on all sorts and sizes to go in thin necked bottles to every demijohn I use.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete
 
A couple of recipes I've read have even suggested using a balloon if no airlock is available. The recipe for the samagonka just called for a plastic bag kept in place with an elastic (but this recipe does come from a remote village in Russia).

One of my fellow festival goers found the website of people who make the mead for the festival. No recipes, and it's in German, but still interesting to see how they make commercial quantities.

If anyone's interested, here's the site
http://www.honig-met-striewski.de/www.honi.../startseite.htm

The stuff I';m obsessed about is the Wacken met. They only started bottling the Wacken Met and Wacken Blut last year. At the festival they just serve it from the kegs and if you want the Blut one, they just add the fresh cherry juice (with some pulp) from a separate container.
 
Fiery Dragon, Witches' Elixir, Elf Magic, Prince of Darkness? They sure have some crazy names for Mead those Germans! :p

Wacken is just sack mead, no spices, just honey, water, yeast. Should be very easy to replicate. You just need to get your ratios right to dial in what you want in the finished product. Most of the Meads' abv ratios are screaming bread yeast or ale yeasts. If its watered down then its a higher abv wine yeast with water added to dilute at bottling.

So those are your variables to play with.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete
 
The yeast is fresh as it gets when dry, unopened canister bought a week ago with about a year on the expiry.

I'll give the honey from the markets a go, usually tastes much nicer than supermarket honey.

Also, acetobacter in scotch?!? I thought it'd be too high in alcohol to get a foothold.
 
Acetobacter eats alcohol and ferments it into acetic acid.

:)
 
Would great head space have a large impact?
Never made mead but got all the ingredients today for this tasty sounding one.

I have a 2 x HDPE 4 litres but nothing for 5 litre. Split it into 2 parts or use an HDPE 10 litre.

YB
 
I have a pre-programmed head space percentage that includes extra room for Meads that are made with Standard Nutrient Additions, forced oxygen mixing with drills and paddles, etc. You can get by with JAO with less head space. The volume in total was less than 4 litres so a 4 litre will do fine. If you are going to make two batches exactly the same, by all means go with the HDPE 10 litre if you have one. If you want to experiment with say amount of cloves, then you will need two fermentation containers.

With smaller batches keep an eye on total volume level once water is added more so than larger batches as a mistake at small volumes has potentials to effect greatly the outcome.




Cheers,
Brewer Pete
 
hey Brewer Pete
What's the average alcohol percentage you get with this JOA recipe?

I haven't got my hands on a hydrometer yet. Is there a method I can use to test for alcohol content at maturation only? (my frustrating web searches keep coming up with the hydrometer before and after test).

I'm waiting for my book to arrive so I can learn all about brewing properly and hopefully won't be hassling you with these beginner questions anymore.

On another note, I tried a recipe which only uses 'airbourne' yeast and that's fermenting quite well now. I'm only doing a 1 litre batch of that.
 
12% alcohol

The hydrometer (large sample size, no correction tables, measure at end ok), and the refractometer (tiny sample size, uses correction tables after fermentation is happening and no correction tables before fermentation, measure at end ok only if have the original gravity at the start) are the tools.

Wild yeast is fine if you have a recipe calling for it and not a whole lot of money invested in a large batch.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete
 
I put one of these down on Monday, I was a bit concerned about my yeast as its one of those large Lowan cans, best before oct 2009, sitting at the back of the fridge because I hardly ever use it. But within 4 hours of pitching the airlock was going crazy.

Used local honey, my dad knows a bloke, its definitely not single origin but tastes better than the supermarket stuff. I tried some leatherwood honeycomb the other day and man it blows what I'm using out of the water the smell and taste are amazing, I'll have to source a few kgs and make another batch ;)
 
Not to worry, my yeast was out of date, brought up from the move from Melbourne and it worked fine as well.

Leatherwood (Eucryphia lucida) is nice, isn't it :)

I was thinking of getting some for the new place as it is from temperate climate. Bees work themselves to death on Leatherwood as they are attracted to it that much.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete
 
Hi guys, I was fascinated with this recipe so thought I'd give it a try.

I went out to purchase a demijohn from (if you're in Adelaide) Gaganis brothers, a great shop by the way with lots of stuff for wine making and heaps of hard to get ethnic food supplies and herbs and spices in bulk, all at good prices.
Couldn't get a 5 litre , but found they had good stocks of the 10 litre versions in those horrible made of plastic fake cane baskets, which I immediately tossed as the bottle looks great by itself. Also picked up a bung while I was there.
And of course made up a double batch of JAO with some lovely lavender honey from a Apiarists supply shop on Prospect road.

Started fermenting on 27th May, the weather was pretty cold and because SWMBO liked the look of the demijohn I was able to keep it inside.
Being so cold I put it on a heater pad and watched the fun in a bottle. Fermentation went mad for about 3 days, it had a good 25mm of krausen. After 5 days it started to slow a little and after 7 days I took it off the heater pad.
I let it just slowly "bloop ............................ bloop" away for about 6 weeks, until a particularly cold day and I thought "lets put the heater pad back on", fermentation picked up quite a bit, not mad but "blooping" away quite nicely for after so many weeks.
Switched off the pad overnight and in the morning the fruit had all dropped and the mead was showing the first signs of clearing.

I left it go until today (just over 7 weeks) and it was lovely and clear.
I gave some thought to how to get it out and dug out a "jiggle siphon" and a bottling wand, which I believe was suggested by some other forum member who is much wiser and more experienced than me (as you shall see shortly).
Grabbed enough "pick axe" long necks to more than cover my volume needs, cleaned and sterilised every thing in sight, even bought another portable light into the room to make it easier to work.

And so begins the trials and tribulations of Creedy, which nearly ended in divorce from SWMBO and included large amounts of mess over a significant portion of the room.

First trouble was the silicone hose I'd bought, it was still coiled, attempted to straighten it a little with hot water, largely unsuccessfully.

Second trouble was I thought I'd better check out the "jiggle siphon" and used it to suck up some of the sterilising fluid from the bucket, this was my first warning, little alarm bells were ringing in my head as I realised how much I had to disturb the water to make the "jiggle siphon" work. But I thought "Nah, it'll be all right, how else can I do it anyway?".

Next mistake was asking SWMBO to help with the siphoning effort, explained (I thought clearly) that I'd start the siphon, then She should keep the tube in the mead but not let it touch the bottom and not let it suck up the yeast, enter the extra lighting to make this easy (or so I thought).

Then I tried to start the siphon, jiggling immediately disturbed the yeast pack on the bottom which clouded the mead.
This only got worse. But we were committed now so had to continue, (Titanic approaching iceberg, shouts from the lookouts ignored). Much spilling ensued as the damned jiggle siphon refused to work, even though it was worked successfully in the water just previously.

More clouding of mead.

SWMBO pulls out the jiggle siphon and quite rightly (as it turns out) questions it's functionality, then proceeds to poke the marble inside it and (as I yell out a long fading Nooooooooooo) puts the end back into the mead.

I hang my head and shake it slowly while I sigh loudly. I start to talk about sanitation and keeping things clean and get a "But you never said that, if it was important you should have said!".
So I had to "yes dear, your right, I'm wrong, I should have made it clearer". Divorce narrowly averted.

So I rip the jiggle siphon off the end and the bottle filler off the other, struggle with the demented python of a silicone hose and after cleaning and sterilising (as best I can) my hands, try to create a siphon by plunging the tube and timing the thumb release on the other end. Much better than the stupid jiggle siphon, spilling and splashing a little less now.

However my efforts to create a siphon resulted in vibrating a jar lemongrass oil off the table which the mead is on and onto the floor.
As my luck would have it the lid was off and it rolled half was across the dining room floor, leaving a considerable trail of oil behind it.

I ask SWMBO to get the mop, strangely I get a "but it's a new mop", it crossed my mind to ask what the hell a mop is for if not for cleaning up messes such as this, but with considerable effort I bite my tongue.

The demented python of a silicone tube then struck out at SWMBO as she "forgot" how to use a siphon.
Forgot that the end of the tube had to be below the surface of the mead.
Three times.

The spillage continued, mostly into the deep sided tray or onto the plastic sheet I had the forethought to put down in case of emergency, but I didn't think emergency would happen so soon or in such a major fashion.

So after bottling as much as was decent and not ridiculously cloudy, we ended up with 4 1/2 long necks, from a double batch, a pretty poor yield I'd say, but at least it's bottled.
Dubious sanitation, cloudy, messy, destructive, kids asking "what's happening Dad?", but it's done now.

So at the moment I've tried my first JAO, not too bad, got some hot alcohol taste so I'll probably forego the heated pad in future and let it ferment slower. Also a little bit too much bitterness so I might drop back the 1 1/2 oranges for a double batch, might reduce the cinnamon a bit too, as we had quite long sticks to start with and it's quite prominent but not overwhelming at all, just tuning.


LESSONS LEARNED

1. If I can't do it myself, don't enrolled SWMBO as an assistant, kids maybe, but not SWMBO.
2. burn my existing jiggle siphon head, jump on the ashes, then burn the ashes, then piss on the burnt ashes
3. hang the friggin silicone hose with a weight on the end for at least 3 weeks before using the damned thing so is at least straight (it's in the shed like this now)
4. ask very politely how the hell people have managed to get their JAO out from demijohns without going from "crystal clear" to "Coopers Sparking Ale"

So, thank you those who have read to the end of my little rant and please, ..... pretty please ...... with sugar and a cherry on top...... how does one remove the JAO cleanly from a demijohn?



Cheers,
Creedy
 
And so begins the trials and tribulations of Creedy

Thank you, Creedy. That was easily the best story I've read in ages. I just watched a 2 hour film that didn't engage me nearly as much as your story did.

I've had a JAO slowly fizzing in the laundry for the last month or so and I too was wondering how to cleanly decant to bottles - I was going to use the thumb plug method with a thin tube of silicon I use as a blow-off tube. I figure after thorough sanitation the 12% alcohol should make up for any short comings.

Thank you again for a valuable and most entertaining post...straight to the f*cking pool room!
 
http://beer-brewing.suite101.com/article.c...honing_homebrew for some quickly googled siphoning tips (cept for the jiggle one :p)

I haven't tried to siphon my 5L of JAO yet and I'm definitely no expert, but for other siphoning needs I normally use a racking cane and the 'fill the tube with sanitiser' method, but it can be extremely frustrating when you **** it up. You have to fill the tube with sanitiser before putting the cane under the water otherwise you bubble air back up it, then drain the sanitiser into an intermediary container. I'm definitely going to purchase a turkey baster, or something similar and use that in the future. You could also try crash chilling the mead before bottling to get the yeast to compact down a little, not sure if that would help.

Great story, it's got me thinking about how to do this without screwing up so badly. :p

edit: another one here http://www.breworganic.com/tips/Virtual_class/siphon.htm
 
I had tears in my eyes reading that. I can relate to a few of those things :)

I always find it simple but it must be me. I use a tube, filled with water, pinched at one end. On the floor is a large bowl or measuring pyrex thing. And a large square plastic food container with no lid with cleaned and ready to fill bottles in them.

I fill the tube with water, holding both ends up to make sure all the air gets out.

I then pinch one end to form a vacuum seal. I place the other end in glass demijohn halfway down into the mead.

I aim the pinched off tube somewhat over the large bowl or pyrex container and let the water drain.

As the water drains the mead will fill the tube, sometimes with an air bubble separating the two liquids in the tube.

As soon as mead is coming out I pinch the tube with my hand and move it over a bottle.

During all of this I have one hand holding the tube in the demijohn, usually resting or grabbing the bottle neck and holding the tube in fingers. The other hand is working the end of the siphon tube, moving it and pinching it off as needed.

You can always pinch off if the liquid in the demijohn is getting near the end of the tube and slowly move it down further into the liquid. And then stop pinching it off when ready to keep filling a bottle. There is no rush as rushed work always ends up making more work in the end :p

You never stick the tube down into the yeast cake at the bottom of the demijohn and I usually stop a few centimetres above that layer anyway because the liquid movement will start to stir up yeast.


The other rule is I always move the container I will be siphoning from the day before or even a few days before to the location I will siphon. This gives plenty of time for any movement stirred up yeast cake to settle back down.


Looks like someone has made a video already, but does not use the water in tube method I use:


EDIT: Not shown in the video is the siphon tube he is using is capped on the bottom and there is a hold in the side of the tube 1 1/2 cm to 2 cm up from the bottom and thats where the mead enters the tube to get siphoned. Otherwise from the video you would think he has the tube down in the yeast sucking up the yeast cake. I have a similar air-blow siphon start for my large demijohns with stainless steel racking canes with plugged bottoms and hold further up but for the small ones I get by with just a simple water siphon tube.

Heat can create hot sharp fusel alcohol tastes so if you are applying heat with no temperature control on it to keep the temp dialled in low you are tempting fate, you get fast fermentation and clear times but good mead means not rushing it.

JAOs normally come into their prime close to the 6 month mark and go downhill from there as the flavours slowly fade away, so some ageing should help if its too strong on one flavour or another.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete
 
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You could also try crash chilling the mead before bottling to get the yeast to compact down
anyone tried chilling it to drop the yeast? That bakers yeast looks pretty fluffy, doesn't look like it would cake well.
 
Jakub, you would get better results setting up for racking and letting it sit for a few days and settle before racking as like you say its fluffy.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete
 
Thanks for the great read, Creedy and it's even answered a few doubts I had. I'm getting eager for my first batch to be ready so I can taste it and get a BIG batch ready for October.

Regarding the bottling stage...What would be the repercussions of yeast sediment present in the bottles a la Coopers beer?
 
Same thing as coopers, last bit of the bottle will go cloudy, but it still tastes good to me. If you are not entering a competition or don't mind cloudy in your beer or mead then its not something to stress over. The young life and high alcohol of JAO means by 6 months you'll be able to drink it, even with yeast with no off flavours.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete
 

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