Added too much water in a JOAM...

I added roughly 700 ML too much to a two gallon batch of JOAM. Will it make a significant difference, and If I age in carboys for 3 months will some of that excess evaporate?

Thanks

Actually, since I just mixed it up today, I'm thinking I can buy a small squirt bottle of white honey and squirts in an portion to compensate. I just need to figure out how much is needed and how to accurately squirt it in the right amount. Works?

If you know what gravity you should be around, you can just mix in honey until you hit the right spot. Little easier than calculations.

There are some on this site that use an imperial gallon jug to make the JAOM but keep all the measurements the same. What you have is even less then that. Don't sweat it right now. Just follow the JAOM practice of leaving it in a warm dark place for the next 3 months. Don't touch it, mix it, shake it, look at it, or think about it for another 3 months minimum. It will be just fine!

Arpolis said:

There are some on this site that use an imperial gallon jug to make the JAOM but keep all the measurements the same. What you have is even less then that. Don't sweat it right now. Just follow the JAOM practice of leaving it in a warm dark place for the next 3 months. Don't touch it, mix it, shake it, look at it, or think about it for another 3 months minimum. It will be just fine!

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Actually, If I had done that, I'd only be off by 400 ML. Think I may have to squirt something in to be sure. I'm making this for a friend and don't want to mess it up for him...

Ok I must be off in my measurement somewhere. What I did was figure the ratio of gallon to imperial gallon.

1 gallon = .832 imperial gallons

The converted 1 gallon to ml

1 gallon = 3785.411 ML

And since you added 700ML over 2 gallons I figured 350 ML to one gallon makes that 4115.411ML

Then divide out 3785.411/4115.411= .9198

So the total volume is less. Now typing this out I can think of easier ways to figure this out but that's what my head did first. I just don't want you making a JAOM too sweet because that can be a problem. I have one that is too sweet now and ended up having to blend it with a dry traditional to get the gravity down so it can be drinkable. Thick meads are just way to cloying. If you have to add honey after fermentation is over. That is a safer way to go.

I assumed US gallons and converted to liters (all my measuring cups are in liters).
I topped up to 8.37 Liters. I dunno what the hell I was thinking. I meant to top up to 7.6 liters which is roughly 2 US gallons. So the different is actually 770 ML, which is more than the volume of a standard wine bottle. (750 ML)

If I add honey after fermentation, would that not kick off more fermentation if I didn't add enough?

I'm thinking I need to find the ratio of how many liters of honey (1.1) per US Gallon (3.78 Liters), and than figure out how much honey should pair with 770 Ml to get balanced...

That's 224 ML? I do that right?

Also, if I add and then mix a bit, I'm guessing I don't need to worry about oxidation 24 hours after preparing the batch? Or should I squirt and let it settle on it's own?

Also, according to google, 1 US gallon is 3.78541 liters, not Imperial, so I went with that. I kinda got list in your Gallon math so I'm posting this for clarity...

No wait, that's not right, since it doesn't take into account the volume of mead which WAS the honey. So if I was to solve this problem for 1 US gallon, I know that the volume of honey should be 1100 ML and that would make 3785 ML of MEAD. So the difference is 2685 ML of WATER, per 1100 ML of Honey. That's a ratio of 0.409 Meaning for 770 ML of water I should add 315 ML of honey.

Oh for the love of Mead, someone please confirm I'm right....

This is a thread about JAOM. I refuse to think further lol. JOAM is meant to be super simple with no real thinking involved. Just 3.5lb honey inside a 1 gallon jug and other ingredients + water up to the 1 gallon point. If you think you are low then go for it. It is hard to mess up a JAOM too bad so just add a small touch of honey if you want. if it is good after fermentation then gratz! otherwise adjust after it is finished with more honey or blend with another mead, wine or water to bring down the gravity as desired.


***edit*** I missed a post above, I did not see that all your measuring cups are in liters. That does make things difficult. Your maths look correct. Since you are using bread yeast with the level of honey you have the yeast will still die of alcohol poisoning before all the sugars are eaten up. So you should have a semi sweet to sweet mead without adding additional honey but JAOM is a really sweet mead to mask the white pithy bitter flavor from the orange skin. Adding honey now will just make the end product sweeter. It shouldn't matter much to the yeast. If you do add honey I would siphon out a little must and mix the honey into that really well so it is dissolved and put that back in.

Husher said:

Also, according to google, 1 US gallon is 3.78541 liters, not Imperial, so I went with that. I kinda got list in your Gallon math so I'm posting this for clarity...

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Oh and I think you proved my point with the above. One imperial gallon is 4.546 liters. So since some have used an imperial gallon and not had terrible results (less honey to water ratio rather than using a US gallon) you are not off by much.

Where is Fat Bloke when you need him. He should chime in on this.

Arpolis said:

Oh and I think you proved my point with the above. One imperial gallon is 4.546 liters. So since some have used an imperial gallon and not had terrible results (less honey to water ratio rather than using a US gallon) you are not off by much.

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OK, you're right. If I was assuming Imperial gallons, I'd have added water up to the 9 liter mark, so yeah, I think I'm good. Thanks.

Arpolis said:

-----snip-----
Where is Fat Bloke when you need him. He should chime in on this.

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Same place as always........on the road with a 44 tonner strapped to his arse

Having got passed the stage of getting too anal about such things, I just let these small, incorrect measures run....

An imp gallon is what ? 20% greater volume ? So I just run it as is, because you can always add a little more honey into it if there are bitter notes coming through.....

The only downside being that I like to correct sweetness issues to my taste before a batch is clear so I only clear it once. A new mead maker often wants to follow a recipe only correcting if its not how they expect.

Plus I sometimes get frustrated hereabouts. Too many good beer makers who just won't be told that beer is beer and mead is mead.......which is more wine-like in method/technique/character......

Ergo I've not responded to so many threads recently.......

fatbloke said:

Ergo I've not responded to so many threads recently.......

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Al right, well I'm glad you did this time since I'm feeling better about it. It's really only my second mead, I'm assuming I didn't screw up the first time, so I'm not sure what to expect, and I'm doing if FOR A FRIEND, so I need it done 'right', or at least not badly.