My version of JAOM Start to finish W/ pics

I started the mead yesterday (Jan 20, 2015) and I want to document its progress through the entire fermentation up to bottling.

I modified the recipe in that I pealed the orange and left the rind out of the mead. I did not use any cloves. I followed the recipe other than that.



Bubbling started almost immediately and by last night, the foam at the top of the jug was getting pushed out into the air lock.



When fermentation slows I will replace the air lock with a clean one.

This still has a fairly robust activity after 10 days. I figured the bread yeast would have petered out by now.

To cut down on the mess of a clogged airlock, when you notice it happening, remove airlock and insert racking tubing into bung. Then put the other end of the tube into a half glass of water. This will act like an airlock and catch the foam.

Also, bread yeast dosn't work very well for fermenting. Its specifically made for producing alot of CO2 but not alot of alcohol.

roachvaliek said:

Also, bread yeast dosn't work very well for fermenting. Its specifically made for producing alot of CO2 but not alot of alcohol.

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That depends...right conditions it could go a little higher/handle Alcohol more than you would think... I don't like that its whole fruit...yeasties are going to have easier time/have a party with a good mash....and the fact that keeps fruit that damn long in primary....just asking for major off flavors... I like the idea of straining/mesh bag,rack the hell waaay sooner into secondary...

You think it would age better/clear better...have just hell of a cleaner/ taste/finish...with CO2 going crazy its gonna blow off a lot of the fruit/character anyways I find....where secondary depending a lot more mild/more like a good Soak...going to try my version with some other ingredients. I want get a good Balance/Semi-sweet brew.
Wine related/Meads its like the damn fight against bitterness/clean finish/one dimensional character....

I just dont get why so many people are so into making JAOM. Maybe because Its "easy"? All it is, is a recipe for 1950's prison hooch. Lol.

roachvaliek said:

I just dont get why so many people are so into making JAOM. Maybe because Its "easy"? All it is, is a recipe for 1950's prison hooch. Lol.

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I appreciate your opinion but I don't feel like this forum is the place for it.

Thank you,

I apoligize if ive offended you. It wasnt my intention. Ive been a homebrewer for 15 years now and im just stuck in my ways. Again, sorry.

4 Weeks old. It is beginning to clear.

roachvaliek said:

Also, bread yeast dosn't work very well for fermenting. Its specifically made for producing alot of CO2 but not alot of alcohol.

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There is an exact amount of CO2 that will be produced for an amount of alcohol produced. This is rooted in the Law of Conservation of Matter. No strain of yeast can produce more CO2 with the same starting material (honey). The carbon in the CO2 is stripped out of the carbohydrate (sugar in honey) and combined with the oxygen as part of the yeasts metabolism

The only difference in yeast strains for the purposes of this topic is how fast they can metabolize sugars. Since bread makers don't want to wait days for bread to rise, they use yeast that is quick and vigorous to start.

nitack said:

The only difference in yeast strains for the purposes of this topic is how fast they can metabolize sugars. Since bread makers don't want to wait days for bread to rise, they use yeast that is quick and vigorous to start.

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and there is no need for a bread maker to worry about the alcohol tolerance of the yeast. From what I have read, the whole point behind using the bread yeast is to have the mead finish sweet.

Here it is after 53 days and is still pretty cloudy. I'm debating racking it soon if it doesn't improve.

If you wait it will clear up on its own. Think my last JOAM took 3 months to be perfectly clear.

bmwr75 said:

If you wait it will clear up on its own. Think my last JOAM took 3 months to be perfectly clear.

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I've noticed that it has cleared quite a bit in the last couple of days. I think you are right. I'll let it go another month and see how it looks. I do have a minor concern for the mead sitting on the lees and fruit for that long but I think I will RDWHAHB.

Letting other recipes sit on the lees for 3 months is usually not a good idea. But JOAM works just fine this way. I racked from the original 1 gallon jug straight into 375 ml wine bottles using a racking siphon. All that was done differently from normal was to wrap some cheese cloth around the end of the racking siphon to act as a filter. Used a rubber band to keep it in place. Also held the end of the siphon above the thick later of fruit and lees to make sure only clear JOAM made it into the bottles. You lose quite a bit of a 1 gallon batch, but the simple recipe/process makes up for it IMHO.

Yes give this a full 90 days until racking. Hopefully your bread yeast was tolerant and fermented more sugars than normal. Getting into the 14% - 15% ABV range. That way the residual sugar content is lower. Most bread yeasts can reliably go to 11% - 12%. The purpose of the rind & Pith in the orange is to balance the sweetness normal JOAMs leave behind with their lower alcohol content and high gravity.

Best of luck with this. I have done many JOAM experiments and most go well. If this mead ends up being too sweet. Consider making a second JOAM the same way but cut the honey down to 1.5lb rather than 3.5lb. That one will finish dry and you can blend it with the sweet one to get the desired sweetness you want. Also doing the same recipe with a lemon (peel and all) rather than an orange works amazingly well.

Even after all that blended or not I find JOAM really starts to perk up and be really tasty at around the 7th month mark after yeast pitch.

Here it is after 98 days. Still clearing! Not sure what to do at this point.

OK. It will be four months next Wednesday since I started this and it is still cloudy. I want to get it off the lees ASAP so I stuck it in the fridge for some cold crashing. Its been in there for 3 days and the fruit has fallen. It is still cloudy though so I am going to leave it for a week or so and see how it looks.

Now that the fruit has fallen it is probably safe to rack. After that put it back in the fridge. Some times racking will release some dissolved co2 that is preventing stubborn yeast from settling and with the cold temps it may clear more easily.

So it cleared nicely from cold crashing but got cloudy again when I warmed it for bottling. After a week it has cleared once again. The lees are disturbed very easily so I'm not moving it again! I'll bottle it this weekend.

That looks pretty clear to me.

I bottled it yesterday and applied the wax seal to the bottles today.
I had a heck of a time getting my auto syphon to work properly and on top of that, the bottling wand didn't work all that well because of the dome in the bottom of the bottle prevented the valve in the wand from opening properly. I ended up with only seven 375ml bottles as the fruit got in the way and the lees stirred up pretty bad. A couple bottles are pretty clear but the rest have a bit of haze that will clear in time.
This mead is sweet with lots of honey character but no orange flavor at all. I think it is pretty good. We will see how it changes over time.