fleischmanns yeast took Jaom to 14% abv

I made a pretty straight 1 gallon Jaom,
3 lbs supermarket honey
1 orange chopped up
handful of chopped raisins boiled in a bit of water
1 package Fleischmanns yeast, can't recall if it was the active dry or rapidsrise kind.
starting sg was 1.110

at one week it was 1.035
second week, 1.020
now after 4 weeks and racking into secondary it's at 1.002

I was shocked, I'd heard that bread yeast would die off around 8-10% abv.

I'm going to add a bit more honey because it's definitely rock fuel tasting atm.

I just hope the fermentation is done, all this testing has brought the batch size down to 2/3 gallon

pimento said:

I was shocked, I'd heard that bread yeast would die off around 8-10% abv.

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A vicious rumor (unfounded too)! Fleischmann's rountinely goes to 12-14%.

That's why the recipe for JAO calls for 3.5 pounds of honey, not 3. It's not very palatable dry without a lot of aging. You need the residual sugar to balance the pithyness and spice.

pimento said:

I made a pretty straight 1 gallon Jaom,
3 lbs supermarket honey
1 orange chopped up
handful of chopped raisins boiled in a bit of water
1 package Fleischmanns yeast, can't recall if it was the active dry or rapidsrise kind.
starting sg was 1.110

at one week it was 1.035
second week, 1.020
now after 4 weeks and racking into secondary it's at 1.002

I was shocked, I'd heard that bread yeast would die off around 8-10% abv.

I'm going to add a bit more honey because it's definitely rock fuel tasting atm.

I just hope the fermentation is done, all this testing has brought the batch size down to 2/3 gallon

Click to expand...

Well it's not a "pretty straight 1 gallon Jaom" is it.....

You make no mention of the fruit element of JAO, also if you read the recipe for JAO, you certainly don't rack it do you.......


It's supposed to be like a "1 pot" mix and mash isn't it. No further processing after the initial mixing until the fruit has dropped......

regards

fatbloke

p.s. what you've made is, IMO a traditional mead. Yes you've used bread yeast, not an issue. You've used dried fruit, which is used in some recipes for body etc anyway. So as I say, less JAO and more traditional......

I didn't realize Joe was so hardcore about people not following his recipe to the letter...

I stand corrected, I shall never refer to this mead as a jaom again.
I christen it, fbtinajoam, fatbloke-thinks-its-not-a-jaom.

I did actually mention the fruit, second and third line of the post and it was fresh, not dried. Well, except for the raisins.

And I racked it because it was done, fruit fallen and all, but I'm not prepared to bottle it yet.

My pre-fbtinajoam googling for bread yeast abv tolerance suggested 8-10% with a few having gotten 12%, so I was assuming i'd end up with more of a semi-sweet than a dry.

BTW, I started a tinajaome(This-Is-Not-A-JAOM-Either) on the same day, same ingredients except, switched lemonade concentrate for the oranges.
It's proceeding much slower, only 1.046 after 4 weeks, but it is still bubbling away.

fatbloke said:

Well it's not a "pretty straight 1 gallon Jaom" is it.....

You make no mention of the fruit element of JAO, also if you read the recipe for JAO, you certainly don't rack it do you.......


It's supposed to be like a "1 pot" mix and mash isn't it. No further processing after the initial mixing until the fruit has dropped......

regards

fatbloke

p.s. what you've made is, IMO a traditional mead. Yes you've used bread yeast, not an issue. You've used dried fruit, which is used in some recipes for body etc anyway. So as I say, less JAO and more traditional......

Click to expand...

pimento said:

I didn't realize Joe was so hardcore about people not following his recipe to the letter...

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He's not. But if you deviate in any way from the recipe you void the warranty.

pimento said:

BTW, I started a tinajaome(This-Is-Not-A-JAOM-Either) on the same day, same ingredients except, switched lemonade concentrate for the oranges.
It's proceeding much slower, only 1.046 after 4 weeks, but it is still bubbling away.

Click to expand...

You probably have a very low pH slowing it down. The lemonade concentrate tends to do that.

Medsen

MedsenFey said:

You probably have a very low pH slowing it down. The lemonade concentrate tends to do that.

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I thought that might be it, but since I'm not really up on how to adjust PH and it's still moving along, I figure I'll just let it chug along slowly.

I do need to learn not to test these gallon batches so much, it takes to big a bite out of them. This one is down at least 4 cups from a gallon.

btw, if I add some boiled water and honey to the fbtinajaom, will it dilute the abv enough to restart fermentation?

There do seem to be a few yeasties munching away in there still.

Possibly.
But I wouldn't bother with boiling the addition.

MedsenFey said:

A vicious rumor (unfounded too)! Fleischmann's rountinely goes to 12-14%.

Click to expand...

I made a cider with Hefe Weizen yeast (usually 75% attenuation) and the cider's FG was 1.000...