First batch if JOAM.

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I just racked over 4.5 gallons to a keg to settle out and clear so I can bottle it. It is a very nice recipe and friendly for first time mead makers.

It will be fairly sweet. My circle of friends have brewed this and some have come out very syrup like and others have finished a bit dryer but still sweet.

I'm sipping on a small sample and this batch seems just a bit sweeter than my last big batch.

Enjoy!
 
I just made my first JAOM today as well. The only thing I did different was I used pineapple instead of oranges..
 
Racked into a secondary today. It smells great. A fair amount of dead yeast came along as the fruit settled down. I may rack into a tertiary next week. This stuff smells great. I can't wait to see how it ages (if it gets the chance).
 
I thought, according to Joe, no racking was necessary or wanted?!?
 
Henny said:
I thought, according to Joe, no racking was necessary or wanted?!?
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The fermentation was complete and the oranges weren't submerged anymore and I think they would rot eventually so I made a command decision (this is as close as I get to command decisions these days). If I screwed up it's a gallon batch. If it comes out well it's only a gallon batch (dammit).
 
Henny said:
I thought, according to Joe, no racking was necessary or wanted?!?
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Going back and looking at the instructions it says if it's clear it's ready. It was clear. I made this in a leftover apple juice bottle with a narrow neck. If I make a larger batch I'll use a bucket so the fruit has someplace to spread out and stay submerged.
 
Bender said:
The fermentation was complete and the oranges weren't submerged anymore and I think they would rot eventually so I made a command decision (this is as close as I get to command decisions these days). If I screwed up it's a gallon batch. If it comes out well it's only a gallon batch (dammit).
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My fruit has been floating since the beginning, I thought I had nothing to fear since it was protected by a blanket of co2?
 
Henny said:
My fruit has been floating since the beginning, I thought I had nothing to fear since it was protected by a blanket of co2?
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So after a few minutes of exhaustive research I found this.

Commonly used modified atmospheres of low oxygen and elevated carbon dioxide generally suppress rots only modestly. Low oxygen suppresses fungal growth but only at very low concentrations which may be dangerous to the commodity. Carbon dioxide is fungistatic at levels of 10-20%, but most commodities tolerate those levels for only limited periods. The need for a fungal-suppressing gas in modified atmospheres has led to studies of the fungistatic effects of carbon monoxide. Some, but not all. important postharvest pathogens are markedly suppressed,particularly if the carbon monoxide is added to an atmosphere low in oxygen. A tendency to stimulate ripening may limit its use for long-term storage of some fruits. Possible uses and safety precautions will be discussed.

I didn't bother reading about the rest of it, but it's here if you care. MODIFIED ATMOSPHERES WITH CARBON MONOXIDE FOR SUPPRESSION OF ROT OF PERISHABLE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IN STORAGE AND TRANSIT

I would think if it looks OK it is OK, but who knows how funky the fruit can look before you have Ancient Mummy Mead and whatever curses go with it.
 
Yeah. Mold may well grow on the fruit - that's a good reason to rack. While racking voids Joe's warranty, he uses many old (ancient) practices that probably should not be employed. Bread yeast comes to mind.

I always rack a week or 10 days after the FG has stabilized. A few months a in secondary (with spices, oak etc.) until the mead is crystal clear and has a nice sparkle. Then into beer (for sparkling meads) or wine bottles.
 
Good luck to you, it will turn out tasty!

Mine turned out very sweet and syrupy, the bread yeast pooped out early. Next time I'm using less honey or a different yeast. Tasty but I have to water it down a bit to drink.
 
Kilgore_Trout said:
Good luck to you, it will turn out tasty!

Mine turned out very sweet and syrupy, the bread yeast pooped out early. Next time I'm using less honey or a different yeast. Tasty but I have to water it down a bit to drink.
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I've found that I have to water down most meads to make them palatable. I usually pour room temperature mead over a couple of ice cubes and let them melt for a couple of minutes.
 
Cugel said:
Yeah. Mold may well grow on the fruit - that's a good reason to rack. While racking voids Joe's warranty, he uses many old (ancient) practices that probably should not be employed. Bread yeast comes to mind.

I always rack a week or 10 days after the FG has stabilized. A few months a in secondary (with spices, oak etc.) until the mead is crystal clear and has a nice sparkle. Then into beer (for sparkling meads) or wine bottles.
Click to expand...

Screw that, I laugh in the face of mold HAHAHAHA. But, on a more serious note, did anything come into the idea that the alcohol soaked fruit cannot mold? Especialy when topped with a co2 blanky?
 
Henny said:
Screw that, I laugh in the face of mold HAHAHAHA. But, on a more serious note, did anything come into the idea that the alcohol soaked fruit cannot mold? Especialy when topped with a co2 blanky?
Click to expand...

I think submerged fruit would do fairly well. My rinds were never totally submerged and I wasn't sure I wanted to trust the alcohol to seep through the fruit, but... had the fruit been deeper in the rest of the liquid I would have taken the chance. The problem was the container I chose to ferment in (an apple juice bottle leftover from EdWort's Apfelwein Day).

I took another whiff of it yesterday and maybe I didn't do it right, but this stuff smells great so I'll take it the way it came out.
 
I am about 20 more days from bottling. No mold yet :D but sure smells yummy.
 
My fruit floated pretty high in mine and it came out fine. I used the container the water came in to ferment and a balloon for an airlock, lol. I just wish I had gotten the mead away from the orange because after about 6 weeks of fermntation the orange got a little funky. I magically seperated (you know, no racking!) the JOAM from the fruit/spice layer and it has cleared unbelievably in the last two days, you can read a newspaper through it!
 
Started my first batch of mead about 2 weeks ago. 1 gallon of JAOM. It's bubbling about 1 every 3-4 seconds and it's still very cloudy. But I still have a ways to go yet. Fruit still floating and looking fresh.
 
Just need some reassurance... my JAOM met it's two month birthday 5 days ago. It's still in the fermenter. The fruit has dropped, all but one or two raisins. It's started to clear but still looks cloudy. I can't read any text through the 1 gallon bottle. And it definitely does not look like this:

summersolstice said:
IMG_1619.JPG
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Is it ok to bottle? Should I wait until it completely clears? Will it clear if the fruit already dropped? I know patience is key, but I'm getting impatient about it. Actually, I've been impatient for 2 months and 5 days. ;)

Any advice? Thanks!
 
Wait, that is my advice. I hate to ruin a good mead I put months into by destroying its aesthetic value with sediment in the bottle. I say wait until it is just as clear as solstice's an think about bottling then.
 
Tusch said:
Wait, that is my advice. I hate to ruin a good mead I put months into by destroying its aesthetic value with sediment in the bottle. I say wait until it is just as clear as solstice's an think about bottling then.
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^+1

The fruit will drop, then refloat, then drop again, ad nauseam. It's just CO2 outgassing. When it's crystal clear, bottle.

Relax, if it's started to clear then it'll be done sooner than you think.
 
Henny said:
I am about 20 more days from bottling. No mold yet :D but sure smells yummy.
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Wrong as wrong, it's full to the brim with mold and that's what's keeping the fruit from spoiling. Well, sort of. It's nice and infected, but with the good kind of mold, the established colonies of which probably are keeping any other nasty bugs from establishing a foothold.

Mine turns 2 months in a few weeks here and it's still cloudy as a Seattle summer, all the fruit is floating and I have a yeast cake the size of prime-cut porterhouse.
 
Sorry brain fart, I was thinking umm fungi yes mold no. Oh wait, idiot haha. Four hours of sleep, 11 hours of work = sloooooooow
 
I think something in my brain just popped... But I think I'll follow this advice.
LastKnight said:
^+1

The fruit will drop, then refloat, then drop again, ad nauseam. It's just CO2 outgassing. When it's crystal clear, bottle.

Relax, if it's started to clear then it'll be done sooner than you think.
Click to expand...

I had some moments of panic, but I'm alright now. I'll wait till it's crystal and then bottle. Thanks for the reassurance!
 
Bender said:
Simple and friendly is what I need. My first foray into mead (about 15 years ago) was a waste of a lot of honey.
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This was a similar situation for me....my original mead making was shortlived as very expensive. since then i moved to brewing beer and cider....recently i tried mead again and love the fact that i moved down the batch size to 1 gallon batches. I have a few gallons of viking thunder under my belt and just put up my first JAOM yesterday.....I figure all the good reviews and 100's of years under the recipe the bugs got worked out by now...so we will see....her she is 2 days old.....keep ya posted when she finishes....
thanks
2n8znn.jpg
 
Update:
My JAOM is still s l o w l y clearing. It seems just a little clearer than last time I checked. This may take a while. I have not noticed the fruit rising to the top and falling again. I just have a couple of raisins still floating, which now resemble plump little grapes. This waiting is killing me. JUST CLEAR ALREADY!
 
I move mine around to get a good look at it in the light and no fruit rises. I've noticed that the airlock looks like there is still some pressure in it. Hard to tell if its still out-gassing though.
 
If you are wanting it to clear, stop moving it around. Even the slightest jiggle with pull up some sediment slowing down or reversing your clearing all together.
 
I have just started my first, however I found I only had about half the honey, when I was already making it, it's fermenting away, Will it be okay to add the rest of the honey when I get it, I've left a large gap
 
Pronay said:
I have just started my first, however I found I only had about half the honey, when I was already making it, it's fermenting away, Will it be okay to add the rest of the honey when I get it, I've left a large gap
Click to expand...

There are plenty of mead recipes out there that call for adding ingredients, such as fruit or honey, partway through fermentation. And I've seen cases where people add more honey after tasting their mead and wanting a different flavor.

One problem I see is difficulty getting the honey to dissolve in your already fermenting batch. I don't think you'll want to heat it up and mix it in for fear of damaging the yeasties. If you left enough space you could dissolve the remaining honey in water, let it cool, then pour it in. If not enough space, you might get away with just pouring it in. I bet the honey would dissolve slowly over time. Your fermentation would take a lot longer though. You could try stirring it up when you add the honey, this will also oxygenate the mead again. Again, many recipes call for oxygenating the mead periodically throughout fermentation.

Let us know what you decide to do, and how it turns out.
 
Tusch said:
If you are wanting it to clear, stop moving it around. Even the slightest jiggle with pull up some sediment slowing down or reversing your clearing all together.
Click to expand...

AHH! I know! Okay, I've been leaving it alone for a while now, hopefully it's clearing. Must resist urge to peek...
 
Pronay said:
I have just started my first, however I found I only had about half the honey, when I was already making it, it's fermenting away, Will it be okay to add the rest of the honey when I get it, I've left a large gap
Click to expand...

I would rack off about 1/3 if the fluid and vigorously mix in the remaining honey and then add it back into the fermenter.
 

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