JAO BOMM Yeast

[AchilleaMillefolium]

Hello!

So I thought I'd try brewing a gallon of JAO BOMM while my quart of JAOM (first alcoholic brew ever) is fermenting so I'd get more mead next year - the JAOM is sitting on my fridge top, which can only accommodate a quart jar. My room temps are now 16C (61F) and will soon fall to a steady 15C (59F) till March. Hence my decision to try my hand at JAO BOMM using ale yeast.

I have questions regarding the substitution of yeast as I am unable to obtain Wyeast 1388 without spending $$$ (am a student) due to where I live and am fully prepared to wait out extended fermentation/aging times (will not be adding any pith). As much as possible, I'd like to stick to the no commercial yeast nutrients & co. recipe of the JAO BOMM for budgeting and accessibility reasons.

1. I have Nottingham, US-05 and S-04 dry yeast on hand and would like a sweet mead. The final alcohol % is unimportant to me (though admittedly, a yeast that gobbles up less honey would benefit my wallet... Taste takes priority though.) Which of these yeasts would you recommend, and how much honey should I use up front? The same 3.5lbs as the recipe? I'm not really sure how to calculate the amount honey to use vs alcohol tolerance levels of the yeast. Would I need to add honey later on in the fermentation, if so, when and how much?
2. Bray writes a 'smack pack' of yeast in his recipe, how much is that? The packets I have are 11.5g - do I use the whole packet?

Or might it just be impossible to make a sweet mead from these yeasts without commerical nutrients? I'd greatly appreciate any feedback!

 

[videojunkie1208]

For yeast nutrient, you can buy several packets (or a small jar) of bread yeast, add some sugar and water to activate it, and then after a few hours, kill it with boiling water. This will be far better for your yeast than raisins.

As long as your starting gravity is above 1.080 or so, you will wind up with a 'sweet' mead as you will exceed the alcohol tolerance of most of the yeasts you have (~10% ABV). I've never played with either of those yeasts so I can't speak to what kind of flavor profiles you will get.

Good luck!

 

[loveofrose]

Of what yeast you have, I would try S-04 or US05. All of the yeast you have will exceed 12% ABV in mead. The ABV specs are just completely wrong on the packaging. It’s not impossible to make a sweet mead; you just have to add more honey than the yeast consume.

 

[AchilleaMillefolium]

Thank you, loveofrose and videojunkie for your replies!

I chose US-05 and may have unfortunately underpitched a little (or a lot), I added 1 tsp for a gallon and though it's fermenting (many CO2 bubbles under the cap) it seems it might be really slow. It took around 30 hrs before I small bubbles forming. Thinking I may have underpitched I added 1/4 tsp boiled yeast each day after for the next 5 days. 6 days after pitching I dropped my sanitized hydrometer straight into the jar after swirling it a little to dissipate some CO2 and it showed 1.110 (from OG 1.120). I'm hoping this is just really slow fermentation due to possible SG misreading from excess CO2, cold temps and possible underpitching and just need to let the yeast take its time to do its job, and that it'll ferment to around 1.020-25 FG (12-13%) as many people seem to have success with...