JAOM-1 Week In

[cheezemm]

Well, I followed this recipe and made some slight variations. Figured I'd review the variations with you guys/gals to see if I made swamp water or good mead. Last time I used WAY TOOOOO MUCH NUTMEG, which resulted in some funky stuff.

1) I did not have any raisins on hand so I substituted with 40 blueberries.
2) Nutmeg and allspice was left out
3) I did add the cinammon stick
4) Sliced the oranges up but did remove the pith/connective stuff in the middle of the orange

What say you? Will I be able to put this in a mug and eat a gigantic turkey leg with a viking hat on, or will I need to have this after 4-6 beers

 

[cgenebrewer]

the thing with jaom, its designed to be done per the recipe. He has everything accounted for. He has reasons for using bread yeast, the pith, all that.

With that being said, it all depends on the yeast. If you went ahead and used bakers yeast, you will have a very sweet mead. The pith is there to counter that, so it may end up being very sweet.

As far as raisins vs blueberries, who knows? You may have stumbled upon something awesome.

 

[Flumpy]

Are you sure? I think we might be giving Joe too much credit. Can anyone really vouch that he thought out all the intermingling flavors for that recipe? Or did he make his recipe because it was easy and cheap and "traditional" and kind of funny and fun?

If he really figured out that the pith flavor would balance out the sweet flavor caused by the bakers yeast not producing as alcoholic a brew, and countered those flavors with the spices in precisely those quantities, and suggested it not be racked because the lees will impart some other flavor that will balance all those other flavors out, then he's the Bobby Flay of mead.

However, from his tone of writing the piece, it's always seemed to me that he was going for more of a carefree, non-serious approach.

 

[hoppymonkey]

I'm confused. I thought this was Yooper's recipe ( a woman). Yes the point of the recipe was the simplicity of process. I have my own batch on a for a week now with a few varitions for the ingredients i have on hand, but I tried to stay true to the simplicity of it all.

 

[cgenebrewer]

I WILL NOT HAVE YOU SPEAK OF OUR MEADGOD IN SUCH A WAY



haha anyway, yes your probably right, but its jsut works together so well. then when people try to improve it it ends up that they are dissapointment.

 

[fatbloke]

Well I think you'd find it was a bit of both i.e. simplicity and balance.

Joe is registered over at gotmead, though I don't think he posts much.

Oskaar knows him to speak too, and I've seem him quote that even the smallest change to the recipe is "voiding the warranty".

That's not forgetting that I've also tried some modifications, and most of them haven't worked well. It doesn't, IMO make for a good dry recipe, which is why I believe its a waste too use wine yeast.

Just stick to the original recipe as closely as you can and it should come out fine.

 

[cheezemm]

I have no idea what to expect, but I can tell you that I will be much happier this time around compared to last time. Last time, I found a recipe that called for 3 WHOLE nutmegs for a one gallon batch. At the very least, I can drink it this time without thinking about hallucinating from too much nutmeg

 

[Insomniac]

I didn't like my JOAM at all, it was too sweet with too much clove (dispite only putting one clove in and following the recipe exactly). I have to deilute it slightly in the glass to make it worth drinking at all. I will leave it to age for a bit before making final judgement however.