JAOM Sanitation Question

[LoGun4340]

I would like to make a batch of JAOM for one of my first meads as I have an extra gallon glass carboy I can spare for the long time frame. I am familiar with sanitizing from brewing beer but the one question I can't figure out from researching threads comes from the beginning of the recipes instructions. When I boil wort for beer that kills unwanted microbes and then the equipment and handling from there on is sanitized as well. Do I need to cook or sanitize the ingredients when making the JAOM. I am interested in making it as faithful to the original recipe and process at I can but if someone would share their process to help me visualize what I'll need to worry about it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Sanitation way less important in mead making (and wine and cider) than it is with beer.

• Mead doesn't have phenolic precursors, so microbial off-flavors are less problematic.
• The alcohol level is generally higher, so contaminants are less likely to survive.
• There are no dextrins, so over-attenuation by contaminants is less of a concern.
• It won't acidify from lactic acid bacteria, because the pH is already too low.
• Low nutrient levels give the pitched yeast a larger advantage.
• Sulfite is commonly used both before and after fermentation to control wild microbes (you can sulfite your JAOM if you want).

Keep your work area and ingredients clean, but there's no need to go overboard with Pasteurization or sanitation.

Welcome to HBT!

 

[CKuhns]

No boiling required. Sanitise your equipment like you would for beer. The orange will be fine just rinse it well before slicing, and the spices just dump them in.

 

[LoGun4340]

Sanitation way less important in mead making (and wine and cider) than it is with beer.

• Mead doesn't have phenolic precursors, so microbial off-flavors are less problematic.
• The alcohol level is generally higher, so contaminants are less likely to survive.
• There are no dextrins, so over-attenuation by contaminants is less of a concern.
• It won't acidify from lactic acid bacteria, because the pH is already too low.
• Low nutrient levels give the pitched yeast a larger advantage.
• Sulfite is commonly used both before and after fermentation to control wild microbes (you can sulfite your JAOM if you want).

Keep your work area and ingredients clean, but there's no need to go overboard with Pasteurization or sanitation.

Welcome to HBT!

Thank your for this information it’s what I was assuming after all I had read but didn’t want to make an assumption based of intuition before I started a months long wait. I feel like I am ready to whip it up this weekend after reading this. Thank you very much and for the welcome I am excited to join the community and learn more along the way.

 

[LoGun4340]

No boiling required. Sanitise your equipment like you would for beer. The orange will be fine just rinse it well before slicing, and the spices just dump them in.

Thank you, I was planning on using a fruit scrubber for pesticides and and unseen debris in the skin. I feel ready to start a batch now I will keep y’all posted on the progress!

 

[LoGun4340]

Sanitation way less important in mead making (and wine and cider) than it is with beer.

• Mead doesn't have phenolic precursors, so microbial off-flavors are less problematic.

The alcohol level is generally higher, so contaminants are less likely to survive.

• There are no dextrins, so over-attenuation by contaminants is less of a concern.
• It won't acidify from lactic acid bacteria, because the pH is already too low.
• Low nutrient levels give the pitched yeast a larger advantage.
• Sulfite is commonly used both before and after fermentation to control wild microbes (you can sulfite your JAOM if you want).

Keep your work area and ingredients clean, but there's no need to go overboard with Pasteurization or sanitation.

Welcome to HBT!

I have a bag of Camnden tablets coming tomorrow. Was reading about water for brewing beer, Mead and such and although we have great tap water here in San Antonio I was disappointed to learn about the negative effects of chloramine and chlorine on the final product. My first batch of dark ale has just stopped active fermentation after a week and I am thinking I will let it sit for another week before bottling. The yeast seemed healthy since it was pitched at proper temp and I kept the fermentation between 68-71 the entire time save for maybe the first 4 hours. Hopefully I won't have to worry about autolysis because I didn't consider the chlorine effecting the yeast up until today when I had time to do more research. I think if I use the tabs for the JAOM tomorrow I will be conservative on the dose as that sounds like the way to go from what I've read due to odors but maybe that's just what I've read most so far. If I can't decide on it by tomorrow I can use some bottled gallons from the store.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Autolysis is unrelated to chorine/choramine. Autolysis is the breakdown of yeast cells; it certainly won't occur within a few months, much less a few weeks.

In the presence of the chlorine compounds in tap water, yeast produce chlorophenols, which have a "Band-Aid" plastic flavor.
If your tap water contains chlorine instead of chloramine, it may have evaporated during the boil and won't be a problem. Do you know which one your water has?

Personally, I suggest to use charcoal/carbon filtered water, or purchase water that's been reverse osmosis (RO) filtered or distilled. Spring water is also generally OK.
If you must use tap water, one Campden tablet is enough for 20 gallons, so maybe use a quarter or half tablet in 5 gal.
Once you aerate, the sulfite will be gone and have pretty much no further effect.

Hope this makes sense.

 

[LoGun4340]

Autolysis is unrelated to chorine/choramine. Autolysis is the breakdown of yeast cells; it certainly won't occur within a few months, much less a few weeks.

In the presence of the chlorine compounds in tap water, yeast produce chlorophenols, which have a "Band-Aid" plastic flavor.
If your tap water contains chlorine instead of chloramine, it may have evaporated during the boil and won't be a problem. Do you know which one your water has?

Personally, I suggest to use charcoal/carbon filtered water, or purchase water that's been reverse osmosis (RO) filtered or distilled. Spring water is also generally OK.
If you must use tap water, one Campden tablet is enough for 20 gallons, so maybe use a quarter or half tablet in 5 gal.
Once you aerate, the sulfite will be gone and have pretty much no further effect.

Hope this makes sense.

Makes plenty of sense. I will have to look at the SAWS website to see their yearly report. Unfortunately the northern Brewers kit I used has very basic instructions and says to boil 2.5 gallons of the water when making your wort then add the remaining water to make 5 after chilling the wort. I used a wort chiller gifted to me from a customer of mine and then added the rest of the water directly to the chilled wort so if either is present it definitely made it into the batch. Live and learn I guess. I told my wife I figured the instructions were basic in order to allow you to make beer but maybe a final product that left something to be desired in order to get you to buy more recipe kits or convince you that you need special equipment to make a good product but that's probably just me being little cinical. Luckily I knew the importance of sanitation and temp control so those were observed. After stumbling across the chlorine info today I immediately remembered the line in the recipe that states any water that tastes good will make good tasting beer! : / The wife and I are having fun so far though. In helping her cut and measure fabric for her sewing and she is helping me with the beer making process so these oversights will just be part of the leaning experience.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Logun4340, and welcome.
The thing about chlorine and chloramine in the water is that fermentation will create phenols and these can bind to the chlors in the water .. and the result is cough medicine-flavored wines and meads... You want to use water that has had all the chlorine removed or the chloramine neutralized. I myself prefer to use spring water. Here that water is state monitored, and is free (it flows from wells in a state park about a mile from my home). No chlorine, no fluorine...But my guess is that bottled spring water costs about a dollar a gallon (perhaps less in bulk) and the benefit is that your mead (or wine) is far less likely to taste like medicine (though a sweet low acid wine certainly helps create that taste too)

 

[LoGun4340]

Autolysis is unrelated to chorine/choramine. Autolysis is the breakdown of yeast cells; it certainly won't occur within a few months, much less a few weeks.

In the presence of the chlorine compounds in tap water, yeast produce chlorophenols, which have a "Band-Aid" plastic flavor.
If your tap water contains chlorine instead of chloramine, it may have evaporated during the boil and won't be a problem. Do you know which one your water has?

Personally, I suggest to use charcoal/carbon filtered water, or purchase water that's been reverse osmosis (RO) filtered or distilled. Spring water is also generally OK.
If you must use tap water, one Campden tablet is enough for 20 gallons, so maybe use a quarter or half tablet in 5 gal.
Once you aerate, the sulfite will be gone and have pretty much no further effect.

Hope this makes sense.

Mead seems to be doing well so far and the beer has been bottled. Smelled like flat beer so maybe it will end up making good cold, carbonated beer. Just thought I'd give y'all an update and thanks again for the help.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Cool, good luck!