JOAM Still Good?

[LoGun4340]

I started a JOAM batch in September. I hid it in the dark corner of my pantry because I care for my elderly father has dementia and I was worried he would mess with it since I noticed he would ask what it was daily and it always caught his eye. Cue pandemic and non stop work and it fell through the cracks. Once this settles after I moved it to the counter is it worth trying to bottle?

 

[CKuhns]

"is it worth trying to bottle"

Looks like I would expect it to. Definitely worth bottling.
Taste it, (It will likely have kind of an orange rind kind of flavor but will mellow with age.)
Check Gravity and let it age for a year or more.

 

[LoGun4340]

Thanks, I've only bottled one 5 gallon batch of beer before this but I assume it's similar in that I get as much as I can while avoiding the trub and solids. Would it be smart to pass it through a coffee filter or similar while racking to my bottling container or during bottling. I could also just stop short of the bottom it won't be the end of the world to me. It looks pretty good now that it's settled overnight from being moved to the countertop. Very clear and a nice color so that is exciting.

 

[Amadeo38]

You can use your beer bottling procedure with a few differences:

1) depending on the final gravity, you may want to backsweeten it if it’s too dry (assuming you don’t like it that way). I don’t know much about which iteration of the JAOM recipe you used, though if you used a champagne yeast, it might be super dry. If you add more (warmed/dissolved with boiled water) honey to your bottling bucket to backsweeten it, you’ll have to also add some chemicals to prevent the yeast from eating those sugars. Most people use a combo of potassium metabisulfate (campden?) and potassium sorbate, I think. The exact amounts will depend on your bottling volume.

2) if you are cautious and concerned that the above step didn’t stop the yeast, you might want to bottle into champagne bottles with corks (you can get push-in plastic ones and wire cages if you don’t have a corker). At the very least, use heavy glass beer bottles if that’s the route you’re taking instead.

 

[CKuhns]

+1 for the beer bottle technique @Amadeo38 (I almost always use beer bottles and crown caps when not kegging.)

Coffee filter will only catch the larger particles. Yeast and a lot of the finer sediment will just pass through it. I would definitely stop just short of the sediment and to help with the largish "floaters" a sanitized cheese cloth over the tip of your racking cane helps.

 

[dwhite60]

It certainly doesn't get worse with age.

I did one of those once and later found a bottle that was five years old. It was like Grand Marnier Tripple Orange Brandy.

Something to try. I put a half teaspoon of crushed red pepper in the mix. It's barely noticeable heat wise but really enhances the flavor.