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GeorgiaBeer

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I have never made mead and would like to get a sweet mead 5 gallon recipe. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
5 gallon JAOM recipe (Joes Ancient Orange mead)

17.5 lb of honey
5 whole oranges cut up into 1/8th pieces
125 raisins
10 whole clove
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp all spice
5 cinnamon sticks
2 individual packages of "fleischmann bread yeast"

Mix all the ingrediants except the yeast and mix very very well and shake about to mix in plenty of oxygen. Sprinkle the yeast in the carboy on top, add airlock and then leave it alone for 4 - 6 months. The fruit should settle to the bottom. Once it it does or the 4 -6 month time passes then rack off the fruit and lees. Let it clear further in secondary over 30 days and then bottle.

The one gallon recipe can be found here: Joam recipe click here

If you can purchase a nice verietal honey like meadowfoam or orange blossom or... The you can do a traditional mead recipe like:

15 lb honey
100 golden raisins chopped fine
5 tsp yeast nutrient
2 1/2 tsp yeast energizer split into 4 parts feed every 24 hours starting with yeast pitch
Yeast: 1 package of Lalvin K1-V1116 rehydrated per package directions.

Again mix very well and leave this sit untill there is 1/2 inch of leese on the bottom and rack to a new container. repeat that untill no more lees collects at the bottom. When done you should have a gravity reading with your Hydrometer of 1.000 or lower. When the mead is really clear add the following:

5 crushed camden tablets
2 1/2 tsp of potassium sorbate
2.25 lb of honey

The camden and sorbate keeps any residual yeast from fermenting more and the 2.25 lb of honey should bring your gravity up to about 1.015 which I would consider a semi sweet/sweet mead.

Those are my suggestions. Let us know what you try.
 
and people have told me that the whole point of "JOAM" is that its supposed to be a cheap, easy, simple mead... this just sounds like a waste of time to me....

My advice: source 15-18 lbs of a decent orange blossom honey, use yeast nutrient, and ferment with wine yeast... Use staggered additions of the yeast nutrient for the 1st 2-4 days, degassing the mead before you stir it in to help support a healty fermentation. Just remember Quality in Quality OUT
 
CityOChampBrew said:
and people have told me that the whole point of "JOAM" is that its supposed to be a cheap, easy, simple mead... this just sounds like a waste of time to me....

My advice: source 15-18 lbs of a decent orange blossom honey, use yeast nutrient, and ferment with wine yeast... Use staggered additions of the yeast nutrient for the 1st 2-4 days, degassing the mead before you stir it in to help support a healty fermentation. Just remember Quality in Quality OUT

Sorry to sound like a complete idiot, but how much yeast nutrient? And how often do I do the staggered additions?
 
not an idiot question, being a beginner I use a bout a teaspoon additon with the yeast pitch and everyday for the first 3-4 days.

Good source for mead info would be to watcth this link

 
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I do reccomed wine yeast as I said as it is mostly going to be flavor neutral and you would want the honey to shine in a REAL mead. There are plenty of good wine yeasts to experiment with but being a beginner I would recommend going to your LHBS and asking them about the yeast profiles to gauge what you are looking to get out of you mead
 
I do want the honey to be the star! Living in the North GA mountains, I have several sources for good fresh honey. Do you recommend orange blossom honey or will my local honey work?
 
When thinking about what yeast to use I rarely listen to my LHBS but it may just be them. They know their beer and wine but nit so mutch in the mead department. Lalvin K1-V1116 is a great yeast for traditionals. Lalvin 71b will work out well giving you a smoother taste while it is younger but with age 1116 wins out. D47 gives fruity hints or citrous flavors but only works if you ferment really cool like at around 60*F.
 
Local wild flower honey is great as long as you get it raw and unfiltered. So stick with that if the price is right.
 
Ok. I'll be using my local honey. Thanks for all the help guys. I have my carboy occupied with beer now, but will definitely be making some mead soon.
 
I do want the honey to be the star! Living in the North GA mountains, I have several sources for good fresh honey. Do you recommend orange blossom honey or will my local honey work?

with ingredients, look at what you have available.. get the best, freshest available

just realize that each one will give a different flavor to your mead, if you have clover honey don't buy it...

any amazing honey that you can purchase will work
 
its not... I just used that as an example... everyone had their own tastes

if you don't like the taste raw you won't like it when its fermented
 
I understand. Thanks for answering all of my questons. I might have more for you later, once I start my mead.
 
watch that vid I link... its a good source for info...

these forums are a good source too after that

but its definately "beer/mead porn" LoL
 
Well, I guess you are saying that it will have my attention. I will definitely watch it.
 
Clover is just the most common and un-destinct honey flavor out there. It is not bad but many would call a traditional with clover honey "bland".

Now knowing you are leaning to the traditional side then however you decide to do it here is your preference. I suggest using the second recipe I posted and doing the stabilizing/back sweetening process because it will keep your ABV lower in the 14% range and you can sweeten the mead to your hearts content.

If you do not like the chemicals then you can step feed honey to the mead as it ferments. The issue with that is that if you use a yeast like K1-V1116 it will go to 18% - 19% ABV which for mead requires much more aging time befor it is really drinkable. If step feeding honey I would suggest Lalvin 71B or similar yeast with a 14% ABV alcohol tolerance. This way you can add 15 lb honey up front and then when you notice fermentation slowing you add 1 lb of honey, watch the fermentation pick up and when slowed down add another 1 lb of honey and continue the process till the fermentation does not pick up and stops. From there you should have a hydrometer and notice the gravity no longer moving and then you can add additional honey till you are at about 1.015 for the sweet mead level.
 
Clover is just the most common and un-destinct honey flavor out there. It is not bad but many would call a traditional with clover honey "bland".

Now knowing you are leaning to the traditional side then however you decide to do it here is your preference. I suggest using the second recipe I posted and doing the stabilizing/back sweetening process because it will keep your ABV lower in the 14% range and you can sweeten the mead to your hearts content.

If you do not like the chemicals then you can step feed honey to the mead as it ferments. The issue with that is that if you use a yeast like K1-V1116 it will go to 18% - 19% ABV which for mead requires much more aging time befor it is really drinkable. If step feeding honey I would suggest Lalvin 71B or similar yeast with a 14% ABV alcohol tolerance. This way you can add 15 lb honey up front and then when you notice fermentation slowing you add 1 lb of honey, watch the fermentation pick up and when slowed down add another 1 lb of honey and continue the process till the fermentation does not pick up and stops. From there you should have a hydrometer and notice the gravity no longer moving and then you can add additional honey till you are at about 1.015 for the sweet mead level.



Not to say you are wrong in what you do... but I have an amazingly sweet 18% raspberry mead in bottles right now that was only fermented with 18 lbs orangeblossom honey and 6 lbs of 2 different raspberries, amazingly sweet and finished at a gravity of .98 used lavin 71b


only fermented honey in one shot with no additions and added raspberries after 1 week of ferment... sounds like you are working too hard/adding more chance of an infection
 
Wow 18% ABV with 71B. That is 4% above it's rated ABV. Nice that you were able to properly treat the yeast to get it that high. At 0.980 gravity I would be surprised to see it as sweet especially at that high an ABV but I have never tried a raspberry mead so that is something I may need to try in the future. If doing a traditional I just like to take every step that I can to provide less stress on the yeast for best performance. Plus it is hard to infect a mead as long as you use normal sanitary practices.

however I like to stabilize and back sweeten personally. I think 10% - 14% ABV is plenty for me.

OP take everything I or anyone says with a grain of salt and reasearch more and find the truth yourself. I am sure following either of our instructions you will make great mead.
 
Wow 18% ABV with 71B. That is 4% above it's rated ABV. Nice that you were able to properly treat the yeast to get it that high. At 0.980 gravity I would be surprised to see it as sweet especially at that high an ABV but I have never tried a raspberry mead so that is something I may need to try in the future. If doing a traditional I just like to take every step that I can to provide less stress on the yeast for best performance. Plus it is hard to infect a mead as long as you use normal sanitary practices.

however I like to stabilize and back sweeten personally. I think 10% - 14% ABV is plenty for me.

OP take everything I or anyone says with a grain of salt and reasearch more and find the truth yourself. I am sure following either of our instructions you will make great mead.

If it was beer I would call is Samual Jackson, based on a Dave Chapelle skit, because it will git you drunk.. But yeah the more adivse you can get the better, thus the video I linked you as those guys interviewed someone who is a recognized mead maker of the year and who better to get advise from??
 
Interesting points acropolis and city, like the old carpenter says there always more than one way to skin a cat...but I digress. Never having brewed (terminology?) a mead but am strongly considering to fill up my extra carboy (I have three) thanks for the five gallon conversion for Joam. I am more of a set it and forget it kind of guy so I would like to forgo the addition of nutrients/subsequent honey/ effort so I think the Joam is great for my first batch. Has anyone tried making this sparkling or is that a bad idea?
 
One last question, if use a 6.5 carboy initially, how soon can I rack to a five gallon? What is the water volume to add, enough for five gallons total product?
 
For a JAOM If using a 6.5 gallon then leave it there till the fruit drops or after 3 months minimum. If you leave it alone as the recipe calls for then there should be a blanket of CO2 over the mead the whole time preventing oxidization.

The recipe claims it is drinkable by 3 months but I really started enjoying my last JAOM at the 7 month mark. That is when it starts to shine IMO. So rack to the 5 gallon at the 3 - 4 month mark and wait another 3 months. Should be tasty then.

12 punds of honey is one gallon of volume so all the ingediants will be about 1.5 gallons and 3.5 gallons of water needed to bring the whole bit up to 5 gallons total volume. Give or take a cup or so of liquid.
 
Thanks this helps. As for honey I found 3# containers at whole foods for ten bucks , does anyone know of more economical option? Doesn't matter to me but its organic
 
That's a decent price. I bought 5 gal (about 70lbs) for $275 from a local bee keeper, which works out to about $4/lb. Keep in mind, that was major bulk order.

When I bought commercial, I could get 3lbs for $14 which is $4.7/lb. Just take note of where the honey comes from and 'organic' may be more of a gimmick than actual. If it comes from china or india, they've been having problems of folks adding cheap filler, such as corn syrup.

Plus I always recommend buying locally. Trading a beer or two might help with the price too!
 
Thanks maverick, I will investigate. Ok, onto my first batch of JOAM! Ill tell you all about it in 6 months, hehehe
 
That's a decent price. I bought 5 gal (about 70lbs) for $275 from a local bee keeper, which works out to about $4/lb. Keep in mind, that was major bulk order.

When I bought commercial, I could get 3lbs for $14 which is $4.7/lb. Just take note of where the honey comes from and 'organic' may be more of a gimmick than actual. If it comes from china or india, they've been having problems of folks adding cheap filler, such as corn syrup.

Plus I always recommend buying locally. Trading a beer or two might help with the price too!

Even at $4/lb you are not getting good enough prices. I suggest you check further or do a group buy with other mead makers. On the low end I would expect about $2/lb for wildflower or a common honey. On the medium end I would expect about $3/lb for like orange blossom or raspberry blossum or buckwheat even. But $4/lb that's your premium tulopo or the rare honey types. I can get $4/lb in Costco that is wildflower honey. Still not good honey but that's non-bulk (about 6 pounds). So wow, they are still expecting premiums on their honey.

Where you located?

Matrix
 
Dutch gold sells 60 pound buckets of wildflower for $114 ($1.90/lb), Orange blossom for $124 ($2.06/lb), and if you don't mind a mix of stuff their "bakers special" (wildflower and the left over of a little bit of all of their varieties) which would probably be ok for melomels/metheglins with real strong fruit and spice profiles or big batches of JAOM for $99 ($1.65/lb).....they sell only "true souce" honey, so you know youre not getting any of the imported blended fake crap.

plus tax/shipping ofcourse

When sourcing local though, raw honey, you can probably expect to pay a bit more but quality wise it's usually amazing stuff
 
Located in southern MD, which is 2 hours from anything civilized. The honey I bought was lower in moisture content and the full 5 gal bucket carried 70# of honey (not including the weight of the bucket).

I'd call it top quality, plus I know who and where it came from. But that's getting into personal preferences.

But that's my experience in buying honey, so I call $4/lb a good deal. But if you can get quality stuff for cheaper and even into the $2/lb range, go for it!
 
must have quite a facitily or processing set up to drive enough moisture out of it to gain 10 pounds in a 5 gallon volume. think I'll stick with my 12-17% moisture 60lb/5 gallon stuff :)
 
No futuristic facility that I know of. However a 5gal pail isn't exactly 5gal. It can be more like 5.4-5.75 gal. And at 12lbs/gal, that's closer to 70#. Plus I know it's a lower moisture because it has a haze due to crystals.

But no, I probably didn't get an extra 10# from moisture alone. So I guesstimated the $4/lb value.

Back to the thread, DutchGold describes some of their honeys as being imported or blends. But the buckwheat they sell sounds tempting.
 
No futuristic facility that I know of. However a 5gal pail isn't exactly 5gal. It can be more like 5.4-5.75 gal. And at 12lbs/gal, that's closer to 70#. Plus I know it's a lower moisture because it has a haze due to crystals.

But no, I probably didn't get an extra 10# from moisture alone. So I guesstimated the $4/lb value.

Back to the thread, DutchGold describes some of their honeys as being imported or blends. But the buckwheat they sell sounds tempting.

Dutch gold honey is good, their "organic honey" is imported from Brazil, and their "Bakers special" is a blend of wildflower and others honeys that they don't specify. I suspect it's the bottom of the barrels of all of the other varieties mixed together so it varies, that may be why they arent specific on the blend.

They do sell only true source honey (http://www.truesourcehoney.com/) so you should be able to trust it isn't mixed with hfcs or any of the other crap that's been imported to look like honey.

Another site I'm contemplating ordering from is eBeeHoney.com, they seem to have a great selection of raw honey and relatively decent pricing.
 
I did a 3 gallon batch of JOAM today, hopefully it turns out ok.
 
Thinking about trying to make a one gallon batch of JOAM and I have a bunch of questions.I'll ask just one and maybe the rest will be answered......starting from the bottling...Once in a bottle how long before it's ready to drink?
 
I really started to enjoy mine right a 7 months. Sone say it us drinkable at 3. Which it is but drinkable is all I would describe it as. Others say right at 6 months is the magic number.
 
Wow... Good posts on this thread!


The warning on the video was not adequate though!
Now I need to watch more and start sourcing ingredients!
Geez this hobby is addictive!
 
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