Show us your Mead in a photo!!!

[Dan O]

All of these brewed on New Year's Day, 2021. Might as well start the new year with a bang...& a buzz

Left to right
1 gallon Sweet meadowfoam BOMM,
1 gallon Juniper berry & Spruce tip BOMM,
1 gallon Orange Blossom & Tupelo traditional BOMM,
3 gallons Christmas Spice BOMM
1 quart of traditional using a local wildflower (10 ounces) & Tupelo ( 2 ounces)



All made using @loveofrose's recipes for a guideline.
The meadowfoam & Christmas spice BOMMs are by the recipe.
The OB/Tupelo BOMM is missing the tannins, but, I'm sure it will be fine. I have oak cubes & spheres for after fermentation.
The only thing altered in the juniper berry mead was the addition of 10 inches of spruce tips. (5- 2 inch pieces)

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Left to right, Blueberry melomel, tropical fruit melomel, Solera style Group brew Bochets, and a Cyser in the back corner.

 

[Meadini]

3 gallons blueberry banana

 

[Dan O]

Racked...(& tasted) my one gallon of JAOM today. What a delicious mead! FG 1.030, started 12/20/20. I think next time I will add just a touch less honey to hopefully get me 1.020, but, it's beautiful where it is. Love the color, all the spices & orange on the nose, as well as the honey. Good balance. This was the first JAOM that I have done, & certainly won't be my last. I originally racked it into a one gallon carboy, but wasn't comfortable with the amount of headspace, so I put it into the 1/2 gallon & quart sized Ball jars. The leftover almost filled a Grolsch bottle, which went into the fridge for immediate consumption.
Happy meading

 

[Maylar]

Racked...(& tasted) my one gallon of JAOM today. What a delicious mead! FG 1.030, started 12/20/20.

Straight out of the fermentor the JAOM is all clove and orange. In 2 months it'll be better and at 8 months they're wonderful. I have a 1-1/2 gallon going now that should rack to a full gallon.

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Had 2 gallons of JAOM in a 3 gallon carboy I needed for a new Blood Orange melomel and had enough after bottling for a gravity reading. After a year it's exactly what you expect from JAOM but the spices have really mellowed out. Samples in October, as I've come to expect, clove and cinnamon were very forward and now, citrus blends it all together as it has worked into the mix. Alcohol has finally taken a backseat to flavor and a glass will certainly warm you up.

I enjoy making JAOM every year and am planning to start one for the year soon alongside the Blood Orange that began today but need to clear up a carboy again.

Oh, sorry, I've been sampling my brew a bit and focus is lacking but the year old JAOM is 1.020 but I wanted to mention to Dan O that while using Fleischmans I've had final gravity's from 1.012-1.034 so dialing in that 1.020 may be tricky. I try to maintain a consistent O.G. every batch just for some semblance of repetition but that's the best part of JAOM, always a bit of surprise.

 

[Meadini]

A JAOM is definitely on my list, after I burn through the berries I picked last summer.

 

[Dan O]

Oh, sorry, I've been sampling my brew a bit and focus is lacking but the year old JAOM is 1.020 but I wanted to mention to Dan O that while using Fleischmans I've had final gravity's from 1.012-1.034 so dialing in that 1.020 may be tricky. I try to maintain a consistent O.G. every batch just for some semblance of repetition but that's the best part of JAOM, always a bit of surprise.

Noted, & thank you. My first 2 meads were with Fleischmans. One came out @ 19.43%, the other @ 12.73%. It's more of a goal, really.

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Newest member to the shelf, Spiced Blood Orange melomel.

 

[Dan O]

Newest member to the shelf, Spiced Blood Orange melomel.View attachment 719641

How many gallons is that carboy, please?
Would you be willing to share the recipe, please? Thank you in advance, if you do.

 

[Kyzaboy89]

How many gallons is that carboy, please?
Would you be willing to share the recipe, please? Thank you in advance, if you do.

That's a 3 gallon filled up to the 2 gallon mark and will be topping off later when fruit comes out. I'll get my notebook later to make sure it's accurate and will certainly share. Was planning on doing a JAOM with the same Blood Oranges but kids wanted a snack and I didn't get any extra for them. Planning to grab more this evening and starting it up. Want to show family and friends the difference between JAOM and more standard practices and how they are both tasty but you can speed it up or focus on certain characteristics.

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Bochets, almost a year old, Solera style Group brew still going haha getting ready for next generation. Dark enough I couldn't see anything through it, had to put an LED behind it in the dark to see through it and it almost glows from the light refraction.

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Blueberry melomel clearing well, could use fining at the point but going to let it keep going a week or two. A bit of pectin haze is all that's left in suspension and you can actually see through it clearly, just a bad picture, plan to clear a bit more and then backsweeten.

 

[Maylar]

JAOM at 2 months. Waiting for the fruit to fall before racking. Spices are hanging in a bag.

 

[dayid]

Very traditional 71B clearing nicely and naturally.

 

[Deadalus]

JAOM at 2 months. Waiting for the fruit to fall before racking. Spices are hanging in a bag.

View attachment 721198

What kind of fermenter is that? Is it glass?

 

[Maylar]

What kind of fermenter is that? Is it glass?

Yes. It's a "Little Big Mouth" from Northern Brewer.

 

[Dan O]

Made 3 gallons of a blood orange JAOM hybrid. It's a weird one though. I didn't use the peels, just the zest. I peeled & separated the segments & peeled every single one of them, (what a task that was) froze them & after they thawed, crushed the juices out by hand & dumped the whole thing in. It's gonna be hell when I rack it, but, it's done now .
All of the spices according to the JAOM recipe went in and it was bubbling when I got up 5 hrs later.

I didn't have clover honey, except for 1 pound, sooooo, I had to improvise & make a honey cocktail. Used 5 different honeys altogether. ---2 different wildflowers, Canadian prairie, clover, & orange blossom to bring me up to OG. It smells delicious!
Total honeys were 9 lbs 11.4 oz.
OG was 1.135
Pretty stoked about this one.

 

[cmac62]

African Bronze Honey purchased from HBT seller. This is a BOMM that sat in primary for 3 months, stabilized and back sweetened to 1020 (too sweet for me). But this is the first mead to actually taste like honey. Bad pick, but it is really clear.

 

[cmac62]

I guess I need to get me some 1 gal jugs for fermenting smaller batches.

 

[Dan O]

I guess I need to get me some 1 gal jugs for fermenting smaller batches.

Careful. It's addictive

 

[cmac62]

Careful. It's addictive

It certainly looks that way.

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Traditional with D47 has been going since March 11, steadily chugging along, needed a bucket so it was transferred today.

 

[Dan O]

Traditional with D47 has been going since March 11, steadily chugging along, needed a bucket so it was transferred today.View attachment 723076

What's to its left? Looks clear & beautiful!

 

[Kyzaboy89]

That would be the Spiced Blood Orange Melomel

 

[Dan O]

That would be the Spiced Blood Orange Melomel

Wow! That cleared up FAST!

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Healthy ferments can work wonders on your meads, practice traditionals and it can teach you alot about when/what to do during primary. That said, you can have that random batch just stay hazy with no flavor difference.

 

[karamonde]

I hadn't brewed for ages, years in fact, so now I am back strong!

These are:

• 10L Bochet made on the 1st of Feb, racked on the 28th of Feb
  • 5L racked as is
  • 5L racked on ~15g medium toast oak chips
  • will be racking again on the 1st of April (or the weekend following it) for a month before bottling
• 5L of ginger+orange...metheglin? Made on the 1st of March, I used 200g of grated root ginger, boiled for ~10 mins with zest from 1 orange, then turned the heat off and dissolved 1.2kg of honey in it, strained, cooled down, pitched the yeast and made up to 5L. I'm frankly surprised it is still bubbling regularly as I used bread yeast - which I do with almost all my meads - I imagine the ginger root had plenty of nutrients and minerals to help the year. I had a quick sip of the unfermented must and despite using 200g of ginger it is not VERY hot, more like warming the throat, and very tasty. If it turns out dry I'll split, backsweeten some and carbonate some.
• 12L sour cherry melomel, made on the 10th of March, racked off the fruit on the 18th (SG: 1.13, down to 1.040 on the 18th, still bubbling very regularly). For this one I bought Mangrove Jack M05 from a local brew shop, both for its supposed alcohol tolerance as well as esteric character.
• 15L JAOM made last night bubbling very nicely with an hour of pitching.

 

[Miraculix]

I hadn't brewed for ages, years in fact, so now I am back strong!

These are:

• 10L Bochet made on the 1st of Feb, racked on the 28th of Feb
  • 5L racked as is
  • 5L racked on ~15g medium toast oak chips
  • will be racking again on the 1st of April (or the weekend following it) for a month before bottling
• 5L of ginger+orange...metheglin? Made on the 1st of March, I used 200g of grated root ginger, boiled for ~10 mins with zest from 1 orange, then turned the heat off and dissolved 1.2kg of honey in it, strained, cooled down, pitched the yeast and made up to 5L. I'm frankly surprised it is still bubbling regularly as I used bread yeast - which I do with almost all my meads - I imagine the ginger root had plenty of nutrients and minerals to help the year. I had a quick sip of the unfermented must and despite using 200g of ginger it is not VERY hot, more like warming the throat, and very tasty. If it turns out dry I'll split, backsweeten some and carbonate some.
• 12L sour cherry melomel, made on the 10th of March, racked off the fruit on the 18th (SG: 1.13, down to 1.040 on the 18th, still bubbling very regularly). For this one I bought Mangrove Jack M05 from a local brew shop, both for its supposed alcohol tolerance as well as esteric character.
• 15L JAOM made last night bubbling very nicely with an hour of pitching.

What are you trying to achieve with all the racking?

 

[karamonde]

What are you trying to achieve with all the racking?

I guess you mean about the Bochets and melomel?

That's what I've always done with Bochet: rack after 1 month in primary, then rack after 1 month in secondary, and bottle at three months from starting. As I use bread yeast I do this for clearing as I don't have space for cold crashing, and don't want to use clearing agents. Always came out crystal clear. Plan to do the same with the ginger mead.

With the melomel, which is my first time making, I just didn't want it to sit on the fruit for longer than a week, so the plan is to rack to secondary once bubbling has stopped or a month has passed (so 18th of April), whichever comes first.