Howdy! My wine making kit came in from Strange Brew the other day (Monday), and I put that 7.8 gallon fermentation bucket to good use!
My first batch of mead, lovingly titled "Thor's Piss" by myself and a group of friends when discussing possible label names, is happily aging away in it's 1 gallon carboy, with no signs of fermentation at all. The hydrometer read about 1.3 (or is it 1.03?) and 4.9% Alc.
My second and third batches are going along nicely as well, although each of them "blew up" within 24 hours of starting (Green-Apple mead, Strawberry mead) by foaming up so bad that it pushed the fruit up into my balloon "airlock"...and all the liquid in the neck of the carboy looked like I was boiling water ;-) It's calmed down now, after I punched the fruit cap on each and gave it a quick stir.
However, my fourth (and by far, largest) batch is 6.5 gallons. I took the ingredients list for JAO, measured out the ingredients for 6.5 gallons compared to 1, and followed the directions EXACTLY (except for the part about that being only 1 gallon, and mine is 6.5 gallons).
The honey used was 1 pound of Orange Blossom, the rest was Wild Clover.
Yeast type was Lalvin D-47 (1.5 packets, as I used .5 of one packet on another experiment I was running). Yeast was not rehydrated at all (as per Joe's instructions). I know I didn't use his exact yeast, but I didn't have any of that type on hand.
Average temperature of the water was around 80-82 degrees, as I had to heat the honey up a little bit to ensure that I got every last bit of it out of the containers ;-)
Average temperature of the must right now is 72-74 degrees. It's sitting on the floor in the corner of the kitchen. Not dark, but not light, either - no light directly hits anywhere near that spot, but it's not "pitch black". And it's a cool spot to sit at.
I opened up the fermentation bucket a few hours ago to see if I could see any activity at the top, smell anything, etc...but all I've got is a layer of foamy bubbles at the top, which is the same as it was on Monday night when I mixed everything together (I couldn't pick up and shake that heavy of a container, so I stirred it pretty vigorously for about 10 minutes, which created the foam up top). It's not a thick layer, mind you...sort of like the layer of foamy bubbles at the top of your container when you make some southern sweet tea after having boiled the tea bags in water.
Allspice, Nutmeg were both at 5 "pinches" (as 1 pinch was called for in the 1 gallon, and I like the taste of the spices), and 5 cinnamon sticks were used (again, adding more due to the larger batch).
Anyway, is there anything else I should be doing, or is a 48 hour lag time (as of 36 minutes ago) normal for JAO in large quantities? Should I open up the bucket and aerate it some more with stirring? Should I reyhydrate some D-47 and pitch that in, to see if it kicks off a love-making session with the rest of the yeasties in there to make happy yeast babies that pee alcohol all over my bucket?
Unfortunately my brew log got tossed by the Spousal Unit of Doom because she thought it was just an ingredients list to pick stuff up from the store, and I can't remember what the initial SG/Sugar levels were. I can take readings again if it's required...I was goign to do another tomorrow (I figure, take a new reading every week or so until 1st racking, and then do it once a month until it's ready for bottling?).
Any advice would be great.
I DID try to use the search function, but nothing came up with any combination of "JAO" and "lag", or even "Joe's".
My first batch of mead, lovingly titled "Thor's Piss" by myself and a group of friends when discussing possible label names, is happily aging away in it's 1 gallon carboy, with no signs of fermentation at all. The hydrometer read about 1.3 (or is it 1.03?) and 4.9% Alc.
My second and third batches are going along nicely as well, although each of them "blew up" within 24 hours of starting (Green-Apple mead, Strawberry mead) by foaming up so bad that it pushed the fruit up into my balloon "airlock"...and all the liquid in the neck of the carboy looked like I was boiling water ;-) It's calmed down now, after I punched the fruit cap on each and gave it a quick stir.
However, my fourth (and by far, largest) batch is 6.5 gallons. I took the ingredients list for JAO, measured out the ingredients for 6.5 gallons compared to 1, and followed the directions EXACTLY (except for the part about that being only 1 gallon, and mine is 6.5 gallons).
The honey used was 1 pound of Orange Blossom, the rest was Wild Clover.
Yeast type was Lalvin D-47 (1.5 packets, as I used .5 of one packet on another experiment I was running). Yeast was not rehydrated at all (as per Joe's instructions). I know I didn't use his exact yeast, but I didn't have any of that type on hand.
Average temperature of the water was around 80-82 degrees, as I had to heat the honey up a little bit to ensure that I got every last bit of it out of the containers ;-)
Average temperature of the must right now is 72-74 degrees. It's sitting on the floor in the corner of the kitchen. Not dark, but not light, either - no light directly hits anywhere near that spot, but it's not "pitch black". And it's a cool spot to sit at.
I opened up the fermentation bucket a few hours ago to see if I could see any activity at the top, smell anything, etc...but all I've got is a layer of foamy bubbles at the top, which is the same as it was on Monday night when I mixed everything together (I couldn't pick up and shake that heavy of a container, so I stirred it pretty vigorously for about 10 minutes, which created the foam up top). It's not a thick layer, mind you...sort of like the layer of foamy bubbles at the top of your container when you make some southern sweet tea after having boiled the tea bags in water.
Allspice, Nutmeg were both at 5 "pinches" (as 1 pinch was called for in the 1 gallon, and I like the taste of the spices), and 5 cinnamon sticks were used (again, adding more due to the larger batch).
Anyway, is there anything else I should be doing, or is a 48 hour lag time (as of 36 minutes ago) normal for JAO in large quantities? Should I open up the bucket and aerate it some more with stirring? Should I reyhydrate some D-47 and pitch that in, to see if it kicks off a love-making session with the rest of the yeasties in there to make happy yeast babies that pee alcohol all over my bucket?
Unfortunately my brew log got tossed by the Spousal Unit of Doom because she thought it was just an ingredients list to pick stuff up from the store, and I can't remember what the initial SG/Sugar levels were. I can take readings again if it's required...I was goign to do another tomorrow (I figure, take a new reading every week or so until 1st racking, and then do it once a month until it's ready for bottling?).
Any advice would be great.
I DID try to use the search function, but nothing came up with any combination of "JAO" and "lag", or even "Joe's".
