I made my first mead back in July-August. It was a JAOM with wildflower honey. We cracked it open on Thanksgiving (2 months aged) and Christmas and it was a huge hit even though it was young. I wanted more but didn't want to wait 8 months for it to peak, so I decided to try the BOMM version.
I started the JAO BOMM the first week of December. Racked it off the fruit just after Christmas and have been letting it clear (forcing it, actually) for the last month. Today I took a taste (drinking some now in fact), and I'm not liking this at all. I dunno if I did something wrong, but it's absolutely nothing like the JAOM that I made before.
It's hard to describe the taste. I get no orange or clove, and no hint of honey. It has a strange aroma that's not in my experience to categorize. I want to say it's sort of medicinal. Not icky, but certainly not what I was expecting.
The recipe was gleaned from the big BOMM thread on HomeBrewTalk. I may have interpolated a bit, combining some of the general BOMM info with the JAO organic stuff, but I don't think it should really matter. Here's what I did (1 gallon batch) -
3.5 lb orange blossom honey + a bit of wildflower
Peels and fruit of 1 small orange (removed pith)
25 raisins
½ cup dried currants
The stem of 1 clove
½ cinnamon stick
1/8 whole nutmeg
1 allspice berry
¾ TSP Potassium Bicarbonate (Should be 1/6 TSP!)
Smack Pack Wyeast 1388 smacked overnight
1 TBSP Fermaid-O
O.G. 1.132 Day 0, Sat 12/5
Day 2 = 1.11
Day 3 = 1.10
Day 7 = 1.082 added 1 TBSP Fermaid-O
Day 14 = 1.040, added 1 vanilla bean and airlock
Day 22 – Racked to secondary, still bubbling slowly, FG 1.025
Day 24 – Put outdoors in the cold, approx 35°F
Day 28 - added some pectic enzyme
Day 44 - added 1/5th package of SuperKleer. Had to do some creative engineering to split that up.
Day 51 - now - SG 1.022, ABV about 14.4%
OK, so this version has allspice, vanilla and nutmeg that the JAOM doesn't. But I don't get how this could be equivalent to a JAOM that's 8 months old.
I started the JAO BOMM the first week of December. Racked it off the fruit just after Christmas and have been letting it clear (forcing it, actually) for the last month. Today I took a taste (drinking some now in fact), and I'm not liking this at all. I dunno if I did something wrong, but it's absolutely nothing like the JAOM that I made before.
It's hard to describe the taste. I get no orange or clove, and no hint of honey. It has a strange aroma that's not in my experience to categorize. I want to say it's sort of medicinal. Not icky, but certainly not what I was expecting.
The recipe was gleaned from the big BOMM thread on HomeBrewTalk. I may have interpolated a bit, combining some of the general BOMM info with the JAO organic stuff, but I don't think it should really matter. Here's what I did (1 gallon batch) -
3.5 lb orange blossom honey + a bit of wildflower
Peels and fruit of 1 small orange (removed pith)
25 raisins
½ cup dried currants
The stem of 1 clove
½ cinnamon stick
1/8 whole nutmeg
1 allspice berry
¾ TSP Potassium Bicarbonate (Should be 1/6 TSP!)
Smack Pack Wyeast 1388 smacked overnight
1 TBSP Fermaid-O
O.G. 1.132 Day 0, Sat 12/5
Day 2 = 1.11
Day 3 = 1.10
Day 7 = 1.082 added 1 TBSP Fermaid-O
Day 14 = 1.040, added 1 vanilla bean and airlock
Day 22 – Racked to secondary, still bubbling slowly, FG 1.025
Day 24 – Put outdoors in the cold, approx 35°F
Day 28 - added some pectic enzyme
Day 44 - added 1/5th package of SuperKleer. Had to do some creative engineering to split that up.
Day 51 - now - SG 1.022, ABV about 14.4%
OK, so this version has allspice, vanilla and nutmeg that the JAOM doesn't. But I don't get how this could be equivalent to a JAOM that's 8 months old.
