Well I've put myself on a bit of a spot, I mentioned to my sister that i am making Mead, she "suggested" I bring some to our Thanksgiving family get- together and I said I would.
The problem is the only Mead I have going is a couple of Cysers that won't be ready until NEXT Thanksgiving
Now my question is....
Would JAO be ready by Thankgiving?
or did I just step on my tongue?
Can't it be both?
THAT'S a really tight schedule. The thing about mead in general and JAOM in particular (in my limited experience) is that everything is variable. A little pH bump here, a little temperature shift there, a little more or less orange, dissolved minerals in the water, changing tides, atmospheric pressure, full moon, new moon, harvest moon... well, you get the idea.
Having to have one ready for turkey day, I think I'd probably go for a low-octane traditional. If you figured on 10% ABV, nurtured it with nutrient, energizer and aeration, let it go dry, cold crashed it, stabilized and backsweetened... hmmmm... you MIGHT just make it. I mean, you're talking about... what? Seven or eight weeks?
I think I would bypass the JAO for T-day (make it anyway, christmas is further off and it should be ready by then).
Instead, I think I would go for a lower ABV traditional that you could backsweeten.
I did this once when I wanted to re-use the yeast, and it worked out quite nicely...
I made a 1 gallon batch that I had intended to go dry at 14%. The original plan was to stabilize and backsweeten. But I didn't want to stress the yeast as the available sugar got to miniscule proportions.
So what I did was to let it get to 12%, cold crash it (freezer for 2 hours, then 2 weeks in the fridge to let the yeast settle to the bottom), racked it onto the stabilizing chemicals (potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulphate [campden tablet]), let that sit for 24 hours and taste test. Because the yeast had not been stressed, there was no harsh burning taste, the sweetness of the remaining honey was perhaps a little sweeter than I had wanted, but it was quite smooth and pleasing.
I degassed it all along, except for during the cold crashing, and I fined it with.. hmm... either sparkloid or bentonite (pretty sure it was bentonite, but not positive).
It cleared up and I bottled it. It wasn't fancy, but it was a pretty respectable mead, considering the whole thing from mixing the must to bottling took me 4 or 5 weeks.
You could also add a touch of vanilla (but just a touch) to smooth out one or two of the rough edges.
I am a newbee with still rather limited experience compared to just about everyone here, and this is just my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm sure that others with more experience will be along shortly to tell me I'm full of... well, you know...
Joe
