Toggle sidebar

JAOM SP stopped dropping what do I do now?

  • PATRONS: Did you know we've a chat function for you now? Look to the bottom of the screen, you can chat, set up rooms, talk to each other individually or in groups! Click 'Chat' at the right side of the chat window to open the chat up.
  • Love Gotmead and want to see it grow? Then consider supporting the site and becoming a Patron! If you're logged in, click on your username to the right of the menu to see how as little as $30/year can get you access to the patron areas and the patron Facebook group and to support Gotmead!
  • We now have a Patron-exclusive Facebook group! Patrons my join at The Gotmead Patron Group. You MUST answer the questions, providing your Patron membership, when you request to join so I can verify your Patron membership. If the questions aren't answered, the request will be turned down.
Barrel Char Wood Products
B

bloodaxeberserk

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 30, 2014
20
0
0
Hey I took a reading over a week ago and the SP was at 1.010 then took one not five minutes ago and got the same reading. My airlock is hardly even bubbling at all to boot. What do I do now? Has my mead finished? Do I bottle it? Their is still a good portion of the fruit also floating at the top too.

Also here is the recipe I am using:

1 gallon of Spring Water
Yeast: Fleishcmanns (substituted with Lavin d47)
25 Raisins
1 Cinnamon stick
1 whole orange, sliced and peels included
1 pinch of allspice
1 pinch of nutmeg
1 1/2 pounds of Dark Alfalfa honey
2 pounds of Orange blossom honey
1 whole clove

Thanks in advance!
 
....aaaaand if you used D47, this is not a JAO at all, this is a spiced orange mead, and may well bubble slowly for a while until it's gone completely dry, at which point you'll probably want to stabilize and backsweeten it so it'll be somewhat drinkable in the near future. A week of stable SG is not long enough to tell if it's safe to bottle unless you've stabilized it (which is also not in the JAO recipe because with the bread yeast you don't really need to, it's pretty honest about when it's finished AND it'll leave you enough sugars to offset the bitterness from the orange pith). This one MIGHT be finished and safe to bottle once the fruit has dropped. Whether it's any good to drink at that point is anybody's guess.

I'd suggest next time, using the bread yeast, let it do its thing until the fruit drops, then you can be pretty sure it's actually done and safe to bottle AND it'll taste pretty good at that point (which should be around 8 weeks).
 
Chevette Girl said:
....aaaaand if you used D47, this is not a JAO at all, this is a spiced orange mead, and may well bubble slowly for a while until it's gone completely dry, at which point you'll probably want to stabilize and backsweeten it so it'll be somewhat drinkable in the near future. A week of stable SG is not long enough to tell if it's safe to bottle unless you've stabilized it (which is also not in the JAO recipe because with the bread yeast you don't really need to, it's pretty honest about when it's finished AND it'll leave you enough sugars to offset the bitterness from the orange pith). This one MIGHT be finished and safe to bottle once the fruit has dropped. Whether it's any good to drink at that point is anybody's guess.

I'd suggest next time, using the bread yeast, let it do its thing until the fruit drops, then you can be pretty sure it's actually done and safe to bottle AND it'll taste pretty good at that point (which should be around 8 weeks).
Click to expand...

How do I stabilize it? And should I?
 
To stabilize: Campden tablets (potassium metabisulphite), 1 tablet per gallon, and potassium sorbate, 1/2 tsp per gallon or whatever the directions on the package suggest.

If you don't want it dry dry dry, it might be a good idea to stabilize it now that the SG has pretty much stopped.
 
What does stabilizing even do? Does it kill the yeast? And how should I proceed after that? Should I rack it? Is it anyway possible to add bread yeast or is it too late?
 
The sulphites knock out the yeast and the sorbate prevents any remaining yeast from replicating. What this does is prevent your yeast from suddenly waking up one day (sometimes happens with temperature fluctuations) and deciding to finish the job (providing there's any sugar at all left in your must, and since SG's can reach .990 or lower, even getting a reading of 1.000 is no guarantee) which will cause CO2 buildup in your wine bottles which could result in popped corks if you're lucky (quite messy), bottle bombs if you're not (quite dangerous).

Also makes it easier if you want to backsweeten, just adding more honey to a batch that isn't either completely finished (hard to tell with wine yeast sometimes) or stabilized cna result in the yeast just continuing to eat the honey so you have to repeat the sweetening until the yeast finally gives up (this is called step-feeding and can push your yeast beyond the published tolerances).

I don't always stabilize my meads even when there's residual sugar, but I do tend to leave them in the carboy for at least a year just to make sure the wine yeast is really finished, although there have been cases (not mine) where yeast has reactivated after over 2 years. It's all in the risks you want to run and how soon you want to bottle safely. Bread yeast is generally a little more honest about when it's finished, out of 40 JAO's and variants using bread yeast, I've only ever had two or three that were slightly fizzy after bottling and those were the ones I bottled on the early side right after the fruit sank, usually I rack them after the fruit sinks and let them sit a month.


 
Seems to me you are suffering from Impatientitis. It's a common illness all first time mazers get. I believe it has something to do with not having any mead to drink when making mead. Luckily, there is a cure.

First, you read the JAOM recipe from Joe very carefully and do everything... EVERY. THING. It says. Once you have that batch going and you've put it away... remember you're doing EVERYTHING it says to do. You rack that first batch into a clean one gallon carboy and put it in the deepest darkest corner of your house that won't get warm and forget about it for 12 months. It's not going to be drinkable till at least then. So just forget about it. Got a Total Wine near you? If you do... go and buy some beer. Drink beer while you wait. You should feel better about your mead by now.

To completely ward off the "Impatientitis" go ahead and read the one gallon BOMM protocol. This mead will be ready before both the D47 spiced mead you made (which you will be bottling in Jan 2016) and the JAOM (March 2015). Don't do the perfect BOMM yet, just the regular BOMM. If you start next weekend you will be drinking delicious mead by Christmas!
 
Addendum: make two gallons of JAO to the letter, rack and put one away for 12 months, drink the other after the fruit drops. Take notes. Then you have something to compare in 12 months :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Barrel Char Wood Products

Viking Brew Vessels - Authentic Drinking Horns

Top Bottom