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JAOM: The Frugal Lockdown Approach Gone Sour

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LordHobo

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 16, 2020
9
1
1
Delhi, India
Hello All,

I had initially posted about my venture into mead making with JAOM here:

https://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php/34414-JAOM-The-Frugal-Lockdown-Approach

All was going well.... till today happened.

Today is day 8 since the start of brewing and there is zero activity in the bottle.
The batch has started clearing out from the top and I can see a lees cake form at the bottom.

Day 1: https://youtu.be/NlFmlMvvzBU
Day 4: https://youtu.be/LtUxeI8DOnw
Day 8: https://youtu.be/rTYpSPc7OwU

All my research and video watching on youtube is counter-intuitive to this state of the batch within 8 days.

Here are some videos to explain what I am exactly talking about:


The recipe was JAOM to the T only scaled down to a 2 lit batch. I had to work with makeshift equipment during the lockdown and only had bread yeast available as explained in the thread above.

The temperature outside is ranging between 28 deg - 38 deg celsius however I've stored the batch in a dark cool closet where the temperature does not exceed 26 degrees celsius in a day.

I have not stirred or disturbed the bottle till now as advised in the original recipe.

Questions:
1. Is this how the batch should progress?
2. Am I supposed to do something that I am not?
3. The balloon never puffed up through out this process I had poked at least 30 holes into the balloon - does this point towards the fact that an anerobic state was not achieved?


I tried posting this to my original thread however previous content posted is all stuck in approval by the mods!.

Thank you for your support in advance

K^
 

bernardsmith

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Sep 1, 2013
1,611
32
48
Saratoga Springs , NY
I wonder if you poked too many holes in the balloon? I would have thought that one or two pin holes would have been enough to allow the CO2 to escape slowly enough to allow the balloon to expand with some gas but 30 holes might be enough to prevent the gas to build up enough pressure to fill the balloon. It would be like you had not in fact covered the mouth with a balloon but with a net and then wondered why that net failed to trap the escaping CO2 long enough for the net to appear to be filled with gas...
 
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