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JOAM and Variant

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My system is just now rolling into place, and it seems to be a good one once it gets rolling. I can afford to do about a gallon a month at the moment.

I have 4 one gallon carboys and everything is on a rolling 4 month schedule so that as one batch of 8 or 9 beer bottles gets bottled. I drink about one beer bottle (of mead) in a week (3-4 glasses) and I share one with co-workers for their opinions. I try to make them be as honest as possible. so it leaves me with 3-4 extra bottles by the time the next batch finishes which allows for more aging and as the months go by ill be able to age these out a lot longer without needing to drink them for being the only mead in the apartment.

When I get a house and a raise Ill probably move up to a 3 gallon rolling schedule with reserved 1 gal carboys for experimenting and meads that I want to age much longer. I know in the beginning ill be drinking a lot of green mead but it will catch up and should be a nice system.
 
Soyala_Amaya said:
This right here is actually why most people at least graduate up to 3 gallon batches. It's hard to think about when you first start, but a 5 gallon batch makes roughly 25 wine bottles or 48 beer bottles. Since you're doing imperial 4 liters instead of american 1 gallons, you'll get a LITTLE more, but call it an extra beer bottle here or there if you're super careful about racking off the lees.

So you now have either 5 wine bottles or 9-10 beer bottles of a finished product. You want to drink one, you want to share one, you want to save at least two, maybe three...oh crap, you're out of mead!

And it is a sad sad world to be out of mead. :confused2:
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Ahh, but I have 4 batches going, but I'm only counting on 3.5L (probably a bit conservative, but I'd rather end up with more than I expect than less) from each (to account for lees and the fruit). I have 750ml bottles, so I am expecting 4.66 bottles worth (that last ~half of a bottle will have to be drank straight away, to sample the product. Obviously). So I'll end up with 16 bottles, 4 from each batch.

Half will go away for aging, leaving me 8 bottles to drink with my family and friends. And considering that a JOAM only takes about 8 weeks, I don't think that's too bad. For now at least.

Cal said:
I keep a brew journal that has my recipe along with notes of what I did so in future batches I can modify/correct things I have done.

And I hear y'all on needing more space. My cabinet is full up can only fit one more 1 gallon carboy :(
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Yeah, I'm doing this as well.
 
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I get apple juice form Whole Foods in one gallon bottles for $8. The first two I used in my virginal cyser, and this last one I'll drink the juice, then make a small batch in it. Since 1g carboys cost about $6, I'm getting my juice for just 2 bucks!

I was going to start with one gallon batches, but quickly encountered the bottle/gallon math and the fact that I'd probably drink/give it all away, then I'd have none! My cyser is two gallons (a bit better), and my melomel is 3 g. I'm thinking of getting a 5 or 6 g carboy Monday, just, as usual, not sure where to put it . . . .

Thanks, fatbloke, I was wondering about the fruit in a carboy. I did my 3 g melomel in my 5 g bucket.
 
I really like the 3 gallon size, it's not so imposing at bottling time to move it around OR to get that many bottles cleaned, and it does give you enough to put some away for later. When I've done 1 gal batches I wanted to share around or savour or whatever, I've bottled them in the little 375 ml bottles, it seems to go further that way...

And as for fruit in a carboy, I really like using 1 gal wide mouth glass pickle jars for anything where I'm using fruit in primary, they're what I use for most of my JAO's these days. Any other batches involving fruit get made in a bucket with the fruit in a bag...
 
Chevette Girl said:
I really like the 3 gallon size, it's not so imposing at bottling time to move it around OR to get that many bottles cleaned, and it does give you enough to put some away for later. When I've done 1 gal batches I wanted to share around or savour or whatever, I've bottled them in the little 375 ml bottles, it seems to go further that way...

And as for fruit in a carboy, I really like using 1 gal wide mouth glass pickle jars for anything where I'm using fruit in primary, they're what I use for most of my JAO's these days. Any other batches involving fruit get made in a bucket with the fruit in a bag...
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which I agree with because it can be worse in imperial gallons..... yet it seems that getting 375's is harder here, not impossible but they are harder to find. So it'd usually mean that it's easier to use beer bottles for smaller amounts.....just a "local market" type problem I suppose.

With the pickle jars, they can be used but I try to keep my home brew away from anything that has held vinegar in any form because the caps/lids are generally unusable as the vinegar seems to penetrate the metal and seals however many times they're washed/sanitised I can still smell it so it'd be impractical to drill the lid for an airlock bung, so currently I use buckets mainly for fruit batches but have been thinking about whether to get a couple of the wide mouthed carboys that are listed on the brouwland website as I believe they do caps/lids for them so they should be convertible to take an airlock bung (well I'd have thought so) and have easy access to punch down a cap of fruit or for easy aerating etc etc
 
Chevette Girl said:
I really like the 3 gallon size, it's not so imposing at bottling time to move it around OR to get that many bottles cleaned, and it does give you enough to put some away for later. When I've done 1 gal batches I wanted to share around or savour or whatever, I've bottled them in the little 375 ml bottles, it seems to go further that way...

And as for fruit in a carboy, I really like using 1 gal wide mouth glass pickle jars for anything where I'm using fruit in primary, they're what I use for most of my JAO's these days. Any other batches involving fruit get made in a bucket with the fruit in a bag...
Click to expand...


What do you use for an airlock with the pickle jars? Also thanks for the bucket tip. I have a 2 gallon bucekt with fruit in a bag right now. Waaaaay easier to maintain.
 
So, it's been a week, and they're fizzing along happily, and the air locks (balloons with pinholes in them) are still nicely inflated.

I have just one question though, about the Apple and Cinnamon variant. The Apple pieces are still on top, but there's some that isn't submerged in the must. Should I top it up a bit (it's not quite filled to the full 4L), give it a stir to rotate the pieces around, or leave it as it is? I'd think if the pieces aren't submerged there's no point in having them there at all, and I won't get any flavor from them.
 
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