Really disappointed with my first JAO
- Thread starter McJeff
- Start date
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McJeff, it's possible you just don't like it that sweet. Take a sample and cut it with water or dry wine till it's around 1.020 or so and see if you like it better that way?
And it's possible that extra bit of honey was just that much too much...
Or maybe your orange wasn't pithy or sour enough to give enough bitterness and acidity to balance it? Maybe try it with a squeeze of lemon juice to see if it needs a bit more acidity?
And it's possible that extra bit of honey was just that much too much...
Or maybe your orange wasn't pithy or sour enough to give enough bitterness and acidity to balance it? Maybe try it with a squeeze of lemon juice to see if it needs a bit more acidity?
Yeah I'm just thinking its sweeter than I like. Would be slightly better if I could taste the other flavors in the mead. Guess we will see how it turns out when the dry JAO finishes.
I made a batch of ginger mead I was not impressed with at first, after breaking it down into experimental batches and aging, it has come out stellar and it isn't given away anymore, as it has become stellar!
I would add some dryer mead to it then experiment:
1 Try and add a few cloves to a gallon for a few weeks, I have found others warnings about cloves to be useless, I put 5 whole cloves in a half a gallon and let sit for over 3 months, turned out awesome.
2 Try adding a bit of acid, then let age for a month to another gallon.
3 Like lemon?...put some lemongrass in another gallon for a spell, a different taste than regular lemon and you may want a bit more acid, but still worth trying.
Think of mead/wine making as being a gourmet cook, but in slow motion. you can always experiment, but try it in limited amounts and log everything you have done. Following the words of Ken Schramm, "the mead is yours, don't let anyone tell you how to enjoy it"...can also be applied to making it as well. Furthermore, post secondary additions are much easier to control and manage, all ingredients don't have to go in the primary or secondary stages of fermentation.
I would add some dryer mead to it then experiment:
1 Try and add a few cloves to a gallon for a few weeks, I have found others warnings about cloves to be useless, I put 5 whole cloves in a half a gallon and let sit for over 3 months, turned out awesome.
2 Try adding a bit of acid, then let age for a month to another gallon.
3 Like lemon?...put some lemongrass in another gallon for a spell, a different taste than regular lemon and you may want a bit more acid, but still worth trying.
Think of mead/wine making as being a gourmet cook, but in slow motion. you can always experiment, but try it in limited amounts and log everything you have done. Following the words of Ken Schramm, "the mead is yours, don't let anyone tell you how to enjoy it"...can also be applied to making it as well. Furthermore, post secondary additions are much easier to control and manage, all ingredients don't have to go in the primary or secondary stages of fermentation.
What would happen if I just combined my new dry JAO and sweet stuff all together right now. The dry stuff was just started on the nineth. Would the new yeast kick in and ferment the sweet stuff?
It might, then again it might also just kill the yeast from having the alcohol added to it or just a long slow ferment.....you might be better off step feeding some of the original JAOM into the batch.
If you're minded to do that, I'd suggest letting it ferment most of the way dry and then adding the sweet stuff, by that point the alcohol content should be similar, and it'll be somewhere between an acclimated starter and step-feeding!
Brew 1 gallon batches of beer in the meantime, McJeff. It has a much shorter cycle time, and you'll keep yourself in a good sanitation habit.
Getting used to beer sanitation rituals means you will never ruin a batch of mead! Beer requires almost fanatical cleanliness that mead simply does not need, but that I believe benefits the beginner.
PLus if you can relax and have a homebrew you won't be so antsy about drinking your mead!
Yes, that is indeed a fine suggestion, just don't get too hung up with beer methodology.
Some things we do with meads are virtual sacrilege in the beer world (early stage aeration etc, or even opening a fermenter before it's finished, come to mind).
hah was sharing some of my JAO with a friend that home brews beer, which he loved, and he was very fascinated about home simple the process was and what it produced.
Once i finish drinking the last batch of beer I made I doubt I will start another for a very long time.
Mead is so delicious and so much easier to produce that I can't see going back.
Like beer, I imagine it will be easy to learn but difficult to perfect. That's fine. I have plenty of JAOM and Trappist experimental to drink while I learn!
If you have a "Total Wine" or similar liquor superstore near you, you can find literally hundreds of craft brew beers that will satisfy that homebrew itch (somewhat..there really isn't anything better than your own beer) or go to a brewpub.
Once I get that garage free of muscle car it will soon be making tons of mead and mash for rum!
The one advantage of beer is the drinkable time frame. Take do much longer for the mead, but I just need to get alot of batches goin and should be good. 5 goin need more!
I've never bothered to check myself, but from memory, CG posted about it working out in the 12% ABV area.....
Yes and no... most beers need about 10 to 15 days to ferment out on the short end, more if you're working under 70F. Then you have to bottle or keg and wait AT LEAST month. If you're waiting less to drink most beers, you're probably making an ale and if you can stomach an ale before it's really ready (4 weeks IMO) then you can truly enjoy a JAOM within almost the same time frame.
Lagers will take just as long as a mead to ferment at an average 44F and at least 8 weeks and probably more at 45-60F to age and be at their best.
With that math, most JAO meads are right there with good beer. ;D
