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Noob questions...

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El Gordo

NewBee
Registered Member
May 20, 2015
3
0
0
Greer SC
Let me start by thanking you in advance for any wisdom you may chose to share.
I have wanted to brew for a long time and let my fear of failure hold me back. So after a little research I found out about mead. 10 minutes later I had a 1 gallon carboy ordered. I decided on Joe's Ancient Orange Mead. It seemed simple enough and I just needed honey.

Now for the recipe
3.5lbs of honey
1 orange
1 cinnamon stick
1 clove
Nutmeg(pinch)
Allspice(pinch)
1 packet fleischmans bread yeast
Raisins
Water

Now for the noob questions. My hydrometer came with a temp correction table. My starting gravity according to the table is 1.135. Does that sound high? I had read about bitterness from pith in this recipe so I zested the Orange(navel) and segmented it to put in the must. It is still chugging along nicely after 39 days of fermenting. What is the longest yours has taken to fall clear?
Thanks again in advance
 

mannye

Administrator
Administrator
Moderator
Oct 10, 2012
4,167
25
38
57
Miami Beach, FL
100 days is my average time for it to drop clear. I've had the liquid go clear in as little as 30 days but for the fruit to fall it's almost always 100-120.
 

Wingnut

NewBee
Registered Member
Jan 29, 2012
80
0
0
Snohomish, WA The Evergreen State
Yes, me too. Last JAOM took about 90 days to start to clear, 120 days to total clear and fruit drop. I've had it clear and drop quicker with a major change in the barometer/temperature outside toward the end. 70 days or so.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

bernardsmith

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Sep 1, 2013
1,611
32
48
Saratoga Springs , NY
Never made JAOM but my guess is that the fruit dropping out of suspension and falling to the bottom of the carboy is an indication that most of the carbon dioxide that has been produced by the yeast and absorbed by the liquid has been expelled from the mead. That will mean that a) the mead will be still and not effervescent and perhaps even more important, there will be too little CO2 gas in the mead to create bottle bombs or popped corks if the air pressure changes or the ambient temperature rises...
 

mannye

Administrator
Administrator
Moderator
Oct 10, 2012
4,167
25
38
57
Miami Beach, FL
Never made JAOM but my guess is that the fruit dropping out of suspension and falling to the bottom of the carboy is an indication that most of the carbon dioxide that has been produced by the yeast and absorbed by the liquid has been expelled from the mead. That will mean that a) the mead will be still and not effervescent and perhaps even more important, there will be too little CO2 gas in the mead to create bottle bombs or popped corks if the air pressure changes or the ambient temperature rises...

I think you're correct. It's also a natural "It's done" indicator when the fruit drops.
 

Clwurster

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Jan 15, 2015
150
0
16
Indiana
if its clear-I rack it. just gotta be careful squeezing the tube between the fruit...if you nock down one-pooof...hate it when that happens
 

El Gordo

NewBee
Registered Member
May 20, 2015
3
0
0
Greer SC
Thanks for all of the info. I was expecting a quicker turnaround but I will be patient. I think that I might need to increase the volume if I enjoy mead. I have never tasted it but I have seen numerous recipes that sound delicious and I have thought of a few of my own. Does bread yeast leave a residual bread flavor? If so I definitely have a recipe in mind.
 

mannye

Administrator
Administrator
Moderator
Oct 10, 2012
4,167
25
38
57
Miami Beach, FL
This one of many different types of mead. Pretty sweet but when Jaom is made to the specification, it's hard to stop sipping! I always make a gallon and then curse myself for not going to 3 or 5. Not this time! This time I'm making a big 5 gallon batch! I hear if I wait a year and let it age it will be amazing. I don't know if that will ever happen.


Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
 

bernardsmith

Got Mead? Patron
GotMead Patron
Sep 1, 2013
1,611
32
48
Saratoga Springs , NY
Does bread yeast leave a residual bread flavor? If so I definitely have a recipe in mind.

Interesting question. I suspect that bread yeast only has a residual bread flavor if you add wheat or rye... or oats to the recipe. Bread yeast (I think) has been cultivated to ferment the sugars in flour in such a way that its ability to survive in alcohol is secondary to its ability to reproduce and produce CO2 with virtually no lag time. Not sure that it is what makes for "bread flavor" as much as the use of the flour- in much the same way that champagne yeast will not make champagne out of rhubarb or cranberries. It is likely a yeast strain that was found amongst grapes growing in the Champagne region of France - and so it was given that monicker.
 

El Gordo

NewBee
Registered Member
May 20, 2015
3
0
0
Greer SC
(My imagination is wearing a lab coat and I hear a maniacal laughter) So if I were to put cracked wheat, blackberries and a split vanilla bean along with bread yeast and blackberry honey, a blackberry cobbler mead could possibly be the end result?
 

mannye

Administrator
Administrator
Moderator
Oct 10, 2012
4,167
25
38
57
Miami Beach, FL
(My imagination is wearing a lab coat and I hear a maniacal laughter) So if I were to put cracked wheat, blackberries and a split vanilla bean along with bread yeast and blackberry honey, a blackberry cobbler mead could possibly be the end result?

I'm imagining myself as the mob with pitchforks and torches. No, whatever you put in a fermentation bucket rarely if ever retains the flavor of that ingredient in the way you imagine a cooked ingredient. It goes in as, let's say "cow" and comes out as "blue" if that make any sense. Now I want a blackberry cobbler though. Mmmmmm cobblerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....
 
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