Jaom - not enough honey?

Started a five gallon batch of JAOM on March 23rd. It's fermenting excellently, no complaints on anything really. The one thing I am worried about, though, is that instead of using 3 1/2 lbs honey/gallon, I used 3lbs/gal. Has anyone done this and had it turn out alright, or should I add 2 1/2 lbs of honey to it now to prevent it being too dry?

I'm not really sure if it would be the best for me to mess with it when it's only two weeks into primary, but I'll take whatever advice I can get.

Let it run its course. You can always backsweeten if necessary or restart fermentation if the ABV is too low for you -- but if you used the original recipe, you used bread yeast, which means your ABV will be lower than your average mead. This is so the residual sugars cover up the bitter taste of the orange peel.

I did this, and I will say, the resulting dry version is VILE. All the bitterness comes to the front. I back sweetened mine after fermentation was done.

I did a similar thing recently and was told i should be okay since the yeast craps out around 12%. I guess we'll have to see!

Bluespark said:

I did this, and I will say, the resulting dry version is VILE. All the bitterness comes to the front. I back sweetened mine after fermentation was done.

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Even after aging?

I didn't age it, and honestly don't think it would help. I by far prefer dry, but dry JOAM focuses on the bitterness of the pith, and the spices lend a weird medicinal note. When I tried the regular version at three months I thought it was good but sweet, but the dry version was just about babas enough to spit out.

I'll let the fruit drop, take a sample, add some more honey if I feel it needs it, and then bottle.

Is it possible to make a JAOM but substitute the oranges with lemon and lime?

Yep, lemon mead. It's a guy on GotMead's staple mead, actually. Do a little Internet searching, and you'll find some very pleasing results. That's actually one of my next batches.

Hmmm. Def going to look around.

I was thinking of doing a JAOM with 2 lemons and 2 limes instead of an orange, a clove, the raisins, bread yeast, and 3.5 lbs of a local alfalfa honey.

What's your recipe looking like?

hehawbrew said:

Hmmm. Def going to look around.

I was thinking of doing a JAOM with 2 lemons and 2 limes instead of an orange, a clove, the raisins, bread yeast, and 3.5 lbs of a local alfalfa honey.

What's your recipe looking like?

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My lemon one came out good, but my lime attempt was bleargh!

Hmmm. How many lemons did you use? I def don't want to waste good honey and time.

hehawbrew said:

Hmmm. How many lemons did you use? I def don't want to waste good honey and time.

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2 medium sized ones, I was trying to approximate 1 large (ish) orange.

I suspect that the lime didn't work as it would need a lot of residual sugar to tone down the sharp flavour...

But the lemon was pertty good......

Yeah- I don't want to waste good honey and time.ill stick with the lemons!

Here it is, no limes!

hehawbrew said:

Here it is, no limes!

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Looks nice! Good luck as far as the lime goes, I'd honestly assume it would be best to stick to juicing the fruit thoroughly and adding the zest as well. Scrap the rest. If you really insist on adding whole fruit, make sure to peel it first. If you juice and zest like I think you should, add some nutrients. Should turn out fine. I did a five gallon JAOM using 15 lbs. honey, 1 grapefruit, 2 lemons, and 2 oranges.

Hmmm. Just followed the JAOM recipe and cut the fruit in sections. I didn't add cinnamon but did add some nutrient.

Guess ill see in a few months!