I'm sure this has been answered a million times, but what's the suggestion for temp control for the winter? As an "ancient" mead, should I just let it sit whatever the temp, or should I go for a water bath with an aquarium heater to try to keep it in the seventies? This is purely theoretical until I actually make the stuff, but that's coming in the near future, so I might as well get a jump start on the research.
Sorry to be like an annoying fly buzzing around here, but I'm still hoping for an answer here:
It's about 60-65 ambient here recently, and it's only getting colder. I heat with wall-mounted AC units which means I only heat the apartment when I'm home, and not the rooms I'm not in. Should I just let this stuff ride in the colder temperatures through the winter, or should I give it some localized heating? Basically, how cold can the yeasties survive/keep working?
MacrosNZ said:My efforts.
This one was made in February last year.
My efforts.
This one was made in February last year.
If you can control the temps for the first few weeks or month I would try maybe but after that it may not matter too much. My temps started dropping the last few weeks on the second month in the mid-sixties temps- I feel it maybe helped clarifiy it maybe a bit more and my yeast happend to be pretty solid on the bottom also. If you do have the means, I would try to keep it around 70 if you can. Bread yeast like warm thats all I know about bread yeast. I also dont know how a Joam in the 80's would differ between one fermented at 70 deg. All I know is mine was 70's ambient temps and at bottleing 2 months it tasted really good and was very clear.
I want to rack this to a secondary to let it age another few months off of the yeast. Has anyone done this? If so, I assume there is a lot of head space because of all the fruit. Do you top up with water, water and more honey, or something else?
I'm curious about this as well. I have a 5 week old JAOM in a water jug. It looks like it's starting to clear but it's hard to tell through the opaque walls of the jug. My plan is to leave it for another couple weeks, transfer it to a glass jug for two weeks and then bottle. I'm hoping any headspace won't be a problem since I only plan on keeping it in the glass jug for two weeks.
FatDragon said:Why do I ever read this site? So many amazingly easy fermentibles. Now I'm gonna have to buy several kilos of honey and a handful of extra airlocks and try out a few one-gallon batches with different adjuncts - I foresee ancient pomelo mead in my future, and a chagrined fiancee.
Until she drinks it, then she'll be happy!!
Until she drinks it, then she'll be happy!!
I would get out out of that water jug soon. I did one like that, one day opened the closet to find it had all leaked out through a tiny hole in the bottom of the jug.
I also had a plain jug of water sitting around for a few months that got a hole in the bottom, so I no longer trust them for too long
RhodySeth said:Yeah, I remember reading your tale of woe. We have lots of water jugs we keep in case of an emergency and have never had a leak issue but it's something I'll be aware of. I like using the water jugs because 1) we've got lots of 'em and 2) I don't have to worry about getting the fruit and stuff out afterwards - I can just cut 'em up and use another one. But in case of leaks I keep my jugs on a table I built that's got plastic sheeting which drains into a bucket. I think on Friday I'll transfer my 6 week old JAOM to a 1 gallon glass jug for two weeks. Then bottle.
I like that water bottle idea. Did you just modify the lid to fit a rubber grommet? Can't tell by the pic. But it looks custom
How long was it in the primary? My batch of JAOM took about 5 months before it was clear and ready to rack/bottle.
I fell prey to that great rookie mistake of impatience. After six weeks, I thought my JAOM was clear enough. But since I fermented in a plastic water jug, it was hard to tell. I racked to a glass jug and it's definitely not as clear as I thought it would be.
RhodySeth said:Yup, I just drilled a hole in the cap and then squeezed a grommet on there (Before drilling I put the cap on another jug that wasn't being used for brewing since the drilling creates plastic specs.) The one on my left was my first attempt and I made the hole just a bit too big because the airlock never bubbled (you can see my half-arsed attempts to add duct tape around the grommet. Airlock still never bubbled so I've just let it be.) The one on the right worked as intended and the airlock is still a bubblin'.
ffd520 said:From start to finish.
jak1010 said:Here's my traditional at about 7 weeks.
If it was only one month I would guess that it wasn't quite ready yet. Could you read text through it? Someone on here suggested that be the standard test and it seems to be a good standard to stick by.
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