JAO taste

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Travisty

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2008
Messages
197
Reaction score
1
Opened my first bottle of JAO last night. I started it 1/5/08 and bottled it almost a month ago. I followed the recipe pretty closely except I used EC-1118 instead of the bread yeast since I don't really like sweet wines generally. I let it sit for maybe a month after the orange fell and then racked it and let it sit for a while longer before filtering and bottling. It was crystal clear before I racked and then the bit of lees I stirred up while racking would not drop on their own after a couple months or so which is why I ended up filtering.






Anyways, I like it pretty well. The flavor is good. Seems to be a little bit sweet which surprised me considering the yeast I used. I didn't take any SG readings this time (I will next go around) so I don't know where the fermentation stopped but doesn't EC-1118 have about an 18% alcohol tolerance? This sure doesn't taste like it has 18% alcohol, but it also doesn't taste dry. Do meads generally not taste dry even if they are technically dry?


Also, there's a small bitterness on the back of your tongue that reminds me of orange pith. Do all JAO have that since we just shove the entire orange in there or did I leave the orange in too long?


Overall, I'm very happy with this mead and I'm going to make it again and hopefully improve it!
 
What was your starting SG and your finished SG? 1118 does have the power to go 18% but will not go there unless you put enough sugar to get there.
 
What type of oranges did you use? The thinner the skin of the orange I find the less "pith" taste you get. Tangerine and mandarines work best for me......stay away from thick skinned navel oranges if you want to avoid the "pith" taste.


JC
 
Wade, I didn't take any SG readings for this one. I will for the next batch I make, but this time I just put in 3.5lbs of honey like the recipe said and went with it. I was just thinking that if there is a slightly sweet taste then there must have been more fermentable sugar than what the yeast would handle. I don't know if it's really that it's sweet or just extremely smooth though.
smiley1.gif



JC, I'll keep that in mind for the next batch. I believe I used a navel orange. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
My last couple of batcheS I just used the zest from the peel then peeled the orange, used the meat and threw the rind away. It turned out really good.
 
Waldo said:
My last couple of batcheS I just used the zest from the peel then peeled the orange, used the meat and threw the rind away. It turned out really good.


X2 Turned out very good here as well.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top