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Two questions:
1. If I were to make a 3 gal batch would I simply triple the recipe? Or would 3 one gal batches be better? I could see the 3 smaller jugs easier to find places to store. Also one could also substitute different fruits in each of the smaller jugs for a variety.
It's entirely up to you, but a 3 gallon jug/carboy/demi-john doesn't usually take up 3 times the space of the 1 gallon equivalent, whereas 3 x 1 gallon jugs/jars/carboy/demi-john will do exactly that.
There's many suggestions of variant's of the JAO recipe, but a lot of the fruit variations just don't work well - the only one I've tried that was Ok, was lemon instead of orange (lime wasn't good).
You'd normally just triple everything except the yeast, but even that won't do any harm.
2. I note the comment about a pithy taste - would cutting the orange flesh from the rind and using that eliminate any pithy taste?
Any suggestions are welcomed.
.. Doug
People do have this thing about deciding that because a whole orange is used, that there will automatically be some pithy bitterness, but they're wrong.
The basic idea would seem to be, that because bread yeast is used, which won't use up all the sugars, like would be the case with a wine yeast (and no, I don't recommend doing that either, JAO doesn't make for a good dry mead). If you just mixed the honey/water to about 95% of the total content of the fermenter (to get close to the exact ratio of honey/water), then you took a gravity reading, you'd get a better idea about the approximate strength later. I've heard of people getting to 12% ABV with bread yeast..... So it normally finishes sweet, and I suspect that any pithy bitterness is to balance the sweetness from residual sugars.
I'd say that you should make at least one batch as close to the original recipe as possible, then at least you have a bench mark to compare against when trying other fruit etc - if that's what you're intending to do.
Now I'm not sure about regular liquid measures in Canada, but when I make a batch, I automatically take a gallon to be imperial, not US i.e. 4.55 litres, not 3.78 litres, and it still comes out fine. I've noticed some of the EU mainland makers even use 5 litre containers for a batch with no problems (as there's enough residual sugar to be OK, just that their, and my batches would be fractionally less sweet).
There's also the thing, that it's said that it's drinkable as soon as it's clear. Well I've never found that. I always age it for at least 3 to 6 months after it's been racked off the sediment/bottled (I usually rack it off and bulk age my meads).
The only thing I would suggest, is that you follow Joes instructions about the spices closely, particularly with the cloves. If you over do those, it's not nice at all.
You don't actually need a hydrometer for JAO, but if you get yourself one (if you haven't already got one), it gives you greater control over the brew...
regards
fatbloke
