partial peach bochet or caramlized sugar??

Im putting together a recipe for a peach melomel and i want it to have a caramelized/ brown sugar taste. I was thinking about caramelizing 1/3 of the honey or caramelizing brown sugar....just wondering which is the better option??
I've heard the doing a bochet makes some unfermentables....not sure if sugar would do the same.

I imagine caramelizing brown sugar would also produce unfermentables. I'm an engineer, not a chemist, but I'm sure there is a well defined chemical formula describing the reaction of sugar and heat to create caramel, and it can tell you how much fermentable sugar you'l have left.

Unfermentable sugars don't necessarily equate to off tastes, though. It would, however, mean a higher final gravity than you expected.

I would just Caramalize some cheap honey. Don't wory about the brown sugar cause you will get unfermentables either way. If you do a slow low heat boil for abot 2 hours caramilizing the 1/3 of honey the gravity will still go as low as 1.005 I am pretty sure.

hoping to achieve a peach cobbler type of taste! I guess we will see.

Arpolis said:

I would just Caramalize some cheap honey. Don't wory about the brown sugar cause you will get unfermentables either way. If you do a slow low heat boil for abot 2 hours caramilizing the 1/3 of honey the gravity will still go as low as 1.005 I am pretty sure.

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And they rREALLY mean low and slow. It's very easy to overdo cooking the honey. It's a fine line between burnt and caramelized.

So here's the recipe!

3 Gallon recipe
9-400 ml cans of delmonte peaches in light syrup
1/2 tsp of tannin
3 camden tablets crushed
1 1/2 tsp of nutrient - planning on doing staggered nutrients
5.5 lbs of clover honey
3 lbs of caramelized honey ~1h15 mins - tasted like toffee marshmellow
some pectin enzyme (12 hours after camden)
ec-1118 (24 hours after camden)

Hope this one is great! Thinking I prob won't have to backsweeten

Going by a couple of different sources the fermentable sugar content of your peaches is about 14.16% of the volume and with the honey amounts, you may have a starting gravity of around 1.126 give or take .01 or so. ec-1118 yeast is a beast and will take this down as low as it can go. Even with the caramilized honey this will be pretty dry at about 15.5% - 16.0% ABV. It may need a little back sweetening to bring out the peach fruityness. Last peach wine I did would not taste right until I got it back sweetened to 1.015.

The recipe looks great however! I am sure this will be a tasty melomel. My only suggestion would be to use Lalvin k1v-1116 rather than the ec-1118. It will preserve more aroma than the ec-1118 & is a great yeast for high OG meads.

Thanks arpolis! When I took the og it was 1.09 or so... But I didn't take in account any sugar from the actual peaches. I'm not pitching for a few more hours so maybe ill grab some 1116.

The smell coming out of this fermentation is horrendous!! Big time gas!!

I also find the smell of peaches cut with waterto be gross

My last white grape peach wine smelled great through fermentation but I went high on the yeast nutrients and step feed yeast energizer. Did you use any DAP "The big clear crystals" or Yeast Energizer "Tan powder yeast food"?

Yes I initially added in some nutrients. I was going to add more but then was reading that Peaches are a high nitrogen fruit and that they didnt really need nutrient addition. The smell just reminds me of what apples smell like at the beginning...except way way stronger. I have my primary bucket in the basement and everytime I walk down the stairs it smells like I'm going to get gassed out. Maybe its stronger because its a bochet too? Quality of peaches? No clue!!

I wouldn't worry about it, let the yeast do their job.