Insomniac
Well-Known Member
1.094 is hardly high, I have a batch going that started at about 1.2... not that my hydrometer measures that high...
Medieval Burnt Mead!
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I just did it as per the instructions on the back like I've done with all the other meads I've made (I love me some mead). In fact I have two other batches bubbling away right now.
1.2 are you fermenting straight honey
1.2 are you fermenting straight honey
I tried my hand at this yesterday. I added two sticks of cinnamon and a clove after adding the water to the boiling honey. I removed them before pitching. I plan to add half a vanilla bean to the secondary along with another stick of cinnamon. The must tasted awesome so we'll see.
Also, I found that constantly stirring the honey kept it from raising. That and cooking it on my grill's side burner made it a pretty safe experience.
Cheers.
Also, I found that constantly stirring the honey kept it from raising. That and cooking it on my grill's side burner made it a pretty safe experience.
Cheers.
Insomniac
Well-Known Member
1.2 are you fermenting straight honey
Pretty much!
huesmann
Well-Known Member
When do you this bochet stuff, do you just keep adding water and re-reading your hydrometer til you hit your desired SG? I imagine the boiling process changes the sugar content of the honey, which would throw off any preliminary gravity calculations.
With any mead, I usually just take what I get...knowing full well that the sugar content of honey varies quite a bit, and knowing that my volume measurements are estimates as well...
If it's just way too low, then sometimes I'll add honey until I get it up where I want, and certainly you could do the reverse as well...
With the bochet I did, I just used 18 lbs of inexpensive clover honey from Sam's Club (no need to use anything that good, since you're caramelizing it, and your character/flavor is coming from that...). ProMash estimates this to give an OG of 1.126 in a 6 gal batch -- I got 1.107, which is fine for me. My fermentation took it down to 1.007 (13.4% ABV). Since I used the Wyeast Dry Mead strain, which should have dried this out completely, I assume the process of caramelization creates some unfermentable compounds...this was fine, because the 1.007 gave me just enough residual sweetness that I didn't have to worry about stabilizing and backsweetening (I think bochet is one mead that really benefits from a small amount of sweetness to complement the caramelized flavors.)
Pulled out another bottle of the batch I made last September to bring to Teach a Neighbor to homebrew day at cap n cork- people still loved it. They said it smoothed out nicely
I think I have one more bottle, I'm going to hold it for at least another year.
We are talking about doing a 5 gallon batch at some point.
I think I have one more bottle, I'm going to hold it for at least another year.
We are talking about doing a 5 gallon batch at some point.
Q2XL
Well-Known Member
I can attest to that. I had a sample from last year and again this year and it did smooth out rather nicely.
You should make some.
I'm drinking batch two and its reputation grows. I've been at larger brew events and had strangers come ask me about it.
Batch three is in the fermenter (10 gallons)
Are you using the same recipe you posted a link to earlier? Any changes you made over the last couple batches?
Thanks
Mark
Mark,
Same recipe. I used a local wildflower honey for the last 10 gallon batch is the only difference.
Same recipe. I used a local wildflower honey for the last 10 gallon batch is the only difference.
Guess this is as good a place to ask this as anywhere. Does anyone think the type of honey or more specifically the less processed types of honey would effect the outcome of this type of drink?
I was just thinking about this and figured the ability to spin out and clarify the honey back in the 1500's must have been lacking to some degree so some measurable amount of wax/particles must have been in the honey they used. Anyone have any ideas on what some natural wax in with the honey would do to the outcome of this drink, good or bad?
I was just thinking about this and figured the ability to spin out and clarify the honey back in the 1500's must have been lacking to some degree so some measurable amount of wax/particles must have been in the honey they used. Anyone have any ideas on what some natural wax in with the honey would do to the outcome of this drink, good or bad?
I think when you boil honey it gets damn f*c%!ng hot
, and any small amount of wax or organic material wouldn't stand a chance... Seriously, though, I really don't think it would matter one way or another...
I think the honey does make some difference but its more of a subtle background note. The overwhelming character is the caramelized flavors and dried fruit notes.
Despite the boil, there is a definite honey nose to this mead. At the last club brew day I had two bees commit suicide in my glass in about a half hour period.
Despite the boil, there is a definite honey nose to this mead. At the last club brew day I had two bees commit suicide in my glass in about a half hour period.
That could be a new marketing thing for meads, just like the worms in Tequila. EAT THE BEES!!!!
Seriously funny! I almost swallowed one. Both had drowned... but I guess if you gotta go, what better way for a bee?
OK, I just gave this a go. 3 lbs. of pure unfiltered crystallized honey. Added some water initially to offset the lack of liquid in the crystallized honey.
Cooked it for 30 minutes, it was definitely cooked and done. Quite pungent, honestly.
Mixed it into a fermenter, let it cool down. Took an OG reading at 89*, it read 1.042 -- so 1.046 corrected. That doesn't seem right to me... Does crystallized honey have less ppg? Or was it perhaps not mixed all the way when I took a reading? Or did burning the honey somehow cause a drop in ppg?
Thoughts and input appreciated. Thanks!
Cooked it for 30 minutes, it was definitely cooked and done. Quite pungent, honestly.
Mixed it into a fermenter, let it cool down. Took an OG reading at 89*, it read 1.042 -- so 1.046 corrected. That doesn't seem right to me... Does crystallized honey have less ppg? Or was it perhaps not mixed all the way when I took a reading? Or did burning the honey somehow cause a drop in ppg?
Thoughts and input appreciated. Thanks!
How big a batch?
I would guess you did not have it stirred well if that was your gravity reading.
diablodawg
Well-Known Member
Just put together a burnt pineapple mead. 3 lb of honey boiled for around 90 minutes, plus the juice of three cans of pineapple chunks (only pineapple, pineapple juice, and concentrate. Used wine yeast and intend to keep it for a year. Rack to secondary after a month or so? What do you think?
Wow. It sounds like you're describing Moxie.
We have seven hives and sell honey to our members at the golf club and with some of it have been making mead. Simple recipes producing strong, dry mead seems to be the most popular with our friends. We made 10 litres of burnt mead first of Jan/12 not knowing what to expect and later in the month made 2x10 more for a total of 30 litres. The video of the guy making burnt mead with his goat was our recipe and I have to say that we didn't let it get to the tar stage though we cooked it for 40 min over a turkey burner(propane).
Adding the water produced the expected fireworks which resulted in some overflowing in one batch but ok with the other two. Yeast addition, aeration and fermenting was as normal. Being very inquisitive we racked after a month and had to try it. Amazing taste with as mentioned above with caramel, coffee and black currant noted. A dozen people have tried it and they all love it...this after only seven week! So we are bottling and hiding it and this week making 20 more litres which we hope will turn out the same way.
If I can find the photo history we made while cooking the honey with the different colours I will post later...all in all a very enjoyable procedure...polski
Adding the water produced the expected fireworks which resulted in some overflowing in one batch but ok with the other two. Yeast addition, aeration and fermenting was as normal. Being very inquisitive we racked after a month and had to try it. Amazing taste with as mentioned above with caramel, coffee and black currant noted. A dozen people have tried it and they all love it...this after only seven week! So we are bottling and hiding it and this week making 20 more litres which we hope will turn out the same way.
If I can find the photo history we made while cooking the honey with the different colours I will post later...all in all a very enjoyable procedure...polski
tdogg
Well-Known Member
Man this sounds awesome! This thread was started quite a while ago, does anyone one have more pics or tasting notes? Is there anything such as a Bochet Melomel or a Bochet Metheglin?
TheBrewingMedic
Well-Known Member
tdogg you can make bochet anyway you like, your base flavors are going to be a smoky, slightly sweet, deep caramel, toasty marshmallow type flavor, so match up things you think would go with that. look for the "leap year 2012" thread, I think thats the title. A bunch of us are making a Cocobochet with cacao nibs and vanilla beans. guess that could fall into the metheglin bochet hybrid category.
I am going to make another batch of this sometime this year. I boiled the honey for 45 minutes, and it caramelized the honey nicely! I did not get a smokey flavor, but it was good. There was the roasted marshmallow smell when the honey was boiling, but it did not come through with the finished mead. I might try adding vanilla to my next batch. Wish I could give a better description of the mead, but it is all gone!
That's the great thing about homebrewing...limited mainly only by your imagination. I'm already trying to figure out how I can get SWMBO to agree to me doubling my annual apple cider acquisition this fall so I can make a bochet cyser along with my regular one, and some sort of Graff along with my regular spiced cider...
This is my last gravity reading sample at day 31 of my Bochet Metheglin/Melomel triple hybrid. It is made from 1.75 hours of slow boiled Sams Club honey & 20 bags of Celestial Seasonings Raspberry Zinger herbal tea. 2 gallons total.
It was still pretty sweet then but was just racked at that point and I have not checked it since. It's about 2 months old now.
I set my winter mead about ten days ago, which is consists of boiled honey (ca 30 min on rather high heat), saffron, cinnamon, raisins and apples.
I have no idea how you would classify that one.
We'll see how it turns out...
TheBrewingMedic
Well-Known Member
a melobochetheglin?
Did the mods edit this thread and take the word Brochet out of the title? why?
huesmann
Well-Known Member
Maybe because there's no R in bochet?
Psychodrea
Member
I'm making this right now, and I turned my back. 2 seconds later I had a honey waterfall going down my stove. All clean and its going again with the simmer select set so it won't ever come to a boil.
conpewter
Well-Known Member
My bochet mead finally tastes good! It was hot for the first year after bottling. I now think it is pretty good. Just 2.5 years after brewing it. I suppose with an OG of 1.132 it would take a while to age.
Had a tasting this past weekend at a get-together with some great people. I got good reviews mostly. Some people thought it was too burned tasting, others thought it could use more burned notes. I feel that it is pretty good, I don't get burnt flavors, but get a lot of caramel flavors. Guess it is time to start the next batch...
Also... I thought it was brochet as well, not sure why
Had a tasting this past weekend at a get-together with some great people. I got good reviews mostly. Some people thought it was too burned tasting, others thought it could use more burned notes. I feel that it is pretty good, I don't get burnt flavors, but get a lot of caramel flavors. Guess it is time to start the next batch...
Also... I thought it was brochet as well, not sure why
I thought it was really good! But I'm one of the "too burned" tasting people. Yet others thought it could have more of that flavor, so it must be a matter of taste. My preference would be just a tiny bit less of the burnt flavor, because I really liked the rest of it. I think when it's so strongly burnt flavored that it detracts from the nuances and balance of the other flavors, if that makes sense.
Of course, I'm one of those who doesn't like "dark" sugar foods that much. By that I mean I don't care much for toffee or dark caramel. That's probably why I felt the burned taste was strong. My thought is that even that flavor would mellow and age and if you were a patient soul, in three-five years you would have a perfectly balanced and smooth bochet mead. But I know I could never wait five years!
Aoife3Sheets
Member
The Bee Folks honey company has a Meadowfoam honey, made from mallow plants. It tastes like marshmallow fluff. Could be amazing as a backsweetener...
I'm going to try this soon, but am going old school with it. I already have all the spices needed, so why not?
I'm going to try this soon, but am going old school with it. I already have all the spices needed, so why not?
gizmodog51
Well-Known Member
has anyone considered anise & ginger for the spices?
i'm gonna do a pilot 1 gallon batch using these spices and will give an AAR once fermented......
GD
update: 1/13/13 making a brochet as i type. using five pounds of honey from my food storage which came from the mormon farm here in central florida..palmetto flower from what I was told thirty some years ago. dark and rich! adding some cloudy cider to it after the boil and will spilt between 2 gallon jugs.
had a thousand or more bees buzzing while cooking out side! the honey rendered down to a darkish brown /black. when adding the cider the honey soildified into a cystralille mass. am heating up tp boil to melt before transfering into jugs...
well i finally got my camera charged and i can't seem to post a picture??
reheating did the trick and strained at least 35 bees from the must that had sacrificed themselved in the name of honey while this was being rendered down.
5lbs of honey
1 gal of cloudy cider
a pinch of ginger
and i now have two 1 gallon jugs filled half way. will add yeat nutrient when cool then measure out yeast evenly for both jugs hydrate and pitch tonite.
bees are a buzzing!
GD
i'm gonna do a pilot 1 gallon batch using these spices and will give an AAR once fermented......
GD
update: 1/13/13 making a brochet as i type. using five pounds of honey from my food storage which came from the mormon farm here in central florida..palmetto flower from what I was told thirty some years ago. dark and rich! adding some cloudy cider to it after the boil and will spilt between 2 gallon jugs.
had a thousand or more bees buzzing while cooking out side! the honey rendered down to a darkish brown /black. when adding the cider the honey soildified into a cystralille mass. am heating up tp boil to melt before transfering into jugs...
well i finally got my camera charged and i can't seem to post a picture??
reheating did the trick and strained at least 35 bees from the must that had sacrificed themselved in the name of honey while this was being rendered down.
5lbs of honey
1 gal of cloudy cider
a pinch of ginger
and i now have two 1 gallon jugs filled half way. will add yeat nutrient when cool then measure out yeast evenly for both jugs hydrate and pitch tonite.
bees are a buzzing!
GD
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