Imperial Bochet

Hi everyone,
First off I apologize if this is not the proper forum for this but I figured the mead makers would be most knowledgeable because of the bochet aspect of this.

Anyway, I thought of making a braggot style beverage (more of a beer because of the grain proportions) by mixing an imperial stout with a bochet. I haven't seen much about this but the sound of those two flavors together just seems perfect.

I took a popular recipe from the stout recipe data base and put it into Beersmith and changed the malt and hop proportions and added honey. Take a look and give me your thoughts and let me know if there are any potential problems. I intend to scale this to a 3 gallon batch just in case it doesn't turn out the way I anticipate.

8.00 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK 45.1%
6.00 lbs Honey 33.8% (caramelized and added at flame out)
1.50 lb Roasted Barley Grain 8.5 %
1.00 lb Special B Malt Grain 5.6 %
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt Grain 4.2 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine Grain 2.8 %

2.00 oz Challenger [7.20 %] (60 min) Hops 59.1 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.80 %] (30 min) Hops 28.2 IBU

2 pkgs Scottish Ale (Wyeast 1728)
yeast nutrient and energizer

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge. Hold mash temp at 151 degrees for 60 minutes.

I also plan on oaking this as well.

Estimated OG according to Beersmith is 1.098.

I have done a bochet before so I am aware that caramelizing creates un-fermentables so the FG may not be as low as Beersmith estimates and may cause it to be a little sweeter.

Any opinions on just how sweet this might turn out? Because I don't want it to be unbearably sweet.

Also which would be better, to add the bochet at flame out or high krausen?

I think it looks good.

I did a Barleywine Bochet in October that turned out good. I got horrible efficiency when I mashed so I ended up adding additional honey and DME the following day after I pitched. It is really sweet (FG ended up at 1.040) but I hopped the crap out of it so the bitterness balances it out really well. I am interested to see how it'll age.

I would suggest you steep feed with the caramelized honey and make a yeast starter.

But I think a stout bochet should make a nice beverage.

very interesting.......

just completed a 5lb test run of brochet.

though a veteran of mead making since the late 90s this style was very difficult to get fermenting.
OG 1.122 FG 1.040.....
i threw a crap load of yeast and fermentables in there beside just the honey.
3.3 lbs of malt
1 gallon of cloudy cider
1/2 gallon of apple juice
2 lg cans of apple concentrate
4 oz beet sugar.
i bet your stout will be as thick as used motor oil.
mine was racked yesterday after a month of fermenting and then cold crashing. it coated the test vessel like cough syrup ....or used motor oil.
kegged it and will do a taste test tomorrow.
may have to do some balancing on the flavor. i tasted a very small amount from the test jar and it was very malty & bitterish.....

i hope you post your taste profile.
did you experience swarms of bees while rendering down?
i rendered this out side and had thousands of bees arrive on scene. about 50 died in the fumes and fell into the honey.

GD

Fathand said:

I think it looks good.

I did a Barleywine Bochet in October that turned out good. I got horrible efficiency when I mashed so I ended up adding additional honey and DME the following day after I pitched. It is really sweet (FG ended up at 1.040) but I hopped the crap out of it so the bitterness balances it out really well. I am interested to see how it'll age.

I would suggest you steep feed with the caramelized honey and make a yeast starter.

But I think a stout bochet should make a nice beverage.

Click to expand...

What do you mean by steep feed? Did you mean step feed? As in put a little bit of the bochet in at a time during fermentation?

Also you said the hops help cut the sweetness. Do you think I should add more than what I have?

allhailRITTER said:

What do you mean by steep feed? Did you mean step feed? As in put a little bit of the bochet in at a time during fermentation?

Click to expand...

Sorry I did mean step feed. And yes put a little in at a time. As you said there will be un-fermentables in there so I think you should try and do your best to encourage as healthy of a ferment as possible, i.e. SNA, step-feeding, areation, etc.

allhailRITTER said:

Also you said the hops help cut the sweetness. Do you think I should add more than what I have?

Click to expand...

I would leave your hops as is.

My batch got totally screwed up because my mash efficiency was lousy and subsequently my OG was alot lower then I wanted. So by adding DME and more caramelized honey I probably increased the un-fermentables to the point the yeast couldn't ferment it any lower. Hopefully you wont have the same issues I had.

How did this turn out or is it still going?

I had a braingasm today of doing something similar but not as high OG.

Beernik said:

How did this turn out or is it still going?

I had a braingasm today of doing something similar but not as high OG.

Click to expand...

I have not done this yet. It is still on my list of things to do. I will be sure to update on here when I get to it.

I started playing around with a recipe last night. Right now it stands at:
- 1/2 brochet and 1/2 malt
- Marris, biscuit, Carafa II, and chocolate malts
- calypso hops with additions at 60, 45, 30, and 15 minutes.
- Belgian yeast
- OG around 1.080
- IBU around 40
- ABV around 7.8%

The ABV is higher than I would like. I'd like to bring it down into the 5 - 6% range. I've been doing too many big beers and wines lately.

If you're really just after a bit of honey flavor in an imperial stout I'd just brew the beer and then add the honey to the secondary. That way you can control the sweetness and amount of honey flavor without worrying so much about the OG.