Honey...lavender...peach...caramel...How can this not be great? suggestions welcome

So here is the next idea, caramel lavender metheglin/melomel/bochet? since it's going to be a combination of styles this one will have to have a creative name.

Potential ingredients: 3 gallon batch

7 pounds orange blossom honey unless I can obtain lavender honey
3 pounds boiled orange blossom honey
(15-30 minute boil to deep caramel color/flavor)
Lavender, amount undetermined
(I've read different recipes, still working out a safe quantity)
1-3 pounds of Peaches
(yup very low amount, explained why below)
2-3 packs of Lalvin D-47
(want this to fall in the semi-sweet category)
Water to fill volume, nutrients approp. to step feeding, med grade O2

The plan:

Start with a traditional/semi-bochet hybrid, raw honey, boiled honey, water, nutrients, hydrated yeast, step feed, gaseous exchange ( ;} aerate/degas/oxygenate) etc. etc.

Secondary onto the lavender, read a bunch about it, have to figure an amount that will be balanced, give decent lavender flavor and aroma without crossing the line into the realm of causing a soap like flavor, also under add peaches, really just want a hint of their flavor and the tannins they can provide, I think this one will need that or it could potentially just be sweet flattness in the end, not enough depth or pop to make it interesting and I think hints of peach will work well to really enhance the small amount of carmelization and lavender flavors.

from there the routine processes of racking/clearing/aging/bottling/trying not to drink it all too fast....


Any opinions, hints, suggestions, comments? always welcome

and the BIG question, has anyone seen a decent source for lavender honey, mostly what I am running into is honey blends with lavender in them and all kinds of crazy syrups and a couple places that have real expensive stuff in small 6-8oz quantities

Sound great, I do have a suggestion on the boiled honey. 15-30 min I think is too little. I made a Bochet and boiled the honey on a normal kitchen gas stove on its lowest setting for 1.75 hours and think the real caramel flavor just started at about there. You may increase the heat to reduce the time but run into charing your honey and getting that smokey carbon left in the mix. That is when people say you have a burnt marshmallow affect going on. I wanted to avoid that and just did a slow boil.

If you are looking far tannins to mellow out the sweetness of your brew. Think about steeping some of your water in some black tea or peach tea. I have had good results with that too so far.

Arpolis said:

Sound great, I do have a suggestion on the boiled honey. 15-30 min I think is too little.

Click to expand...

I would agree. I am in the process of making a Bochet/Acergyn. I boiled mine just hot enough to maintain the boil. I went 1 1/2 hrs and just got to a deep butterscotch coloring. I'm hoping that was long enough to impart some caramel flavoring.

I went an hour on my leap year bochet, I just am concerned about overpowering other delicate flavors but maybe since I'm only contemplating using just under 1/3 of the honey for the caramel effect you guys may be right

Phase one of this project began today....

I decided to increase the size to a 4 gallon batch...

OG 1.120

10 pounds of Orange Blossom honey
3 pounds of Orange Blossom boiled for 40 minutes
Water to fill to 4 gallons
Lalvin D-47 x2 packs
Nutrients, Wyeast blend, 2.25g in must, 0.5g in yeast rehydrating solution
Medical grade oxygen, 0.5 l/min via 0.05 micron ss air stone for 3 minutes

I stopped the boil at 40 minutes as I liked the color level it reached, it was a dark, deep, rich amber. I took samples through out the boil to taste (letting them cool a few minutes so I didnt destroy my tongue) preboil it had the great orange blossom characters and pronounced citrusy finish, at the 15 minute mark it still had definite honey flavor but the orange/citurs was completely gone, it was definetely just sweet honeyish remeniscent of an UNtoasted marshmallow. At 30 minutes the honey was less obvious and the caramelly notes started coming through. when it was pulled off the heat the caramel was the primary flavor with just enough honey at the back end that you wouldn't forget that it is caramelized honey and not honey flavored caramel.

The boiled honey was blended carefully with cool water, approx. 2 gallons, then the 10 pounds of unboiled honey mixed in along with the initial nutrients, whisked vigorously then added to a 4 gallon fermenter.

Meanwhile, 0.5g of nutrients and 2 tsp of honey was mixed with 2 cups of 105*F water, wisked and 2 packets of D-47 was added to rehydrate.

Cool water was added to fermenter to bring the temp down to about 70*F (hydrometer sample taken) yeast mixed to slurry and pitched, fermenter given a decent shake to make sure all is blended, air stone dropped in and O2 added. Air locked and set to do its thing.

I'll be adding about 1g a day of nutrients and aerating/degassing (agitation and airstone) twice a day, for the first few days.

When primary is done, it will be racked onto 4 pounds of peaches and 6 tbs of lavender in another 4 gallon fermenter, any residual that does not fit due to the fruit will go in a smaller container and saved to secondary on its own for later topping off. I will monitor the flavors in the secondary so when the level of lavender is noticible but not letting it reach the potential "soapy" effect of using flowers it will be racked into a tertiary carboy to age and clear. the reason again for the small amount of peaches is that I am looking more for the tannins and small amount of acid in them more than pronounced peach flavor, basically to help it pop and help prevent a cloying effect, if there is some hint of peach I think it will be a nice compliment but that isn't necesarily the goal.

Thinking I got a particularly fresh healthy batch of D-47, usually I have active ferment pretty quick but with this one there was some signs of activity in the first couple hours, 8 hours later and I have bubbles cascading beautifully up the sides and an airlock thats going nuts.

Some pictures from mead day....

1. Getting things together for a day of mead making while my youngest daughter gets ready for a day of school and band practice.

2. The "Semi-Bochet" all together ready to start primary ferment

3. pre-pitch must in the hydrometer tube

Sounds like it will be pretty good!!

I've read that lavender from florist/garden centers very frequently contain pesticides that are not meant to be ingested (obviously ), so if you go that route make sure that they are safe for consumption/cooking.

Or the route that I chose, buy some seeds and put them in some dirt!

Time for gardening is pretty limited, I ordered some organic chemical free lavender, to cover all the bases

I've got a name for it:

The Medic's Methlochet.





You're welcome. Also, this sounds like it's gonna come out tasty.

That actually sounds pretty cool, thanks ;}

No prob, bob. Happy to help. I take payments in the form of samples.


Just kidding.









... sorta

I still think it would be great to work out a set up on here for swapping, trade small bottles with each other.

Get to try a variety of meads of all kinds of different flavors as well as made with different methods.