Raspberry melomel/bochet, good idea?

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GurraG

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Reading about bochet (mead with caramelized honey) got me interested. Ii would seem to me as if the toffee/marshmallow taste that could be the result of the caramelized honey would complement a sweet-ish raspberry melomel nicely. Any thoughts?
 
That technique sounds awesome, I'm probably going to have to do something like that now.

I suppose it depends on how much fruit you use, raspberries are pretty potent in flavor, that might overwhelm the caramelized honey flavors.
 
I don't realy know. I was thinking about using this recipe as a starting point, but with raspberries instead of blueberries, wine yeast instead of bread yeast, and obvioulsy caramerlized honey:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/bens-ancient-blueberry-mead-shameless-ripoff-208357/
I'm thinking half a kilo of raspberries (more or less one lb) and about two kilos of honey (around four and half lbs) and five litres of water (about 1.3 gallons). Would that work? I want a relatively strong raspberry flavour, but also a clear honey character.
 
blueberries are a lot more delicate in flavor than raspberries though it also depends on the type of raspberries and the individual berries themselves.

I think I would use half as much raspberries as you're proposing then at the end of fermentation give it a taste. You can always mash up more berries and add them if you think it needs more.

Are you going to caramelize all of the honey or just a portion?
 
Are you going to caramelize all of the honey or just a portion?

Not quite sure. My first thought was to caramelize half of it, but when you mention that the raspberries might overpower the honey flavour I'm thinking that maybe I should caramelize the whole lot. As I wrote, I want the caramel character to come through clearly.
 
I've done a Bochet about a year ago and it turned out quite good (no fruit additions).
I didn't blacken the honey like some, I carmelized it till it was dark brown and had a strong carmel character. The carmel tast came through strong. Just be carful to watch the batch while carmelizing. I nearly had a boil over a few times.
 
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