Stark Raven Mead (burnt honey mead attempt)

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

machinelf

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2009
Messages
316
Reaction score
15
Location
Cairo, WV
So the wife and I have really gotten into brewing over the past year, with several batches of stovetop partial mashes of varying quality undertaken so far. The thread on Burnt Honey Mead really caught our attention, and we finally decided to to try it out this past weekend. This is our first mead. SWMBO is the smart one, and she loves her Beersmith, so here is a copypasta of the recipe so far:

----------------------------
Recipe: Stark Raven Mead
Brewer: Two Rooks Brewery
Style: Bochet

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.126 SG
Estimated Color: 20.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 0.0 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: - %
Boil Time: 180 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item
18lbs Carmelized Honey
2.5 tsp Cream of Tartar in boil
1.00 oz Black tellicherry "Extra Bold" (Secondary 3.0 days)
1.00 oz Cardamom (Secondary 3.0 days)
1.00 oz Ginger Root (Secondary 3.0 days)
1 Pkgs Lalvin EC-1118 (Lallemand - Lalvin #EC-111Yeast-Wine

----------------------------


Notes:
------
We used local wildflower honey. Boiled three hours until caramelized; black honey hard at room temperature. Stirred constantly. Let cool until it sank down, and then gradually added one gallon warm spring water, stirring after each addition. Then added three more gallons cold spring water to chill. Finished cooling to pitching temp. Racked to primary and pitched.

Water to top up to 5 gallons. (No water needed in this batch.)

28 Brix measured (~1.120); 15 Brix target

Yeast nutrient schedule:
-1.5 tsp Superfood or Ferm-K at pitching (we used FermK)
-1 tsp after 24 hrs;
-0.5 tsp pre fermentation midpoint (OG+TG/2)=1.073 or 22 Brix (so 23 Brix is the target)

-Spices to be used to taste in secondary, est. two to three days or until bochet is fragrant.

-8 weeks before bottling: 3 tsp sparkolloid finings in 3/4c water--mix into boiling water and boil an additional 5 - 10 minutes; then add HOT water to fermenter.
----------------------------

Ok, onto the pics!

1.5 gallons of honey doesn't look like much in a 7.5 gallon pot...
DSCN9929_LR.jpg


First signs of life...
DSCN9937_LR.jpg


Whoa! Kill the flames, quick!
DSCN9938_LR.jpg


After turning the flames down, we stirred the pot continuously in shifts. Here's a few shots showing how the color changed... the smell was wonderful throughout...
DSCN9939_LR.jpg

DSCN9940_LR.jpg

DSCN9941_LR.jpg

DSCN9944_LR.jpg

DSCN9947_LR.jpg


Have I mentioned how brilliant my wife is? She had the foresight to keep this little drip log of the color changes...
DSCN9953copy.jpg


Here's what it looked like after we had added the 4 gallons of spring water...
DSCN9961_LR.jpg


Continued in next post...
 
No pics, but to speed cooling we wrapped a wet shirt around the (lidded) pot and turned a fan onto it... kept spraying it down...

The colony prepares for its journey...
DSCN9968_LR.jpg


The siphon enters the depths...
DSCN9972_LR.jpg


Such a beautiful, dark color...
DSCN9971_LR.jpg

DSCN9973_LR.jpg


The finished product after a good shake...
DSCN9977_LR.jpg


It's now bubbling away nicely. Thanks for reading! Thoughts and questions welcome! :mug:
 
Nice journal of your mead project! The drip record was a nice touch. The burnt honey thing definitely is more time consuming than a standard no-boil mead, but looks interesting.

As your foam calms down you'll probably want to top off your carboy with boiled & cooled water so there's very little headspace left in the end. Mead can be very sensitive to oxidation!
 
Thanks! I had planned to rack onto some spices in a smaller carboy after fermentation had finished, but from what I'm reading that can take awhile. Maybe I'll rack in a couple of weeks regardless and make sure my headspace is reduced. I appreciate the advice!


Nice journal of your mead project! The drip record was a nice touch. The burnt honey thing definitely is more time consuming than a standard no-boil mead, but looks interesting.

As your foam calms down you'll probably want to top off your carboy with boiled & cooled water so there's very little headspace left in the end. Mead can be very sensitive to oxidation!
 
Thanks guys. I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops myself. I'll definitely update as things progress.
 
Great pictures. You inspired me to try this myself. I made a one-gallon burnt mead last weekend and am watching it bubble along.
 
Whoa, thanks for the drip pictures. I have been using caramelized honey in a few different meads and braggots along with some raw honey, but kind of just randomly burning it to where I wanted without timing it. It's good to have an idea what amount of time it takes to get a specific colour.
 
I did one on 2009-12-14, and it has been bulk ageing in a keg and I need to bottle it soon, just because I need the keg and I'm jonesing for a sample. :)
Really nice string of pictures, and great idea of using a drip comparison.
Thanks.
 
I slowly cooked mine for around an hour and a half. It was just about the color of the drip marked 150. And smelled awesome. I can't wait to get a sample.
 
Well... here's Machinelf's wife chiming in on what my thoughts were at the time.

I included Cream of Tartar in the recipe for two reasons. First, because it's what I use when I make invert syrup, which I use in my barleywine. In that, it helps with the conversion of sucrose; I'm not sure if it helps with the more prevalent sugars in honey or not. But secondly, I was given to understand that Roger Morse thought Cream of Tartar was useful in helping to increase the buffering capacity of mead due to the potassium. And we didn't happen to have any other potassium sources on hand. (Cream of Tartar goes in my snickerdoodles, so we can't be without it!)

I have no idea if it does help in that way; it doesn't intuitively make sense to me that an acidifier like Cream of Tartar would work in buffering the pH in fermenting mead... but even so, pH seems to be just fine in this batch, 4-ish or so (according to our pH strips).

Fermentation is really chugging along. It tasted fabulous at first, and now... just more or less yeasty. :) Which is to be expected. But I have to say the smell of the fermenting mead is really nice: vaguely sweet, and with a slight smell of vanilla... or rum... or damask rose. Some of our beer yeast (ahem, Cali V) throws sulfur when fermenting, not nearly so pleasant.
 
But secondly, I was given to understand that Roger Morse thought Cream of Tartar was useful in helping to increase the buffering capacity of mead due to the potassium.

I have no idea if it does help in that way; it doesn't intuitively make sense to me that an acidifier like Cream of Tartar would work in buffering the pH in fermenting mead.


Roger Morse recommended 4 grams per gallon of cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate). The potassium may help the yeast to deal with a more acidic medium, but it doesn't actually buffer the must (in fact, high levels of potassium actually cause the must pH to go lower). What acts as the buffer is the tartrate ion.

The tartrate lives in a equilibrium between 3 states tartaric acid (H2-T), potassium bitartrate (KH-T), and potassium tartrate (K2-T):

H2-T <-----> KH-T <-----> K2-T

When the pH is above 4.34, the molecules tend to give up all their hydrogen ions leaving it mostly in the K2-T state. If the pH drops below 2.98, the molecules bind up the hydrogen ions leaving everything in the H2-T state. In effect, it reaches an equilibrium around a pH of 3.6 (which happens to be ideal for yeast). So if there is cream of tartar added to the must, it will tend to keep the pH from dropping below 3.6 as the yeast secrete organic acids during fermentation. The resistance to change in pH when other acid is added is what "buffering capacity" is, so having the tartrate helps buffer the must.

Interestingly, it also adds some acidic flavor, and if you use it, you may need less acid added than some recipes call for.

It is not needed to invert sucrose. The yeast have enzymes to do that without our help.

Medsen
 
[QUOTE The tartrate lives in a equilibrium between 3 states tartaric acid (H2-T), potassium bitartrate (KH-T), and potassium tartrate (K2-T):

H2-T <-----> KH-T <-----> K2-T

When the pH is above 4.34, the molecules tend to give up all their hydrogen ions leaving it mostly in the K2-T state. If the pH drops below 2.98, the molecules bind up the hydrogen ions leaving everything in the H2-T state. In effect, it reaches an equilibrium around a pH of 3.6 (which happens to be ideal for yeast). So if there is cream of tartar added to the must, it will tend to keep the pH from dropping below 3.6 as the yeast secrete organic acids during fermentation. The resistance to change in pH when other acid is added is what "buffering capacity" is, so having the tartrate helps buffer the must.[/QUOTE]

i see...

:p
 
Medsen, that's fabulous to know, thanks very much.

I have to admit (and as you can see) I had quite a vague understanding of why Cream of Tartar would act as a pH buffer. Let me ask, though, so I'm clear: it was my understanding that an acidifer could be used to help convert sucrose (when cooking) to glucose and fructose to make an invert syrup in the absence of glycoside hydrolase enzymes. I do know that yeasts will make their own conversions, but am I wrong in thinking that glucose and fructose are more easily fermentable by yeasts because they don't require those enzymes? My understanding (flawed as it is, hahaha) was that certain sugars--various disaccharides and often the trisaccharide maltotriose--were more difficult for yeasts to ferment, and some can't ferment those complex sugars at all. Or maybe it's not exactly that they're more difficult to ferment so much as it is that they're the last to be fermented, and so are more difficult simply given the stressed conditions toward the end of the fermentation of some high gravity beverages. So, especially for a barleywine, I thought a non-malt fortification of simple monosaccharide sugars may help the yeast more easily finish fermentation. Is that correct, or am I blowing hot air?

I wasn't sure Cream of Tartar would help very much with mead in simplifying the sugars, because of course the most prevalent sugars in honey are already very simple... but I didn't think it would hurt, and I wanted the help in buffering for sure. Thanks again for that explanation. I love details, and worry when adding things just because "it's what the recipe calls for" ... doesn't make me feel much better even if I'm the one contriving the recipe. ;) A lot of old French recipes I ran across when trying to design this one seemed to use Cream of Tartar. This is our first mead, so we are really sort of feeling our way around. I wish it wouldn't take so long to be able to sample the finished product!
 
Despite Roger Morse's recommendation, I typically don't use cream of tartar. If the pH needs adjustment, I simply use potassium bicarbonate to bring it to the desired level. Many times, no adjustment is required. Just one other thing about cream of tartar - as in wines, it may precipitate out when the wine is chilled so if adding it in significant amounts, you may want to cold stabilize the mead and rack off the crystals to make sure you don't get wine diamonds forming in your bottles if you put them in the fridge.

Most of the sugars in honey are fermentable (98% or so). Glucose is easier for the yeast to metabolize than fructose. Sucrose is easily converted by the yeast invertase enzyme located in the cell wall (some in cytoplasm also). This enzyme functions even if the cell is dead so the yeast can convert sucrose into its constituents without difficulty even late in a fermentation. Sucrose readily hydrolyzes in an acidic environment, and the yeast create an acidic environment for themselves so this occurs naturally. It just so happens that the invertase functions best in an acid environment (pH 4.5 is optimal for the enzyme). The point of all of this is you really don't need to worry about inverting sugar for the yeast - if you do it, it won't hurt anything, but it really doesn't make a difference.

My apologies for all this rambling diversion away from the topic of the Bochet.

Medsen
 
Please--don't apologize for being so generous with your time and knowledge, we appreciate it. And I'm sure Llysse can follow what you're saying. ;)

Me, I just do the heavy lifting. :D

My apologies for all this rambling diversion away from the topic of the Bochet.

Medsen
 
Do you think a five gallon pot would be to small? I see the line where the boil came close to the top but not all the way up. I don't really want to go buy a seven and half gallon pot...as I have no money.
 
I'm guessing it bubbled up to about the 4 gallon mark (or so)... and it wanted to go higher! But with a good eye and steady stirring, I bet you could go with a five gallon pot. It'll probably help if you have someone to spell you when stirring, because your arm will get tired without help for sure (or mine would). But there's something pretty relaxing about it, too.

BTW, the old burnt-sack recipe I've seen calls for stirring until the smoke is black. We never saw smoke of any color, although there was (normal) steam. The Stark Raven is stronger than sack, but we did take the honey to black, so I'm not sure why we didn't have any smoke as described. In any case, what I'm getting at is when you cook it up, I'd go by the color of the honey when deciding how long to go. How long it takes to get it to the same color will doubtless vary a little based on how much heat you're applying, the size of your vessel and so on. With this batch, once we got it boiling, our flame stayed relatively low so it wouldn't bubble up too much.

Would love to hear how it goes (and with photos!). I keep going to check out the carboy to see how things are going and whisper to the yeast... but they have yet to say anything but blub blub. (But I take "blub" as encouragement!)

:tank:
 
Ok, as I mentioned before, I had planned to rack this to secondary when the fermentation finished--or at least when it had slowed down. Am I correct in assuming that as long as I have steady airlock activity that the CO2 will prevent oxidation?

My secondary carboy is smaller and if there's still headspace at that point I'll top it up, but for now I don't want to mess with it if I don't have to.
 
I was really surprised at how fast this went. Don't have my notes handy, but it really booked along. We are really basic sweet mead fans, so I didn't rack to a secondary, just sorbated and backsweetened, then let set for another week and bottled. It is just an amazing color and crystal clear. I got 4 full bottles and one partial, so the partial went right into the fridge. This is definitely a keeper recipe!!!
 
Wow, that was fast! I take it you don't usually bulk age? I think I'm going to keep mine in a carboy for at least a year (longer if Llysse will let me :D )


I was really surprised at how fast this went. Don't have my notes handy, but it really booked along. We are really basic sweet mead fans, so I didn't rack to a secondary, just sorbated and backsweetened, then let set for another week and bottled. It is just an amazing color and crystal clear. I got 4 full bottles and one partial, so the partial went right into the fridge. This is definitely a keeper recipe!!!
 
I don't have enough gallon bottles to bulk age, but plenty of smaller ones to bottle individually. I'm working on acquiring more gallon bottles, so maybe at some point in the future. Also, my house was a tad warm in the last month, so maybe that pushed it along. I am planning to brew another batch in the future, so maybe I'll have to give that a go with the next one.
 
Just for reference, here is that recipe in the original French and in English translation (from Eileen Power's 1928 The Goodman of Paris:

Le Menagier de Paris

BOCHET. Pour faire six sextiers de bochet, prenez six pintes de miel bien doulx, et le mettez en une chaudière sur le feu et le faites boulir, et remuez si longuement que il laisse à soy croistre, et que vous véez qu'il gette bouillon aussi comme petites orines qui se creveront, et au crever getteront un petit de fumée aussi come noire: et lors faites-le mouvoir, et lors mettez sept sextiers d'eaue et les faites tant boulir qu'ils revienguent à six sextiers, et tousjours mouvoir. Et lors le mettez en un cuvier pour refroidier jusques à tant qu'il soit ainsi comme tiède; et lors le coulez en un sas, et après le mettez en un tonnel et y mettez une choppine de leveçon de cervoise, car c'est ce qui le fait piquant, (et qui y mettroit levain de pain, autant vauldroit pour saveur, mais la couleur en seroit plus fade,) et couvrez bien et chaudement pour parer. Et se vous le voulez faire très bon, si y mettez une once de gingembre, de poivre long, graine de paradis et cloux de giroffle autant de l'un que de l'autre, excepté des cloux de giroffle dont il y aura le moins, et les mettez en un sachet de toile et gettez dedans. Et quant il y aura esté deux ou trois jours et le bochet sentira assez les espices et il piquera assez, si ostez le sachet et l'espraignez et le mettez en l'autre baril que vous ferez. Et ainsi vous servira bien celle pouldre jusques à trois ou quatre fois.



"BOCHET. To make six sesters of bochet take six pints of very soft honey and set it in a cauldron on the fire, and boil it and stir it for as long as it goes on rising and as long as you see it throwing up liquid in little bubbles which burst and in bursting give off a little blackish steam; and then move it, and put in seven sesters of water and boil them until it is reduced to six sesters, always stirring. And then put it in a tub to cool until it be just warm, and then run it through a sieve, and afterwards put it in a cask and add half a pint of leaven of beer, for it is this which makes it piquant (and if you put in leaven of bread, it is as good for the taste, but the colour will be duller), and cover it warmly and well when you prepare it. And if you would make it very good, add thereto an ounce of ginger, long pepper, grain of Paradise and cloves, as much of the one as of the other, save that there shall be less of the cloves, and put them in a linen bag and cast it therein. And when it hath been therein for two or three days, and the bochet tastes enough of the spices and is sufficiently piquant, take out the bag and squeeze it and put it in the other barrel that you are making. And thus this powder will serve you well two or three times over."

A "sester" seems to be, in English measure, 15 pundas, or 12 or so pounds, making is about 1.5 gallons. But the original French sextier can refer to different measures sizes, this one is most likely eight pints or a gallon. Ish.

So you've either got about 1-1/2 gallons of honey per 9 gallons of water, or 1-1/2 per 6, depending. I'm guessing it was most likely meant to be six. We did 1-1/2 with four of water, decided on new spices/herbs that we thought would harmonize with the decribed "roasted marshmallow" flavor, planned a nutrient schedule and so on.

I also looked at a bunch of other old recipes, too. Looks like some of the old recipes in the famous Digbie book call for cooking the honey and water for about a half hour, probably to sanitize but also to remove the scum. This first one here seems to caramelize the honey when the water has already been added, boiling it for three hours:

The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Knight Opened

WEAK HONEY-DRINK

Take nine pints of warm fountain water, and dissolve in it one pint of pure White-honey, by laving it therein, till it be dissolved. Then boil it gently, skimming it all the while, till all the scum be perfectly scummed off; and after that boil it a little longer, peradventure a quarter of an hour. In all it will require two or three hours boiling, so that at last one third part may be consumed. About a quarter of an hour before you cease boiling, and take it from the fire, put to it a little spoonful of cleansed and sliced Ginger; and almost half as much of the thin yellow rinde of Orange, when you are even ready to take it from the fire, so as the Orange boil only one walm in it. Then pour it into a well-glased strong deep great Gally-pot, and let it stand so, till it be almost cold, that it be scarce Luke-warm. Then put to it a little silver-spoonful of pure Ale-yest, and work it together with a Ladle to make it ferment: as soon as it beginneth to do so, cover it close with a fit cover, and put a thick dubbled woollen cloth about it. Cast all things so that this may be done when you are going to bed. Next morning when you rise, you will find the barm gathered all together in the middle; scum it clean off with a silver-spoon and a feather, and bottle up the Liquor, stopping it very close. It will be ready to drink in two or three days; but it will keep well a month or two. It will be from the first very quick and pleasant.

Here's another one that seems to do some caramelization--not so much as the first. And it has the same ratio of honey to water (1:4) as the French one (depending on how you measure a sester):

ANOTHER

Take a quart of honey to a Gallon of water; set the Kettle over the fire, and stir it now and then, that the honey may melt; let it boil an hour; you must boil in it, a Sprig or two of Winter-savory, as much of Sweet-marjoram; put it into tubs ready scalded, till the next day towards evening. Then tun it up into your vessel, let it work for three days; after which hang a bag in the barrel with what quantity of Mace and sliced Nutmeg you please. To make it stronger then this, 'tis but adding more hony, to make it bear an Egg the breadth of a six pence, or something more. You may bottle it out after a month, when you please. This is the way, which is used in Sussex by those who are accounted to make it best.

I'm given to understand the egg was used as a sort of primitive hydrometer. This seems strange to me, since an egg will even float in water if it's old. But I suppose Digbie was even further from the LHBS than we are. In the above recipe, as much egg should be sticking out of the liquid as a sixpence is wide.

Seems a little ucky. But then again, a lot of old recipes call for clarifying the mead by cooking it with egg white and broken egg shell. :drunk:

I looked at other recipes, too. Like this one has a sort of nutrient addition.

MEATH WITH RAISINS

Put forty Gallons of water into your Caldron, and with a stick take the height of the water, making a notch, where the superficies of the water cometh. Then put to the water ten Gallons of Honey, which dissolve with much Laving it; then presently boil it gently, skimming it all the while, till it be free from scum. Then put into it a thin bag of boulter-cloth containing forty pound weight of the best blew Raisins of the Sun, well picked and washed and wiped dry; and let the bag be so large, that the Raisins may lie at ease and loosly in it. When you perceive that the Raisins are boiled enough to be very soft, that you may strain out all their substance, take out the bag, and strain out all the Liquor by a strong Press. Put it back to the Honey-liquor, and boil all together (having thrown away the husks of the Raisins with the bag) till your Liquor be sunk down to the notch of your stick, which is the sign of due strength. Then let it cool in a woodden vessel, and let it run through a strainer to sever it from the settlings, and put it into a strong vessel, that hath had Sack or Muscadine in it, not filling it to within three fingers breadth of the top (for otherwise it will break the vessel with working) and leave the bung open whiles it worketh, which will be six weeks very strongly, though it be put into a cold cellar. And after nine moneths, you may begin to drink it.

However, Elf doesn't care for raisins, and in the end it seemed silly to do it this way since we had nutrient on hand anyway.

Most were like this: just boil a half hour or so and then pitch yeast.


ANOTHER OF THE SAME LADY [Lady Stuart]

To four Gallons of water put one Gallon of honey; warm the water Luke-warm before you put in your honey; when it is dissolved, set it over the fire, and let it boil half an hour with these Spices grosly beaten and put in a Canvass-bag: namely, half an Ounce of Ginger, two Nutmegs, a few Cloves and a little Mace; and in the boiling put in a quart of cold water to raise the scum, which you must take clean off in the boiling. If you love herbs, put in a little bundle of Rosemary, Bays, Sweet-marjoram and Eglantine. Let it stand till it is cold, then put into it half a pint of Ale-barm, and let it work twelve hours; then Tun it, but take out the bundle of herbs first.

So, those are some I looked at. I could swear I found a modern meadery that had posted a description of its bochet, but I can't find it off hand. This one describes bochet as burnt sack, but doesn't carry a bochet (at least not right now). This one has a bochet, but no real description of the recipe. Sorry I can't find the one I was examining at the time. It sounded interesting. It was a burnt sack, too.
 
My DH had tucked one of my bochet meads in his closet. He opened it yesterday and gave me a big thumbs up. And a request to definitely make more of this one, right to asking me if I had enough honey to start another batch soon. So I guess I'll be buying more honey!!!
 
Just wanted to say I burnt up a batch on 20091214, 20091228 Racked to secondary.
20100111 cold crashed, then racked to keg to bulk age a little. Tasted Heavy, kind of nutty, caramel flavour. really not impressed.
20100228 Bottled, tasted very heavy and I was not impressed.
20100419 tasted again, and now I can see where this may be very interesting, different but it is not a waste. It's almost like a mead porter, just so different I have a hard time describing it.
 
Thanks for the update. We recently racked this to tertiary (to get it off the spice bag that I was unable to pull out :( ) and I have to say that I wasn't at all happy with the flavor. But it is young, so I'm hoping that a few years will turn it into something.

Our sample had a flavor that reminded me of a cola flavored cough syrup--my wife said it tasted like Jagermeister. Definitely not what I was expecting, but again--I have to keep telling myself that it's still too early to judge it. I'm going to bulk age it in the carboy for at least another year before I bottle it.


Just wanted to say I burnt up a batch on 20091214, 20091228 Racked to secondary.
20100111 cold crashed, then racked to keg to bulk age a little. Tasted Heavy, kind of nutty, caramel flavour. really not impressed.
20100228 Bottled, tasted very heavy and I was not impressed.
20100419 tasted again, and now I can see where this may be very interesting, different but it is not a waste. It's almost like a mead porter, just so different I have a hard time describing it.
 
I don't like my mead too sweet... how sweet is it? I remember making a prickly pear mead with 20lbs of honey.. and it was too sweet.... 14 lbs of honey I liked better...

so you boiled honey for about 2 hours... would u recommend 170 mins like another member did?

I never heard of zinc fortified yeast... is that dead yeast? .1 g? that's a very little, what kind of scale did u use? So that gets boiled right?

Something that always confused me about yeast nutrients (extract). I have some, looks like salt, it's white and crystalized. But isn't there bacteria in it that can contaminate the mead? Are we supposed to boil it? I remember I threw some in while boiling another mead... and it boiled over!!! DOH!!! are we supposed to boil it? If you boil it... is it bad? But if you don't you introduce contaminates... still confuses me...

thanks




The official recipe from 2008 Nov/Dec Zymurgy page 46. Article starts on page 45 - "Mead: Party Like its 1949"

18.5 lb light honey
4.0 g yeast extract or yeast nutrient
0.1 g zinc fortified yeast as nutrient
3 Tablespoon yeast (40g) dried champagne or mead yeast (Prise de Mousse recommended)

Target original gravity 1.130 - 1.138
Approx Final Gravity 1.028-1.038
Alcohol 14 to 15% by volume

Add honey to pot. Do not add water. Gently boil the honey until dark and tastes caramelized.

Add 1 gallon of water, zinc fortified yeast and blend into the "scorched honey" Stir until dissolved well.

Blend hot honey and water mixture to 2 gallons of cold water and add to your primary.

Top up to 5 gallons total volume. Aerate extremely well and add dissolved yeast nutrient (yeast extract)

When temp is below 80 F add re hydrated yeast. Ferment between 70-75 F

It may take 3 weeks to 3 months to finish primary.

Rack and transfer to secondary. Store at cooler temperatures Rack off sediment after six months to a year. Bottle when clear and all fermentation ceased. Cork in wine bottles for long term aging.
 
it's been a couple months since i started and the last time i tasted mine it tasted like bitter burnt sh*t. but i'm giving it time, lots of time =)
 
Awesome drip photo. Lady of the house is a genius! Great photo sequence as well.

Thanks! She definitely has the brains in this outfit. :drunk:

Right down the road from you in Clarksburg.....Have you guys tasted anymore samples lately?

No, we haven't touched it. It's still sitting in secondary (or was it tertiary?), but we're planning to bottle it soon so we can have that carboy back. When we do I'll update here with tasting notes. But I'm thinking this won't be drinkable for a few years. If we do this again I'll consider less of a burn, more like what bargainfittings did, since his version has won a few awards already!
 
Thanks! She definitely has the brains in this outfit. :drunk:



No, we haven't touched it. It's still sitting in secondary (or was it tertiary?), but we're planning to bottle it soon so we can have that carboy back. When we do I'll update here with tasting notes. But I'm thinking this won't be drinkable for a few years. If we do this again I'll consider less of a burn, more like what bargainfittings did, since his version has won a few awards already!

Wow, I'm pretty curious to see how this turns out.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top