Bochet GROUP BREW - Solera Style

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MarshmallowBlue said:
Not too late, We had a "strict" schedule in the beginning, but that fell apart faster than a house of cards in a hurricane.

Welcome aboard!
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Sweet! Now the question is 1 or 5 gallons... :mug:

Quick question, so I'll be a year and half in when I start the mixing, so when I go to start the baby batch, do I pitch it into half of the third? Or pitch it virgin?
 
i brewed about 10 liters of the stuff 5 or 6 years ago. tasted like rocket fuel at first and of course the burnt flavor had to age out. brought a bottle out last new years and people enjoyed it! i still think it has to mellow a bit, so we'll see what it's like this year :D it's still a little sweet and maybe around 12-14 % is what it tastes like.

EDIT

tasted it again. i decided that this mead is not for me :p haha dont particularly care for the bitter aftertaste, could be missing some balancing flavors maybe...acidity? dunno, but i don't think i'm gonna drink much more of this hehe
 
JFARROILDOC said:
Sweet! Now the question is 1 or 5 gallons... :mug:

Quick question, so I'll be a year and half in when I start the mixing, so when I go to start the baby batch, do I pitch it into half of the third? Or pitch it virgin?
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From what I gather from the solera style and this group brew in particular is this.

Say you start a batch today. In 6 months you'll start another. In 6 more months (or 12 months from start date) you'll start your third.

At 18 months from your start date you will bottle part of your first carboy. You will then top up carboy number 1 with carboy number 2. After you've taken from carboy number 2, you will top that up with the mead from carboy number 3. You will then add fresh must to top off carboy 3.

Basically, the idea is to continually have 3 carboys full, and when you bottle from your oldest, you will always be topping up from down the line.

I just started an apple bochet about 3 weeks ago and plan to use it as the first base of my solera project. Basically the carboy it is in now will always be the carboy I bottle from. I expect to make my 6 month and 12 month batches as regular bochets without cider added.
 
HawleyFarms said:
From what I gather from the solera style and this group brew in particular is this.

Say you start a batch today. In 6 months you'll start another. In 6 more months (or 12 months from start date) you'll start your third.

At 18 months from your start date you will bottle part of your first carboy. You will then top up carboy number 1 with carboy number 2. After you've taken from carboy number 2, you will top that up with the mead from carboy number 3. You will then add fresh must to top off carboy 3.

Basically, the idea is to continually have 3 carboys full, and when you bottle from your oldest, you will always be topping up from down the line.

I just started an apple bochet about 3 weeks ago and plan to use it as the first base of my solera project. Basically the carboy it is in now will always be the carboy I bottle from. I expect to make my 6 month and 12 month batches as regular bochets without cider added.
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Correct /\ :mug:
 
Very good, got that, eventually I'll have OG-SG-FG questions, I tend to overcomplicate things unless it's really as simple as reading the must, or is there another equation from the individual ingredients SG's? And for projected FG, do I pluck that number from my a**? or is there a formula there too? I dislike math, common core keeps me from helping my kid, although he's an effing genius and math is his "thing" smh, ATM, the answer to any math with fractions and decimals is going to be "purple, because dinosaurs don't wear green hats" until I understand how to do it.... or I can wing it, like my first 4 gallons yuck, but I want it to be spectacular instead of meh... :off: I know, but haters gonna hate and noobs gonna noob Thanks in advance :confused:
 
JFARROILDOC said:
Very good, got that, eventually I'll have OG-SG-FG questions, I tend to overcomplicate things unless it's really as simple as reading the must, or is there another equation from the individual ingredients SG's? And for projected FG, do I pluck that number from my a**? or is there a formula there too? I dislike math, common core keeps me from helping my kid, although he's an effing genius and math is his "thing" smh, ATM, the answer to any math with fractions and decimals is going to be "purple, because dinosaurs don't wear green hats" until I understand how to do it.... or I can wing it, like my first 4 gallons yuck, but I want it to be spectacular instead of meh... :off: I know, but haters gonna hate and noobs gonna noob Thanks in advance :confused:
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Hey man it's all trial and error. I've made plenty of mistakes myself.

Take my apple bochet for example ...

I have made gallons upon gallons of mead, never made a bochet.

My 3gal started as a 1 gallon. Used 3.5 lbs honey. Started "burning" the honey. Added what I thought I measured out to be another cup of honey. Used 1 cup water to cool down honey before adding 1/2 gallon of apple juice. Pitched some yeast from my fridge yeast bank. 24 hours, no activity. Maybe that yeast has been in my fridge too long. Pitched some more stored yeast. 24 hours later, still no activity. Thought "what the hell, lets go with a teaspoon of champagne yeast". Wait a minute, that champagne yeast is just kind of sitting on top of the must like it's too thick. Grabbed my hydrometer, 1.2!?!?!?! WTF?

So I have no idea how much honey I REALLY used but, moral of the story is no matter have many gallons, or barrels, of mead you've made, use your brain and check the gravity.

Happened to be going to an ag fair at a living history museum the next day so I grabbed 2 gallons of cider there and poured it into the 3 gallon carboy I had just emptied with a us05 yeast cake still in it and added the previously made bochet over top. Volcanic action ensued for about a week. Why did I pour it all over a us05 yeast cake? Wasn't paying attention to what I was doing and had already poured the 1st gallon of cider in before I realized what I had done.

Anyways I now have an apple bochet fermented with at least 4 different yeasts. I plan to phase out this batch by making regular bochets for this project from now on.

Don't feel bad asking dumb questions because, no matter how long you've been doing this, some day you are going to do something as stupid as I did.

To answer your questions, I'd just take your initial gravity reading and look at what your yeast's alcohol tolerance is and you should be able to find your projected final gravity will be.
 
Lol hawley, I just got home from offshore, went to bottle my jaom, did first jug fine, second I forgot to unclamp the tube..... It popped off the siphon. Think 43 y/o sedentary male wet shirt contest..... Not pretty lol that said it tastes great although hot, burns so good in the throat, but I like that. Looking forward to cooking my bochet tomorrow. See what kinda mess I can make [emoji23]
 
I just made my first batch of bochet about a month ago, but I think I'm already outside of the guidelines of this brew. :eek: Cooked 2.5 lbs of NJ Blueberry honey in a slow cooker on low for 8 hours and added 1 lb raw (~72% caramelized). OG 1.103, used SNA and 71b. I'm thinking about adding oak down the road.

Is everyone else cooking directly over flame?

Pics were taken every two hours:
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I was until I got tired of the bees dive bombing me, currently 1.25 hours in the cook, but been on stove for 45 min or so now lol. And having to cook honey in batches, only got a 3 gallon boiler and it ain't big enough
 
My batch was on an electric stove. This weekend I am probably going to rack off all the lees and top up. Was at 1.00 a few days ago so we'll see.
 
Alright! 16 lbs honey and a forearm covered in splatter burns later, I got must cooling, wyeast 4632 smack pack expanding, and debating on pour aerating or going to Walmart and getting an aquarium aerator and a sixer of blue moon Belgian white and being lazy. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1446157383.319232.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1446157395.033343.jpg
I'll update with an og when it cools, before I pitch.
My recipe is basically 16 lb honey, burnt, water to 5 gallons, 2 vanilla beans split and scraped into must with 3 tbsp earl gray, leaves, not bags with tea dust. Come racking time I may regret not bagging them but oh well.. Lol any advice will be appreciated
 

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HawleyFarms said:
My batch was on an electric stove. This weekend I am probably going to rack off all the lees and top up. Was at 1.00 a few days ago so we'll see.
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Got my batch racked off lees and onto 2 more pounds burnt honey, mixed with 1 quart water and 1 quart fresh pressed cider. Checked gravity after re-racking and it's at 1.02

Haven't seen anymore activity in the last 2 days since adding the extra honey. Taste was actually pretty good for the abv. Not too shabby. Can't wait to see how it tastes in a year.

Will probably re-rack again in December after it has had some time to clear up.
 
HawleyFarms said:
Got my batch racked off lees and onto 2 more pounds burnt honey, mixed with 1 quart water and 1 quart fresh pressed cider. Checked gravity after re-racking and it's at 1.02

Haven't seen anymore activity in the last 2 days since adding the extra honey. Taste was actually pretty good for the abv. Not too shabby. Can't wait to see how it tastes in a year.

Will probably re-rack again in December after it has had some time to clear up.
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I wonder if you'll need a fresh pitch of yeast to kick that gravity back down. How old was the batch?
 
MarshmallowBlue said:
I wonder if you'll need a fresh pitch of yeast to kick that gravity back down. How old was the batch?
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Started it less than 2 months ago but the first week was not ferm time. I could still see some kolsch yeast cropped around the sides but abv is too high for that strain. Also siphoned up some slurry on accident but I think I might add a teaspoon of champagne to get it kicking again. This whole batch has been a disaster from the start. Has 4 different yeasts in it. Actually surprised at the final product for how many things went wrong on it.

If it stays at 1.02 I could still be satisfied with it. I think I've decided on alternating my batches between traditional bochet and apple bochet so the next one will be a regular bochet.
 
HawleyFarms said:
Started it less than 2 months ago but the first week was not ferm time. I could still see some kolsch yeast cropped around the sides but abv is too high for that strain. Also siphoned up some slurry on accident but I think I might add a teaspoon of champagne to get it kicking again. This whole batch has been a disaster from the start. Has 4 different yeasts in it. Actually surprised at the final product for how many things went wrong on it.

If it stays at 1.02 I could still be satisfied with it. I think I've decided on alternating my batches between traditional bochet and apple bochet so the next one will be a regular bochet.
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I ran into plenty of issues too with batch 1! I was doing all Brett C at first but ended up adding more Brett and Wine yeast on top of that. It's one of my finest meads haha.:mug:
 
Well Thread, I got ot tasting my second bochet a few weeks ago. It was made using ECY20. I don't think it's my favorite. The actual lactic acid sour character doesn't go too well in the young bochet. I won't be doing it again. However, thankfully I can blend it down!

Also, I was recently a guest on the Mead Makr Podcast to discuss bochets in general as well as the Bochet Solera Project, So hopefully we'll have even more group brewers when it airs Monday!

Cheers.
 
I was actually just telling someone that was looking into souring a mead to check out your project. That's awesome, hope to see some more people. I'm 2 months in with my bochet cyser and it tastes awesome. Thinking of cutting my times down to 4 months instead of six but not sure yet.
 
Hey.. what's that website? I have soured a few meads and have had mix results.. I'm curious what the process was you used..
 
First day off all season, aside from Thanksgiving, and I finally get to brew again. Missed my bochet brew day back around August and as harvest picked up momentum just couldn't find the time. This time I wanted to play with temps and timing to see how consistent I could be. Caramelized 1 lb at a time with 3 lbs local wildflower/clover honey. I'll most likely do this again for the simple reason its easier to stir, doesn't boil up so high and I can mix caramel varieties. Add a gallon spring water, SNA, and I used EC 1118 yeast for this one. I've started using 1118 a little more since I'm experimenting with step fed sack meads, and I'm starting to like it more and more.
O.G. 1.09
 
Just about that time to do my 3rd racking. A bit of lees still left so will probably add some more cider. First racking topped up with only cider. Second racking topped up with a caramelized honey cider mix and this third rack will be straight cider again. Filling to the top as I probably won't be touching this for 12-14 months til it's time to bottle.
 
Finally got a chance to taste my apple bochet again and it is FAN-FRICKING-TASTIC! Seriously, probably my favorite recipe now. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing how to make it exactly again. I am so tempted to just bottle it in a week or 2.

Needs one last racking and some sorbate and then I'm plugging it for good to keep my filthy hands out of it til October. Decided on going with 4 months between batches. Not going to oak either. And probably going to keep doing the apple bochet style instead of going back and forth between regular and apple.
 
Count me in on this one! Empty carboys are a horrible thing and this style really intrigues me!
 
I look forward to 6 months passing and number 2 getting started!!
 
Starting 2nd batch end of February/beginning of March. The first batch is turning into a fantastic dessert wine. Very happy with it. Just siphoned a pint off of the top of the yeast slurry that I had in the fridge. Even sitting on yeast and lees it is amazing.
 
Hey all, getting ready to rack my December batch into aging and it got me thinking. This is my 3rd generation that I made a few months past the mark, I've a brew day approaching and realized my calendar says "Solera Bochet 4th gen." On February 15th. Anybody's thoughts on brewing and adding the next generation or should I wait until the new date for 6 months? Any thoughts are welcome.
 
Kyzaboy89 said:
Hey all, getting ready to rack my December batch into aging and it got me thinking. This is my 3rd generation that I made a few months past the mark, I've a brew day approaching and realized my calendar says "Solera Bochet 4th gen." On February 15th. Anybody's thoughts on brewing and adding the next generation or should I wait until the new date for 6 months? Any thoughts are welcome.
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I ended up dropping down to 4 months between batches because mine won't be taking more than a year to be very good. I actually can't wait to bottle.

I'd say you'll be fine to work back to being on track with your original schedule. But then again I'm just a participant in this fun brew.
 
Kyzaboy89 said:
Hey all, getting ready to rack my December batch into aging and it got me thinking. This is my 3rd generation that I made a few months past the mark, I've a brew day approaching and realized my calendar says "Solera Bochet 4th gen." On February 15th. Anybody's thoughts on brewing and adding the next generation or should I wait until the new date for 6 months? Any thoughts are welcome.
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Go for it. Or you can bottle from gen one, and top up Gen 3 with new must.
 
That's what I was thinking, lately swmbo has been tracking my schedule and even bought me some local clover and basswood honey so we will see what happens. I think she's catching the bug with as much as she has been reading HBT, here's hoping it gets her.
 
Kyzaboy89 said:
That's what I was thinking, lately swmbo has been tracking my schedule and even bought me some local clover and basswood honey so we will see what happens. I think she's catching the bug with as much as she has been reading HBT, here's hoping it gets her.
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As long as you don't mind becoming a couple of hoarders with no limits, and all your visitors / neighbors think you're running a meth lab.
 
Well I have the approval for a 4th gen. next month and cannot wait to get the kettle boiling. Thinking of little ways to make this one distinct and also cohesive with the rest. Recently saw a toasted coconut addition somewhere, kind of interesting... Who knows but I'll keep you all posted.
 

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