Anyone ever try making a smoked bochet?

[thedrunkdutchman]

Anyone ever try caramelizing honey useing a grill and wood chips for smoking? Just curious if anyone has attempted this. Could be a fun experiment.

 

[cmac62]

Dutch, one thing I see, smoking is usually done low and slow, and a bochet is required to get really hot. Of course you could caramelize the honey then smoke it, or vis versa. For me, a really good bochet doesn't need anything added as it will be complex enough with caramelized honey, alcohol and other fermentation products, but it may be worth a try. Good luck

 

[Ty520]

I think Trying to caramelize honey in a grill would be disastrous - too hard to control temperature, and you will not be able to smoke it because you'll need to keep it open to constantly stir it.

If I were to try it, I would try 2 different ways ( with our without caramelized honey):

Option 1: cold smoke the honey before fermentation. I think the biggest potential concern with this would be whether or not, and how much the smoke would carry over after fermentation.

Option 2:

Cold Smoke the final mead. I would Probably do this by chilling my bulk aging carboy (the smoke will stick to the cold condensation better), then "smoke washing" my bulk aging container by filling it with smoke, then rack into the container, seal it for about 30 seconds, then let the smoke off gas and seal again.

I'd probably experiment with various woods, and levels of smoke using micro batches in ball jars first

 

[cmac62]

The easiest way to get some smoke into this would be to make a bragget using smoked malt. But, if you spread a lb of honey on a cookie sheet and put that in the smoker it would likely take on enough smoke to know it is there, but no overpower the bochet. Or, you could make your own liquid smoke by doing a quick distiller (Large bowl, with a small bowl inside and covered) run that in the smoker then you could dose the mead to taste. Good luck

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Prepping for the braggot idea, and also had a thought, what if you charred or even tried to smoke some oak and add that in secondary? Like add oak character to a finished mead you could add the oak and smokiness. Just a random idea I had and was thinking about experimenting with, smoke permeates wood in some ways but I have only thought about this, no study or tests yet.

 

[JP_BeerFan]

BC of Doin The Most, did an apple Cyser recipe a while back, with applewood smoking of the honey as part of the process. Has some input on how well it worked/how smoked it got... He also does bochets from time to time, some info to be mined on that in other videos...


PS... hope I'm not violating any "thou shalt not mention any site but ours" clauses.....

 

[cmac62]

BC of Doin The Most, did an apple Cyser recipe a while back, with applewood smoking of the honey as part of the process. Has some input on how well it worked/how smoked it got... He also does bochets from time to time, some info to be mined on that in other videos...


PS... hope I'm not violating any "thou shalt not mention any site but ours" clauses.....

No your good (I'm not a Mod, but have seen lots of youtube posts)

After watching the vid he liked the smoked honey a lot.