Bochet GROUP BREW - Solera Style

[Kyzaboy89]

Ok, 20 hour work days are having their fun around here so I've got my trusted (beer brewer) roommate babysitting my mead. Did get the chance to glance at my notes (and check his) and I can say the process/recipe was as follows.

2 gallon batch
6 lbs local wildflower honey, its a bit lighter in color than usual but still tastes and smells the same.
Boiled honey on medium heat for 1 hour (broke my thermometer so no temps.)
Added mixing spoonfuls of water until heat reduced enough to pour water directly in.
Added 1 gallon spring water and boiled down. Let cool outside in freezing temps, after an hour it was about 110° Fahrenheit. Added to fermenter and water to 2 gallons.
Made a starter with Lalvin D-47 overnight.
Morning after aerated, added 3/4 SNA of 1:2 DAP/Energizer.
Pitched starter and off to work I went.
Came home to fermenting caramel and bubbles. Think my roommates girlfriend wanted to raid my brew locker.

 

[Arpolis]

Ok batch number 3 is under way. A couple days ago I took my yeast slurry out of the fridge that is from my first and second batch. I activated it with some warm water, a pinch of yeast nutrient and a spoon of sugar.

I boiled 2.25 lb of clover honey on low flame for 2 hours. I mixed in 3/4 tsp potassium bicarbonate, appropriate yeast nutrients and 1 tbs of vanilla extract. Pored my hot honey into carboy and slowly added water while stirring until topped of. I siphoned off 16 fl oz to give some head room and that went into the fridge.

I pitched the yeast which also has my oak from the first batch mixed in with the yeast bed. When I rack to secondary I will add new oak. The OG is at 1.078. So a little low but not by much. Hope it turns well. I may start bottling and moving mead from one container to the other to start the Solaris style bottling and blending portion of this experement.

I still taste the citrous notes in my second batch. Not sure if I think that is complimenting so I am glad I went and got some raw clover honey at the LHBS. No more orange blossom honey in this experiment.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I still need to brew batch 2. batch one is done and ready for blending whenever 2 is done though.

 

[Arpolis]

I think I am going to start blending once this 3rd batch is cleared out. Pretty exciting we are going to start bottling soon. This project will be close to a year old by the time I start blending.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Finally made my second batch last night. I guess mine are a year apart. oops.

 

[Arpolis]

Lol I am keeping mine about 4 months apart. Getting close to to getting this set of batches blended. Hmmm vanilla root beer Bochet. Hope it turns out well. I am just a little scared of the orange blossom honey in the rootbeer batch. Really hope that one gets better with the blending and age.

 

[Beek]

If I was to do this in actual five gallon whiskey barrels, would it be too oaky do you think? My wife agreed to get me a five gallon barrel for Christmas this year, and then I'll buy another at each new racking until I have three. I'm just worried about too much oak or too much whiskey.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

If I was to do this in actual five gallon whiskey barrels, would it be too oaky do you think? My wife agreed to get me a five gallon barrel for Christmas this year, and then I'll buy another at each new racking until I have three. I'm just worried about too much oak or too much whiskey.

I might do a stout or two in it to help mellow the oak down more for use in longer aging.

 

[Beek]

I might do a stout or two in it to help mellow the oak down more for use in longer aging.

Yeah that's kinda what I was thinking. Thanks for the reply.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Hard to belive we've been going for almost 1.5 years. How is everyone doing?

I'll be starting my third batch in July, but I'm doing a year a part because I fell behind.

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Missed my third in august. Harvest is in full swing, might not get to brewing again until December if I'm lucky. First two look so very tempting.

 

[MLE0212]

I have a question about the Solera aging process:

What do you do with your last carboy when it's bottling time? If I understood correctly, it will still have 1/2-1/3 gallon of mead. So you add fresh must (1/2-2/3 gallon) and yeast on top of the remaining mead?

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I have a question about the Solera aging process:

What do you do with your last carboy when it's bottling time? If I understood correctly, it will still have 1/2-1/3 gallon of mead. So you add fresh must (1/2-2/3 gallon) and yeast on top of the remaining mead?

Correct, just top up the youngest carboy with new must and yeast. If it gets too much lees at the bottom siphon off of them.

 

[HawleyFarms]

Too late to join? Better late than never, right?

Just started 3 gallons of apple bochet last week and plan on racking 1 gallon of it on to medium toast French oak when it clears. When I rack the gallon over to the oak chips, I'll keep brewing another gallon each time to keep the solera style going.

Question is, are you folks using oak chips in each carboy or only some of the carboys? And do you add new chips at rackings? Also, I rarely use oak chips, when using them in 1 gallon carboys, how much are you using?

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I'm using 1 round of chips in each carboy and not replacing them.

 

[Arpolis]

I am behind in the game. Been busy and about to move to a new home. A larger one where I can have a brew closet all to myself! Once I get moved in the next few weeks I'll bottle up half my first of my 3 bochet and start the solera process finally.

 

[Zymurg]

I started my first in August, 3 gallon carboy started at 1.075 and now down to 1.008. I'm not sure if that's where it will finish.

I'm not oaking, maybe I should...

6 months makes February when I start my next batch. Maybe I'll bottle the first half and then try oaking the second.

I'm guessing we blend after primary fermentation is complete?

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

You blend after bottling. So you'll always bottle 1/2 - 1/3 from "carboy 1". Then you top up Carboy 1 with carboy 2. Top up 2 with 3 etc. At the end you add fresh must and yeast if needed.

 

[JFARROILDOC]

Is it too late to join this group? This looks to have the potential of being a Legacy type thing, And this would be a perfect project for me since I work offshore. I'm new to Mead, my first 2 gallons is now one due to not knowing WTH I was doing(I don't follow directions well), but its almost 6 month old JAOM, clear as a bell but tastes like hell.....Anyway, I'd like to do this because 1. it's extremely intriguing and 2. I think it'll help me learn the finer points of bulk aging before bottling ie. stabilizing and whatnot.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Is it too late to join this group? This looks to have the potential of being a Legacy type thing, And this would be a perfect project for me since I work offshore. I'm new to Mead, my first 2 gallons is now one due to not knowing WTH I was doing(I don't follow directions well), but its almost 6 month old JAOM, clear as a bell but tastes like hell.....Anyway, I'd like to do this because 1. it's extremely intriguing and 2. I think it'll help me learn the finer points of bulk aging before bottling ie. stabilizing and whatnot.

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!

 

[JFARROILDOC]

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!

Sweet! Now the question is 1 or 5 gallons...

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?

 

[adrau]

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 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 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

 

[HawleyFarms]

Sweet! Now the question is 1 or 5 gallons...

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?

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.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

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.

Correct /\

 

[JFARROILDOC]

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... I know, but haters gonna hate and noobs gonna noob Thanks in advance

 

[HawleyFarms]

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... I know, but haters gonna hate and noobs gonna noob Thanks in advance

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.

 

[JFARROILDOC]

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]

 

[JFARROILDOC]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1446140556.688108.jpgten minutes into my honey burning and I got honeybees all over

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

protien

 

[BGBC]

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. 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?

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