Dark Mead

[dios_es_un_tortuga]

In Neil Gaiman's Sandman the title character attempts to order dark mead, but it is out of fashion and the barkeep has no idea what he's talking about. I was thinking about trying to create something with a satisfactory color. I'm thinking of having a base of 12 pounds wildflower honey (other than buckwheat that's all that's available around here) and 1-2 pounds buckwheat. Then I'll add two pounds of honey caramalized on the stove in an attempt to darken it up a bit. Thoughts? All carboys full so it'll be awhile until I get around to this, but I like to plan ahead. I want to do this without adding non-honey ingredients like dark malts or berries.

 

[Arpolis]

You need more Caramelized to add much color. I did that to a couple meads in the past where only 10-20% of the honey was Caramelized and both would not be considered dark at all. If you do not want it all Caramelized then I would say at least half the honey should be boiled.

 

[dios_es_un_tortuga]

Thanks for the advice. I've never caramalized before. Any tips to avoid scorching. I have a thick bottomed pot and have read Randy Mosher's general tips. I'm fine with experimenting with two pounds, but half the bill burnt could be costly. Regardless I'll probably experiment with the two pounds first before I do the rest of the bill.

 

[dios_es_un_tortuga]

It occurs to me that caramelizing malt results in complex unfermentable sugars. I'm not too familiar with the chemistry involved, but if standard stove top caramelization is similar to the reactions involved in crystal malt then a half caramelized honey bill would result in something undrinkabley sweet.

 

[Arpolis]

No not really. There are some unfermentable sugars in the caramelization process but not so much to make it super sweet. But if fermented as far as a good yeast would go then you may have and off dry or semi sweet mead left and that is caramelizing all the honey.

To keep from scorching I cut the honey with water. Just two parts honey and one part water. After 45 min to an hour of boiling add another part of water. Takes me about 1.75 - 2 hours of slow boiling in the lowest flame setting on my gas stove.

"Disclaimer" boiling honey is dangerous! Honey expands 4 times its volume when left unattended and boiling. You literally stir constantly once it starts boiling. Also when adding water make sure it is hot water and add it very slowly. Cold water can flash boil/steam when hitting boiling honey and cause an eruption of hot honey.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Test it out with a 1 gallon batch. Cooking 2.5 of of 3 pounds to near black will yield a black appearance. But when you hold it to light it is a dark red amber. As the previous post said 2 lbs won't get you anything more than a red tinge even on the darkest of cooks.

And double jumping on arpolis's post. That last paragraph is true. It's probably the equivalent to home-brewing napalm. You have 300 degree honey, that splatters out and forms a hard candy wherever it lands. So if it hits your skin, it will burn and continue to do so even if you run it under water.

Adding hot water to cool it down at first will definitely help, but put the lid on right after you add the water until you hear it calm down. You don't want this hitting you..

On a lighter note, my blog has 2 bochet styled recipes. One is a lighter one and the other is a fully cooked one. The darker cook gives a smokey roasty flavor, the lighter one tastes like vanilla marshmallows (but is red/orange not black).

http://hivemindmead.blogspot.com/2014/01/vanilla-hydromel.html

http://hivemindmead.blogspot.com/2013/04/simple-bochet.html

The simple bochet (full cook) post has more info and will probably answer some questions you haven't thought about.

 

[dios_es_un_tortuga]

Thanks for the advice. I've searched Bochet on here and found some good threads. I've had a few dme yeast starters boil over, so I've learned the importance of careful pot watching. I don't have the patience for test batches. The risk to wallet doesn't out way the risk to time to me. To date I've never produced anything permanently undrinkable, although absinthe flavored mead did take quite a while to settle down. I think I'll try to caramelize 12-14 pounds and maybe add one pound of uncaramelized honey to the secondary for a little aroma. I've got some nice long rubber gloves a big spoon and a big pot.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Just don't let the rubber melt to your skin yeah?

And make sure the spoon isn't plastic, it'll melt (this is speaking form experience).

Oh and while you're worrying about dying or crippling yourself or whatever, don't forget to have fun! And don't let and horror stories scare you off. Sounds like you're prepared and Bochet's are a whole new animal in mead making.

 

[WVMJ]

We cooked off 5 gallons in a 25 gallon beer making kettle and it still tried to get out. Not sure why anyone is worried about scortching when they are about to burn it all anyway? Stir at the start to get the heat spread out but then you dont need to stir, the honey will stir itself as it cooks. In the end you basically have to add back some water to make it flow again or you get a big piece of taffy, this is when its easiest for it to jump out and get you. I suggest having another pot of boiling wate on the stove, when your honey is black, turn off the heat and let it cool a good bit before adding the boiling water very carefully. Many other ways to caramelize honey, a pressure cooker makes a nice smooth caramelized honey and so does a crock pot. WVMJ

 

[dios_es_un_tortuga]

The more I thought about this the more I wanted to do it, so I put off making a barley wine and devoted my carboy to this tonight. I just finished putting every bit of clothing I was wearing in the wash. Even being forewarned and heading advice I got a bit of a magma burst. I think next time I'll just take it off a little while before it's at the desired color and let it keep cooking a bit off the flame. Even at my cookers lowest flame level the brewmometor spun around past its limit and was sitting at about 60. It's a nice inky black and taste like roasted marshmellows. I used 14 pounds and ended up with five and a half gallons due to boiling more water to pour down the kettles sides and then adding cool water to get it low enough to put in the carboy. Still a little warm so I may pitch yeast tomorrow. I'm wondering if a wort chiller would be appropriate or if stuff would just gum up after it got relatively cool. Despite extra volume OG is 1.096 so I guess I had sugary honey.

 

[dios_es_un_tortuga]

I was thinking of spicing this according to one of the old recipes. Two ounces each ginger, grains of paradise, and long pepper, and a unspecified number of cloves (I'm gonna go with two not ounces, but two cloves). Surprisingly my generally well stocked Indian grocery does not have long pepper. I've heard black pepper is similar in taste and a suitable substitute, but does anyone know if more or less should be used? I know in beer recipes (thanks Randy Mosher) .8 oz is enough to be noticed, but mead often behaves differently.

 

[WVMJ]

May I make a suggestion to spit it into 2 batches. One with your peppers (have you thought about adding Schechuan peppers or even some cardomon) and one with sweet spices like vanilla, a few chocolate nibs in the background, and put some oak in both of them. There is also no reason not to add a little raw honey back into it for sweetness or to boost the alcohol levels. WVMJ

 

[dios_es_un_tortuga]

Both of those spice suggestions sound like they would play well with the bochet's base flavors. I currently don't have enough carboys (empty) to do split batches, but perhaps I'll get some more before aging is done. My first mead was a habonero chocolate mead and I really liked how those flavors melded together, particularly when heated slightly. This is definitely getting oaked.

 

[SouthernGorilla]

Bochet is my favorite style. I need more carboys so I can make another one. The only bochet I've done so far was a blackberry. It definitely came out dark. I only cooked half the honey. Next time I'm cooking all the honey and cooking it further than I did previously. I'm also looking for a dark, dark mead.

 

[Hankins2010]

Ive heard of people making Carmel in a microwave . It might be worth an experiment.

 

[dios_es_un_tortuga]

Primary fermentation seems to be done so I added 1oz ginger, 3 grams black pepper, 3 grams grains of paradise, 4 grams cardamom, and 3 cloves.
This was quite the vigorous fermentation. It looked almost like a mild ale krausen.
Not splitting this batch due to the desire to ferment too many other things, but I think I might try another bochet in the coming years flavored with ancho, cinnamin, cacoa, and vanilla.