yeah I suppose it's possible to over burn it... You want the honey to be burnt but not charcoal...
Medieval Burnt Mead!
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Well it's always possible that botchet just isn't 'your thing'.
TedLarsen
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I started a hopped bochet last year; and will be bottling it this weekend. It's already really interesting, although the flavors still need time to meld nicely. I figure I'll give it about a year or so.
I have yet to decide if I will bottle in beer bottles or wine bottles. I will probably do a little of both, actually.
What kind of honey did you use? One guy did a Bochet with Buckwheat honey which is very strong dark honey and said his whole house smelled like a barnyard for a week, his wife banned him from cooking buckwheat honey again, but I think his Bochet turned out well. WVMJ
It was some cheap wildflower, light one so probably mostly rape/cole (I dont know what is it called in english) since it is very popular in my country, dont know exactly what from.
I got it from my mother, and since it was the cheapest one to get and not anything fancy or good quality I tough I will burn it.
I have a nice cooker hood with good sucktion ventilating fans which I used after couple of minutes since the honey smell was getting a bit too much.
Off topic - I am making now pure buckwheat mead - half honey, half water - and it smells great
I got it from my mother, and since it was the cheapest one to get and not anything fancy or good quality I tough I will burn it.
I have a nice cooker hood with good sucktion ventilating fans which I used after couple of minutes since the honey smell was getting a bit too much.
Off topic - I am making now pure buckwheat mead - half honey, half water - and it smells great
Half honey, what country are you in? I am doing a gallon of honey and 2 gall of cider, I forgot to take into acount the sugar in the cider and it has eaten a lot of nutrients. What procedure do you guys use to get a 50% honey to ferment well? WVMJ
I have to say I was wondering the same thing. By my calculations that would likely be north of 1.200 OG. If you could manage to ferment that dry you're looking at over 27% abv... more likely I think it would ferment but leave a lot of residual sugar. Like a lot. What kind of FG's do you usually experience?
These styles are not meant to ferment out completly but to leave a good bit of honey behind and make a sweet mead, depending on the yeast, and who wouldnt pick a strong yeast for this, with a good bit of kick. WVMJ
Sweet yes... but if you say you use a champagne yeast like K1V-1116 or EC-1118 that estimates to top out at 18% then the FG would be over 1.080....
I'm gonna try this today, since i'm off and the wife is at work. Gonna be using about 12lbs of honey and hopefully turning it into a 3 gal batch. I will be making it outdoors so i gain the challenge of fighting off attacking bees.
While the wife is away, THE CAD will play.
If i do not return avenge me. :rockin:
While the wife is away, THE CAD will play.
If i do not return avenge me. :rockin:
Im from Poland. Poland has a very deep history of meads.
Those are traditional recipes and main classification of meads is how many parts of honey to parts of water is used.
Like normaly I use 1 part honey for 3 parts water (like 1.65l honey 3.35l water) which is called trojniak (translating would mean somethong like three-thing). There are also dwojniak (two-thing) and poltorak (one-and-a-half-thing) - one part honey with one part water and one part honey with half part water. Those are considered the best ones and traditionally age for 10 years.
I use yeast that gets 17% they are not suppose to ferment all the way. With proper aging (shorter then they are suppose to due to nutrition adding) you dont feel like they are too sweet.
Those are traditional recipes and main classification of meads is how many parts of honey to parts of water is used.
Like normaly I use 1 part honey for 3 parts water (like 1.65l honey 3.35l water) which is called trojniak (translating would mean somethong like three-thing). There are also dwojniak (two-thing) and poltorak (one-and-a-half-thing) - one part honey with one part water and one part honey with half part water. Those are considered the best ones and traditionally age for 10 years.
I use yeast that gets 17% they are not suppose to ferment all the way. With proper aging (shorter then they are suppose to due to nutrition adding) you dont feel like they are too sweet.
I have not found any commercial ones.
But I have read two polish books about meadmaking, one from 1800 something and one from 1600 something, both had the instruction to boil the honey (since it had wax, bees etc. in those times) and take the foam to another container then filter it through cloth and burn it later.
So it seems that normaly mead was to be boiled until it stops foaming, and the foam plus bits of honey was to be collected, and then burnt even more making another type of mead.
But I have read two polish books about meadmaking, one from 1800 something and one from 1600 something, both had the instruction to boil the honey (since it had wax, bees etc. in those times) and take the foam to another container then filter it through cloth and burn it later.
So it seems that normaly mead was to be boiled until it stops foaming, and the foam plus bits of honey was to be collected, and then burnt even more making another type of mead.
I have survived the brew and have to admit it was probably the most interesting thing I've ever made. "Magma Honey" is an understatement. The honey boils and plumes like volcanoes seen on National Geographic, spewing molten honey several feet at random. I was foolish enough to do this in sandals and a glob landed on my big toe leaving a awesome blister. Then seemingly from the depths of the pot a new darker colored honey emerges to the surface and the lighter color is gone.
The bees were not much of an issue. A lot of honey bees and even carpenters came to investigate my activities but I don't think any fell in. If they did that's just extra protein.
The bees were not much of an issue. A lot of honey bees and even carpenters came to investigate my activities but I don't think any fell in. If they did that's just extra protein.
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sadly none for me lol
RegarRenill
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Me either, I'm in PA, but I have a buddy in MD who comes home once a month...I'll see if I can ship to his house and have him bring it to me ;-)
Moved the mead to secondary today, sitting at 1.032 right now. Will probably let it sit there for two months and then bottle. It had a pretty good flavor, but still very sweet of course. I had a vanilla bean sitting in the primary and it picked up a very nice flavor from that.
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mythbustingpyro
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May have to do this when I get my new kettle. How long is this aged for generally? If its a long time I might have to do 5 gallons of this.
Many suggest a year or two of aging for all meads as a general rule.
I took a sample of some of this to the homebrew club meeting a a few pro-brewers who attend raved about it. (aged 1 year)
I personally am not a huge fan of it.
I felt it had a weird twangy taste to it ( i've no other way to describe it )
So yes do a 5 gallon batch and if you don't like it.......You'll know what you are giving people for x-mas.
I took a sample of some of this to the homebrew club meeting a a few pro-brewers who attend raved about it. (aged 1 year)
I personally am not a huge fan of it.
I felt it had a weird twangy taste to it ( i've no other way to describe it )
So yes do a 5 gallon batch and if you don't like it.......You'll know what you are giving people for x-mas.
Goofynewfie
Well-Known Member
Has anybody added habeneros to this give it a little kick to offset the smoky sweetness?
Stinky-Beaver
Member
I made a 5 gallon batch yesterday utilizing the following combined recipe (I say combined as it was 3 separate recipes I kinda mixed together):
12# wildflower honey
7 naval oranges
3 cinnamon sticks
2\3 vanilla bean
1# brown sugar
Lalvin 1116
The SG at 1.074
I will say my only mistake was "burning" the honey on the stove in the house. While I didn't boil over (cooked in a 5gallon pot) the amount of smoke it puts out practically filled the house. I took the balance of the ingredients and did a short boil and let it simmer for about an hour. Mixed in the primary, added water to the fill line and pitched 1116 with nutrient and energizer. Currently getting a decent bubbling every 2 seconds and a fabulous arome from the airlock.
12# wildflower honey
7 naval oranges
3 cinnamon sticks
2\3 vanilla bean
1# brown sugar
Lalvin 1116
The SG at 1.074
I will say my only mistake was "burning" the honey on the stove in the house. While I didn't boil over (cooked in a 5gallon pot) the amount of smoke it puts out practically filled the house. I took the balance of the ingredients and did a short boil and let it simmer for about an hour. Mixed in the primary, added water to the fill line and pitched 1116 with nutrient and energizer. Currently getting a decent bubbling every 2 seconds and a fabulous arome from the airlock.
centworthy1
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I just did a 3rd racking of a buckwheat honey bochet I started last Summer. Thiefed a bit out to taste and wow, just like molasses except with only a bit of sweetness. It is very rich and robust but not overpowering sweet will be great as the cold weather sets in and great for the holidays. The burning did get the barnyard taste and smell out so it is a good use of buckwheat honey for a mead ( not sure what else can be done with it because of the manure smell it tends to have). Will definitely do this again but want to try it with a milder honey for comparison.
mythbustingpyro
Well-Known Member
Just pitched some 71b onto a quart of honey I boiled for 45 minutes (just starting to smell burnt) for a 1 gal batch. It looked very dark and and smelled pretty good.
Wanted to try it Bomm style but didnt have enough slurry in the secondary I had reracked. Guess Ill just have to wait like everyone else.
Wanted to try it Bomm style but didnt have enough slurry in the secondary I had reracked. Guess Ill just have to wait like everyone else.
NZ-beekeeper
Well-Known Member
I cracked a bottle of this that I had bottled just three weeks ago, and after racking twice since primary (started on 30 August, 2014). Definitely not long aged, but hey! it was delicious and went down a treat. Sherry-like flavour, but with a not-altogether-subtle hint of the caramelising process. It was my bro's birthday, but it was his partner who shared the bottle. She found the colour of it totally fascinating, as did I. It it dark, almost like a red wine, nearly black, but crystal clear. Held up to the light it has a beautiful rich crimson red, but any part of the glass where the liquid is thin, like around the meniscus on the glass, it is a striking vivid amber yellow-orange. Very smooth and I despite its young vintage, very drinkable. Still have 5 bottles plus a whole gallon of the same, but with coffee added in primary. Somehow it doesn't taste as promising as the "traditional" bochet though.
Bottling Day!
I decided that today was a good day to bottle. I had my mead sitting for 30 days in primary, then moved it to secondary two months ago. SG was 1.032 when I moved it to secondary and when I checked today it was still sitting at exactly 1.032. Still pretty sweet, but didn't taste overly sweet when I drank the hydrometer sample. Only made a gallon, so I ended up using 6oz bottles to give me more opportunities to sample as it ages and to give a few away to friends.
The taste is very good and complex, and should be even better when some of the heat mellows out as it ages. Looks gorgeous though.
I decided that today was a good day to bottle. I had my mead sitting for 30 days in primary, then moved it to secondary two months ago. SG was 1.032 when I moved it to secondary and when I checked today it was still sitting at exactly 1.032. Still pretty sweet, but didn't taste overly sweet when I drank the hydrometer sample. Only made a gallon, so I ended up using 6oz bottles to give me more opportunities to sample as it ages and to give a few away to friends.
The taste is very good and complex, and should be even better when some of the heat mellows out as it ages. Looks gorgeous though.
Chris_The_Rogue
Well-Known Member
THAT sounds delicious...perhaps make it a habenero bochet cyser?
Hi all.
Still pretty new at this but I'm reading as much about it as I can and am learning a lot from this forum.
Just started 3 gallons of a Pumpkin Melomel tonight.
After reading this thread that gave me an idea for my next recipe.
I call it a Black Pumpkin Bochet. Let me know what you guys think and if you would recommend any tweaks as this will likely be my next 3 gallon batch.
2015 Black Pumpkin Bochet Recipe
1 30oz can Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin (no preservatives)
10 lbs of cheap Wal-Mart honey (youre burning off all the nutrients and most of the flavor anyway)
2 gallons of spring water
2 package of Lalvin D-47 yeast
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
3 1/2 Tbsp of Pumpkin pie spice
2 1/2 dashes ground cinnamon
2 TBSP Vanilla extract
3 Tsp Pectic Enzyme
1 Tbsp Nutrients
Sanitize all equipment
Loosen honey in hot water.
Start two packages of Lavin D-47 in small mixing bowl filled with room temperature spring water. Reserve and cover leaving room for air.
Add 10 pounds of honey to large stainless stock pot (making sure honey only takes up half the pot). Heat honey on an outdoor grill or fire pit for an hour and a half …or until it turns black and stops rising (the darker the better)
That’s right it will look burnt and turn almost jet black.
When you’re happy with the color, add pumpkin puree, pie spices and brown sugar. The heat from the honey will caramelize the ingredients and make them that much tastier.
Remove from heat; allow to cool to room temperature. Cover if left outside as bees are attracted to it.
If bringing inside you can use an ice bath to quickly get the must to room temperature.
Transfer burnt honey/pumpkin mixture into a sanitized must bucket or 5 gallon carboy. Fill container to the three gallon mark with spring water.
Add Vanilla extract (or 2 split vanilla beans if available)
Add nutrients and pectic enzyme.
Aerate/stir vigorously for at least 10 minutes.
Pitch yeast.
********Take hydrometer reading********
Install airlock in lid of bucket and seal.
Continue to aerate/stir for the next three days.
Add nutrients at 1/3 sugar break
Rack into sanitized carboy after bubbles in airlock slow to once every 30 seconds AND after hydrometer reading has been stable for a week.
Enjoy
Still pretty new at this but I'm reading as much about it as I can and am learning a lot from this forum.
Just started 3 gallons of a Pumpkin Melomel tonight.
After reading this thread that gave me an idea for my next recipe.
I call it a Black Pumpkin Bochet. Let me know what you guys think and if you would recommend any tweaks as this will likely be my next 3 gallon batch.
2015 Black Pumpkin Bochet Recipe
1 30oz can Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin (no preservatives)
10 lbs of cheap Wal-Mart honey (youre burning off all the nutrients and most of the flavor anyway)
2 gallons of spring water
2 package of Lalvin D-47 yeast
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
3 1/2 Tbsp of Pumpkin pie spice
2 1/2 dashes ground cinnamon
2 TBSP Vanilla extract
3 Tsp Pectic Enzyme
1 Tbsp Nutrients
Sanitize all equipment
Loosen honey in hot water.
Start two packages of Lavin D-47 in small mixing bowl filled with room temperature spring water. Reserve and cover leaving room for air.
Add 10 pounds of honey to large stainless stock pot (making sure honey only takes up half the pot). Heat honey on an outdoor grill or fire pit for an hour and a half …or until it turns black and stops rising (the darker the better)
That’s right it will look burnt and turn almost jet black.
When you’re happy with the color, add pumpkin puree, pie spices and brown sugar. The heat from the honey will caramelize the ingredients and make them that much tastier.
Remove from heat; allow to cool to room temperature. Cover if left outside as bees are attracted to it.
If bringing inside you can use an ice bath to quickly get the must to room temperature.
Transfer burnt honey/pumpkin mixture into a sanitized must bucket or 5 gallon carboy. Fill container to the three gallon mark with spring water.
Add Vanilla extract (or 2 split vanilla beans if available)
Add nutrients and pectic enzyme.
Aerate/stir vigorously for at least 10 minutes.
Pitch yeast.
********Take hydrometer reading********
Install airlock in lid of bucket and seal.
Continue to aerate/stir for the next three days.
Add nutrients at 1/3 sugar break
Rack into sanitized carboy after bubbles in airlock slow to once every 30 seconds AND after hydrometer reading has been stable for a week.
Enjoy
You need a bigger pot, the honey will foam up, we did 5 gallons of honey in a 25 gallon brewers tank and it tried to come out. What is the brown sugar for when you already have honey? Just go by your hydrometer reading, transfer from your primary to secondary around 1.020 or so, you dont want the pumkin to oxidize. Good luck. WVMJ
Hey, everyone. Northern Brewer has a limited time discount of 20% off anything. I was thinking I might get 12# of orange blossom honey. Would that make a good bochet, and if so, how much bochet might I be able to make with that much honey?
Rambunctious
Well-Known Member
Do not waste good honey on any fermented beverage that must be cooked or boiled. Use the cheap stuff from the grocery store. Instead make a Cyzer or mead with the orange blossom honey.
I was wondering how log it took to ferment for you guys. Mine has started slowing down a lot. It started at 1.15 and dropped quickly to 1.070 then slowed down to 1.058 and now it has been a week to get to 1.054. I am using lalvin d47 with staggered nutrient additions.
I've never made mead, but I've read a lot about it. I still plan to make it sometime when I have a bit more time, so take my question/answer with a grain of salt -- have you been "de-gassing" your mead? I think I remember reading that a build-up of dissolved CO2 will cause problems.
LouieBlue
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Hi, this is my first post ever!
I actually just bottled a 5-gallon bochet batch yesterday; I threw a couple vanilla beans into the primary, otherwise it was all the (Costco) honey. It's already really interesting and tasty, about 13% abv, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to it after a year or three bottling.
But I already know I want to make another batch soon, and I saw some people had added cocoa nibs to bochet a while back so, I wondered if anyone had any reports of how it went, and how much cocoa people added to the batch. I'm thinking I'd want to use a sweet yeast for the mix in order for the cocoa not to make things too bitter, but I don't really know. Any help would... help, thanks!
I actually just bottled a 5-gallon bochet batch yesterday; I threw a couple vanilla beans into the primary, otherwise it was all the (Costco) honey. It's already really interesting and tasty, about 13% abv, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to it after a year or three bottling.
But I already know I want to make another batch soon, and I saw some people had added cocoa nibs to bochet a while back so, I wondered if anyone had any reports of how it went, and how much cocoa people added to the batch. I'm thinking I'd want to use a sweet yeast for the mix in order for the cocoa not to make things too bitter, but I don't really know. Any help would... help, thanks!
Probably yeast that does not ferment that much, lowet alcohol % - higher sugar content...
LouieBlue
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I meant one that doesn't have the highest alcohol tolerance, and so hopefully, the yeast will give up the ghost before converting all the sugars to alcohol. WLP720 maybe. I'm probably going to aim for a sweeter mead is what I was trying to say. May have to backsweeten it. (In other words, what Morit said)
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