Medieval Burnt Mead!

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Well, I was not paying attention when I pitched my yeast and threw in some washed WLP300, I wanted US-05 so I pitched that also after realizing my mistake.
The fermentation also lagged for around 2 days, then picked up. In the last 20 hours the SG has dropped 0.010.
I'm also cheating and adding the spices after primary fermentation has slowed down. I don't want them to be under or over in taste.

 

[BargainFittings]

Not to get off topic, but has anybody sampled a finished, aged product of this burnt mead yet? I am intrigued, but want to read a couple reviews of the finished product before embarking on the journey.

Mine is going on 7 months old now. Its very clean and mellow. Higher alcohol is up there but its falling off. Alot of dried fruit and caramel/toffee notes in the nose.

The honey is coming through now. The first whiff reminds me of toasted marshmallows.

It is very pleasant. It has gotten a lot of positive feedback from my brew club members.

 

[Sleepyemt]

Mine is going on 7 months old now. Its very clean and mellow. Higher alcohol is up there but its falling off. Alot of dried fruit and caramel/toffee notes in the nose.

The honey is coming through now. The first whiff reminds me of toasted marshmallows.

It is very pleasant. It has gotten a lot of positive feedback from my brew club members.

BF, What was your FG? What yeast did you use?

 

[Ace_Club]

Yes, please post the recipe that you used, or PM if you prefer.

 

[BargainFittings]

Recipe is here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/bochet-mead-burnt-mead-148209/index2.html#post1695807

I used Montrachet and EC 1118 combined because I didn't have enough of either by themselves.

 

[Sleepyemt]

Did the Ec118 take it too dry? I appreciate your help, I have a 1 gal. batch going that is motor oil black .... I'm curious how that will compare to just carmelized? Do I need to start over?

 

[BargainFittings]

I don't have notes for the Final Gravity. It does have some residual sweetness.

 

[Sleepyemt]

I don't have notes for the Final Gravity. It does have some residual sweetness.

I do appreciate the heads up with the info, now to wait patiently ....

 

[BargainFittings]

I do appreciate the heads up with the info, now to wait patiently ....

The best course is to brew / make something else. Forget about the mead for awhile.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Recipe is here:

REALLY NICE montage, I would say you stopped at the hard ball, or like 275F+ temp. I wish I took pictures, but then again in a system rebuild I lost all my brewing notes. The back of my head is still bright red from slapping myself.

Mine was very black, and taking the temp cost me a few burns. Mine will be aged for at least a year before I start busting it out. Please let us know when yours is hitting the fantastic or best it's getting zone.

 

[johnnyo1977]

Has anyone else bottled and/or open a bottle that has been sitting for a while. How does it taste? smell?
Need to know more....

 

[bubbachunk]

I started mine last week and the smell was incredible

 

[meading_of_minds]

This sounds interesting. I may definitely have to try one batch.

 

[viking]

I opened a bottle last night...

It needs to age a bit longer. With that said, it has a slight cola taste to it. There are a few things that I will do differently with my next batch.

1. I will caramelize the honey longer.
2. I will back-sweeten it more. (It is too dry for me. It fermented to .998, then I back-sweetened to 1.007)
3. I will back-sweeten with honey, not dextrose. (I didn't want raw honey to interfere with the caramelized honey flavor)

I'll let you all know if it gets better with time.

 

[johnnyo1977]

Hi viking that looks tasty. how long did you boil the honey? What yeast did you use?

 

[conpewter]

So I transferred to secondary the other day, I have just about 4.75 gallons in a 5.5 gallon carboy (True measurement on my "5" gallon carboys) Should I top up with water, honey-water, burnt-honey water or do I need to re ferment a 1 gallon batch and use that?

 

[BargainFittings]

viking, that does look very light. Mine is a dark burgundy color. I really need to take a photo of it in a glass.

 

[meading_of_minds]

A thought for back-sweetening ... maybe when doing the inital caramelization of the honey, caramelize more than you need and save off the extra for back-sweetening in order to add back more caramel notes?

 

[Dr_Gordon_Freeman]

This thread is awesome. Gotta try this sometime.

 

[WheresOurFish]

This technique definitely sounds like it would produce some very tasty results. Just curious, but was I the only one who immediately thought of adapting this to make a candy-apple cyser?

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Well, I burnt mine on 20091214, used WLP300 and S-05, and it fermented down to a SG of 1.020, racked to secondary on 20091228.
It still looked like black tar and I let it settle out until 20100112 when I racked it to a keg to bulk age. SG still 1.020.
My notes -
20100112 Racked to keg, SG 1.020, Heavy, kind of nutty, caramel flavour. It still looks like a black hole, black as the night.
I think I need to bulk age this for at least a couple more months, I'm hoping some of the taste will come out a bit more.

 

[machinelf]

Hey guys, so SWMBO and I are boiling honey as I type. Smells great. My question is--have any of you used the plastic spoons you stir wort with? We thought the higher temps of the honey might be a problem, so we're using a shorter metal spoon, but I thought I ask to see if it had been done.

The spoon I have looks like this: http://www.northernbrewer.com/winemaking/24-plastic-spoon.html

The site says nothing about actual temps, but boiling honey gets much higher than water...

Thanks! I'll post pics and details later...

EDIT: Here's the thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/stark-raven-mead-burnt-honey-mead-attempt-163268/#post1885693

 

[DmentD]

Going to be burning up a small experimental batch of this very soon (quite possibly this weekend), and was giving thought to the yeast involved. I've seen a number of folks use various ale yeasts which will leave the mead very sweet, and I've seen some use champagne (or similar) yeast which would leave it very dry.

I'm looking to strike a balance somewhere in there. I was contemplating using White Labs Sweet Mead Yeast WLP720, which I believe should leave some residual sweetness without being cloying. It'll tolerate up to 15%, so shouldn't poop out as soon as most ale yeasts, right?

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Reviews of previous batches to suggest a yeast used that didn't leave it overly sweet?

 

[Killinger]

I used EC-1118 in my bochet, and I feel it's too sweet. That yeast should be good to 18%. I think cooking the sugars this much makes them less fermentable, but I'm just guessing (or making excuses, I don't know).

By the way, I used the White Labs Sweet Mead yeast a couple of years ago, and it left the mead cloying. Since it was my first mead, I might not have used the best nutrient schedule in that batch, but it was very, very sweet at the end.

 

[BargainFittings]

I'm really starting to think people are taking the "burnt" part too literal. Maybe its a personal preference but I stopped it short of actually burning the sugar. I caramelized the honey until it was a very very dark color but it did not have any burnt flavors.

My batch is a mix of two champagne yeasts and finished sweet but not so cloying you can't drink it. I have had a couple people not like it due to the residual sweetness but that is out of the many others who found it to be very pleasant. I suggest a very healthy yeast pitch with some nutrient and oxygenation in the first couple days to get it to fully attenuate.

 

[DmentD]

My batch is a mix of two champagne yeasts and finished sweet but not so cloying you can't drink it. I have had a couple people not like it due to the residual sweetness but that is out of the many others who found it to be very pleasant. I suggest a very healthy yeast pitch with some nutrient and oxygenation in the first couple days to get it to fully attenuate.

Well, I'll give the EC-1118 a go then, with adequate nutrients and oxygen. It seems to have the greatest potential, and if it overshoots into the dry range I can always backsweeten to my tastes... although I'd rather hit the mark along the way.

Not taking the "burnt" too much to heart, but I like the final color that machinelf achieved in THIS post, colors shown below:

 

[BargainFittings]

Now I wish I had thought of plating it as I went! Very smart.

If I have to guess I would say I boiled my batch for just over 2 hours.

 

[biochemedic]

I'm starting a batch of this as we speak. I'm starting out with 6 lbs of cheap CHEAP walmart honey. Although I've noticed something that wasn't mentioned in any instructions. You know what happens when you make a brochet mead outside? You get a ****ton of bees, that's what! It was not even boiling 5 minutes before a bee landed in it. mmmmm bee parts.....

Yes... this happens every time I brew mead outside...

 

[ca1978us]

New to the forum and have a question about burnt mead. Does Champagne yeast produce more or less alcohol then using ale or wine yeast? Plus loving what I am seeing in this thread.

 

[BargainFittings]

Champagne yeast tend to have higher alcohol tolerances than regular wine and beer yeast, but there are exceptions to that rule.