Medieval Burnt Mead!

[Jeepaholic]

I have read most but not all of this thread. I am very intrigued by it. But I do have one question. Doesn't the boiling remove all flavor and aroma from the honey? It seems to me that you could do the same with regular sugar. I'm not trying to make prison wine.

If I'm wrong please explain it.

 

[gizmodog51]

I have read most but not all of this thread. I am very intrigued by it. But I do have one question. Doesn't the boiling remove all flavor and aroma from the honey? It seems to me that you could do the same with regular sugar. I'm not trying to make prison wine.

If I'm wrong please explain it.

you will lose the flora aroma but the replacement will be a most complex toffee smell yet still definitely honey. many have referred it to as creme brulee'.
i'm still waiting for mine batch to finish. i added some apple juice to it and if it tastes as good as it smells coming from the bubblier i'll be happy.
i used five lbs of honey so if it was a dud the cost was reccoverable.

GD

 

[fc36]

delete

 

[Legacysmeadman]

I had made a gallon batch of the burnt mead 2 years ago. I partook in my last bottle of burnt mead and it's flavors we're indescribable.
Right off the batt after fermentation it tasted like soy sauce. After two years this mead is awesome.

 

[Jeepaholic]

you will lose the flora aroma but the replacement will be a most complex toffee smell yet still definitely honey. many have referred it to as creme brulee'.
i'm still waiting for mine batch to finish. i added some apple juice to it and if it tastes as good as it smells coming from the bubblier i'll be happy.
i used five lbs of honey so if it was a dud the cost was reccoverable.

GD

Thanks, I need to try this soon.

 

[rstanavech]

Maybe I missed it some where in the posts, but what amount of honey would you use for this? I'm guessing the same as for basic mead 2.5 - 3 lbs per gallon?

 

[Arpolis]

Yes the amounts are pretty much the same. But the caramelizing process makes for some unfermentable sugars. The longer and slower you boil the honey the more unfermentables made but I have kept the amounts te same still.

 

[wintermute2]

I think this thread has finally convinced me to go out and get a turkey fryer.

Has anyone had success carmelizing their honey on a stove using a slow simmer without mess?

How about baking it in the oven at, say 250 deg. F?

Hmmm, then again, not sure what the codensed honey vapor will do to my oven hood.

I'm thinking cinnamon might be an excellent addition to this to give it a graham cracker flavor.

 

[gizmodog51]

this techinque puts off huge amounts of smoke / fumes.

the thread does have mention of folks rendering honey inside, but i just can't see it happening without a good vent system to the outside.

the oven method has been also mentioned in the thread but it just doesn't produce the same produce as carmenlizing on a propane burner outside or over a fire.

i would suppose a small amount of honey could be done on a gas or electric stove inside.....my experience was the fumes from the 5lbs was overwhelming...

GD

 

[Chaidyn]

I just started a batch of this a couple of weeks ago, carmelized the honey on the stove inside. I have a good range hood that vents outside, but the house (and the neighborhood, for part of the evening!) smelled a bit of burnt marshmallow. It's fermenting pretty slowly, but steadily. Patience....yeah, I know.

 

[centworthy]

I just started a batch of this a couple of weeks ago, carmelized the honey on the stove inside. I have a good range hood that vents outside, but the house (and the neighborhood, for part of the evening!) smelled a bit of burnt marshmallow. It's fermenting pretty slowly, but steadily. Patience....yeah, I know.

Burnt marshmallow huh, I burnt buckwheat honey for my bochet and the house smelled like a barn for 3 days. But should mention that even though I burnt the honey until it was black there was no smoke or burnt smell, just the the manure smell. Luckily this technique took all that nastiness out of the honey. It's in the secondary now and tasted like molasses at the first racking. No off favors, just dark, slightly sweet, molasses flavors. Keeping this batch pure for now. Will consider spicing it up should any off flavors come up, but from my limited mead experience, they tend to get better with age.

 

[BlueHand]

I want to +1 on doing this outside. In fact, it is best outside during the winter. The bees can be overwhelming. My garage stunk for weeks after boiling the bochet.

 

[Sharkman20]

I think 20 pounds of boiling honey smells good in the house. lol Also, I avoid the swarms of bees that gather at my window screens.

 

[TattooedViking9]

I'm just going to have to try this sometime VERY soon! It sounds almost too awesome to fit in a 1 gallon jug. Might just have to break out the big buckets for this recipe. Don't want to wait until I'm 60 to have the 2nd batch ready! lol

 

[p4ttythep3rf3ct]

We just started a batch on 2/10/13. Slow-cooked the honey for about 6 hours on low heat on the stove.

Word of caution, as many have said, but honey expands 4X or more when heated. The 24 quart kettle we used barley contained the honey (6 quarts) once it started boiling at a low temp. It also went over once when we increased the heat beyond low (and it was already cooking). The honey never really hit a rolling boil, but it caramelized and darkened just the same.

When done the result smelled of a burnt chocolate. Not unpleasant, but unique for sure. Tastes were toffee-like, there was a hint of burnt marshmallow (and dare I say even a whole stage of burnt marshmallow at one point). And then there's the whole cocoa tease going on. Cleanup was pretty easy. And it smells sweeter once the yeast is pitched.

If I were to change anything so far it would be to use a much bigger pot for the boil. The low heat allowed for no real need to constantly stir, plus we could walk away from the stove for 10 minutes or so without fear of boiling over.

Used a 300mL starter of D47 and am doing SNAs based on YAN ppm calculation. So far it seems pretty good...

 

[Matrix4b]

Yeah, when I did it, I only used 6 pounds of honey and have a 5 gal pot. It didn't go over but the foam was high. I stired it constantly to get it even. It was a trip to stir what is essentially foam. As it was getting "Done" the foam lessened a bit. It took 45 min to do on low. Then I added my water. Yes it flash steamed the first few cups instantly but I kept pouring my water in and then I added another 6 pounds for more complexity. I am looking forward to back sweetening it in a couple of weeks.

Matrix

 

[stinkmuis]

well, I am a beekeeper and have spare honey enough. I will give this a try as soon as i have a empty fermenter. Sounds great, and i like the idea of making something different and medieval.

Thnx topic starter!

 

[tx-brewer]

Just made a 2 gallon batch. Boiled honey for 30 minutes till a nice deep dark red color. OG was 1.100 using 6 lbs honey, taste was very interesting and has me excited/dreading my wait.

I put it in a plastic bucket for primary, how long so yall think until I transfer to two, 1 gallon carboys

 

[p4ttythep3rf3ct]

Yes it flash steamed the first few cups instantly but I kept pouring my water in....
Matrix

Cool deal. I actually had another pot of very-near boiling water next to the honey boil. Figured if there water was closer to boiling already there wouldn't be a violent reaction. It worked pretty well, nothing ever erupted or anything close to that.

 

[Letthegirlsing]

So... any word on how the mead tasted? I am fascinated by the idea and was curious of the results

 

[Naturegoods]

I would never consider boiling my raw honey. 160 is the top temp and that is just to liquefy it. If you know honey you already know this. Last night I was drinking 45 day old mead.
New years day I cut 6 1/2 pounds of hard 2011 honey from a 5 gallon bucket, heat to 135 along with about a quart of distilled water (88 cents/ gallon you only need two) two tablespoons of raisins, one sliced tangerine, Lelvin 1118 yeast, top off with distilled water to 2 1/2 gallons, install airlock. Racked to secondary at 26 days.
Stopped fermentation at 28 days, SPARKOLLOID to clarify at 34 days, bottled into one liter jug for storage and 8 16 oz beer bottles for quality control testing at 41 days. Now to do another with basswood honey and Lelvin d-47 to see the difference. And spend less time on here!

 

[tx-brewer]

I would never consider boiling my raw honey. 160 is the top temp and that is just to liquefy it. If you know honey you already know this.

I don't think the idea here is to preserve the honey characteristics and flavor, it is to burn it and change the flavor to a more caramel/toffee/roasted marshmallow flavor.

Some people have mixed raw and burnt honey to get a but of both flavors.

Yes you are right that the honey traits will get burnt off, but in this recipe that is kind of the idea

 

[WVMJ]

You may be missing the point? This is heated on purpose to change the flavor, its not heated just to melt the honey. I dont heat my honey to make mead, but I like the Boche we made and sacraficing some raw honey to carmalize is well worth it. WVMJ

I would never consider boiling my raw honey. 160 is the top temp and that is just to liquefy it. If you know honey you already know this. Last night I was drinking 45 day old mead.
New years day I cut 6 1/2 pounds of hard 2011 honey from a 5 gallon bucket, heat to 135 along with about a quart of distilled water (88 cents/ gallon you only need two) two tablespoons of raisins, one sliced tangerine, Lelvin 1118 yeast, top off with distilled water to 2 1/2 gallons, install airlock. Racked to secondary at 26 days.
Stopped fermentation at 28 days, SPARKOLLOID to clarify at 34 days, bottled into one liter jug for storage and 8 16 oz beer bottles for quality control testing at 41 days. Now to do another with basswood honey and Lelvin d-47 to see the difference. And spend less time on here!

 

[LowOG]

Not sure if anyone can speak to this, but thoughts on using burnt honey as the fermentable in EdWorts apfelwein instead of corn sugar?

 

[Atek]

Not sure if anyone can speak to this, but thoughts on using burnt honey as the fermentable in EdWorts apfelwein instead of corn sugar?

Sounds like a tasty bochet cyser to me!

 

[jmfitzgerald]

Wow very cool trying this mead making method today, my house smells amazing, campfire toasted/burnt marshmallows!!! I can't wait to see how it turns out! I didn't want to make a super potent mead and ended up with a starting gravity of 1.092 and pitched 1118 yeast. So it should chew threw it and I can decide how much to back sweeten it later on.

A cool pic, I documented the cooking of the honey in 15 min intervals, pretty cool! Thanks for all the info in these forums!

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Cool Pic, however, it's important to know that those times will only be specific to your experience because of the variables. Such being:

The amount of honey your cooking, and the power of your stove, or fire in this case. Gas and electric heat at much different speeds (Gas being faster). My bochet (there's a log on GotMead) was at your 1 hr 15 in color, in 30 minutes.

 

[jmfitzgerald]

Cool Pic, however, it's important to know that those times will only be specific to your experience because of the variables. Such being:

The amount of honey your cooking, and the power of your stove, or fire in this case. Gas and electric heat at much different speeds (Gas being faster). My bochet (there's a log on GotMead) was at your 1 hr 15 in color, in 30 minutes.

right. i was planning on and hour and a half, but i really didn't want to take it much more than where i ended up at. it was starting to get a bit smoky in my house, and i think i got it dark enough!!! again, still smells great in my house today, the day after

as for cooking the honey, i did it indoors, on my electric stove in a stainless pot. after initial heating to where the boil just started to climb the pot, i backed the heat way off to try to caramelize it as slow as possible. it was pretty low, about 3.5 out of a 10 scale on my stove. i was very happy with the results.

off to aerate again, and add the SNA for today!
cheers

 

[winenewb172]

Has anybody tried hopping a bochet? Or maybe cocoa and cinnamon to get a smores flavor?

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

@Winenewb Im sure in regards to cocoa and cinnamon, those earthier spices would compliment a bochet well. However if I were to make a braggot bochet, I would skip the hops and do steep it with some malts while its cooling.