Thinking about making a salted caramel mead

[benebob]

So I'm about ready to get another pail of honey and trying to figure out what my next batch will be. I think I'm going to try for a salted caramel mead? Did a search and not much came up for caramel flavoring aside from some beers that most reviews said it was obviously a fake chemical flavoring. My thoughts were to let the mead finish fermentation then use a vegan caramel receipe (non-dairy creamer, sugar, brown sugar and non dairy margarine) for flavoring. My questions are do you think it would be better to use lactose instead of the creamer and will the salt be sufficient to prevent any restart of fermentation after bottling? I have also thought about using some crystal malt 120l to help with the flavoring but wonder if that would overpower the mead.

 

[fuelish]

Hmmmmmm....perhaps try making a bochet??? (you "caramelize the honey by carefully boiling it to desired level of darkness) ...have only tried a 1 gallon batch of bochet cyser, but it's still aging, haven't bothered to taste it yet. As far as salt.....I would leave that out until the mead is done fermenting.....salt and yeast don't get along well - too much salt can inhibit, even kill the yeast, at least in bread products (was a baker for many years...salt in the proper amount kind of keeps the yeast in check and not run wild...too much salt, ferment is slow, if at all) Let us know how it comes out

 

[valverij]

I'd like to add that in addition to salting after fermentation is complete, look at some gose recipes to get an idea on amounts, and then start with half (or less) of what you think you'll need. It's really easy to add salt, but pretty much impossible to remove it.

 

[fuelish]

I'd like to add that in addition to salting after fermentation is complete, look at some gose recipes to get an idea on amounts, and then start with half (or less) of what you think you'll need. It's really easy to add salt, but pretty much impossible to remove it.

Hmmmm, have never tried a Gose....yet Great advice, applies across the board to anything used for flavor or additional flavor.....mead is a labor of love (and, lots and lots o' time), so there is absolutely no harm in taking your time to add flavorings up to an acceptable level instead regretting a large addition all at once. There are a lot of knowledgable folks on this board....I'm still learning, but have turned out some very good meads.

 

[Dr_Floyd]

My Bochet tastes very little like caramel, any caramel flavors get buried by a cherry toast taste. I'd almost recommend that you just add caramelized granulated sugar in primary and potentially add more in secondary to taste if it's not present enough.

In addition I'd be weary of adding milk products to your Mead. There's a Mead style page available on here (link below) and it specifically mentions Milk Meads. My limited research at the time talked about separating the fat from the milk before starting your batch.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Milk_Mead

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Mead_styles

 

[WVMJ]

A Bochet would be a good way to go, depending on how long and what method you use to cook the honey affects the flavor in the end. Cooking it in an open pot over a hot flame gives more of the toasted marshmellow flavor, cooking it slowly in a crockpot and removing it before it gets black gives more of a caramel flavor. Putting honey in a couple of quart jars in a pressure cooker or canner makes a very nice smooth caramel flavored honey. As for salt, why not put a salt shaker on the table and let everyone add it to their own glass so that some could enjoy and nice caremalized version and others could salt it? WVMJ