Chocolate eruption!

Medsen Fey · Jun 22, 2009

That may have to be the name for my newest batch!

I want to come forward and confess that I have had a Mead Eruption Accident. Yes my brothers and sisters in M.E.A.D.S. (Mead Eruption Accident Decrement Society) I stand before you humbled again by this admission. No matter how long it has been since your last MEA, you can never let your guard down. NewBees take note!

I have been thinking about a chocolate orange mead, perhaps patterned off JAO for sometime now, and when I saw Displaced Hick's Mud batch I got inspired to get going. Seeing how it was summer solstice and Father's Day, I figured that had to be a good time to start, so I mixed everything up in a gallon jug (I'll post recipe details at some point, and I even used antifoam drops) and pitched the bread yeast.

A few hours later one of my children hollered, "Dad, what happened!"

I walked into the laundry room to find a mixture of orange/honey/chocolate sprayed all over the room, the appliances, and the clothes. The chocolate had risen into the airlock and had hardened (it was difficult to get out) creating a plug that lead to blowing the stopper out and spewing rich delicious chocolate mead must everywhere.

With my daughter's assistance I was able to clean it all (though she kept wanting to lick the chocolate off the wall - hey, at age 9, an explosion in a chocolate factory sounds like fun). It did create a unique bonding moment for a father's day.

All I can say is that apparently, yeast like chocolate too!

MEAdsen

wildoates · Jun 22, 2009

Oh, my...I hope that never happens to me. I don't have any 9 year old daughters to help me clean it up--and I don't think the cats would be much help.

skunkboy · Jun 22, 2009

No Oompa Loompas singing songs as you fight to cleanup the eruption?

Displaced Hick · Jun 22, 2009

This one sounds more like one of the boiling mud pits in Yellowstone.

akueck · Jun 22, 2009

<midgets dancing>

Oompa Loompa doompa-dee doo,
I've got another lesson for you.
If you feed yeast choc-o-late too,
Cleaning walls will make you blue!

</midgets>

;D

Displaced Hick · Jun 23, 2009

Thanks Akueck, now I have visions of midgets in orange makeup dancing around in Florida with chocolate coated mops.

Medsen, I was wondering if this experiment was salvageable or if you are going to have to start over from square one? After my first try I figured the next version of Mud is going to be done in a bucket fermenter. I also realized that even though there isn't any fruit it, this one would probably benefit from punching down the cap, although in this situation I think "Mud Pack" is a better definition of what is going on.

I was also thinking of trying this with a modified version of hot fudge. I am not sure what the fermentation process would do if I used a hot fudge that used cream, so I was thinking of one with no dairy products used in it (It would also be homemade so I know there are no preservatives in there that might slow down fermentation).

Medsen Fey · Jun 23, 2009

Oompa Loompa doompa-dee dee,
If you are wise you'll listen to me
There's yeast and orange and chocolate too
but use a bucket, or you'll see it spew.

The good news is that although the mess was large, the actual amount of must lost was relatively small. I cleaned out the airlock and replaced it and it is chugging away nicely. I am swirling to punch down the mud-pack cap.

My recipe was as follows:

3.5 lbs clover honey - cheap costco stuff, but tasty.
1 orange cut into eighths
1 small handful of raisins
3 oz baker's chocolate (3 unsweetened squares)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract.
1 packet Fleischmann's yeast.
8 drops antifoam
Spring water to 1 gallon

I took the baker's chocolate and microwaved it with enough water to liquefy it fairly well and poured that in with the honey and added added all of the other ingredients except the antifoam. I then shook it to get things dissolved (pretty much). I then put the antifoam on top and put the airlock on.

The rest you know...

I now have the jug sitting in a large bucket with a lid. If she blows, the mess will be contained. I think the vanilla really helps bring the chocolate flavor out, and I do like the taste of the must. We'll see how the mead tastes.

Displaced Hick · Jul 27, 2009

So how are the Oompa Loompas doing in the bucket?

Medsen Fey · Jul 27, 2009

It finished fermenting without further excitement. I took it out of the bucket and it is sitting quietly in a dark cupboard. It is slowly clearing but there is some chocolate material that keeps floating on top of the oranges. For now, I'm inclined to just let it clear and I'll rack it later. I haven't tasted it again.

Bryon · Jul 27, 2009

Oh I gotta try this one. I've been wanting to do a Chocolate meat for a long time but for one reason or another I just haven't got too it yet.

One thing I have noticed with the JOAs I've done is that if the Temp gets up to 80 or more it foams like mad but anything below 78 and it's manageable. I've not added Chocolate thought or anything else to give the yeast a feeding frenzy.

Kee · Jul 28, 2009

wildoates said:
... I don't think the cats would be much help.

You would be surprised. I cannot keep primary buckets on the floor. The combination of honey/yeast attracts my dogs, especially from about days 2-4. They won't leave the airlocks alone! I've had one erruption so far. It was in a one gallon. I only knew because the airlock was missing and there was some must on the ceiling, which I only noticed because I was actually looking for it. It blended in a little too nicely. The dogs had already licked the floor clean! They were very happy that day for a few reasons.

Kee · Jul 28, 2009

Medsen Fey, how did you like using the baker's chocolate? Does it have any of the usual issues (hard to clear,...)?

Medsen Fey · Jul 28, 2009

I don't know if it will be any easier to clear; I don't really expect it to be. Using the baker's chocolate was okay. It was a little messy trying to warm and melt it to pour it in, but not a big deal.

Meriadoc · Jul 29, 2009

Medsen Fey said:
My recipe was as follows:

3.5 lbs clover honey - cheap costco stuff, but tasty.
1 orange cut into eighths
1 small handful of raisins
3 oz baker's chocolate (3 unsweetened squares)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract.
1 packet Fleischmann's yeast.
8 drops antifoam
Spring water to 1 gallon

This is a JAO-based recipe, right? You've used less raisins than in the original, am I correct? I'm thinking that the chocolate will be nice, but given that JAO is relatively sweet, the addition of sugars from the chocolate will make this a really, really sweet mead! Especially considering that the Fleischmann's isn't a high-alcohol yeast, you know?

Over and above that, I'm thinking that the fact that Fleischmann's doesn't floc well, is gonna mean that this one will be a bear to clear!

Sounds interesting, though: it'll be cool to see how it goes!

(My guess, if I were doing this one: dump the oranges (unless you're particularly looking for an orange/chocolate taste), since they're meant to balance the sweetness; pitch a wine yeast (since it'll take care of the excess sweetness); consider substituting out the raisins for other nutrient (sure, you'll lose tannins, but is that what you're looking for here?). Yes, this takes you pretty far afield from the JAO, and yes, you're looking at a 1-2 year aging to get the fusels out, but it should be interesting! Oh -- and my mantra has always been "ferment to dry, backsweeten to taste", and a chocolate mead has the opportunity to backsweeten with a honey/chocolate mixture! Yum!)

Merry

Medsen Fey · Jul 29, 2009

Meriadoc said:
This is a JAO-based recipe, right? You've used less raisins than in the original, am I correct? I'm thinking that the chocolate will be nice, but given that JAO is relatively sweet, the addition of sugars from the chocolate will make this a really, really sweet mead! Especially considering that the Fleischmann's isn't a high-alcohol yeast, you know?

Yes, it is based on JAO. I looked through lots of potential recipes using everything from syrup to cocoa nibs, but I wanted to see if I can produce a simple chocolate orange recipe that anyone could make with ingredients easily found at the supermarket.

The raisin amount is the same as JAO. I just decided to leave out the clove and cinnamon, and used the chocolate and vanilla extract instead.

The chocolate is unsweetened baker's chocolate - no sugar. I figure the bitterness from the chocolate may help balance the sweetness a bit, if I have enough chocolate in there. It is planned to be a sweet mead - I don't know if a dry chocolate orange would be any good (I'm not sure if a sweet one will be either for that matter)

The gravity should end up in the 1.020 range like a JAO with around 13% ABV

Meriadoc said:
Over and above that, I'm thinking that the fact that Fleischmann's doesn't floc well, is gonna mean that this one will be a bear to clear!

I hope it will clear in a reasonable time, like JAO. If not, I'll do some fining, but I'm hoping to have a really simple recipe that a beginner can follow. The chocolate will probably have more to do with slow clearing than the yeast.

Meriadoc said:
(My guess, if I were doing this one: dump the oranges (unless you're particularly looking for an orange/chocolate taste), since they're meant to balance the sweetness; pitch a wine yeast (since it'll take care of the excess sweetness); consider substituting out the raisins for other nutrient (sure, you'll lose tannins, but is that what you're looking for here?). Yes, this takes you pretty far afield from the JAO, and yes, you're looking at a 1-2 year aging to get the fusels out, but it should be interesting! Oh -- and my mantra has always been "ferment to dry, backsweeten to taste", and a chocolate mead has the opportunity to backsweeten with a honey/chocolate mixture! Yum!)

All good and reasonable suggestions if the goal were to make a dry chocolate mead. I'd also probably use cocoa nibs to enhance the clearing rather than powder or baker's chocolate, and I'd consider some long aging with heavy toast oak to enhance some of that character. That might be a fun batch to try.

Medsen

Gardenfish · Jul 29, 2009

Very interesting Medson. I have 1# of cocoa nibs due today or tomorrow. I could make the exact same recipe with the nibs and we can compare clearing times. I can ferment at the exact temp as yours also. What amount of nibs do you think it would take to be comparable?

Gardenfish

Displaced Hick · Jul 29, 2009

The Mud I made cleared up very nicely. I treated it like other batches of JAO, racked and bottled it before the oranges had settled to the bottom. I just had to keep the racking cane between the layer of yeast/chocolate at the bottom and the layer of orange/raisin/chocolate at the top.

Medsen Fey · Jul 29, 2009

Gardenfish said:
What amount of nibs do you think it would take to be comparable?

I think that since powder is basically the treated nibs pulverized that the amounts of weight would be about the same. The nibs however will have less surface area and the extraction will probably take a lot longer unless you use a higher amount.

I'm not quite sure how much more. Perhaps someone more familiar with the nibs can address it.

The fermentation temp was about 75F by the way.

Medsen

Medsen Fey · Aug 17, 2009

Day 49
gravity 1.022

This batch has long since finished and is in the clearing stage. The fruit, along with a good deal of chocolate material is still floating on top, with a very thick layer of lees on the bottom. I decided to go ahead and rack it today.

It is still cloudy but slowly clearing. The aroma is decidedly orange, with some chocolate in the background, but I probably could not tell you it was chocolate without knowing it already. The flavor is sweet on the attack with orange and the mid palate has hot alcohol and some bitterness (to be expected) with the chocolate very much subdued.

My first impression is that there isn't enough chocolate in there. Perhaps the chocolate flavor will strengthen with time and with the clearing, and if not, I may add a bit more. The lees were very chocolaty, and the flavor of the chocolate might have increased with sitting on those chocolate lees for more time.

I'll reassess this once it clears.

Sasper · Oct 14, 2009

Have you tasted this one recently? I'm very much interested in it!

Chocolate eruption!

Fuselier since 2007

NewBee

NewBee

NewBee

Certified Mead Mentor

NewBee

Fuselier since 2007

NewBee

Fuselier since 2007

NewBee

NewBee

NewBee

Fuselier since 2007

Worker Bee

Fuselier since 2007

NewBee

NewBee

Fuselier since 2007

Fuselier since 2007

NewBee