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A mild Bochet

Barrel Char Wood Products
Hi all, just bottled a light bochet, 1 gal batch. Tastes wonderful, thought I'd post my process/ see if anyone else out there has any experience with this seemingly taboo fringe-beverage (lotta folks cringe at the idea of caramelizing honey for a lot of stuttering "but...it..." reasons. This is brewing, man, it's science! and innovation...sorta)

Makes 1 Gal.

-3 1/2lbs Flagstaff wildflower honey (a light local varietal, very sweet, by Mountain Top Honey)
-2 tbsp bee pollen
-1/2 tsp yeast energizer
-1/2tsp DAP
-2 g. Lalvin D-47
O.G 1.120-F.G 1.180

Process: all honey added to 25qt. pot, caramelized very vigorously for roughly 90 minutes until a dark mahogany color. added approx 1 oz. water to honey every 30 minutes as it caramelized to soften the process a little, kinda like caramelizing onions. Beware! Boiling-hot honey is violent to water. Once 90 minute mark was hit, added 1/2 gallon cold water SLOWLY and stirred, re-heating on low. Once the honey mixed nicely with the water I added 2 tbsp bee pollen (as a nutrient source) and allowed it to dissolve, then added the mix to a 1 gal. jug with the energizer and DAP and topped to the neck to cool. Made some more headspace when I drew a hydrometer reading, capped and aerated, made a 1/2 cup starter with the D-47, waited, pitched at approx 85F, etc.

Notes: Fermentation started VIGOROUSLY at about the 2hr mark. Very dark reddish-brown color, the fermentation had lots of stringy-looking yellow chunks of what I presumed to be obliterated proteins (i.e. the foam you'd skim turned into a gummy precipitate) It spent 2 weeks in first fermentation when I noticed all the gummy crap had settled out and it was actually looking reasonably clear already but still fermenting. Racked off about 1 1/2inch of lees/mystery gunk into a clean gallon jug with approx 1/4 ounce dark roast hungarian oak. let sit on the oak in secondary for 2 weeks till fermentation slowed to a crawl and I could read my mail through the bottom of it, then bottled. Taste of my *ahem* sample was young, but had some resemblance of the original honey, with strong toffee/caramel flavors and an underlying vanilla taste. The nose kinda reminds me of a red ale though? not sour, but malty? Tastes dry in spite of FG, possibly some residual sugar left to give it a hint of effervescence, but it's clear so I'm thinking bottle conditioned chances are low if non-existent? Looking forward to getting a sip of this 6months/year from now, I'll finish my lil' sample for now.;)
 

TheAlchemist

I am Meadlemania
GotMead Patron
Sep 9, 2010
2,464
8
0
near a lake
Thanks for all your details here...some of us will be starting a Rapture Bochet in less than a month...for drinking on Winter Solstice 2012...
 

Soyala_Amaya

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 21, 2011
991
6
0
Missouri
Question, did you reverse your OG and FG? Because as it stands, youre sugar content went up .06 points.

Beyond that, I am also going to make a bochet here soon, did you get any smokey flavors?
 
Sorry, F.G should be 1.018! shouldn't have dipped into the sample before posting. Keen eye! As for smokey flavors, not particularly. Burnt, yes, but not smokey. I didn't feel daring enough to push the honey into the black-tar-dripping-off the spoon phase. I did do this on the electric range-top of my apartment kitchen unlike some of the lucky folks here with space to start a woodfire and burn it in a cauldron. I would suggest throwing caution to the wind and give bochet a try, nothing can really be lost in a 1-gallon batch, it's a pretty tolerable experimental size if you're worried about something going awry.
 
Barrel Char Wood Products

Viking Brew Vessels - Authentic Drinking Horns