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Thoughts on my next batch (Bochet).......

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  • Thoughts on my next batch (Bochet).......

    Did I mention my "result" ? Don't know/Can't remember. Maybe mentioned it to the troops at Grapefest this year.

    Anyway, one of the chaps at "Home Brew Talk", specifically their Mead forum (bog all point in me posting at the rest of their forums, as I don't do that other stuff), happened to mention that he'd had a mega result on ebay. He'd scored 400lb of honey. The honey was being sold because the producer had harvested it a number of years previously and was moving house or something like that.

    I figured, because the chap from HBT is located in the Oxford area, it was worth the effort of sending him a PM and asking if he wanted to sell any. He did. I ended up with just over 100lb of it.

    A lot of it is quite crystalised, but that's not a problem. I still have about half of what I bought off him left (about 50lb or so).

    As a result, I'm planning a Bochet (WTF's a bochet I hear you say).......

    A Bochet is a mead made from burned honey. I'll have to get Clares jam making pan too start with, because while the honey is boiling/burning, it does tend to foam like hell, and any splatters received through careless preparation, are like burning plastic. Not very nice at all!

    Now you may also wonder what a mead made from burnt honey would be like ? Having read around the various forums etc, it seems that it gives a marshmallow/toasted marshmallow flavour.

    It's actually a very old method of making meads and I've read some stuff where they boil/burn the honey until it starts to smoke, but ultimately it's up to the maker how dark the honey gets.

    I'll have to wait and see when I get round to burning my honey........
    Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

    Some blog ramblings

  • #2
    Could you try this with any honey john? Is it all the honey that's boiled up or just a portion of it?

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Delmonteman View Post
      Could you try this with any honey john? Is it all the honey that's boiled up or just a portion of it?
      Well as far as I've read Daniel, you just boil it all to a very dark, almost molasses colour, then mix it up to the target batch size. Whether it will have any affect on the level of fermentable sugars ? I don't know.....yet.

      The aim is to give it a go and see how it pans out. The honey I'm using at the moment is just a general "wild flower" type. All very crystalised as it's about 20 or so years old i.e. nothing particularly special......

      Given that any "special" properties of the honey are liable to be "cooked" out of it, I'd have thought that even the cheapest super market stuff would be fine. After all, it's unlikely that there'd be any varietal notes etc left after it's been caramelised to hell and back
      Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.

      Some blog ramblings

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      • #4
        Cracking! I'll have to have a go at that some time, could be very interesting. Colour is the indication then... I've got a brill non-stick pan that's great for jam and will do this no problem...!

        Thanks for sharing!

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