My next mead adventure: burnt mead

I didn't post my last mead batch. I made 5 single-gallon batches of different melomels: Mead with fruit. I have cherry, cranberry, black currant, blackberry, and peach all bulk aging and awaiting me to get off my ass and bottle them.

But this batch, I thought I'd try something different: burnt mead--technically called a bochet. To make one, you heat the honey over low heat until it simmers, and then you stir like mad for at least two hours. This caramelizes the honey. While some people push this process until the honey is absolutely black, I stopped when it was a deep brown/red.





since I was heating this to the soft-crack stage, I added a bit of cream of tartar to the boil to make invert sugar, because I didn't want to deal with any sugar crystallizing.

Bochets are supposed to have notes of caramel, toffee or toasted marshmallow, and I can report that the caramelized honey tasted exactly like caramel and honey. So I have high hopes for it. :)
 
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Pitched yeast, and now it's going "bubble bubble" :p

Used Lalvin ec-1118 , which is a high tolerance, fast-fermenting, neutrally flavored yeast. Plus, it should ferment out to a higher ABV than my last batches of mead, so it'll be a lot easier to get my wife all liquored up. :unibrow:
 

Bottling time!
I have a slightly different bottling set-up than I used to use, so I ended up slopping a lot less mead on the floor.

I used to get 23 bottles out of a batch.
This time, I got 25 bottles + 3 half-liter bottles + 3 big solo cups for immediate consumption.

I had no idea I was wasting so much mead.

I'm also a bit drunk
 
That is a beautiful looking botchet, Tin. But @PatrThom's question remains. How does it taste? I've been bulk aging one for almost a year now, and it's still a bit hot. I'm considering oaking half a gallon of it on some toasted French oak chips.
 
It's a brand new mead, so it's a bit hot and immature.

But some people like it that way



The subtle caramel flavors are very overwhelmed at the moment. But still, my wife and I ended up drinking the 3 big solo cups, plus the three half-liters.

I'm just now coming back to my senses ;)
 
It's my birthday. Today is all about the booze.

After approx 4 months of aging after the brewing process:





The bochet is still a little young and the flavor is still evolving, but most of the tangy diacetyls have aged out, and the hot alcohol flavor has muted nicely. There's a tiny amount of CO2 in suspension, giving the mead the right amount of acid to keep things interesting. I don't detect any toasted marshmallow flavors (probably because I didn't roast the honey until it was black) but there's a very nice honey and caramel flavor that lingers on the back of your tongue after you swallow. And the color is amazing!
 
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I'm more of a beer guy, but I wish I knew more about mead and what makes a good mead. Keep it up though as it's a blast to see your progress!
 
You age mead? I knew beer ages well, hadn't considered mead. Does it get sweeter or stronger snd thicker?
I don't make sweet meads, but regardless, they wouldn't get sweeter.

Generally, aging "mellows" a mead..young meads have alcohol hotness that gets much less pronounced with age. Esters and phenols tend to be reduced because the chemical reactions there are extremely slow--these cause some of the 'fruitiness' of a wine/beer/mead--aromas of banana peel, clove, pepper, etc. These become much more muted (so if they are flavor profiles you're actually going for, long-term aging may be less desirable). Some of these reactions are cyclical, so there's a point where you can actually get back into a 'younger' tasting stage if you over-age.

If you were to age in oak, there's a whole lot of other flavor profiles that can get added (vanilla, for instance) but these are bottle aging and so it's not a consideration.

My hope is that the caramel and honeycomb flavors will be much more pronounced, and the drink will be smoother and easier to drink.
 
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