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.
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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