14th Century Bouchet / Burnt Honey Mead

[mr_wibble]

Looks good MightyLolz.

I'm about to decant mine onto spices.

5.7 grams of fresh ginger, long pepper, grains of paradise
1.4 grams of cloves.

I think my scales only resolve in increments of a gram.

I'm using the original recipe spice amounts, despite Chelsea (from Game of Brews) indicating she thought it a bit too much.
I used quite a dark honey (stringybark from Tamworth), so I feel like it needs something a bit more robust.
(NOTE: I'm acting out of ignorance here, just doing what I feel like, so don't take this as gospel)

cheers,
-kt

 

[MightyLolz]

Thanks,
With the spices I figured I go with 70% of what the recipe stated, the honey I used was Orange Blossom.
But using less, I can leave them in a bit longer and just judge by my taste. So essentially, I shall also be winging it!
Two queries though:
First: I used a hydrometer for the first time and the reading was initially 1074, but then I took another reading using the same sample cooled down and it changed to 1084. Any thoughts on this? I wouldn't know if temperature affects a reading.
Secondly: A combination of over excitement and messed up temperature reading meant I ended up adding the yeast to quite a warm mix. About 30 degrees which seemed way too high, so I put the demijohn in a cold water bath, got the temp down to low 20's pretty quick. However I'm thinking I may have damaged or killed the yeast, fermentation seems to be happening but at a very slow rate. I'm observing one bubble through the airlock about every 1.5 - 2 minutes while both JAO brews on the same heat pad are showing a lot more action. Should I be concerned/ chuck more yeast in?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers!

 

[mr_wibble]

Temperature most certainly does effect a hydrometer reading.

From what I've read 30C pitching temp is not ideal, but should not be too hot to cause a major problem.
Warmer pitching temperatures leads to the production of a more esters [Palmer]. But in a burnt honey mead I don't think you'd notice.
And you cooled it down quickly anyway.

-kt

 

[mr_wibble]

Ok here's my problem:

I noticed when I decanted the mead onto the spices that the volume was only ~3 litres. (decanted into a flask).
I know I lost a very small amount to trub, but I must have only had maybe 3.2 litres initially.
(Those 1 gallon demijohns must be 3.8 litres full to the brim)

Do I add some cooled boiled water back to 3.7 litres ?
Leave it ?

 

[TimT]

Do I add some cooled boiled water back to 3.7 litres ?

You could do that - it would be a good opportunity to get in more spice flavours and aromas that you would normally find it difficult to get into the wine (because they'd be lost during the ferment or the boil). Part of the water you add could be a home made essence, or it could be spiced with a cooking essence you got from the shops. I plan to do similar when I bulk prime.

You'll get a weaker alcohol, of course, but meads have very high alcohol typically so you can sacrifice a bit of the alcohol percentage I would have thought.

 

[mr_wibble]

Yeah, I think I'll nudge it back up to 3.5 litres.
That should just restore it to the original 4 litres minus the trub.

 

[TimT]

Mr Wibble - I recall you were a tad concerned when your bochet was still fermenting three weeks in - I take it everything turned out all right then?

All my brews are fermenting slowly at the moment, including my bochet which is still blurping away - it must be about three weeks old now, too. Cold temps would do it, I reckon.

 

[mr_wibble]

Yeah, it seemed to settle down on the 4th week.

It wasn't so much that it was still fermenting, I was a bit concerned about it spending too long on the trüb (although JAO spends months on it).
Although I was surprised to see active fermentation going for so long.

I did a belgian once (my 4th brew or suchlike) that had a bad autolysis problem and I had to tip it. So I'm a bit paranoid about it.

We've been getting daily temps of just under 20 so far, so the fermentation should be good, i hope.

 

[TimT]

I ventured a sample and a taste of mine last night - it's about four weeks old though still fermentation going on. SG down to 14 and I think it wants to go more. I think it could definitely do with maturing and now I'm thinking of what spices could be good for it. I reckon orange peel, cloves, and vanilla.

 

[mr_wibble]

Did you ever end up finding a source for vanilla bean pods ?

I've been toying with the idea of chucking some oak chips in to my robust porter for woody / vanilla notes.

I ordered my long-pepper and grains of paradise from Herbies spices.
The long peppers smell great, obviously peppery, but kind of fruity too, there's heaps going on in there.

I'd warrant Herbies has vanilla pods.

 

[TimT]

Yep, an organic fruit and veg store down the road in Northcote. They have a jar of them in the herbs section. Same place I got my gentian from.

 

[Dave70]

Jumped in and brewed a 4L batch! Was surprised how dark it's come out, but it smells pretty good. Had a tiny taste too and it wasn't half bad, once its a bit cooler I'll take a reading with the hydrometer.

Did it taste a little like sherry? I racked mine to a second demijohn Tuesday night via a racking cane and inevitably wound up with some in my gob.
You must have cooked the buggery out of the honey, looks like stout..

 

[TimT]

Mine wasn't really sherry tasting.... but then it was made with a goodly proportion of unburnt honey to burnt honey as well, so it could do with some ageing. Dark amber colour, some toffee flavourings.

 

[Dave70]

I added about 100g brown sugar syrup to mine after I transferred it. Hopefully with the Belgian yeast it will give it a little 'rumminess'.

 

[MightyLolz]

Dave70 I had to do it in two batches so I didn't actually cook the honey all that long, less than 20 minutes. As to whether it tasted like sherry, I've never tried it so I'm not sure! Definitely looks like stout though...
I'm still unsure if I should be adding more yeast, the fermentation hasn't been very active. I'm concerned I burned the yeast since I added it at such a high temp

 

[mr_wibble]

Yeah I still haven't tasted mine either.

It's still sitting on the spices, I'll have to get around to bottling it this weekend I think.
If the original hadn't mentioned overly-spiced I think I'd leave it for a lot longer.

 

[Dave70]

A month or whatever it is, still bubbling along slightly and really beginning to clear.
Probably could have been a little braver with the cooking the honey darker. Still looks good when the sun hits it.

 

[Alex.Tas]

I made a batch a year or so ago and it was horrible when i bottled it. I got a bit excited when i was cooking the honey and ended up burning it to hell. Ive got some sitting in some wax sealed bottles, with some hope that in 4 years or so they will be somewhat drinkable.

I'm sure you guys have seen something like this before, but just in case some of you haven't here is the effect the cooking progress had on my honey.

 

[mr_wibble]

I was thinking about bottling mine any week now.

Too busy this weekend though.

 

[TimT]

Bottled today. It had been sitting today on orange peel, cloves, and vanilla for ages and they've really given it a lovely, Christmassy taste and smell.

It's good to go pretty much straight away - though I suspect the strong spicing and toffee flavours are hiding up some of the naughty phenols, etc, that you typically get in young meads. So it's a bit of a trade off - age and lose some of the fresh spice kick, or drink straight away and risk a pounding headache the morning after.

Overall probably one of my best brews this year (so far). I like this bochet style and think it and I could have a wonderful future together.