14th Century Bouchet / Burnt Honey Mead

[mr_wibble]

FWIW there was an episode mid last year on Basic Brewing Radio about whether bread yeast was the best for mead.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/basicbrewing/bbr08-13-15lebernhc.mp3

I thought his findings were that people preferred his mead made with bread yeast.
I personally don't have an opinion either way.

 

[Airgead]

FWIW there was an episode mid last year on Basic Brewing Radio about whether bread yeast was the best for mead.

It isn't. If bread yeast improves your mead then you have issues.

 

[mr_wibble]

It isn't. If bread yeast improves your mead then you have issues.

So do you reckon JAO would be better made with Lalvin 71B ?

Spec's say it's tolerant to 14% - that's about what generic "bread yeast" is supposed to get to.

 

[TimT]

It's not just about tolerance, though, is it? We've all read the brewing books - *most* yeasts will conk out at around 12-14%.

I don't think mead is a very well understood style, which could partly explain the reactions to 'bread yeast mead'. I can't claim to have a rich understanding of the drink myself. I'd have to know more about this guy's experiments; how much experience does he have with mead, does he use bread yeast with everything he brews, etc etc....

 

[Airgead]

So do you reckon JAO would be better made with Lalvin 71B ?

Probably. I'm not a fan of citrus meads myself so never done the experiment on that one.

 

[MetalDan]

Not that I've brewed a mead before but not sure how accurate that BBR experiment was, sounded more like people preferred the sweetness of the 10% mead (bread yeast) rather than the 14% dryer mead (71B). If he brewed with the bread yeast again and it didn't conk out at 10% I wonder what the results would have been.

 

[TimT]

Yeah - sweetness is hardly the only desirable aspect to a mead.

It's important to get honey characteristics but sweetness is only one part to this.

My smoothest mead, weirdly enough, was probably from a wild yeast I collected when a moth flew into some wort I had lying around(!) But, last time I checked, typical mead characteristics (strong honey/beeswax/floral smells) aren't strong in that one.

 

[Airgead]

Yeah - sweetness is hardly the only desirable aspect to a mead.

Although a lot of people think it is. They mistake sweetness for honey character and brew honey syrup.

 

[Simdop]

Cheers for the feedback gents! I'm tempted to make the spiced version this winter to see how it compares.

What yeast did you end up using? And how long did you boil the honey for?

 

[Simdop]

How are everyone else's recipes turning out?

 

[TimT]

Oh, I finished my bochet a while ago. It turned out alright, I had originally planned to do it with only a minimum of burnt honey so I could hopefully get some of those fresh mead flavours and smells too. Turns out the burnt honey completely dominated the flavour and character of the brew, but with vanilla it became a pleasant ( if powerful) drink. I just used the Mangrove Jacks Newcastle Ale yeast on it. I probably won't be doing another bochet for a while as I'm more interested in the fresh honey flavours and smells. However, burnt honey would make a very interesting adjunct in a beer.

 

[Simdop]

Oh, I finished my bochet a while ago. It turned out alright, I had originally planned to do it with only a minimum of burnt honey so I could hopefully get some of those fresh mead flavours and smells too. Turns out the burnt honey completely dominated the flavour and character of the brew, but with vanilla it became a pleasant ( if powerful) drink. I just used the Mangrove Jacks Newcastle Ale yeast on it. I probably won't be doing another bochet for a while as I'm more interested in the fresh honey flavours and smells. However, burnt honey would make a very interesting adjunct in a beer.

did you do a small batch and if so, what ratio of honey to water did you go with?

 

[TimT]

Yeah mine are usually smallish. It depends how many frames we take out of the hive.

At any rate I never have very exact measurements as , once I have crushed honey out of the comb, I soak the crushed bits of comb in water, and that then becomes the base for a mead. I add more honey if I want to get the gravity up.

The gravity for this one might have been - I dunno - 1.100? Can't remember. Sorry.

 

[Simdop]

No worries. What spices did you use?

I've tried a variety of places but it seems like I can only get long pepper and grains of paradise online. So I'm thinking I might substitute as I don't want to order spices that I may only use once.

 

[TimT]

Vanilla, can't recall anything else. Vanilla was a good choice as it smoothed out all the weird 'young mead' flavours; but it faded with age.

 

[TimT]

Hm, long pepper - never heard of it before!

You should bear in mind that sometimes brew stores are the *worst* places to source brew spices (if they're not hops). I remember a few years back buying a small packet of juniper berries for a large price from a brew store, and then walking into my local shopping centre and finding in the nuts and spice store a large packet of juniper berries being sold for a small price.

Spice warehouses or factory outlets can have some extremely good stuff; have a shop around.

 

[TimT]

TBH both grain of paradise and long pepper sound like pretty good general cooking ingredients, so it's not as if they'd stay lying around forever

 

[Mardoo]

Grains of paradise are fantastic in you pepper grinder!

 

[welly2]

Just bottled my first bochet, it's tasting pretty good. Quite sweet although not cloyingly so but tasty.

Had to rush this one through due to moving back to pommyland so was fermenting for 6 weeks, secondary for a couple of weeks and just bottled today.

Will take it back to pommyland and let it sit in the bottle for 3 or 4 months. Apart from this one bottle I'm drinking now.

 

[knot_gillty]

*snip*

But I'll do another tasting in a year or so.

-kt

How’d this pan out mr wibble? I’m considering doing a bouchet in the near future.