Simple Bochet

Simple Bochet

            It is amazing the different kinds of mead you can make even with a standard set of ingredients. Bochet, also known as burnt honey mead, is a fantastic example of this as the Simple Bochet only has four ingredients, yet tastes vastly different than a standard Dorm Closet Mead. Offering the flavors of toffee and coffee, Bochet is a good alternative for anyone who is intrigued by chocolate mead, but does not have five years to wait for it to ferment.

Ingredients and Equipment:

            To brew Bochet, you will need 2lb honey, a packet of Lalvin EC-1118 which is normally too volatile for a sweeter mead, but the heating process renders some of the sugar unfermentable, 14 cups-1 gallon purified water, and 1 tsp yeast nutrient. Substituting 25 raisins per gallon for the yeast nutrient is possible, but not recommended as flavors will transfer.
            As for equipment, you will need a 2 gallon brew bucket, a 3 piece econo-lock, a stir stick, a vessel to activate the yeast, and a heating implement, one deep large-based pot, and one wide, shallow pan which the pot can fit into. You probably have most of this on hand, but it is always good to double check.

- Lalvin EC-1118: $1.00

-2lb Honey: $7.50

-Yeast Nutrient: $1.50

Total: $10.00

Directions:

-Step One: Preparation

            -Wash and sanitize all equipment. If you are using a pot you have cooked with before, consider using steel wool and washing out the pot with boiling water before sanatizing

            -Place the bottle of honey in a pot or bowl of water just below the boiling point to warm up the honey and make it more pliable. If the plastic is cheap and the water is too hot, you risk melting the bottle and ruining the honey, but the risk in minimal and pouring honey at room temperature in unbearably slow.

            -Heat the pot very slightly in preparation for the honey. If you are using a stove top to heat your honey, the lowest setting is a good place to start.

-Step Two: Heating

            -Pour the honey into the pot slowly. Make use of your stir stick to spread the honey evenly over the bottom of the pot.

            -Between the 10 and 20 minute mark, the honey should start to bubble and boil. From here on out, you will need to constantly stir the pot to keep the honey from either boiling over or burning at the bottom of the pot.

            -Between 60 to 120 minutes is when the honey becomes viably heated for a Bochet. During this time, carefully sample the honey in order to pick your flavor.

            -At whatever stopping point you choose, fill the shallow pan with ice water and place the pot into the ice bath. If not quickly cooled, the residual heat in the metal and the honey will continue cooking beyond the desired point.

-Step Three: Mixing

            -Pour in the heated honey into the brew bucket first doing your best to scrape all of the honey out of the pot before it hardens.

            -Divide the gallon of water into three separate batches for convenience. Heat each portion to just below the boiling point and transfer the water through the pot used to cook the honey on its way to the brew bucket. This will melt more of the hardened honey and insure a greater flavor transfer. After three separate rinses, all of the residual honey should be transferred.

            -Add 1 tsp of yeast nutrient to your honey/water mixture and stir thoroughly until the must resembles fresh coffee.

-Step Four: Pitching

            -Heat 1/4^th C of water to between 105-109 °F in your extra glass vessel. Stir in the yeast packet, swirl the mixture until it becomes uniform, and place the cup somewhere slightly warm for 15 min while the yeast activates.

            -While your yeast is activating, take this time to aerate your mead in preparation for the pitch. Stir the mixture thoroughly for 5-10 min stopping just before the 15 min of yeast activation is over. By the end, your brew should be observably bubbly.
            -Carefully pour the activated yeast mixture into your brew bucket and give the bucket one, slow, gentle stir to thoroughly introduce the yeast. Stirring too much at this point can agitate the yeast and create off flavors.

-Step Five: Finishing Touches.
             -Add the lid to your brew bucket and run your hands around the rim to be sure the seal is complete.
             -Fill your econo-lock up to the marked line with distilled water, not vodka, and apply the air lock to the rubber grommet in the buckets lid.

Storage and Fermentation:

            The mead will need +30 days for primary fermentation and for the yeast to go through fermentation and then do some cleaning up and dying off. The mead should be kept in a dark place with a temperature between 59-86 °F to encourage the yeast to ferment slowly and not create any off flavors. During the first few days, pay attention to the airlock to check for bubbles. If there are no bubbles during this time, consider re-pitching another packet of yeast.

            After a little over a month, the Simple Bochet will be done with primary and ready for secondary fermentation.

            Leave the mead in secondary fermentation for at least a month to allow dead yeast and other detritus to filter to the bottom of the new vessel. After the mead has reached your desired clarity and mellowed to your desired taste, feel free to bottle at any time. This entire process should not take longer than three months, but if the flavors are undesirable at the end of this time, consider leaving the mead a bit longer.

            Drink and enjoy.

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