brēowanthorpe

The Homestead of Beer

Bochet Mead

By thomas #Bochet, #Bochet Mead, #Dry Mead, #Homebrew, #Honey, #Mead, #oak, #oak chips, #Traditional Mead, #Water, #Westfort, #Yeast

Codename : Westfort Bochet Meadu

A bochet, as represented in this mead, is an ancient form from France, in which the honey is gently boiled to caramelise it. A brief history, from the gospel according to Wikipedia,

Bochet is a type of mead made from honey that has been caramelised. The earliest known complete recipe for bochet is in the 1393 French book Le Ménagier de Paris. It became newly popular when a translation of the book was published in 2009.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bochet

Ingredients

  • 1 Kg Honey
  • 3.3 L of filtered, spring or distilled water (chlorine in home water is truly bad for mead)
  • 10 ml Mangrove Jack M05 mead yeast.
  • Yeast energiser (follow fermentation directions)
  • 15g of sanitised oak chips for secondary

Vital Stats

BJCP Style : Bochet
Anticipated ABV : 12%
Original SG : 1.082
Target SG : 0.982
Brewhouse (in)efficiency : 99%

Brew Day

  • Add 1Kg of honey to the pot, set stove to medium.
  • Stir frequently, particularly as it starts to boil, otherwise it may burn, or stick to the pot.
  • Once you have achieved the colour desired, remove from heat. In my case there was about 900 grams of honey remaining. This took approximately 30 minutes.
  • Allow to cool approximately 30 minutes. You do not want to add cold water into the pot quite yet.
  • Add approximately 2 litres of water to the pot. Give it a good stir to incorporate the contents.
  • Calibrate the sonic screwdriver.
  • Sanitise everything required for fermentation.
  • Allow it to cool to room temp.
  • Prepare the yeast mixture.
  • Pitch the yeast to the carboy.
  • Transfer the honey water to the carboy, splash it around to aerate the contents.
  • Be sure to scrape out the honey that may stick to the pot.
  • Add about one litre of water to the carboy, to bring up to 4 litres.
  • Put the airlock on the carboy.
  • Store in a cool dark place for primary fermentation for approximately 28 days, this as a guideline. 

Fermenting

  • On day 2 of fermentation, add 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient (or energiser).
  • On day 4 of fermentation, add 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient (or energiser).
  • On day 6 of fermentation add 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient (or energiser)
  • Occasionally monitor the mead for meagre fermentation/bubbling late in the fermentation process, along with sediment build up on the bottom of the carboy.
  • On day 28, transfer the mead to a clean/sterile carboy.
  • Add 20g sterilised oak chips to the carboy. Taste your mead after 14 days, if you like the taste, bottle it. If you want more intensity wait longer.

Bottling Day

  • Detailed instructions.
  • Keeping it traditional, no additional sugars will be added for carbonation.
  • Bottle age at least 4 weeks, longer is better!

Brew Notes

  • As noted above, one kilo of honey will render off some water as boiled, in this case about 100 grams, which brought me down to about 900 grams of caramelised honey.
Gently boil the honey on medium for approximately 30 minutes. Stir frequently to ensure it does not burn.

 

The bochet will ferment in the carboy for about 4 weeks before adding oak chips.

 

Brew day : 16-Jul-2024