# Bochet Experiment



## BRGriffith (May 16, 2014)

Hello everyone,

I just thought I'd share with you all my recent experiment with making a bochet mead. Here's the recipe I used:

1 Gallon Bochet:
-3 Lbs. Clover Honey (Caramelized)
-25 Raisins (Nutrient)
-Pure Spring Water to 1 Gal.
-1 Pack Red Star Champagne Yeast
-Specific Gravity: 1.100
-Potential Alcohol: 13%

I figure this SG is what I want to get to at least 12% alcohol, since caramelizing the honey apparently creates some unfermentable carbs.

I boiled the honey in a big pot and made sure I used a very long spoon, as others who have tried this recommend. Something I found interesting, however, was that it didn't take nearly as long to get to where I wanted it as the color chart would suggest. Mine got to just a little darker than the 120 minute example in about 1 hour, so 60 minutes. I boiled it on medium heat. Picture of the result is the first attachment. The blob in the bottom was the final color, the one I used. 

Has anyone else had this happen to theirs? Anyway, the hydrometer sample was delicious, so I really hope it turns out!

On another note, I just bottled some of a new wine I've been playing around with. It's concord grape juice (Welch's) with blackberries and oak. Very dry (0.990) and 14% ABV. It's the second attachment. It tastes a lot like a Malbec!


----------



## seth8530 (May 16, 2014)

I can not vouch for the welche's but your botchet look rather yummy. Do you have any oak plans? What kind of nutrient schedule do you have planned out?


----------



## BRGriffith (May 16, 2014)

seth8530 said:


> I can not vouch for the welche's but your botchet look rather yummy. Do you have any oak plans? What kind of nutrient schedule do you have planned out?



Well, about the nutrients, I think I'm just going to let it ferment as is for now and add them if necessary, but I'm not very well versed in nutrient additions, so I guess I don't have a schedule, lol... As for oak, I'm considering adding some medium to heavy toast American oak. 
How does oak affect a bochet? Also, what type do you think would be best, and for how long?


----------



## seth8530 (May 16, 2014)

Nutrients are crucial for making mead. Else you risk stalling out very early on into the ferment or making some really nasty off flavours. I would recomend you give this thread a read and also the thread linked in it by deezil.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f86/got-off-phone-fermaid-people-38704/

As far as oak, American med+ might be a good choice due to its coffee notes.. French for vanilla notes or Hungarian for spicy peppery and leathery notes.


----------



## Deezil (May 16, 2014)

Honey is pretty much devoid of the nitrogen that yeast need to function; it's basically the limiting factor in the fermentation speed of meads. The raisins will lend some nutrient, but realize that they'll also tweak the flavor slightly. 

I'd agree with Seth and recommend a quality yeast nutrient - not only will it speed things up some, but will also keep the Bochet from developing off-flavors/-aromas.


----------



## BRGriffith (May 18, 2014)

Thanks alot for the responses, guys. Those are some good articles to read, and I'll be getting some real nutrients very soon. Thanks again,
Cheers.


----------



## BRGriffith (May 22, 2014)

Update: My first bochet is still fermenting very nicely in the primary. The success I had with darkening the honey and the amount the flavor of it impressed me has made me want to make a second gallon. (This time with some nutrients.) Anyway, here's the tentative idea:

1 Gal Spring Water
3 Pound Clover Honey Caramelized almost black (same as the first)
1 Quart Blackberry Juice
1 Cup Toasted American Oak
1 Tablespoon Black Peppercorns
1 Ounce Very Dark Chocolate
25 Raisins
1 Pack Champagne Yeast
Nutrient

Shooting for a dry 15% ABV. The pepper and chocolate may seem odd, but it sounds good to me for some reason. I'm hoping to have a finished wine that is a very dark purpleish color from the blackberry juice, a lot like squid ink. 

So, what do you guys think of this recipe?
Thanks for reading!


----------



## seth8530 (May 22, 2014)

You might want to up the black berry juice a bit... However, for around a 2 gallon batch I guess it should be ok. ( All to your personal choice). I would try using a different yeast strain and also develop a nutrient plan before you start fermenting. 

That being said, I think you are on the right track and the fact that you plan on using nutrient is a great thing! I would also consider using Med+ hungarian oak as well. I think it would work with what you are after.


----------



## Deezil (May 22, 2014)

Seems pretty interesting..

1/8 blackberry juice
3/8 burnt honey

That's 50% 'dark ingredients'.. With a gallon of water.. Not sure if you'll quite reach 'squid ink', but the potential outcome has me very interested nonetheless. 

I would save the chocolate and peppercorns for the bulk aging step.. It's easy to add some more, but take some out? Good luck with that ! I would wait for bulk aging though, so you have an idea of the profile of the wine, and just how much chocolate or pepper you want to add.. 

Also, small tidbit, 1 teaspoon might be a bit much in the peppercorn arena - I'm pretty sure you could count out 5-10 individual peppercorns and find that it's more than enough..


----------



## BRGriffith (May 23, 2014)

Thank you both for your input, I really value your opinions! Well, I went out last night and gathered all my supplies, and started working. I altered some things from my original plan, and here's where everything came out:

3 Pounds Near Black Clover Honey (I only got burned once!)
1.5 Quart Blackberry Juice
1 Cup Toasted American Oak (I didn't have immediate access to Hungarian)
1/2 Tablespoon Black Peppercorns (Added with toasted oak)
1 Ounce Very Dark Chocolate (90%)
3/4 Cup Sugar
25 Raisins
Spring water to just over 1 Gal
1 Pack Champagne Yeast
Fermaid K
Specific Gravity: 1.110
Potential Alcohol: 14.5% (A little under what I wanted, but oh well)

I began by boiling the honey until it reached the same color as the first one I did, and it was absolutely delicious. After I added some water (slowly), I took the Jack Daniels oak chips and let them steam for a bit in the pan before they started toasting. Once they were good and toasted, I threw in the peppercorns for the last couple minutes.

(I hadn't seen your post yet Deezil, we'll see how it turns out, but if it's too much, I'll try your suggestion next time)

Once everything was stirred, cooled and the readings were taken, I pitched the started yeast. The color was pretty good, though not quite as purple as I had hoped. It's still good and blackish, however. The hydrometer sample tasted amazing, so hopefully it all works out in the end!

A couple things: Seth8530, what yeast would you recommend if I try this again? Also, does anyone know if there's a blackberry concentrate available? I think that might do better for the color, and eliminate the need for added sugar.

Thanks for reading!


----------



## BRGriffith (May 23, 2014)

A little background on this wine, just to keep everyone interested . Yesterday morning I came up with what I thought would be a cool name for a wine, and as I got to thinking about it, I decided I would try and make a wine to go along with the name.

I decided to try and make a blackberry bochet so as to make it look like dark purple squid ink (you'll see why in a minute). I wanted the bottle and label to reflect the feel of the wine. I'm planning on bottling this in a green bordeaux with a black shrink cap finish. Here's the label I came up with, and I think it will all go perfectly together when it's all said and done . Let me know what you think!


----------



## seth8530 (May 23, 2014)

I am sure that you can find black berry concentrate somewhere. However, if not black currant is quite tasty and it is black as pitch as well. I would try looking at the fruit wine base kits sold by online retailers. Keep us updated looks like you got good stuff coming on along.

As far as yeast choice, that is up to you based mainly on the characters you want to extract. However, seeing that you want to be dry and your ABV should be around 15% if that happens.. .This really narrows done your playing field.

http://www.scottlab.com/product-30.aspx

http://www.scottlab.com/product-31.aspx

http://www.scottlab.com/uploads/documents/technical-documents/1039/OB Eng ALCH 1.pdf

http://www.scottlab.com/uploads/documents/technical-documents/1040/OB Eng ALCH II.pdf


http://www.scottlab.com/product-34.aspx

http://www.scottlab.com/product-44.aspx

http://www.scottlab.com/product-56.aspx


http://www.scottlab.com/product-59.aspx ( known to be a good one for mead due to floral factors)

I also know that dh-47 or is it d-47 is used a lot with meads. The point is that their is a huge selection of yeast to choose from and it is up to you to find the yeast that has the characeteristics that you like. Ie, do not choose a yeast that makes HS2 when it gets hot if you cant keep the ferment cool.

Hope this helps!


----------



## BRGriffith (Jun 12, 2014)

Update:

A couple days ago I racked my original bochet (the one I didn't use nutrients on, besides raisins), and I have a few notes about it.

1. I now see why nutrient is so important. Upon racking, it had gone from 1.100 to just under 1.040, making it about 8% alcohol and still very sweet.

2. The taste is still phenomenal. Even though it hasn't dried out, I don't detect any off flavors or aromas, and it has that wonderful toffee, caramel taste.

3. Into the secondary, I added some Med toast American Oak. This addition appears to have restarted fermentation. I'm not sure what all is in oak, so it could be that there is some available Nitrogen or other thing that yeast likes?

4. I'm going to let this one play out and sit in secondary for several more months before bottling. On the other hand, in a day or two, I'll be racking my second bochet, The Leviathan. Being that there is nutrient available in that one, I'm hoping for a more satisfying result.

Thanks for all the advice, and thanks for reading!


----------



## the_rayway (Jun 12, 2014)

Hey BRG, these recipes sound like a great start!

Regarding the re-starting of fermentation: were you stirring your must during primary? Likely with the aeration of the must during racking it woke up the yeast and got 'er going again. Oak has nothing in it (as far as I am aware) that would re-start the fermentation.

Keep us posted, it's sounding delicious!


----------



## SouthernChemist (Jun 12, 2014)

More than likely the oak is providing nucleation sites for gas evolution. Some people run into a problem where they transfer a wine during fermentation to a carboy and then throw a bunch of oak into the wine. Sometimes the gas evolution can cause a mess. Otherwise, there's nothing in oak itself that would restart a stuck fermentation.


----------



## BRGriffith (Jun 12, 2014)

Hmm, well so much for that hope then. Ray, to answer your question, I used the "shake well" method of aeration, as for this one I was using a glass carboy as a primary, so that could be it.
Since I made some rookie mistakes with that batch, my second used a bucket as a primary, which got stirred vigorously for about five days. Hoping for better results from that one!


----------

