Burnt Honey

[Arne]

Anybody ever run across this? My bil keeps bees. Had 5 gal. of crystalized honey and left it in the heater too long. He says it was burnt, but I took the lid off and it smelled ok to me. My thoughts were during fermentation the oders might fall out and I could rack them off. It has crystalized again, but thought maybe this summer I would sit it outside on a couple of hot days and it should melt down again. Free honey, got to try something with it. Arne.

 

[Rice_Guy]

If honey is cooked intentionally for wine it is called ‘brouchet’.

One of the vinters club members does brouchet. It turns out sweeter than a regular mead, sugars are less fermentable. A very enjoyable product and has placed at best of class in contest, , think he had blood orange mixed in for fruity notes.

 

[Arne]

Thanks for the reply, Rice Guy. This was at 140 degrees for a few days. He said it was burned, but I really couldn't detect any burned smell from it. Hoping maybe somebody else has run into something like this, but probably a first. Anyway, hoping to salvage a bunch of honey from this. Bil bought a new cooker, has auto temp. and a timer, guess he won't have it happen again. Probably get the best mead out of this I have ever made and no longer have an outlet to get more honey like this. LOL, Arne.

 

[Rice_Guy]

@Arne if you don’t run it I would. PM if you want to go that direction. The club member who does brouchet does his on stove top, , expensive but one can always more.

 

[Rice_Guy]

notes form the vinters club: I boiled the honey with a constant stir for 45-60 minutes. Once the honey reaches boiling it expands. I would say To something like 5 times what you started with. It’s pretty wild. The first time I did it I used a turkey fryer outside. Since then I have done it in the stove top. I know what to expect now. You need a big 5gal pot for 1gal of honey.
When boiling I looked for a color change. You can boil as long as you want.
The recipe I used and didn’t follow said once you reach the color you want you slowly add in water to cool the burnt honey.
I didn’t do that and made my own recipe after that.
The last thing I got is be careful as the boiling honey is like molten lava and will burn you pretty good.
J
What J did was create a glass out of sugar and while warm melt it back in a liquid. If your sample is a low moisture glass the solubility will improve if you warm it up. Think I've seen suppliers offering a sugar glass that has been ground to improve the solubility/recipe mixing character.

 

[Arne]

Will keep this in mind. Not going to start it until I get some fresh fruit. Probably will be cherries. Arne.

 

[franc1969]

There’s a difference between 'burned' for eating as honey and 'bouchet' for making mead. I probably wouldn't like burned honey, but the mead would be wonderful. I bet what happened to the honey is exactly what you want in a bouchet- all the caramelized flavor without being hot enough to actually burn.

 

[tradowsk]

I second the above that the honey likely isn't burnt and you should make a mead out of it. Normal bouchet process gets the honey close to 200F IIRC, so 140F should be a good temp for this.

 

[Arne]

Gonna give it a try. It is in a 5 gal. container and has crystalized again. Either have to find something big enough to warm it up in or think I am going to wait for hot weather and set it out in the sun til it gets warm enough to pour off. Will get back on when I get started. Arne.

 

[abrewkat]

If you are looking for recipes online, I think it's actually 'bochet'. I have seen a lot of people doing this on Modern mead and cider makers facebook page, so there are recipes and methods out there.

 

[Rice_Guy]

I am wondering if a slow cooker would be a good tool for caramelizing a honey? , , hours or a few days? @abrewkat ,

Normal bouchet process gets the honey close to 200F IIRC, so 140F should be a good temp for this.

@Arne how is your mead doing?

 

[Arne]

@Arne how is your mead doing?
[/QUOTE]

LOL, Had the honey sitting out of the way and kind of forgot about it. Was going to set it outside so it could be poured out of the container. Guess I am going to have to wait til next year when it gets hot out again. It is in a 5 gal. jug with a small pour mouth. Don't have a pot big enough to get the jug into and warm it up, so guess next summer is the plan. Arne.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Gosh @Arne ,,, your no fun ;(
testing a slow cooker for 24 hours produced a black charcoal taste with no sweetness, , , will try again this week (when the wife is out of the house) with a temperature controller on the pot. , , , (how will I get anything done after she retires?)

 

[Juniper Hill]

I've been wanting to make a bochet for years. Maybe this winter...

 

[Arne]

Gosh @Arne ,,, your no fun ;(


@Rice_Guy That was the problem. Spending most of my time at the lake, not thinking about wine except when looking for a bottle to crack open. Let the honey age for another year and see if I can get it out of its container. It will all be good. Arne.















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