Bochet Cyser, a Caramelized Honey Apple Mead

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A recipe for a cyser (apple mead) with dark caramelized honey.

Originally Posted: Sept. 29, 2020

Last Edited: Apr. 23, 2021

Bochet Cyser and Wildflower Honey Cyser — Bochet Cyser next to a wildflower honey Cyser.

Table of Contents

Quick Specs

OG = 1.105 – 1.115 (depending on apple juice)
ABV: ~12 – 14%
Taste profile: Semi-dry, caramel notes, spices in the background
Time: 6 months from start to bottling
Yield: 5 gallons, or about 25 bottles

Intro

This is a variation on my Basic Cyser recipe. It contains almost all the same ingredients, but with raw honey swapped out for caramelized honey: the main ingredient in a bochet-style mead. The optional glucoamylase will help break down some of the caramelized sugars and dry this mead out further if that’s more to your liking.

Ingredients

10 lbs. of Caramelized Honey (I like to caramelize my honey in batches using a 10-qt slow cooker)
5 gallons apple juice
2 – 3 Granny Smith apples, sliced thin (these add acidity). The thinner you slice these, the easier it is to get them out of a narrow-necked fermenter when it comes time to transfer your mead.
2 sticks of cinnamon
10 whole cloves (this seems like a lot, but I decided to double all spices because otherwise the caramelized honey overpowers them)
1 vanilla bean (decided to add this after my first batch)
A handful of raisins
Yeast nutrient
Lalvin D-47 (my favorite yeast for fruit meads). Sometimes I add some EC-1118 later in the fermentation to dry things out further and increase the ABV.
Glucoamylase

Equipment

Fermenter of your choice
Air lock and drilled stopper
A large pot (used to ensure honey mixes well into first gallon of apple juice)
Sous vide circulator (optional) or hot water heater (optional)
Large funnel (you can get these at your local homebrew store)
A mixing tool, such as a stainless steel spoon, an egg beater, or an immersion blender
10-quart slow cooker (optional) to caramelize honey, or a large stock pot to caramelize honey the old-fashioned way. Warning: honey “grows” a lot when heated

Slow Cooker Caramelized Honey — Honey “grows” a lot during heating. Here was my first attempt at caramelizing 10 lbs. of honey at once in my 10-qt slow cooker, for use in the Bochet Cyser. It caused quite a mess, but made for a good picture. Now I only caramelize 5 lbs. at a time.

Bochet Honey in Mason Jar — I like to caramelize my honey ahead of time in 5 lb. batches, then store them in 1/2 gallon (64 oz.) mason jars.

Instructions

Caramelize your honey using your preferred method. I like to caramelize my honey ahead of time in 5 lb. batches in a 10-qt slow cooker. I store these 5 lb. batches in ½ gallon wide mouth mason jars.
Warm the honey containers if needed (i.e. if you’ve caramelized your honey ahead of time. This will help you get as much honey out of the containers as possible.
Sanitize all your equipment: Fermenter, airlock/bung, and pots and cooking implements that will touch your mead. I like to fill one whole side of my sink with Star-San solution and soak anything that will fit. This way I can also pour the sanitizer solution into fermenters or other containers using a measuring cup as needed.
Place one gallon of your apple juice into a large, sanitized pot (I use a stock pot because the high walls are nice). Heat it gently to help with mixing and to make a hospitable home for your yeast (don’t exceed 95°F).
Once honey is warmed up, pour all of it into the gallon of apple juice. Mix well to make sure that all the honey becomes liquid (I’ve found that a combination of immersion blender and spoon work very well, especially if the honey is stubborn).
Add yeast to the warm mixture, allow it to hydrate, then stir it in.
Place sliced apples, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla bean, raisins, and yeast nutrient into the sanitized fermenter, then pour the juice-honey mixture over that. A large HDPE funnel helps a lot, especially if your fermenter has a narrow neck. Shake the fermenter around a little to mix.
Add the rest of the apple juice and aerate the must per your favorite method. I’ll usually pour part of each bottle of apple juice in, then put the cap back on and shake to oxygenate the remaining juice in the bottle. An aeration pump and aeration stone are also good to use.
Take a gravity reading and write it down in your notes. You’ll need this number if you want to accurately gauge the alcohol content of your brew at the end.
If you’ve used an unfiltered fresh apple juice and want your mead to be clear, now is the time to add pectic enzyme. Pectic enzyme is denatured by alcohol, so adding it at the end won’t be as effective.
In a few months, your Bochet Cyser should be ready to bottle.

Variations

The main reason I chose to brew this mead—aside from simple curiosity—was to use it as a blending component in my Solera Cyser Project. The overall plan is to blend 2.5 gallons of this mead with 2.5 gallons of Basic Apple Cyser (plus a bottle of Calvados) into a 5-gallon oak barrel. Then I’ll repeat this process three more times until I have four 5-gallon barrels of blended fortified apple mead.

The Solera method of aging is used to produce Sherry (Jerez), Marsala, Madeira, balsamic vinegar, some sour beers, and many other brews and spirits. I’ve been fascinated by the process ever since I got to tour a sherry bodega in Jerez, Spain when I was 18.

The aim is to bottle only from the oldest (most-aged) barrel, then top that off with the next-oldest barrel, and so on. The youngest barrel is then topped off with fresh wine. This ensure a system of continuous aging, with every bottle supposedly containing some wine from the oldest batch.

Note: I prefer to buy Hungarian oak barrels from JK Cooperage because the 1.5in diameter bung hole is large enough for me to fit my auto-siphon into. Many barrels have much smaller bung holes, which can fit a racking cane or hose into, but not an auto-siphon.