Burnt Honey

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Arne

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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.
 
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, :try, think he had blood orange mixed in for fruity notes.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Will keep this in mind. Not going to start it until I get some fresh fruit. Probably will be cherries. Arne.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
@Arne how is your mead doing?
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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.
 
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?)
 

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