Batch 021: Merv

First bochet! Threw this together during the brewing of batch 020, based partially on Mary Izzet's short bochet recipe on pp. 88–89 of her Speed Brewing. We're calling this recipe Merv after Neil Gaiman's Merv Pumpkinhead.

Ingredients in this batch

• 1 lb. carrot honey from Flying Bee Ranch.
• 1 lb. pumpkin honey from Flying Bee Ranch.
• ½ tsp. each of Valley Brewers yeast nutrient and yeast energizer.
• Filtered tap water to one gallon.
• ⅓ of a 5-gram packet of Lalvin 71B-1122 wine yeast, rehydrated.

Brew date: 11 August 2016.
Original gravity: 1.080.
Final gravity: 1.001
Estimated ABV: Approx. 10.5%

Yield:

• 3 x 12 oz. beer bottles
• 2 x 750 mL wine bottles
• 1 x 500 mL beer bottle
• hydrometer tube

Total: approx. 109 fl. oz.; or about 85% a gallon.

Heated the honey on the stove over medium heat for twenty minutes, stirring almost constantly, to caramelize the honey. Boiled a pint of water with the chai tea in a brew bag in a small pot, then turned off the heat and let it steep. Poured the tea into the carboy shortly before the honey finished cooking, then poured the honey in after it, and also the yeast nutrient and energizer. Closed the carboy with a cap, then shook it for several minutes to mix everything thoroughly. Opened the carboy and topped it off to a gallon, then agitated for several more minutes to aerate and mix. Took a gravity reading, then popped in and filled an airlock.