Liking the bochets lately, and we have plenty of orange-blossom honey. For now, I'm calling it 🎜🎜 Oraaaange-Blossom Bochet 🎝🎝.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 5 lb. orange-blossom honey from Bennett's Honey Farm, moderately caramelized by heating, covered, for 150 minutes in our Crock-Pot on low.
  • 2 lb. orange-blossom honey from Bennett's Honey Farm, not caramelized.
  • 2 packets of Lalvin 71B-1122 wine yeast, rehydrated in tap water.
  • 1 tsp. Fermaid O, added on 3 Mar 2025
  • 1 tsp. Fermaid O, added on 4 Mar 2025
  • 1½ tsp. Fermaid O, added on 7 Mar 2025
  • 1 tsp. Fermaid O, added on 8 Mar 2025

Procedure

Heated five pounds of honey in the Crock-Pot for two and a half hours on HIGH, then poured it into water in the three-gallon carboy. Heated water in the Crock-Pot to help dissolve off the remainder of the caramelized honey from the side of the Crock-Pot, then poured it into the carboy. Filled the Crock-Pot with water and switched it to HIGH for twenty minutes, then poured that water into the carboy. Added two more pounds of honey. Allowed the carboy to cool, neck covered, until it was safe to pitch the yeast. Rehydrated a pouch of Lalvin 71B-1122 in cup of tap water. Pitched the yeast.

Brew date: 28 February 2025.
Original gravity: not measured.
Bottling date: 8 February 2026
Final gravity: 1.010
Estimated ABV: Not calculated: too hard to account for carmelized honey that never dissolved.

Yield:

  • 16 x 12 oz. beer bottles.
  • 1 x 500mL swing-top beer bottle.
  • 7 x 375mL wine bottles.
  • 1 x 750mL wine bottle.
  • 2 x 14&nnbsp;oz. beer mugs.

Total: About 10.4L, or just about 2¾ gallons.

Observations and Notes

  • 2025-03-03: Nutrient addition.
  • 2025-03-04: Nutrient addition.
  • 2025-03-07: Nutrient addition.
  • 2025-03-08: Nutrient addition.
  • 2026-02-08: Bottled, yielding nearly 3 gallons of bochet.