(as seen on gotmead)
Hello Everyone! I haven't seen a group brew pop up in a while, so I figured it was time to come up with one. One of the more intriguing styles I've seen (in my opinion) grow in popularity over the past few years is the
Bochet (mead with caramelized honey).
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So taking that, and adding a bit of flare to it with the Solera style of aging. Solera aging is as follows: This is normally done in barrels but we can do oaked carboys for the sake of convenience (if you have a bunch of barrels, more power to you, but won't be required to join on in).
To start, you would brew a batch of bochet, and at 6 months, brew another one. At 12 months you would brew a third and so on at 6 month intervals to however many carboys you want.
When you are ready to bottle: You bottle only from your FIRST Carboy. You also don't completely empty the carboy. Instead you leave a portion behind (1/3 - 1/2) and refill the original carboy from the next generation (your second carboy). And your second carboy is refilled form the third, and so on and so on until you reach your last carboy. Your last carboy is then filled with new must and fermented.
If that didn't make any sense, there is a Wikipedia article here that may clear things up.
Solera - Wikipedia
Why I chose Bochet style for this: The process in making bochet can be a bit unpredictable in that the amount of caramelization you get can change from batch to batch if you are even a minute or two off, or your temps weren't the same as your last batch. This change loans itself well in emulating different characters of different years grape harvests.
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What we'll do is gather some participants, then we'll let everyone start on their own time and we can all watch each others progress and notes. Anyone interested in trading batches down the road I've put together a label we can use (or you can make your own!)
The rules are as follows: (these are completely open to suggestions and changes based on participant feedback).
1. 75% of your honey must be Caramelized for each generation.
2. You must have at least 3 generations (No maximum)
3. You may change your recipe for each generation (new yeast /ingredients);
but remember that these will be blended down so crazy outliers may hurt future generations.
4. Generations rotate every 6 months (Stay as close to this as you can, not a hard rule)
5. HAVE FUN, and learn about blending and Solera Aging along the way!
6. Late Joiners will be allowed to
join any time!
So, with all that, Who's IN!? Remember that if you have a suggestion for the rules to give your input before we begin.
Generation Schedule would just be ~6 months from when you started (Example if you started in mid-July),
G1. July 15th
G2. January 15th
G3. July 15th
...and so on and so on...