Chaos Rhodomel

Recipe

Primary

• 11 lbs honey total - various types, see right

• 5 tangerines

• 3 dates

• 3 handfuls golden raisins, chopped

• 2 star anise

• 1.25 qt tea (black)

• 3 tsp bread yeast

• Water to 3.25 gal

Gravity & ABV

• Approx OG: 1.122

• Target FG: ~1.040

• Projected ABV: ~11%

What the honey?

To create the rose and lavender honey infusions, we heated up four batches of honey. Two to lightly bochet, one heated just enough to stir in dried rose petals, and one heated just enough to stir in dried lavender. Then, each of the infusion batches was mixed with one of the bochet batches.

The result was two mason jars of honey that were a blend of normal wildflower and bochet honey - one with dried rose petals and the other had dried lavender. These were left to sit for 7 weeks because her research indicated that some recipes for these honey infusions (which are an established thing outside of the brewing world) call for an extended period of time to fully transfer their flavors from the herb to the honey.

I would hazard to guess this is because the honey is so thick and is left at room temperature, in contrast to other common infusion methods in homebrewing which involve heat and the far-less-viscous water.

We ended up with about 6 pounds total of the infusion honey, and were making a 3 gallon batch, so 5 more pounds of regular wildflower was introduced on brew day.