Pandemic Coffee Bochet

What happens when you move to another state six months into a pandemic? You make five gallons of booze, apparently.  I took advantage of the one friend I had near by and learned to make bochet. Instead of being at Pennsic August 2, 2020, we caramelized two of those containers of honey.  Five pounds each?  It sure would be nice if I could find the notes we made >.>

 

 

Anyway.  Caramelized the honey, added a bunch of coffee I had coldbrewing in the fridge for three days, added the nutrients, and then left the bucket to ferment

September 24th I decanted into big pickle jars to transport from the first apartment to the second one. It was still very sweet, so I added more nutrients and started a second fermentation.

  

January 30th Ifinally let it settle so that I could decant and remove all the solids.

The second ferment ended up very dry and strong and I figured I could use it as the base to make krupnic. Late July I started to prep it for Pennsic and realized a simple backsweetening would suffice.  I caramelized another couple of honey containers to the same degree I had the first time to much success. I tried to add some cardamom, but it didn't show through much.

Blarg. I hope I can some day dig up the specifics, but I'm glad to have collected the pictures into a post, at least.