Added a caramel falvour to a mead

[CCericola]

I'm trying to get a caramel flavour into an apple pie mead without using any extracts, and have come up with two main options.

Option one is to do a basic caramel (sugar + water) until it's a light amber colour, add cider to thin it out and cool, and then rack the mead on top of it.

Option two is to do burnt honey instead of caramel, cool/thin with cider, and then rack the mead on top of it.

I realize that fermentation will begin again with the addition of sugars, and I'm not concerned with that at all. However will either of these impart a caramel flavour or will that ferment out?

Also, I've read somewhere that caramel/burnt sugars cannot be fermented by the yeast. If this is true, will the caramelized sugar (either honey or plain sugar) lend a sweetness to the mead without needing to stabilize?

 

[Bearmaul]

Caramelizing the honey will definitely lend a caramely, burnt marshmallow type of flavor. I definitely recommend it.

Caramelizing will also render some of the sugars unfermentable, but I would still stabilize just out of paranoia of bottle bombs.

 

[CCericola]

Caramelizing the honey will definitely lend a caramely, burnt marshmallow type of flavor. I definitely recommend it.

Caramelizing will also render some of the sugars unfermentable, but I would still stabilize just out of paranoia of bottle bombs.

I plan to add it, let it ferment out then add a half a cup of honey prior to bottling, in Belgian bottles w/corks, to make it bubbly.