honey

mickbear · Post by **mickbear** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 5:49 am

i'm a bee-keeper and always have some extra hoeny around.i was wondering what would be the best way to use the honey in a wash.i'v seen a couple of recipes that called for a pound of honey but i was wondering if anybody had used more,and can the honey replace the sugar?

Post by **Dnderhead** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 6:06 am

honey is a bit hard to ferment also does not ferment completely.1lb per gallon =OG 1.085-FG of 1.021 /8.4%
(this is approximate ,each can be a bit diferant)(needs nutrients(slow fermenting)

bellybuster · Post by **bellybuster** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 6:09 am

In my opinion, honey is best used in a mead. Search melomel, a very tasted treat but takes time.

mickbear · Post by **mickbear** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 6:21 am

thanks folks that answers my question

Post by **heartcut** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 8:15 am

Recently made some show mead (20lb honey, 12 gal total wash, used commercial yeast energizer and nutrient), turned out great, bottled half and ran the other in a detuned reflux at 140-160 proof, it's some of the best spirits I've ever tasted. Gonna do it again.
edit: Like Dunder said, it took about a month to finish dry. Use more honey than that and it'll finish sweet.

Post by **Dnderhead** » Mon Jan 07, 2013 9:48 am

i have
2 lb per gal=dry
3+ = sweet..
used both ,yeast energizer and nutrient (1 tea spoon each per 5 gal)
first ferment about 1 month,,then rack once a month until clear. (may take a year to clear)
after first racking you can add fruit/juice..at about 1 qt per gallon,depending on fruit and how fruity you want.

Blazebag · Post by **Blazebag** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 11:17 am

I've used bentonite and multiple rackings to clear mine in as little as 3 months, but mead, especially the high gravity stuff, really benefits from age. Young meads can taste like a cleaning agent. I've got a few gallons sitting around, I might just have to try running it.

johnny108 · Post by **johnny108** » Sun Jan 13, 2013 11:26 am

I used to love making mead brandy- light honey (clover) was my favorite. A dry mead (2lbs/gal) with a pretty high level of acid (3tsp acid blend/gal) pot distilled twice, and aged on new toasted American oak at no more than 45%abv- great honey flavor. When aged at higher %'s the vanilla flavor from the wood messed up the honey aroma/taste. The weaker aging strength tended to pull more sugars from the wood, giving it a nice sweet flavor that mixed well with the aroma.

Post by **rad14701** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 10:01 pm

I just pot stilled 5 gallons of honey wash, with a bit of steel cut oats for nutrients, and the taste is, well, different... It was very dark honey... Still have about a ton left to work my way through...

bcboyz86 · Post by **bcboyz86** » Wed Feb 20, 2013 4:52 pm

What would happen if you didn't let it clear all the way before running it through? Just get off flavors, or would it just not be as good? And would putting the fermenter in an ice bath or some sort of fridge make it settle faster? I'm very interested in making some mead and wanting it to be ready by Christmas... So I'm hoping if I get started on it lickety split I might make it in time!

Derick · Post by **Derick** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 3:40 am

I would like to say that honey is very hard to convert into sugar. It is not totally ferment

Post by **HolyBear** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 4:35 am

In my opinion, honey is best used as an infusion after distillation. Much more flavor less waste...

bcboyz86 · Post by **bcboyz86** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 4:04 pm

What kind of yeast do people usually use for a mead? White Labs has a sweet mead yeast, but I'm guessing its just a yeast with low alcohol tollerance...so it dies off when the alcohol gets to about 8-10% where as a champiegne would run up to 16% if not crashed early. So would active dry yeast be a good one to use if I wanted sweet mead? And go with a higher honey:water ratio for the wash?

Post by **Dnderhead** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 4:22 pm

i would not ,mead has a very light flavor that can be easily overpowered.
DV10 ,,W 15.is a couple that can be used.the main difference between sweet mead and dry is
the amount of honey.

bcboyz86 · Post by **bcboyz86** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 6:21 pm

So for a 5gallon ferment I'm looking at about 10-15lbs of honey?! And I would only be getting about a quart-half gallon of 115 proof drinkable afterwards.... I saw some bulk honey and it was about $70 for 12lbs.... That's a mighty expensive jug of booze... Not to mention the $8 yeast and nutrients. Unless there's something I'm missing and I should be able to yield a lot more than a quart of drinkable from a 5gallon ferment. Like if you make/drink it more like cider where you ferment and drink it straight up with no distilling..kinda sounds like if I did it, I wouldn't bro it a bunch :/

bcboyz86 · Post by **bcboyz86** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 6:29 pm

Dv10,, w15? Im not familiar/couldn't find this yeast. The one I looked at using was a White Labs WLP720 for sweet leads and ciders and stuff like that. If I'm ganna shell out $80+ for less than a half gallon of good stuff, I might as well not be a cheapass and just buy better yeast for this run... Unless there's a better yeast available?

Post by **Dnderhead** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 6:43 pm

wlp 720 is good to 15%
wlp 715 ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' 17%
5 gallon ferment
12lb (1 gal) of honey=8%
15lb--------------------=10%
18lb--------------------=12%

bcboyz86 · Post by **bcboyz86** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 8:55 pm

So to get close to 16% for mead I would need 24lbs of honey?!! That's a ton of bee puke... And doubled my investment. Is there any adverse affects of fermenting out to higher ABV than a lower one with only 12-15lbs? I hear people a lot say low ABV ferments usually taste better then thief higher ABV counterparts...

Post by **Dnderhead** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:41 pm

only about 1/2 of honey ferments?
so honey dont ferment dry ,15lb in 5 gal ferment will leave it sweet.
maybe if you used bean O ? witch iv never tried.
but fermenting it out like that mite remove flavor?
your on your own on that.

bcboyz86 · Post by **bcboyz86** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 3:29 pm

Have you stumbled on anywhere that sells honey for a reasonable price? I've found 12lbs buckets for $70, and 60lbs buckets for $270... A little more than I'm thinking I wanna spend on some mead... :/

oliver90owner · Post by **oliver90owner** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 3:51 pm

Honey to mead is fab - at times it can turn out less than good.

In the UK local honey sells for a fiver a kilo (wholesale, not retail) and sugar is about 85p, so no contest if just wanting to finish with ethanol; totally uneconomic to convert honey (which is approx 80% sugar - mainly dextrose and fructose with a little sucrose). Very fermentable sugars.

bcboyz86 · Post by **bcboyz86** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 4:02 pm

Well I really want mead. I'll use regular white sugar for vodkas and gin, but I wanna make some mead and let it sit for about a year in the basement then try it out. It's a looooooong time to wait, but hopefully it pays off!

Post by **rad14701** » Tue Mar 05, 2013 7:22 pm

You won't find pure honey cheap... Even your local road side stands usually charge a decent market price...

bcboyz86 · Post by **bcboyz86** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 9:18 pm

Cheapest I've found is 30lbs for $72. That's enough for 10gallon wash I think.. might try to stretch it out to a 12 gallon wash then run one 5 gallon batch and keep the other 5 gallons for a 5gallon batch of 10%ABV possibly experiment with a few gallons...

bcboyz86 · Post by **bcboyz86** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 9:44 am

Just found some honey for $24 a gallon. It's kinda a lot since I got two 10 gallon pales of it. But $240 for some sweet mead and honey shine should be worth it. A few friends and family are ganna take some off my hands too. But I'm really excited to get it started! Just gadda go get the yeast and start fermenting! Yay!

Post by **RandyMarshCT** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 7:25 am

I'm not sure why a lot of people here think honey won't ferment out all the way. It will if you let it ferment long enough and use proper nutrients. I like my mead dry and I ferment out to 0.998 Fg whether I use clover honey or (most frequently) orange blossom honey. I buy the orange blossom honey from http://www.ebeehoney.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow for $54 a gallon (2 gallons of honey for a 10 to 11 gallon wash). I let it ferment for 2-4 weeks in the primary and 2 more in a secondary. Also, I always use a dry white wine yeast as well as Fermaid K and GoFerm Protect yeast nutrients and ferment to about 11% or 12% abv. I bottle half of it and let it sit for 2 years in my cellar (start drinking at 1 year, but it's way better at 2). The other half I put into a 3 gallon carboy and save for brandy. When I make my apple brandy I add 2 gallons of mead for every 3 gallons of hard cider, double pot distill, and oak for 2 months in 5 liter new (med char) casks. I know it's a lot of money and a lot of work, but it makes an exceptional brandy.

Post by **rad14701** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 4:14 pm

RandyMarshCT wrote:I'm not sure why a lot of people here think honey won't ferment out all the way. It will if you let it ferment long enough and use proper nutrients.

This is not entirely accurate... Perhaps your honey will ferment to dry all the time, but everyone's won't... I have several different batches of honey in the basement from different pollen sources and they will not all ferment to dry no matter what anyone cares to try... It depends on what is in the honey that makes the difference... Want a ton of honey to see if you can prove me wrong...???

Post by **RandyMarshCT** » Thu Oct 24, 2013 7:02 am

Must have gotten lucky with the honey I bought then.

doobahstop · Post by **doobahstop** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 12:58 pm

Hey guys first post but I have been reading the site for a while. Honey is extremely fermentable. The only way a honey ferment won't ferment dry is if you don't have the right nutes or you overload your yeasts tolerance for osm

doobahstop · Post by **doobahstop** » Mon Dec 02, 2013 1:04 pm

Osmotic pressure tolerance. I have been making meads for more than ten years and never had one stop short. I came to distilling from a brewing/fermentation science background and have noticed a lot of practices a brewer would be blown away by technique wise. Rad, I'm not far from you so if you want to give up that ton of honey, let me know. I'd be happy to take it off your hands

Home Distiller

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