I have been catching wild swarms these last few years and giving them a nice home in my back yard in exchange for a bit o' honey from time to time (they also get loaned out to friends with fruit trees in the spring to help make fruit - in trade for some of the fruit of course). A few years ago I had an excess of honey so I made four batches of mead (in six gallon carboys).
I kept the honey separate from each hive since it had such different flavors/colors (strange since all the hives are in my back yard fro the majority of the flower "flush" but I guess the bees from each hive will foraged in different spots). I used about three pounds of honey per gallon of water (about 15 pounds per carboy if I remember right - dont have my notes handy). I mixed with warm water and nutrients and then pitched with mead yeast from Wyeast when it was the right temp. I let it ferment in plastic for the initial and then racked into my carboys once the main action had subsided. I then re-racked it several times as the months past and the mead begun to clear. Fast forward a 14 month or so (read: I finally got tired of tripping over the carboys) I got around to distilling it.
Now, I have done a bit of talking about this and have heard over and over that once the first fermentation is done I might as well run it since there really is no additional alcohol being produced. Makes sense. But, but, why do you not drink mead as soon as it is done with the initial ferment? Because it tastes like shit! If I am going for flavor, my thinking is that I should wait for the mead to taste good (well, at least better. Ha!). I also think waiting for it to clear will keep all the yeast out of the still which I believe makes a cleaner product.
Anyhow, I decided to combine my mead to be distilled (since i did not want to spend a millennia running each separate) while saving one gallon of each (un-mixed) to bottle in another year and experience in all its (possible) glory. I stripped fifteen gallons real fast in my keg pot still (two seven+ gallon runs). I then hooked up my corney keg thumper and combined my lows with four gallons of mead in my boiler and placed my last gallon in the thumper. I then ran my spirit run slow and low, collecting in small jars. Aired it out for 48 hours or so and made my cuts. I cut my keeper down to 62.5 and got just over a gallon of. Half a gallon I left white and half a gallon I put on an inch of spiral cut med toast american oak.
This was about two months ago. I have not touched/tasted the oak yet but the white is AMAZING cut down to 40%. Soft and silky smooth in the mouth - almost sweet tasting. Warm in the throat but not hot at all (Im pretty picky with my cuts). The magic is breathing out of the nose after a sip. It's like an explosion of spring...like combining a bouquet of flowers and taking a bit. Like spring came early to the damp, cold Northwest. Like summer in a bottle
Was it worth it? Hell yes! Would I do it if the honey was not free? Hell no! Pennies to pounds it would not make sense but since me and the bees have a little deal worked out it was definitely a fun and gratifying experiment.
this one is a cool blend because the ~20gallons of wash is about a 33/33/33 blend of barley-mash / traditional-mead / apple-cider "or so".... I made that specifically to distill but might just clear and bottle a gallon or so as mead for fun.
). It was only 5 gallons of mead the first time which I combined with many gallons of cider and a few gallons of wines that didn't make the cut. Been aging it on oak for a year now... haven't checked on it in some time. Presently stripping a bunch of apple (25 gallons or so) and another 5 gallons of donated mead. I'll be putting that on oak to once I'm done. Continue to make lots of meads, which I kind of prefer as meads than as a spirit so far.