What Would You Do With 5 Gallons of Honey?

[Broken Jug]

What would you make if you have 5 gallons of honey to work with (other than Mead)?

I have made Mead in the past, but would like to try making a whiskey using honey and grains.

I was thinking about a honey and wheat, but would like to know if anyone has a multi grain and honey recipe that you would be willing to share?

[LWTCS]

I wouldn't work toward distilling it.
Too dear for what actually comes over.
Save it for a sweetening agent imo.

[jonnys_spirit]

I’d definitely make honey shine. Someone here used melter honey once. Aka distilled mead of some sort. I’ve done this with apple mead, apple barley mead, and apple/berry mead. Very good likker IMO. Straight mead would be great too but apple cider and barley stretch it a little further and complement it well. Mashing barley with 150* cider then topping up with honey is the best smell ever btw.

Honey and wheat malt sounds amazing too.

If you can do multiple ferments probably try to recycle or save the dunder too.

Posted same time as LWTCS. It is pricey but it’s pricey for mead too? Make some honey fermented garlic and peppers too.

Cheers!
-j

[Tummydoc]

Agree with Larry, I'd save some honey whiskey (ie add to aged whiskey). And some for Bushman's blackberry liquer. And drambui..... oh heck set 4 quart jars aside. The rest could be for mead/wash.

[Broken Jug]

I wouldn't work toward distilling it.
Too dear for what actually comes over.
Save it for a sweetening agent imo.

Agreed, but still would like to try it with wheat, or preferably, multi grain.

My other hobby is beekeeping, so I always have plenty of honey to go around.

Thanks again, greatly appreciate your input

[Broken Jug]

Bushman's blackberry liquer.

Never had it before, but that sounds incredible!!

I’m going have to try it.

[Broken Jug]

Hello Jonnys_spirts,

I like and have made mead, but it’s not my drink of choice.

As for doing other things with honey, I have made few things like, Habanero honey and Ghost Pepper honey. If you like sweet with fire, both work great as a glaze on your favorite dish, beware of the Ghost Pepper, it’ll melt your mouth

[jonnys_spirit]

Broken, I’ve had two jars of garlic in honey for about nine months and it’s really pretty good now. I’ve got jalapeños and chowhound peppers in the garden so might throw a few in there too

For the honey shine I made it wasn’t sweet of course but did have good floral notes. White was exceptional neat and on oak too but i drank it all before it could get much age. I’d do it again and have a page saved for melter honey and might get a couple buckets anyway.

Cheers!
-j

[TwoSheds]

Certainly post back what you come up with BJ. I’m a beekeeper too and yeah, have some back-stock, and there’s always what comes out of bur comb or just isn’t clean enough to sell, or crystalized before you could get it bottled.

I’ve made cyzer with reasonable success. Apple cider with honey. Natural yeast quickly takes it right up to 12% and beyond. Will be distilling some of that this year.

I’m curious if we could go past honeyshine and try honey rum, but that’s going to be an expensive experiment.

[TwoSheds]

Oh, and if you like lemonade, hit me up for a honey lemonade recipe that’s a real crowd pleaser (with or without vodka, gin or tequila added.)

[jonnys_spirit]

I’m gonna order some of this for the honey rum. $40 for 2 gallons but why not?

[NZChris]

I’m curious if we could go past honeyshine and try honey rum, but that’s going to be an expensive experiment.

That depends on your idea of 'honey rum'. A blend of honeyshine and rum might be easier to do than mixing honey and molasses in a fermenter. A liqueur style mix of rum sweetened with honey would be easy and cheap if you wanted to experiment.

[Broken Jug]

Oh, and if you like lemonade, hit me up for a honey lemonade recipe that’s a real crowd pleaser (with or without vodka, gin or tequila added.)

I would love to know your lemonade recipe.

Great to meet another beekeeper!

I had a hive swarm today, but it wound up going back to the hive it swarmed from. Crazy!

7E19DA9A-EA21-4523-ACCB-F36CB1701B61.jpeg (57.5 KiB) Viewed 3092 times

5D6522D0-4CB3-498A-B36C-CB9AC06C2792.jpeg (59.9 KiB) Viewed 3093 times

Sorry about the pictures being sideways, and not where I want them to be. I don’t know how to edit yet
mod edit : fixed

[Broken Jug]

Honey rum sounds intriguing

Not only do I have 5 plus gallons of honey, I also have 10 gallons of blackstrap molasses.

[NZChris]

From my experience, the heart cuts from honeyshine and rum come from very different cut jars. To get the best flavors from both, I would not ferment and distill them together.

[Broken Jug]

Thanks NZChris, makes since.

I still would like to try honey and a multi grain, at least a honey and wheat.

I have corn, Distillers malt, and malted rye. I don’t have any wheat yet.
If I just use wheat, which would be the best to use, unmalted red or white wheat?

Just don’t know how much honey I can use. I would assume that the sugars would come from the honey, and the grain just as a flavoring?

[bluc]

I tried some honey molasses wash was horrible

[Saltbush Bill]

Honey Rum sounds like the perfect waste of two perfect ingredients to me......let them be what they are......Honey Shine and Rum.
Recently I had my first honey experience, a friend asked me to distill 1.4 L of honey mead he had made as an experiment. The job was done in a small cheap Chinese pot still.
The still its self was horrible to run. The spirit in the cuts jars showed huge promise imo.
If or when I can get hold of enough honey cheap enough to experiment further I will be doing so. The honey flavour that carried over was far greater than I had expected.
Might have to buy a hive and learn some about bees.

[shadylane]

I wouldn't work toward distilling it.
Too dear for what actually comes over.
Save it for a sweetening agent imo.

I agree 100%
Honey is an expensive source of glucose and fructose for fermenting.
And distilling the mead would strip all the honey flavor out.

[Saltbush Bill]

And distilling the mead would strip all the honey flavor out.

That was not my experience when I tried distilling mead...the honey came over much more than I expected......maybe it was a one off or I was just lucky..
I have no idea what the mead recipe was because I didn't make the mead.

[Deplorable]

If I had a free 5 gallon bucket of honey...
I'd add it to a used bourbon barrel to sit a spell. Then drain it. Then I'd fill said barrel with a wheat whiskey for aging.
Use the honey to either make the wheat whiskey or make a mead with it.

[Broken Jug]

Thank you to the mod that edited the pictures I posted.

There’s more of you that say it’s a bad idea, then that say it’s a good idea.

The “Sweet Feed Recipe” got me thinking that using honey instead of molasses would be worth trying, but wasn’t sure, that is why I posted this.

I still may try a small 5 gallon batch/mash of honey & wheat to see how it comes out.

[jonnys_spirit]

I ordered four 2gal buckets of the melter honey. Eight gallons total. I estimate about four ferment/strip cycles and will recycle the honey dunder like a rum plus nutrients in the ferment like a mead.

Sorta pricey but the melter is cheaper than regular honey.

I’ve used honey before but not melter so I expect it’ll be more like a bochet spirit. I think it’ll make a good drop put away for a minute on some used oak.

Cheers!
-jonny

[jonnys_spirit]

And distilling the mead would strip all the honey flavor out.

That was not my experience when I tried distilling mead...the honey came over much more than I expected......maybe it was a one off or I was just lucky..
I have no idea what the mead recipe was because I didn't make the mead.

Not my experience either. I’ve done three slightly different batches of basically different distilled meads. Not really into sweet spirits so I probably wouldn’t use honey to back sweeten a spirit. I feel like the honey essence it what becomes concentrated into the spirit whether it’s wildflower, orange blossom, or whatever the bees use in the area for that particular hive.

[Hambone]

Make a big pile of biscuits…

[Demy]

A few days ago I saw a jack Daniels at honey in a store, could it be an idea? Mash of cereals, distillation and post flavoring with honey .....

[Demy]

I found an image

[LWTCS]

And distilling the mead would strip all the honey flavor out.

That was not my experience when I tried distilling mead...the honey came over much more than I expected......maybe it was a one off or I was just lucky..
I have no idea what the mead recipe was because I didn't make the mead.

I agree in that there are notes that come over. But they seemed to be mostly an aromatic that seemed to fade the further I got into the bottle.
Flavor wise it was just not honey forward.
However was not a pot stilled spirit.

[LWTCS]

Ok I'll revisit my position because of Bill.
Ports are so delicious.
So I'm thinking a fortified mead ( nice and musky) would be a good path.

[still_stirrin]

Make a big pile of biscuits…