What Would You Do With 5 Gallons of Honey?

[Saltbush Bill]

Larry no need to change opinion....as stated.......it might have been a one off.......it was a small trial batch for someone else using thier mead.
Id read posts on honey over the years with very different opinions.....both good and bad.
Didnt know what to expect......but was supprised at how much honey flavour came through.
The spirit was left with the owner of the mead......i only got to taste the new make.
Taste and smell may have faded with time for all i know.

[LWTCS]

Larry no need to change opinion....as stated.......it might have been a one off.......it was a small trial batch for someone else using thier mead.
Id read posts on honey over the years with very different opinions.....both good and bad.
Didnt know what to expect......but was supprised at how much honey flavour came through.
The spirit was left with the owner of the mead......i only got to taste the new make.
Taste and smell may have faded with time for all i know.

Haha, no seriously. Been thinking about the actual OP question.
I think I would generally default to my original answer but a fortified mead seems like a good "meeting it half way" approach.
Quality honey is so dear but a good mead is always delicious and fortification with a honey spirit would at least be a way to pay proper respect to the product is where my head is at.

But to burn through "all" the honey making a spirit would be a waste of honey.

So here we have these Maleluca trees brought in by Henry Flagler about 100 years ago. The blooms smell like potatoes. People with allergies seem to have a tough time with the odor. The tree has made it on yo the Dade County pest list as it is very invasive.
Originally the tree was brought in to help dry up the wetlands as it likes a wet environment.
Turns out the tree is a gigantic weed. But the honey produced from the blooms is sublime. So amazing how the blooms smell like potatoes but the honey tastes like rum.

Bees are such a miracle.

[Broken Jug]

“ But to burn through "all" the honey making a spirit would be a waste of honey.”

It was a good idea, unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like it’s worth doing.
Even though honey isn’t a problem, I still don’t want to waste it. I guess I’ll try making mead again and go from there.

But before I make mead, I have 10 gallons of blackstrap calling my name.

Thanks for all the info everyone!

[SmokyMtn]

Make a big pile of biscuits…

Now you're talking!

[The Baker]

Make a big pile of biscuits…

Now you're talking!

American biscuits (scones)
or Australian biscuits (American cookies)?

Honey is great on scones;
or in some cookies.

Especially Honey Joys, basically honey with a little sugar and butter melted and poured over cornflakes.
Yummy.
Look it up.

Geoff

[TwoSheds]

I would love to know your lemonade recipe.

Broken Jug, dropped you a private message with it, in case you didn’t see that.

[Broken Jug]

Sorry TwoSheds!

I’ve been busy, and haven’t logged in for awhile.

I just read your PM, great recipe. I’ll give it a try.

As for clipping the queen’s wings, I did not.

I think they may have been over crowded, and like you mentioned, the queen didn’t leave with the swarm.

When they returned to the hive, I added three extra medium honey supers that I just extracted, for them to clean up and give them more room. It worked, the hive is once again content and they haven’t shown any more signs of swarming.

As for the 5 gallons of honey, I haven’t done anything with it yet.

My next plan is to use the 10 gallons of blackstrap molasses I have and do another all molasses rum wash, which I’m looking forward to.

After that, I’ll make some mead or something with the honey .

As some have mentioned, biscuits and honey sounds pretty awesome!

Thanks again for the recipe!

[tombombadil]

If I had 5 gallons of honey I would turn 3 gallons of it in to some honey shine.

Then I would use the honey shine and the rest of the honey to make a port style mead.

Mainly just because I really enjoy port and I've always wondered if I would enjoy a port style mead or not.

[SmokyMtn]

When they returned to the hive, I added three extra medium honey supers that I just extracted, for them to clean up and give them more room

Are you saying that you left the used frames in for clean up? Or just the residual from the mediums with new frames?

[subbrew]

If I had 5 gallons of honey I would turn 3 gallons of it in to some honey shine.

Then I would use the honey shine and the rest of the honey to make a port style mead.

Mainly just because I really enjoy port and I've always wondered if I would enjoy a port style mead or not.

That sounds really good. I had never thought of fortified mead. I have about 150# of last years honey left and will harvest about 800# in a couple of weeks so will have to give that a try.

[Broken Jug]

When they returned to the hive, I added three extra medium honey supers that I just extracted, for them to clean up and give them more room

Are you saying that you left the used frames in for clean up? Or just the residual from the mediums with new frames?

After extracting the honey from the frames, they are sticky and covered with a thin film of honey. By putting them back on the hive, the bees clean the honey off them and repair any damage that may have happened during the extraction.

[tombombadil]

If I had 5 gallons of honey I would turn 3 gallons of it in to some honey shine.

Then I would use the honey shine and the rest of the honey to make a port style mead.

Mainly just because I really enjoy port and I've always wondered if I would enjoy a port style mead or not.

That sounds really good. I had never thought of fortified mead. I have about 150# of last years honey left and will harvest about 800# in a couple of weeks so will have to give that a try.

The best deal I've found on 5 gallons of raw honey is about $200. If I had as much Honey as you I would have done it already

[NZChris]

If I had 5 gallons of honey I would turn 3 gallons of it in to some honey shine.

Then I would use the honey shine and the rest of the honey to make a port style mead.

Mainly just because I really enjoy port and I've always wondered if I would enjoy a port style mead or not.

I have made Glayva style liqueurs using aged mead fortified with various aged whiskeys and sweetened with various honeys. Some of them were very nice.

When my parents were still around, I bet they would have enjoyed a sweet port style fortified mead, but I never thought to try it. I had plenty of free honey at the time.

[tombombadil]

If I had 5 gallons of honey I would turn 3 gallons of it in to some honey shine.

Then I would use the honey shine and the rest of the honey to make a port style mead.

Mainly just because I really enjoy port and I've always wondered if I would enjoy a port style mead or not.

I have made Glayva style liqueurs using aged mead fortified with various aged whiskeys and sweetened with various honeys. Some of them were very nice.

When my parents were still around, I bet they would have enjoyed a sweet port style fortified mead, but I never thought to try it. I had plenty of free honey at the time.

I should probably have also mentioned I make a batch of mead every year or two for like 10 years now and really enjoy it. So my curiosity about fortified mead is pretty high because of that as well.

[NZChris]

I haven't had much free honey lately, so my youngest mead is seven years old now. I just opened a bottle to check it, it's very nice.

[subbrew]

I haven't had much free honey lately, so my youngest mead is seven years old now. I just opened a bottle to check it, it's very nice.

When my daughter was about 5 I was making mead and she told me she wanted me to save some for her when she got older. Since then I have been putting away 4 or so bottles each year (I usually make 2 or 3 batches). I bought a wine fridge specifically to store her mead. Not sure if I will give it to her for a graduation, wedding or just tired of keeping it, but at some point she is getting a half dozen cases of mead, some of which will be fairly old.

[kmmuellr]

I'm not much of a mead maker, but early in my brewing career I made a cyser (honey and cider) that I fermented with champagne yeast. It fermented dry to rocket fuel. I let it age for a few years in a keg, and kept coming back to it every year and a half or so. It never settled down, and only one of my friends enjoyed it.

Fast forward and it was 12-15 years old, and I borrowed a buddy's ambelic still and ran the cyser through. That was my first foray into distilling anything. It was one and done w/ no skills or experience at cuts. Young it was pretty rough. I had an oak spiral on it for about 8 months and then pulled and aged in a jar. When I took the last sip at 3 years old it was awesome.

I have a bucket of about 50lbs waiting on me to get to. It will become honey shine and will age on french oak spirals.

K

[jonnys_spirit]

I've got a melter/straight honey shine solera going now in glass with the oldest about 1yr old. It's precious stuff because it's pricey. Each solera jug has different wood including charred oak, used bourbon oak, plum, and peachwood. I've spread the batches out by a number of months and have enough honey in stock for three more jugs after cuts to elongate the solera so I can keep some well aged and diverse honey shine in the cabinet. Recycle the feints cut each time too that I run deep into tails and age feints on various wood too so it builds some good flavors like rum feints might.

I recommend it for a long term solera that you can stretch out over a period of time and do small batches to keep the thing topped up with new make... I have used minimal wood for aging so a glass is a nice light honey color

Good idea to test a glass again tonight!

Cheers,
jonny

[jonnys_spirit]

Aroma of a field of flowers, rich slightly syrupy, golden, stings like a bee!

I am sincerely thankful to the many many many bees that worked so hard for their queens to deliver this wonderful gift

Rough day at the office so here’s to the bees

Cheers!
-jonny

[NZChris]

I haven't had much free honey lately, so my youngest mead is seven years old now. I just opened a bottle to check it, it's very nice.

Not long after posting this, a friend dropped off a couple of gallons of honey that he had been given several years earlier. I used it to make a batch of Joe's Ancient Orange Cinnamon Clove Mead and bottled it about five months later. Sampling it at a mere five months after bottling, it is everything that Joe Mattioli said it should be when he posted his method.

My oldest mead is around eight years old now and is very nice.

The dregs have been used to make Glayva style liqueurs.

[MuleHunter]

5lbs wild honey
4lbs corn sugar dextrose
5 gallons of water
1 pack of t58
4tblsp classic 8 turbo yeast
Combined in stock pot and brought to a boil for 5 minutes.
Stored in a 74f room
Sg 1.079

Pitched yeast a couple days later after wash cooled down to 74f. Left yeast out of the fridge for 2 days to come up to room temp

This is what i have sitting in the fermenter right now. The t58 pulls a lot of fruity notes. The wash tasted amazing. It smelled incredible too. I'll let you now how it turns out after I run it. I imagine you'd get similar results with malted corn but I haven't tried all grain yet because I'm a newbie.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

You used corn sugar and turbo yeast on honey? That poor honey. Bet you eat your steak brown, too.

Well, hope you enjoy it. I'm to much a purest, I suppose.

[MuleHunter]

I'm a better cook than a home brewer I'll admit because I'm new to this hobby. I like my steak medium rare unless we're talking brisket. I read that honey needs nutrients to ferment out correctly. I thought a small amount of the classic 8 would have enough nutrients in it to work. How would you have done it differently?

[jonnys_spirit]

I'd make a mead using the TOSNA calc and then distill it. No sugar.

https://www.meadmaderight.com/tosna-calculator

Cheers!
-jonny

[MuleHunter]

I'd make a mead using the TOSNA calc and then distill it. No sugar.

https://www.meadmaderight.com/tosna-calculator

Cheers!
-jonny

Thanks!
I used turbo clear and then a carbon filter for the wash to get rid of the sulfur smells. It turned out well. A lot of the fruity flavors of the honey came through, a slight hint of corn likker, and a subtle earthy note. The honey flavor is still there with a hint of spice to it.

Cheers

[jonnys_spirit]

I'd make a mead using the TOSNA calc and then distill it. No sugar.

https://www.meadmaderight.com/tosna-calculator

Cheers!
-jonny

Thanks!
I used turbo clear and then a carbon filter for the wash to get rid of the sulfur smells. It turned out well. A lot of the fruity flavors of the honey came through, a slight hint of corn likker, and a subtle earthy note. The honey flavor is still there with a hint of spice to it.

Cheers

Hey Mule, If you make a quality fermentation environment for the yeasties and keep them happy you won't need any activated carbon to fix it. Give the TOSNA protocol a go next time and appropriate temps for the yeast you're using and it'll be better without any carbon filtering and good cuts. Lots of miscommunication on carbon filtering needs out there. Hope you didn't have any plastics in with the activated carbon path because the alcohol will act as a solvent on the plastics which is also very undesirable for your final product (not to mention health).

Good luck!

Cheers,
j

[higgins]

If I had a gallon of honey I would make Apple Butter Cyser.

I made an annual batch for 4 years beginning in 2006 following the recipe exactly. I always used the Wyeast Eau De Vie yeast (now called Extreme Fermentation) and every batch hit 21%, +/- 0.5%.

If I had 2 gallons of honey I would make 2 batches, 1 destined for stilling.

My last batch was put in a corny keg and forgotten until 2 yrs ago. It had been made with buckwheat honey, so was quite dark. I still have several bottles from batches 2 & 3, so I decided to still it, calling it ABC Brandy. That was very early in my short (2+ yrs) of distilling. 2 toasted/charred white oak sticks in about 80 oz of 125p, now about 22 months old. Occasional samples have not disappointed.