Home Distiller

Over the summer I was given a few gallons of honey from a friend who lives locally and has several bee hives. I turned the honey into mead then ran it through my pot still to make a honey shine. It turned out well, very happy with the initial result, it's perfectly clean, clear and tasty. I paid special attention to my cuts with this run as I hadn't run honey for a few years, so lined up all my run in jars in the order it left the pot and made sure I got the cuts right the following day.

I then cut the shine down to my target ABV off 37% using distilled water, however after adding the water the shine has gone from perfectly clear to being slightly cloudy. I've used the same batch of distilled water for other dilutions recently and not had the same problem, so the water itself is not the issue. I was wondering if anybody had any theories as to what may have caused the cloudyness to appear after cutting with distilled water?

The intention is to place the honey shine onto charred american white oak sticks (I've cut and charred myself fro a large chunk of timber) in glass and then sweeten a little by adding a small amount of honey. However, before I took this step I would like to try and understand the clear to cloudy behaviour. Does anybody have any suggestions or theories as to what might cause the cloudyness? Is there a better approach to sweetening a honey shine? For example, I'm considering hooking up my doubler with honey diluted into the mix which should impart some of the sweetness.

I am considering running it through a carbon filter to see if it will clean up the cloudyness, however without knowing why it's cloudy I don't know if this would work, thus wanting to learn more before locking in my next steps

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Misting is caused by oils coming out of solution when you lower the proof. It's the same thing as the louche that occurs when you dilute Absinthe. If you raise the proof it should clear.

Not sure if it will help in this situation, but there was some discussion that adding water to the alcohol can cause cloudiness but should clear. It was said that adding the alcohol to water is a way to avoid cloudiness.My limited experience shows this to be true. NZchris is
probably correct about the oils.

Under no circumstance should you run that bloody precious honey shine through carbon. Talk about sacrilegious

If you were lucky enough to get the flavor in there, then you probably, rightfully, had to take wide cuts, most likely into the tails. If your plan was to add honey anyways, it wasn't going to be clear in the end. I say your plan to put it on oak is good, and will help clear it up. Side note, I would use twice or really used oak. A light oak would be nice.

Seriously, put the carbon down and back away from the bee shine...

Thanks for the feedback

I did more research and it aligns with the feedback here, so I've decided to oak it today and not filter, instead of glass/filter I'm going to be putting it into one of my small oak barrels which has been used for two batches of bourbon before, the blend of flavors should be very interesting. I just wanted to ensure that the end product wasn't tainted in any way, and I can be confident of that now.

Thank you all, important information learnt today!

i'm not surprised finding oils in AG, but i didn't know there was oils in honey.

the oak will likely suck up the cloudiness so that's a great suggestion. if, in two or 3 years it's still cloudy freeze it as cold as you can get it..like -40 C if possible and filter it through new clean cotton gauze.

chill filtering works but sucks stones, it takes for ever to filter it.
I just let it cloud and give it a shake if i feel like it. keep it above 46% and it should not cloud

Thought I would follow up. the honey shine is ready, it spent a 3 months in a small used oak barrel which previously had bourbon in it and came out clear and smooth. I then diluted in a jar of honey to sweeten it and filtered via a coffee filter to clear up remaining sediment.

VERY happy with the results... a must make recipe if you are fortunate enough to get the ingredients