seabass07

Recipes 

The issue I think isn't that the honey is being diluted. It's that all of the pollen is getting filtered out. By saying it's not "real", they are referring to the pollen being filtered out to hide it's country of origin. My guess is that ultra-filtered honey will still burn.

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Fermenter 2: Hot dog Imperial Stout?

Bottled: English IPA, Dark Candi Cider, RyePA
Aging: Belgian Dark Strong, English Barleywine
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bottlebomber

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That will only tell you that it is sugar, as all sugars are flammable to a degree. And roasted marshmallows smell like roasted marshmallows as well, but that doesn't make them honey.

kc_in_wv

Recipes 

I think I will test the burn theory on HFCS-55. I happen to have some to feed my bees to get them thru the winter.

NO I DO NOT MIX IT WITH HONEY NOR DO I FEED IT DURING HONEY FLOW.

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What I smoke has a sting to it.

bottlebomber

Recipes 

Poor diabetes-prone bees....

kc_in_wv

Recipes 

The weather ruined our honey flows this year. I don't like HFCS but I have to feed so much to build up winter stores that sugar wasn't in the budget.

60 # HFCS-55 $22
60 # Sugar $36

Times the volume I need to feed the bees is $140 savings.

By the way, those Diabetic bees only live 45 days during the summer.

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What I smoke has a sting to it.

bottlebomber

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Sounds like the same dillema the soft drink companies had to face...

Sounds like you're running a pretty serious operation.

KevinM

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Regardless of location: Note that per NPR, the previously mentioned website Food Safety News is an online publication sponsored by a law firm that represents plaintiffs in food safety lawsuits.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/11/07/142097714/when-taking-the-pollen-out-of-honey-makes-a-sticky-mess

And a reply from the national honey board: http://www.honey.com/nhb/about-honey/frequently-asked-questions/#honey-filtration

"November 9, 2011

The choices consumers make today about most products, including honey, are extremely personal. In regards to honey, consumers may have varying opinions about their choice of honey type, flavor and origin. To enable a truly personal choice, there are many different kinds of honey available in the U.S. market. Some consumers prefer honey in the comb or liquid honey that is unprocessed or raw, while some prefer honey that is crystallized or cremed. Others will seek out honey that is organically produced and certified. However, the majority of honey sold at retail in the U.S. every year is the clear, golden liquid honey that has been strained or filtered.

There are a number of filtration processes that remove fine particles, including pollen, from honey - but the end result is still pure honey. Pollen particles may or may not be present in the honey an individual chooses, but the product is still honey.

Unfortunately, inaccuracies in a recent news story have fueled a considerable amount of confusion about the term “ultrafiltered honey.” Ultrafiltration is a specific process used in the food industry. When applied to honey, ultrafiltration results in a sweetener product that is not honey because of the significant changes it causes in the original honey. It is an expensive process that requires the addition of water to the honey, high pressure filtration at the molecular level, and then removal of the water. While it is known to have been used with honey overseas to create a sweetener product for beverages, ultrafiltration is not generally used in the U.S. Other filtration methods have been used for many years in the U.S. honey industry. These filtration methods are designed to remove fine particles such as bits of wax, bee parts, air bubbles and pollen that hasten crystallization of the honey and affect clarity. Recent articles have also incorrectly stated that the FDA does not consider honey without pollen to be honey - that is simply not true.
"

Now that said, I'd still go for local honey producers (especially if I source it from wineries making mead) when I'm brewing something (cyser, mead, etc). Regardless of if it's highly filtered or not.

And I admit that I'll go for generic filtered honey when I'm using it for anything else, which is seldom. (Gluten free so I don't have waffles every week.)

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Primary: Sake
Secondary: GF Czech Lager
Waiting to be kegged, Italian Primitivo
Kegged&Ready: GF Orange&Coriander, GF Honey Lager, GF chocolate ale, GF English ale, Island mist (zinfandel), Island mist (cbry malbec).
Bottled: Infected Mead, Dry Hard ciders, Accidental Sorghumwine, various unnamed.

Atek

Recipes 

I hear a lot about buying local honey. I have done this once, unfortunately I had other problems with that mead that ruined the batch entirely not due to the honey. This was a very expensive mishap as the local honey is far more expensive. However I live in an area with one meadery that is in fact 500 mi away, and their mead stinks... I get a better product using costco honey. The other factor is that the only honey varieties availably locally are sage, clover, and wildflower (which is really just a dark clover here). What does one do in a case such as this? My current plan is to contact the apiaries listed in Ken Schramms book and see what kind of deals I can get. I think I am mostly curious if anyone else has such a limited variety of honeys in their area.

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KevinM

Recipes 

Even if I didn't have lots of possible suppliers, depending on personal use, cost etc, I'd go cheap, and do small (one gallon) test batches until I found a honey I'd want to invest in. That's what I've been doing. Heck, even did a few small batches with costco honey early on. Finally picked up a large amount from a local apiary, by way of a winery that resells the honey in large amounts to do a 6 gallon batch. They use the same honey in their meads, which I like, so why not? At least I know that it tastes good based on what they do. It's just too bad I missed the grape harvest this year.

__________________
Primary: Sake
Secondary: GF Czech Lager
Waiting to be kegged, Italian Primitivo
Kegged&Ready: GF Orange&Coriander, GF Honey Lager, GF chocolate ale, GF English ale, Island mist (zinfandel), Island mist (cbry malbec).
Bottled: Infected Mead, Dry Hard ciders, Accidental Sorghumwine, various unnamed.