SpaceCowboy1002

Recipes 

Herro, I've been wondering whether or not orange blossom honey would make a good mead. Mainly because every where I read about mead, clover honey seems to be the honey of choice. I thought about orange blossom honey because, being floridian, I wanted to make something unique using ingredients found here in the sunshine state.

Has anyone on here ever used orange blossom honey for their mead? How did it turn out? Does it honestly matter where the honey comes from? I figured I'd pick the brains of more experienced brewers before I start, so, if nyone could get back to me about this I'd appreciate it

GinKings

Recipes 

Honey variety is one of the most important parts of making a mead. Orange Blossom is one of the best and most popular honey varieties for mead.

AZ_IPA

Recipes 

Agreed.

You'll see clover a lot, because 1) it's easy to find and 2) it's relatively cheap.

Better quality honey will usually make better quality mead.

MeadWitch

Recipes 

__________________
Primary: Cider House Rules Cider

Tertiary: Sweet Dried Cherry/Vanilla Mead, Prickly Pear Mead, Jalapeno-Peach Sweet Mead

Bottled: Huajillo Honey Mead - 4 bottles only, first ever mead, Light Draft Style Cider, Raspberry Mead, Hibiscus Mead, JAOM, Peach Melba Mead, Limoncello, Kahlua, Spiced Winter Cider, Orange/Vanilla Mead

brewjak

Recipes 

Ya the orange citrus flavor really comes out in the finished product I agree with no spices with this mead duz anyone know of a good commercial mead only homebrew meads have tasted yummy to me so for

MrSweet

Recipes 

COMPLETELY agree with this statement!!

I bought 60 pounds of orange blossom from the Bee Folks and its so good that I decided that I am only going to make a couple small 'flavored' batches with it.

75% of it is going to be used just for traditional style meads because the flavor, aroma and texture is so amazing on its own, its almost criminal to mix it with anything else... Last week, myself, my brother and my cousin taste tested the batch I made in May (before I really knew what I was doing) and it is so good that I had to threaten them not to drink more of it! haha I can't wait to see what my latest batch is going to be like (it's still bubbling out of the airlock after 3 weeks... sack mead maybe?)

Although, the blueberry melomel I made with it is pretty amazing...

I don't know how much you were looking for in the way of suggestions but here ya go; my most recent recipe:

10 G Lalvin KV-1116 yeast
12 G Fermaid-K
15 LBS. Orange Blossom honey
4 Gal. Distilled Water
1 TSP - Yeast Nutrient
2/3 TSP - Yeast energizer

No-heat method used - near OCD sanitation practices employed. Staggered nutrient addition method used and tended to everyday for the first week. Check out the rookie section on Gotmead.com for a great deal of info to help get you started.

Happy brewing!

gratus fermentatio

Recipes 

Yep, I gotta agree with orange blossom honey being one of the very BEST honey varieties for making mead. You'll love it.
Regards, GF.

brycelarson

Recipes 

Flat out best mead I've ever had had exactly three ingredients - orange blossom honey, water, yeast. Really lovely stuff.

I've only done mead a few times - but I've got brewer friends who brew a ton of it. They're always trying to get basic honeys fixed up with additions and fighting with strange yeasts - they're doing it wrong. The best meads I've had are super basic. They're like the Italian food of brewing. Start with good ingredients, keep them simple and recognizable and they'll treat you really well.

Onihige

Recipes 

I really wish I could get it here in Sweden. Could import it, I guess.

gratus fermentatio

Recipes 

It'll probably cost you an arm & a leg to ship it to Sweden, but you can get all sorts of varietal honey, including orange blossom, here:
http://www.beefolks.com/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=5&cat=Honey%2C+Bulk

Or you might try these guys:
http://www.dutchgoldhoney.com/

I know oranges are also grown in southern Europe (Spain, Italy, Greece) as well as the the middle east & North Africa; you might be able to find a better shipping deal from a European source. Just an idea.
Regards, GF.