raw honey vs. heated honey??? - Page 3

**biochemedic** · 03-04-2011, 04:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tooomanycolors

If you do decide to heat your honey then know/remember heat and honey dont get along, think oil rags and fire. Heat will destroy the delicateness of the honey and you will probably end up with something like walmart special honey.

I suppose we're resurrecting a very old thread, but I have to jump in!

I know this is the party line for many, but check out the data. I've personally made a couple meads that required boiling for part of the process (hop metheglins) and they are very, very good (IMHO...and that of a local BJCP judge who really wants me to submit it to a competition). Boiling isn't the devil that some make it out to be...it may even have it's advantages!

**biochemedic** · 03-04-2011, 04:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by z987k

It's not only unnecessary it's pretty much straight up stupid. You really ruin your honey and in make your mead very bland and boring by heating your honey.

Also, this goes for honey in beer as well. Add it to the boil and you might as well just add some random fructose/glucose solution.

Again, taking exception to the first paragraph, but in parcel agree to the second...you will get much better expression of "flavored" sugar additions in beer (honey, molasses, maple syrup) if you add them late in the primary as it starts to slow down.

K5MOW · 03-04-2011, 09:44 AM

Wow some great info here. Thanks

Roger

Dondlelinger · 04-21-2011, 10:39 PM

One thing I noticed is some say its good to heat up your honey others say its bad. Its seems most have no actually looked into this enough. If using organic honey there is an enzyme within this honey which will be destroyed if heated above a certain tempuarture. (I just heat it enough for it to be usable, I do not boil!)This enzyme is the exact same enzyme that is in malt extract. It helps fermentation of your brew. So yes you can heat it and kill the enzyme if using raw or organic honey, but why would you want to. I personally recommend using raw or organic honey to get this exact enzyme to help with fermentation. If using pasteurized honey this enzyme is killed so basically its just like using simple sugars...

**biochemedic** · 04-21-2011, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dondlelinger

One thing I noticed is some say its good to heat up your honey others say its bad. Its seems most have no actually looked into this enough. If using organic honey there is an enzyme within this honey which will be destroyed if heated. This enzyme is the exact same enzyme that is in malt extract. It helps fermentation of your brew. So yes you can heat it and kill the enzyme if using raw or organic honey, but why would you want to. I personally recommend using raw or organic honey to get this exact enzyme to help with fermentation. If using pasteurized honey this enzyme is killed so basically its just like using simple sugars...

Can you provide some data to back this up?

I'd definitely take exception to you statement that "most have no actually looked into this enough." Please check the link in my earlier post...

Generally speaking, malt *extract* has no enzymes, and certainly nothing that "helps" the fermentation (the yeast do this all by themselves...) Regardless, even if malt extract had enzymes (it certainly has some protiens in it), the common procedure for beer is to boil...while people do definitely make mead without boiling, there is no such thing as "no boil beer" (as far as I know...)

It would be helpful if you could explain exactly what this enzyme is, and how it helps the fermentation process....

MedsenFey · 04-22-2011, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by biochemedic

I'd definitely take exception to you statement that "most have no actually looked into this enough." Please check the link in my earlier post...

While I disagree with Dondlelinger's enzyme assertion (I don't think there are any in there that are needed for fermentation), I will agree that we really haven't looked into the question of boiling honey musts enough.

Erroll's comparison is good information and though there were some shortcomings with his method, I still consider it valuable. If you do a little searching, you'll be hard pressed to find ANY comparisons done with scientific rigor (even a little basic triangular tasting). There is a thread on GotMead where a few of us are conducting some comparisons. I just posted up some results from two batches of mint honey mead (dry traditional) that were sent to the Mazer Cup competition. The results are interesting.

**ChshreCat** · 04-22-2011, 04:49 PM

Here's an interesting article on the subject I found a while back...
http://www.washingtonwinemaker.com/blog/2008/10/28/making-mead-testing-the-controversy-over-boiling/

MedsenFey · 04-22-2011, 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChshreCat

Here's an interesting article on the subject I found a while back...
http://www.washingtonwinemaker.com/blog/2008/10/28/making-mead-testing-the-controversy-over-boiling/

This is the same test that biochemedic and I are referring to. Up to that point it was the only comparison readily available though if you follow the link I posted you'll see there was an old batch in the mead lover's digest archives.

I'm going to start a comparison with orange blossom honey soon. With some of the dark/stronger honey, boiling can potentially improve the mead, but I've haven't seen a comparison of something more delicate.

Medsen