Smartweed Honey Mead

ginman · 12-19-2011, 04:31 AM

Hello all,
Today I got a decent deal on about 18 pounds of Smartweed honey at my local market, and was wondering if anyone has made a mead with this honey before. It's really dark and sweet, and I thought the flavor was pretty good, but couldn't really find any information on using it.

I based my recipe on Papazian's ginger mead recipe, and added maybe 9 oz of zested ginger to the boil, I've got a wyeast dry mead liquid yeast that I'll be pitching soon along with some Fermaid K and DAP according to hightest's SNAS. If anyone has any experience or suggestions for using this honey, I'd be interested to hear about it.

**biochemedic** · 12-19-2011, 11:19 AM

Well, I'll save everyone else the trouble...about a dozen other people will want to post that you shouldn't boil your honey. I'll agree it's not necessary, but it won't ruin your mead.

I've never heard of smartweed before, but after looking it up, it doesn't seem to be a frankly poisonous plant or anything, so I'm sure if the honey tastes good, it should make a good mead. Since it's such a unique varietal, perhaps you should consider making a mead with just the honey?

I like the Wyeast Dry strain...it's my go-to mead yeast.

ginman · 12-21-2011, 09:46 PM

After pitching it on Sunday, it seems like fermentation hasn't started yet. I've seen no air coming out of the blowoff tube, and the must is very clear, it seems like everything has settled to the bottom. I've been keeping it at around 70-75F. Should I buy some more yeast and repitch?

**biochemedic** · 12-22-2011, 01:04 AM

Do you have any idea what temp you pitched at? If you weren't cooled enough, you could have done some damage to the yeast. Did you use all 18 lbs in your batch? What was the final volume of the must? If you've got 18 lbs in 5 gal volume, you have a pretty high OG, and this could also be stressing the yeast out, causing a slower than average start.

The best thing to do (if you know your OG) would be to take a gravity reading and see if it's actually dropping. Airlock/blowoff activity isn't always 100% reliable in detecting fermentation activity.

ginman · 12-22-2011, 01:31 AM

Yeah, sorry for not including all the info. I pitched at 75 degrees and measured an OG of 1.114. Final volume was 5 gallons with 18 pounds of the honey. I just checked and the gravity is exactly where it started, so I'm thinking it was a bad yeast pack or something.