Tropical Honey

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Insomniac

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I found a load of jars of this:
http://www.tropicalforest.com/Tropical_Forest/Organic_Forest_Honey_Ethiopian_Clear.html (but the Zambian version)
I got myself 4 pounds of it, looks to be untreated.

Has anyone made a mead with this? I would like to do this one as well as I can so it will be going in the fridge at the middle range of what ever yeast I use, I guess I may look into staggered nutrients (though I cant help but feel that it would just increase the chances for me to mess it up?).
Any suggestions on the best yeast for this? I have nottingham and D47 already but I need to order some more Munich anyway so can get in most things.
 
No idea! I will be having a little taste just before I make it, not too much though as I have exactly 4lb with is about right for my 4.8l jars.
 
Looks like it will taste great, are you just going to run with a standard show mead?
 
I thought traditional rather than show as I figured nutrients will make it harder to **** up, but I won't be adding anything else in regards to flavouring.
 
Well, I did this today.
It tastes... well, um, odd. I guess "funky" is the best I can come up with to describe it. Each pot tasted similar but different. The first one had high levels of said "funk" and wasn't actually very sweet (compared to normal honey). The second had the same taste but was sweeter and a bit milder. The other two were somewhere in between.

So, 4lb Zambian Tropical Honey, warmed in the sink to make it pourable.
2 tsp Yeast Nutrient/Energiser.
Topped up to just below 4.8 litres with Volvic water (will top up fully later, but there was a oddly large head...)
1 packet Lalvin D47, rehydrated.

OG @ 1.118 (if i'm reading this correctly... does that sound right?)
Why can't they label these things sencibly? its 2 notches above "120" at the bottom...

Placed in fridge set to 18c

The waiting begins...

Edit: Added pic, how crazily dark is that?!

tropical.png
 
Well, I did this today.
It tastes... well, um, odd. I guess "funky" is the best I can come up with to describe it. Each pot tasted similar but different. The first one had high levels of said "funk" and wasn't actually very sweet (compared to normal honey). The second had the same taste but was sweeter and a bit milder. The other two were somewhere in between.

So, 4lb Zambian Tropical Honey, warmed in the sink to make it pourable.
2 tsp Yeast Nutrient/Energiser.
Topped up to just below 4.8 litres with Volvic water (will top up fully later, but there was a oddly large head...)
1 packet Lalvin D47, rehydrated.

OG @ 1.118 (if i'm reading this correctly... does that sound right?)
Why can't they label these things sencibly? its 2 notches above "120" at the bottom...

Placed in fridge set to 18c

The waiting begins...

Edit: Added pic, how crazily dark is that?!
3 things.....

How much did it cost ? Mail order or local shop ? and why D47 ?

The first two, as I'd also like to give it a go and thirdly, D47 has been shown by some to need to be fermented at the lower end of it's temp range i.e. less than about 68 F/20 C. Now average temps at this time of the year, make it likely that you'd need to keep it a little cooler than that, otherwise it's known to cause fusels......

If it was honey that's pretty easy to get, that's fine. But this does seem like a "premium" honey, well maybe not premium, but certainly unusual. Hence I'd have made sure of all my ingredients before committing it....

Mixed up all 4 lb ? with a gravity like that, I'd guess yes. Again, why not try something like mix 3/4's a.k.a. 3lb of it and then check the gravity. After all, a honey like this is a pretty unknown quantity, and as honey can vary considerably in the sugar content or sugar/water ratio, 3lb of X and 3lb of Y, mixed into the same amount of water won't give the same gravity reading.

Also, DJ's look great, but it might have been better in a bucket as you could have brought the gravity down a bit so you still have some must for topping up, to allow for racking loses and by back sweetening with honey i.e. the same honey as used for the main ferment, would make sure that you get the full characteristics of it........ A bucket also allows for honey that wants to erupt all over the place, particularly in the earlier stages of the ferment, hence it's good practice to have some "expansion room" in the fermenter. If you are aerating, or going to, it might be sensible to put a bowl in the sink and then aerate it in that. Some honey musts can seem to double in size while the CO2 comes out of them......

Nice dark colour though. I hope it goes well, as it does sound an interesting honey to try.

regards

fatbloke

p.s. Oh and if the gravity reading is correct, then that, allowing for a complete fermentation, still give you about 14% ABV, while the gravity is good for a little over 16% - Which is why I like to ferment dry and then back sweeten - you might really enjoy that amount of residual sugar, but you might hate it..... So back sweetening allows you to get a taste/sweetness level you enjoy etc etc....
 
Hey FB!
1) It was £4 a pot (each pot 1lb), so neither the cheapest nor the most expensive honey.
2) I found it in one of the smaller local Waitroses, I wasn't looking for honey I just spotted it on the shelf and thought I'd grab some unless it disapeared.
3) D47, Partly because I had some spare, and partly because no-one suggested anything better :D Not to worry on the D47/Temp/Paint-thinner issue though, I got a spare fridge and built a temp controller last moth so have it sat at 18c, though I can knock it down a bit more if you think it will make it even better?

I will probably aerate a bit if I can, but will have to see how it starts up, I don't have any buckets to start them in as of yet, and don't have huge amounts of room to put things :-(

Edit: Have knocked fridge setting down to 16.5c just in case :p
 
This had started bubbling by this morning (left a small smear of dirty looking foam round the top, but then settled to below that line). This after noon it is much the same, fermenting nice and slowely (according to the airlock and thin layer of bubbles).
 
Hey FB!
1) It was £4 a pot (each pot 1lb), so neither the cheapest nor the most expensive honey.
2) I found it in one of the smaller local Waitroses, I wasn't looking for honey I just spotted it on the shelf and thought I'd grab some unless it disappeared.
Excellent, I'll have to go and have a look at the nearest Waitrose then, come the weekend......
3) D47, Partly because I had some spare, and partly because no-one suggested anything better :D Not to worry on the D47/Temp/Paint-thinner issue though, I got a spare fridge and built a temp controller last moth so have it sat at 18c, though I can knock it down a bit more if you think it will make it even better?

I will probably aerate a bit if I can, but will have to see how it starts up, I don't have any buckets to start them in as of yet, and don't have huge amounts of room to put things :-(

Edit: Have knocked fridge setting down to 16.5c just in case :p
Small amounts of fusel aren't always a bad thing, but they can take forever (if at all) to mellow, hence if you can suss out where the best point is, and have the kit of course, then it's often better to control the temperature. Oh, and it's not my tip either. That accolade goes to Medsen Fey, of the Florida Medsen Feys

Myself ? Last year ? Maybe the year before ? Over at gotmead, myself and a few others (I seem to recall Medsen Fey was also on the mission), were trying to find out about the "Maury" yeast that the late Brother Adam (Buckfast Abbey bee breeding/mead making guru) used. The only info we got "from the horses mouth", was from the Apiaries manager down at Buckfast, who explained that after checking Brother Adams paperwork, it seems that he'd found it difficult/impossible to obtain the Maury yeast mentioned in his writing, so he changed to using Montpellier yeast, which over here is Gervin Varietal "E", also easily available under the Lalvin K1V-1116 label.

Since then, we've also found out that Lalvin D21 is an isolate from the Rousillion area of the Languedoc. Rousillion has it's own AOC accreditation, but Maury is a smaller area within Rousillion, that in turn has it's own AOC accreditation. So despite the D21 being isolated after Brother Adams death in the mid-90's, it would seem that it's the same stuff.

So for traditionals, I use either of those. The K1V does have a slightly wider temp range and I think it's about 2% higher tolerant as well (18%).

Ha ha! Waitrose here I come, though I'll have to check to see where the nearest one is now - hopefully Worthing as it'd be a PITA to have to go up to Lewes (and Brighton is as big a PITA as getting round Oxford).....

TVM for the info, and good luck with your batch.

regards

fatbloke
 
Cheers for the info, I'll add 1116 and D21 to the shopping list and see how they fare on my next batches. Good luck on the honey hunt!

Medsen: Where the hell would you find Gesho?!
 
Here is one place. If you google you can find more. If you have an ethiopian market anywhere in the UK, they probably have it.
 
Nice! Is yours from Zambia too or is it one of the other ones? You'll have to tell me what you think of it taste wise, I really couldn't decide if I liked it or not!

Mine is still going like anything, though the foam has died down to almost nothing now.
 
Nice! Is yours from Zambia too or is it one of the other ones? You'll have to tell me what you think of it taste wise, I really couldn't decide if I liked it or not!

Mine is still going like anything, though the foam has died down to almost nothing now.
Can't remember off the top of my head, "I think" (it's down stairs, so I'd have to check and confirm) that the label says something about Tanzania......

Not that it makes much difference, the Worthing Waitrose only had the one type like that, the rest of it was own brand, Gales and Rowse. Oh and there was some other stuff, can't remember but it might have had "Tiptree" labels on it, with phrases like Lincolnshire Wild flower and Yorkshire Blossom. Not that I'd bother with those as they're not really much different from any local stuff we might locate down here......

They did have some Scottish Heather honey, but at £5 for 340gm, that's too pricey.....
 
Yeah, same with our one, apart from the tropical one it was all pretty standard.
I'm now intrigued how different the different regions would taste...

Maybe I'll have to go check out some other waitroses, see what they have on offer!
 
Yeah, same with our one, apart from the tropical one it was all pretty standard.
I'm now intrigued how different the different regions would taste...

Maybe I'll have to go check out some other waitroses, see what they have on offer!
Probably little difference with stuff like honey. That would be bought nationally and then added to their range until it's gone. It's only shorter term consumables, like bread and rice types that usually vary - unless there's a large(ish) ethnic community in the area, but then the variables are usually community specific (think Asian, Afro/Carribean and Eastern Europe - there might be some good stuff where there's a reasonable sized Polish community - after all, they do have a long history of mead making).

Have a good search round, as there are a number of "honey wholesalers" nationally (we've got one 10 miles up the road). The only issue would be whether they'd sell small quantities, or whether their "minimum" is a 25kg bucket....
 
I was thinking the difference between honey collected from tanzania and zambia (or and of the other african countries for that matter).
 
Did you start your one of these? How's it going? I just racked mine again to get it off the yeast and the pollen streaks at the top. Still not sure what I think of it, smells like it tasted originaly which may not be a good thing!
 
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