Sun Mead

I'm pretty sure I already know the answer to this question but I still want to ask just to see if I'm right.

Would there be anything wrong with mixing up a 5 gallon batch of honey and water and instead of heating it up on a stove let it sit outside in the summer heat for a few hours? Yeast would be pitched after cooling the must. What are the possible problems with this? Thanks!!

Why do you need to heat it? I make my meads without heating the honey but AFAIK people who do do it to pasteurize. I don't think you could get it hot enough in the sun to get to pasteurization temperatures. As in, I'm pretty positive you need to be somewhere in the 160 degrees + range.

do not heat that honey you have nothing to gain by doing that. you will burn off a lot of subtle flavors in aromatics if you do, and honey is naturally antiseptic anyways so there's no need to pasteurize

I agree with señor Pepe. I heat my mead to 177 F For 15 min just to pasturize. Then cool and pitch. Unless you can somehow get to that temp with the sun alone, you are wasting your time. Cheers, Kev

Heating musts is a total waste of time, effort and energy. It seems to come from out dated recipes and beer brewers who don't know better!

Pasteurisation is a technique developed to prevent contaminants of a biological nature from transferring harmful infections. Which aren't found in honey. Beer brewers use heating as part of the starch conversion (as I understand it).

If the honey has crystalised, then just mix the target weight and volume of water and honey, and leave it overnight. Then just stir the hell out of it to mix the last bit and aerate the must........

There's nothing wrong with heating it up a little bit to encourage dissolution of the honey in the water.