Orange Blossom Honey: Good idea or bad idea?

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

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.

GinKings said:

Orange Blossom is one of the best and most popular honey varieties for mead.

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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.

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

MeadWitch said:

Orange blossom honey is wonderful. I have been a mazer for over a decade and have made several batches of mead with it. It tastes wonderful in mead and it is really a shame to cover it up by adding spices or fruit to make melomels, etc. It was so good that my sister drank one entire batch on the sly while it was suppose to be aging. Damn her eyes!

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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!

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.

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.

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

Onihige said:

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

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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,+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.

Thanks for all the info. I knew deep down that I made a good choice in honey I got 4 pounds of orange blossom honey, a packet of champange yeast, and a gallon of distilled water. I GOT THIS, YO \O/

I got mine from Smittybee off ebay for $3.36 a lb for a 30lb lb bucket including shipping! 1 5gallon batch of JAOM and a 5 gallon batch of AZIPA's Raspberry melomel and 1 gallon of mixed berry mead from it. It's good stuff for sure!

With all those orange trees, orange blossom should be pretty cheap in FL.

Accually, from Groeb Farms it's not THAT crazy expensive with shipping to Sweden. 2x1 gallon + 5 lbs is 50 USD in shipping, plus the cost of honey. Any more than that and the shipping gets really high. 62.36 SEK per kg (9.3 USD per kg) of honey is better than I pay for domestic honey.

What's the quality of their orange blossom honey?

Dutch Gold and Beefolk don't have any information regarding international shipping, as I could see during my quick visit to their sites - but I'm sure I could ask, when and if I want to buy honey from over the pond.

Also, I searched for Spanish orange blossom and only found a store in UK that's a bit expensive.

Paynes bee farm? Compared to other comercial sources here paynes is cheap. Local bee farmers can beat it but nowhere else seems too. Then again, everything in england is far too expensive...