Honey Choices

I have been making hard cider for a while and have always wanted to make mead. Of course I have ' The Compleat Meadmaker ' which is the meadmakers bible, but I wanted everyones opinion on what type of honey to use for my first mead and why. Here are the choices from my local apiary here in Oregon:

Baby's breath honey
Blackberry honey
Blueberry honey
Buckwheat honey
Carrot blossom honey
Clover honey
Fireweed honey
Lavender honey
Meadowfoam honey
Orange blossom honey
Pumpkin honey
Raspberry honey
White sage honey
Wildflower honey

I was thinking either pumpkin, carrot blossom, fireweed or meadowfoam...but any and all advice or suggestions would be welcomed.

Thank You

Damn that's a hell of a choice.......

Either way, it depends on what you're gonna make...

Plus have a look over at gotmead forums and have a read ad their NewBee guide as that's also good info for the new mead maker.......

{edit}here's the link to the Gotmead NewBee Guide - I'm back at home now so I can post the link...{/edit}

Very nice selection, wish I had some of those options here. I'd say go with the orange blossom cuz it's tasty, aromatic & distinctive. Some honeys are pretty generic, like wildflower or clover, I'd save those for melomels. Some of those varietals I've never heard of, so I cannot advise you on them, but others I've actually used; orange blossom is one of them.
Regards, GF.

Personally - I would see if you can wrangle a small "Sampler pack" with maybe a baby food jar worth of each one.... Mix 1 tsp of honey in a 4 or 6 tsp worth of warm water.... You can slurp/sniff to get an idea of the sorts of flavors and aromas that underlie the "Sweet" of the honey....

It will help you to weed out the ones with off/weird flavors.... I don't really prefer "Grassy", "Barnyard" and "Vegetable" sorts of aromas and flavors... I ended up with one jar of honey that carries the aroma and scent me of Grass clippings (Bleah).... Others can have an aroma that is almost overpowering - like some of the flowers like Honeysuckle and Jasmine....

As a few here have mentioned - Orange blossom has a very nice "Orangey" essence that is really enjoyable in mead... if you want Orangey...

Thanks

The verdict seems to be orange blossom honey.

I just put up a batch with orange blossom honey and zested and squeezed blood orange in it. Got high hopes

Bhunter87 said:

I just put up a batch with orange blossom honey and zested and squeezed blood orange in it. Got high hopes

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Sounds good! I bet with the blood orange it colored it. I just wish it didn't take so damned long to age! But it is sooo good with age.

Going with the Orange Blossom. Making it on Saturday with Kv-1116 yeast!

Not to sound jealous or anything, but having too many honey choices is a damn fine problem to have! Orange blossom is nice, but one of these days I'll splurge to get enough Meadowfoam to make a straight varietal with it...

liquidavalon said:

Sounds good! I bet with the blood orange it colored it. I just wish it didn't take so damned long to age! But it is sooo good with age.

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It actually didn't add much color, but I hope to zest and squeeze 2 more I'm there after racking a few times. Add a little nose and hopefully color before bulk aging

Bhunter87 said:

It actually didn't add much color, but I hope to zest and squeeze 2 more I'm there after racking a few times. Add a little nose and hopefully color before bulk aging

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Nice! I would be interested in a picture or two of it. Thanks!

biochemedic said:

Not to sound jealous or anything, but having too many honey choices is a damn fine problem to have! Orange blossom is nice, but one of these days I'll splurge to get enough Meadowfoam to make a straight varietal with it...

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I was considering Meadowfoam but am saving that for my 5 gallon batch. I think 12lbs's of Meadowfoam is $50...not sure.

Sounds like Flying Bee Ranch! They're wonderful. I've made meadowfoam, buckwheat, and orange blossom traditionals using their honeys, used their white sage in a pear melomel, and just started a carrot blossom traditional, all from that apiary.

Meadowfoam is incredible -- it really does taste like vanilla marshmallows. It's the best mead I've made thus far. White sage is also slightly vanilla-y. Orange blossom was good, but I did have to add a bit of orange flower water to the final product to bump up that flavor a bit. And the carrot honey by itself has a very wonderful strong honey flavor (but nowhere near as strong as buckwheat and its associated weird barnyard and green flavors...that one's not going as well as some of the others...)

Buckwheat is awesome!