Honey suppliers

Most of the honey available near me is wildflower, and i hear that takes a lot longer to clear than orange blossom. The cheapest i have found enough honey for an 7.5 gallon batch (the size of our carboy) is for me to buy 60 pounds for 150$ or so, online and sell the rest to the LHBS. Anyone else have other suggestions on honey to use for our first batch?

You need to buy more carboys.

Most of us pick up 60# buckets on the regular for honey instead of paying 3-4 times the cost to pick it up in smaller 5-12# jars. Of course, many of us always keep a few meads going, because waiting another year just to start a batch is wayyyyy too slow of a pipeline.


Plus, you can store honey for a while, so if you plan on doing 3 meads over the next few months - just keep the bucket and use what you need when you need it.

If you are going to be making a lot (even spread out over time), why not buy it in bulk? People do that for grain, why not for honey?

Alternately, I JUST made a mead to try it out and haven't completely decided whether I want to dive in (I've always done beer) ... I bought my honey from Draper's Super Bee Apiaries per a beekeeper's suggestion. Seemed like pretty good honey to me & I'd recommend it. Took I think 3 days to ship to me.

Draper's Super Bee Apiaries, Inc.

I use Sue Bee from SAM's...9.99 for 5#...that's $2/lb...

I use this site. You can find all kinds of honey from different suppliers. I am just getting started with mead but the honey I have received so far has been great. Honey Locator - The National Honey Board

Yeah, looks like there's a local place for 12# honey - even if it's only wildflower.

But seriously - wildflower can make some GREAT meads.

carmenlyonsjr said:

I use this site. You can find all kinds of honey from different suppliers. I am just getting started with mead but the honey I have received so far has been great. Honey Locator - The National Honey Board

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this is how I found my hookup! 60+ lbs for 115$ even jezter cant buy enough honey.

Buy from a local bee keeper, I pay $15 for a gallon of honey.

Is it true that wildflower takes longer to clear than orange blossom?

I dont think so... be interesting to see what the pros say tho! (i use only clover and wildflower)

and anyways.... after a year just about anythign will have cleared up! dont think fast!

Brew-boy said:

Buy from a local bee keeper, I pay $15 for a gallon of honey.

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I haven't paid that low for local honey in 4 years...$30, easily. That's why I a co-worker go to SAMs for me.

Well, I haven't ever had mead, and would hate to spend a year waiting for something I'm not gonna like, not to mention the honey expense. Brewing it sounds interesting though.

also.. can you put it in beer style bottles with caps, or does it have to be wine bottles.

You should probably consider trying some then before you make it. There are a few decent meaderies here in the US - I think Redstone is one that I've seen before.

If you're that concerned - buy a quart jug (should be about 3#) and find a gallon growler or wine jug and make a nice small one first. Also, think about making something like Malkore's Orange mead. It's simple and somewhat quick. You could also try Joe's Ancient Orange - but I've heard mixed reviews on that one.

Before you go buying bulk, you can invest about $10-12 in enough honey to make a small batch and see if you like it before going for big buckets.

Yes, you can make a carbonated mead in beer bottles, or still mead (non-carb) in them. No biggies. Some people say that caps are only good up to a few years - but I imagine you'll probably blow through many of your first few batches before you really start saving bottles for vertical tastings.

half the recipe for malkore's orange would work in a glass gallon jug?

I have not bought any and have not (yet) made mead, but a Sam's club had some honey for very cheap. I was tempted to buy it, but had not tried a mead at the time and did not pull the trigger. I think it was like 1/3 the price of the stuff I had been looking at. I have no idea what type it was either. Might be good to get started on, anyway.

Wisconsin Honey Cooperative- Home

Beekeeper's Best > Home

homebrewer_99 said:

I haven't paid that low for local honey in 4 years...$30, easily. That's why I a co-worker go to SAMs for me.

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The apiary in Bloomington has it for $15/gal(12lb) (and less for 60#/5gal) for whatever type he has at the time and here in champaign you can get 60# buckets for $80(last year's price).

z987k said:

The apiary in Bloomington has it for $1.5/lb (and less for 60#) for whatever type he has at the time and here in champaign you can get 60# buckets for $80(last year's price).

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Fixed that up for ya...I think...otherwise that guy is out of his flippin mind.

jezter6 said:

Fixed that up for ya...I think...otherwise that guy is out of his flippin mind.

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ah, nope! I meant gallon. Fixed.

Well, I was still much closer than your original number.

Do you have contact info for him?

Khyber said:

half the recipe for malkore's orange would work in a glass gallon jug?

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Should be pretty close, yes. His batch is for 2 gallons - probably in a 2.5g carboy. With only 1 gallon, you'll have to drop down your volume to a little under that - but for a quick test batch...doing 1/2 should be about right.

Khyber said:

Do you have contact info for him?

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I would look for something more local. Shipping would be a ton.

I have looked for local.. all we have here is wildflower. I may just have to spring for some clover honey at sam's or something. The quick one gallon recipe seems ok.. and i saw one somewhere on here for a quick lemonade one too. Now to go get some glass gallon bottles of juice for the baby

there's nothing wrong with wildflower. use it to make a few batches before you really worry about varietal honeys.