How much money do yall speand on honey?

I'm about to start making mead and it's hard to find raw honey around here. Help plez

I'm going to make 5 gallons of mead.

Be easier if we knew WHERE here is?

Well you don't absolutely need raw honey, store bought pasteurized will work especially if you make a melomel where the taste of the honey isn't necessarily the focus but where the fruit and/or spices you add to it is.

I buy honey from an apiary supply shop. Buying bulk (3lb - 1 gallon (I think 1 gallon is about 10lbs)) isn't that much more expensive per pound than buying clover honey at the grocery store.

The cheapest I can find locally is my area goes for about $3.50 per pound. Ive seen higher prices in the store with honey of uncertain quality/processing. Everything else seems 4-5+ per pound. Check out honeylocator on the webinator.

I'm sorry. I'm in NE Texas. On the mead I was going to make was plane Jane mead. So honey from Walmart will work?

TheNoodlerHank said:

I'm sorry. I'm in NE Texas. On the mead I was going to make was plane Jane mead. So honey from Walmart will work?

Click to expand...

Straight meads i.e. honey water nutrients and yeast is known as traditional and using the walmart stuff wouldn't give the best likely result as it will have likely been processed to hell and back......

Honeylocator.com should give you something local. While you don't need raw honey, if you can get it or something less processed, you'd get a better result.

For yeast I'd suggest K1v1116 as its temperature range is pretty wide (10C to35C). It has a good tolerance for alcohol at 18% and does a good job with traditionals......

Ok thank y'all for y'all's input. It was very much needed.

Last time we spent $2.25/lb for honey. But that was also our own jars and 50+lbs at a time. Our apiaries also uses 0 plastic all stainless or glass which makes it real nice. That is in Vicksburg mi

Counting the upkeep of my hives, the headaches, and my time I honestly don't want to know what it costs.

If you do a subscribe and save on some of the great amazon honey shops, you get free shipping. Just make sure to turn off your sub when you don't need it.

Oh ok thanks. I didn't think of amazon.

Well I get mine at the local brew shop. Or you could also try farmers market. I just hate ordering stuff on-line because I don't have the patience for it.

I pay $2.85/lb including shipping for 100% raw wildflower honey from upstate NY, though I buy it 70# at a time in a 5-gal bucket. Good stuff. All the local honey here is either filtered and heat processed or the raw is far too expensive (ie $7/lb even if buying 10-12# at a time, gallon jug) So I just have it shipped.

I buy from costco. Non-pasteurized. I could go to the local farmers markets here (in Greater Toronto area). But it ends up saving me a lot. like 18.99 for 3 Kg when I would have to spend $5 for 0.5 Kg on the good stuff. I only make gallon batches though also. Eventually I'll get something nicer, I'm just unemployed so there's that.

you guys are gonna hate me. I work at Basque restaurant with an attached bar. We have guys that work for Lyons, a food processing plant, come in after work. They make a lot of the syrups and sauces that restaurants use. Talked to one about mead making and the next day he brought me a 5 gallon bucket of raw honey. For free. Just cost me a round of drinks. This is the third time I have gotten 5 gallon buckets from 3 different guys. Last one had pieces of comb and bee parts.

Descender said:

you guys are gonna hate me. I work at Basque restaurant with an attached bar. We have guys that work for Lyons, a food processing plant, come in after work. They make a lot of the syrups and sauces that restaurants use. Talked to one about mead making and the next day he brought me a 5 gallon bucket of raw honey. For free. Just cost me a round of drinks. This is the third time I have gotten 5 gallon buckets from 3 different guys. Last one had pieces of comb and bee parts.

Click to expand...

Nailed it, your hated

I get honey from my hives, which average around 40lbs per hive on 50 hives. So the easiest way is to be a beekeeper.

Or..

I'd google/bing a local beekeeping club in your area. You can sometimes buy honey by the bucket, which for me locally is 100-120 bucks for a 60lb 5 gallon bucket.

I'm in eastern Washington. I've found it for $32 a gallon or $2.66 a pound at a local farmers market. Average is $40 a gallon here. Sounds like we have it pretty good.

Descender said:

you guys are gonna hate me. I work at Basque restaurant with an attached bar. We have guys that work for Lyons, a food processing plant, come in after work. They make a lot of the syrups and sauces that restaurants use. Talked to one about mead making and the next day he brought me a 5 gallon bucket of raw honey. For free. Just cost me a round of drinks. This is the third time I have gotten 5 gallon buckets from 3 different guys. Last one had pieces of comb and bee parts.

Click to expand...

I wish I could get as lucky as u. If I didn't have bad luck. I wouldn't have any luck.

DeviantBee said:

I get honey from my hives, which average around 40lbs per hive on 50 hives. So the easiest way is to be a beekeeper.

Or..

I'd google/bing a local beekeeping club in your area. You can sometimes buy honey by the bucket, which for me locally is 100-120 bucks for a 60lb 5 gallon bucket.

Click to expand...

I don't think my apartments will let me have bees. A guy from work told me he knows some ppl that r bee keepers

TheNoodlerHank said:

I don't think my apartments will let me have bees.

Click to expand...

Hahahaha!!!! That just made my night.

Descender said:

you guys are gonna hate me. I work at Basque restaurant with an attached bar. We have guys that work for Lyons, a food processing plant, come in after work. They make a lot of the syrups and sauces that restaurants use. Talked to one about mead making and the next day he brought me a 5 gallon bucket of raw honey. For free. Just cost me a round of drinks. This is the third time I have gotten 5 gallon buckets from 3 different guys. Last one had pieces of comb and bee parts.

Click to expand...

Welcome to the loved yet hated faction of people who get free stuff. Now bring me some!!!

This reminds of my best free honey story. My family was helping a fund raising event for a local charity that helps at-risk teens. The place has beehives to help with pollination and I was talking to the director and he told me he had some very raw honey. Then he handed me a black garbage bag. After a lot of filtering I got 3/4 of a gallon and after filtering the melted wax I got a pound of beeswax.

Descender said:

you guys are gonna hate me. I work at Basque restaurant with an attached bar. We have guys that work for Lyons, a food processing plant, come in after work. They make a lot of the syrups and sauces that restaurants use. Talked to one about mead making and the next day he brought me a 5 gallon bucket of raw honey. For free. Just cost me a round of drinks. This is the third time I have gotten 5 gallon buckets from 3 different guys. Last one had pieces of comb and bee parts.

Click to expand...

Yeah. New mead forum pariah. Initiating jealous hate sequence. Power level: Popular Teenaged Girls.

Seriously though, that's awesome. I'm using this Pure & Simple brand (sounds like a feminine product or facial cleanser) from Walmart for melomels @ $13 / 5#. Don't know what I'll be spending on raws for greats/traditionals in the Tulsa area.

What do you guys think of Costco Kirkland Honey? I have been reading online how store honey is not really honey, and so thought to ask.

I got 5lbs for like $12, which I thought was pretty good.

ReDim said:

What do you guys think of Costco Kirkland Honey? I have been reading online how store honey is not really honey, and so thought to ask.

I got 5lbs for like $12, which I thought was pretty good.

Click to expand...

It's real honey if the only ingredient on the label is honey. It's just not raw honey. Raw honeys are preferable for straight/great meads, but Krusty Brand honey is good enough until you really go for your artisan badge.

I am brand new to mead making, there seems to be various schools of mead cooking. There some very peculiar people that seem to boil and skimm their honey. I figured I will buy pastured Grade A and never get it above 120. So now your saying that using completely raw honey and not worry about contaminants after diluting.

Now I feel conflicted

TheVenerableMead said:

It's real honey if the only ingredient on the label is honey. It's just not raw honey. Raw honeys are preferable for straight/great meads, but Krusty Brand honey is good enough until you really go for your artisan badge.

Click to expand...

I read n the paper the other day. A lot of honeys r like 1/3 honey and 2/3 corn syrup.

If it says pure honey on the bottle, that's what it is, pure honey. Now if your morning cereal or favourite B-B-Que glaze has honey listed in the ingredients there is very likely a good chance that honey was watered down with corn syrup, so I can see where these statistics may be driven from.

TheNoodlerHank said:

I read n the paper the other day. A lot of honeys r like 1/3 honey and 2/3 corn syrup.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that if it contains corn syrup or something else, it has to be labelled accordingly.

Just bought a 5 gallon pail (60 lbs) of locally produced raw, filtered, WF honey here in Maine for $155. That's $2.60/lb. That beats any mail order pail I could find. I was very surprised, don't rule out the local sources without checking prices first!

From what I read and remember from the paper is that the company's r taking out the pollen. And when they do that u can't tell if it's corn syrup or honey. They r saying there isn't enough regs on honey.

The problem from China is that it's not honey or a very weak mixture of honey. Not to mention all the antibiotics and other chemicals that they have found in it. The US government really isn't doing a very good job on controlling it's entry into the country.

I.e. Honey from china is returned to sender for being adulterated, then they "repack" it and send through Mexico, where it is admitted into the country.

Of course, it doesn't help the local beekeepers that the EPA hasn't banned the Bee killing insecticides that several other countries already have. *shrugs*

Lungus said:

If it says pure honey on the bottle, that's what it is, pure honey.

Click to expand...

Not always... Several honeys have been bought off the shelf and tested...

Just picked up 15 pounds for $39 ($2.60 per pound) from a local bee keeper

DeviantBee said:

Not always... Several honeys have been bought off the shelf and tested...

Click to expand...

I'm up north here in Canada so I'm not sure if our food inspectors catch it or not. I usually buy local but for large batch melomels I have gotten no-name honey from Superstore, which is a Loblaws subsidiary. So I gotta say hmmmm.

i usually get a 60 lb bucket of Wildflower honey for $3.00 per lb. direct from a bee keeper.
I recently got 30 lbs of orange blossom honey direct from an Orange grove in Fort Myers Florida for $3.00 per lb as well.
Great Score!