Basswood honey?

[Chaos_Being]

My first meadmaking experience was a success (my raspberry melomel,) and now my wife wants me to make a traditional sweet mead. I've been looking around for a good price on raw varietal honey, as I'm intrested in using a single type of honey if possible. So far, price-wise, NB's basswood honey is the clear winner, but I'm unsure of how a mead made only with it would taste. NB describes it as having a taste "similar to green ripening fruit," I've also found it described as tasting minty, herbal, woody, or having a "sharp taste." I don't want to buy a bunch of this if it's going to make a funky flavored mead, regardless if it is cheap. Has anyone here made a mead with just basswood honey?

I've also found some of the other websites that sell bulk honey at decent prices (ebee, miller's, etc.) I actually live maybe 20 miles from the beefolk's Mt. Airy location, but even if I was able to pick up honey from them locally, their prices are still fairly high compared to some other places.

 

[MedsenFey]

BeeFolks have excellent quality honey and if you can pick it up without shipping costs, that may be your best bet for getting some top flight honey for mead.

Basswood honey can sometimes have some strong/medicinal flavors so I would be cautious in using it. You might want to test in in a 1 gallon batch first to taste it for yourself.

 

[vulture1963]

If this is your first show (plain) mead, I would suggest ordering half and half from any of these: tupelo, sage or orange blossom honey.

http://www.floridatupelohoney.com/
http://www.millershoney.com/

These are nice "simple" honey's that will make a great plain mead.

YMMV

 

[Chaos_Being]

I was initially thinking about using Orange Blossom (Sage or Tupelo sound good too,) and it was the price of the Basswood that got me considering it instead. It sounds like there is a reason NB is selling it so cheap...ah well.

I'm going to be in Philadelphia next weekend to visit my sister, there is a shop in the Reading Terminal Market that sells large containers of raw honey (I got some awesome Cranberry honey from them before.) I'll check to see what they have and what the prices are to see if I can get a decent deal. Otherwise, I'll just order some and have to pay the crazy shipping prices I guess.

Thanks for the info!

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I always make it a point to get a taste of the honey before I commit to buying a larger amount. Check your local stores & healthfood shops for basswood honey, if you can't find it, you can often find sample packs of several varietal honeys online, that way you can sample several types. Regards, GF.

 

[LightningInABottle]

I just started some varitals and I am making 1 gallon batches. I got some star thistle honey that was 12% moisture content!! It is really smooth with an almost buttery quality.

My next order will probably be from Miller's. The 5lb orange blossom honey looks to be a good price.

I'm gonna stick to 1 gallon batches till I find the best varitals to make mead with. For instance I have discovered I really dislike clover honey and will avoid it at almost any cost.

 

[Tusch]

12%!!! holy crap that's low, does it even flow?

 

[LightningInABottle]

I placed it in a pot and filled the pot with around 120 degree water to get it flowing. My gravity reading was much higher than it was supposed to be in Hightest's spread sheet. So I plugged in the numbers that hightest has built into the spread sheet for 15% and it wasn't close. Then I did the numbers for 12% and acording to the spread sheet I should have been at 1.117, my reading was 1.118. Close enough! Its expensive honey but if it comes out good I will order it again. http://www.laneyhoney.com/

On a side note they didn't have the quart of orange blossom honey so the sent me 2 pints and a sample 6.5 oz of the dune country honey. Nice customer service.