So my neighbor is selling honey!!

[estricklin]

A few houses down; SWMBO tells me there is a sign that says "Raw Honey For Sale". I haven't had a chance to call the number (it was one of those leave the money and take the honey things) but it looks like some local wildflower stuff. 15 bucks for 3 lbs is pretty reasonable I think.

Anyway I've been making a lot of 1 gallon batches of mead lately because the SWMBO loves it, and I love to make it. Since I've done things like staggered nutrient additions mead making has gotten much more enjoyable.

I'm wondering about backsweetining, how much honey might I expect to need to backsweeten a 1 gallon batch? How high can the ABV go before most yeasts shut down? If I do this, is there ANY chance I might be able to still carbonate it?

I love sparkling wine, so I'm really interested in trying sparkling mead, I can't find any at my local stores to try. I suppose I could try kegging some first?

I've tried some apple spiced mead and orange vanilla, but I'm looking for some more interesting things to add. I'm thinking about acid blend, apple juice, cherries, (not all at the same time of coarse) and anything else to mix it up a bit.

I appreciate the input!

 

[WVMJ]

Take a bottle of mead down to your beekeeping neighbor and they might be interested in chatting with you a bit and open up some sources for you like varietal dark honeys they have but dont sell much of or something they dont think they can sell because its to strong, these make great meads. You can turn just about any wine ingredient into a mead, just use your imagination. Now is apple cider time, just experimenting with cysers can take you all winter. Also get some bigger carboys, you loose porportionally more with gallon batches than you do with bigger batches when racking. WVMJ

 

[NZ-beekeeper]

That's a steal considering the work that goes into producing honey for sale, and you can be pretty darn sure it's the very highest quality.

 

[estricklin]

Take a bottle of mead down to your beekeeping neighbor and they might be interested in chatting with you a bit and open up some sources for you like varietal dark honeys they have but dont sell much of or something they dont think they can sell because its to strong, these make great meads. You can turn just about any wine ingredient into a mead, just use your imagination. Now is apple cider time, just experimenting with cysers can take you all winter. Also get some bigger carboys, you loose porportionally more with gallon batches than you do with bigger batches when racking. WVMJ

Thanks for the info! I will probably stick with the 1 gallon batches for now, I'm already making it 2x faster than we seem to consume it. But, when I really nail down some stuff I like I will probably look into some 3 gallon ones at least.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Sweet!

My wife works with someone that keeps bees. They got to talking and he gave us about 15 pounds of honey for a raspberry melomel for free.
And by free I mean we will ultimately split the batch with him when it's done .

If he's into mead and willing to make a trade you might have a pretty sweet setup there :rockin:

 

[garlicbee]

Beekeepers often end up with some higher moisture honey than cannt be sold or stored (it will ferrment on its own)at the end of the season when the bees have run out of time to dry it down before winter. It is perfect to make mead with. It would be worth asking if they have any.

 

[paperairplane]

I have bee hives and I wouldn't sell mine that cheap. I'd grab it - not like it goes bad.

 

[estricklin]

I'm thinking about seeing if they will sell me some in bulk even cheaper!