VermontFreedom
Active Member
Picking up on a point made in the "local honey" thread recently.
I've made just 3 meads so far, all with wild/local honey (supplementing with a few ounces or a pound or two of store-bought if I'm just shy of the requisite amount) but ALL the recipes I have instruct to boil the honey for 10-20 minutes. I understood this is to help clarify, remove particulates, etc. They do say that this will remove some of the flavor, but I've gone with the recipe.
Would a suitable alternative be to mix the honey with some warm water, just enough to liquify, then strain/filter to remove the particulates like bees legs and larger wax chunks?
The mead I'm currently working on (in secondary) is a sweet dessert mead: 4 lbs honey per gallon. I got it unfiltered from the producer and had to simmer it for an hour to skim off all the junk. Is this mead going to task like water?
I realize meads need extended aging. I'm still 3 months shy of one year since my dry and sack meads were fermented, but they taste boring with this strange off-flavor that I can't describe--kind of musty. I hope (1) this will disappear once they're bottled and age for a good 6-18+ months and (2) my dessert mead doesn't turn out this way!
I've made just 3 meads so far, all with wild/local honey (supplementing with a few ounces or a pound or two of store-bought if I'm just shy of the requisite amount) but ALL the recipes I have instruct to boil the honey for 10-20 minutes. I understood this is to help clarify, remove particulates, etc. They do say that this will remove some of the flavor, but I've gone with the recipe.
Would a suitable alternative be to mix the honey with some warm water, just enough to liquify, then strain/filter to remove the particulates like bees legs and larger wax chunks?
The mead I'm currently working on (in secondary) is a sweet dessert mead: 4 lbs honey per gallon. I got it unfiltered from the producer and had to simmer it for an hour to skim off all the junk. Is this mead going to task like water?
I realize meads need extended aging. I'm still 3 months shy of one year since my dry and sack meads were fermented, but they taste boring with this strange off-flavor that I can't describe--kind of musty. I hope (1) this will disappear once they're bottled and age for a good 6-18+ months and (2) my dessert mead doesn't turn out this way!