otherchuck
Member
Greetings all!
Getting back into mead making after being away for a while because now I am a beekeeper and have more than enough free honey. Having to re-learn some things in the process. One question I had is if there are any rules of thumb for estimating sugar content % of various types of honey (I understand the "The Compleat Meadmaker" book has info on this point, but I don't have that book yet).
I live in southern California, USA, in the northern part of Santa Barbara county, and our bees have an incredible array of native flora to draw upon, but it does vary seasonally. I get two harvests per year, and the earlier harvest tends to be amber, and later one tends to be darker. In fact, the last harvest we did in June produced some frames of ludicrously light honey, but the harvest we did last August was like deep chocolate brown molasses! So when I open my honey cupboard, I see a very eclectic array of density and color to use in mead. It so happens I just started a batch yesterday using 15 lbs of the amber stuff...the most 'regular' honey in the cupboard.
Now I know 15 lbs of light honey weighs the same as 15 lbs of dark honey, but does color and thickness reliably relate to sugar content at all? Or to gauge sugar content %, should I be more focused on guessing what the bees are making the honey from (e.g., sage? vs toyon?). I am guessing my late season honey is darker mostly as a function of what plants are blooming a little later in the season, so 'honey color' and 'plant-type' seem like they would be related heuristics.
Anyway, if you have any insight...thanks! For now I will just assume my amber is about the avg of 79.6% sugars content that I have seen mentioned elsewhere.
Otherchuck
Getting back into mead making after being away for a while because now I am a beekeeper and have more than enough free honey. Having to re-learn some things in the process. One question I had is if there are any rules of thumb for estimating sugar content % of various types of honey (I understand the "The Compleat Meadmaker" book has info on this point, but I don't have that book yet).
I live in southern California, USA, in the northern part of Santa Barbara county, and our bees have an incredible array of native flora to draw upon, but it does vary seasonally. I get two harvests per year, and the earlier harvest tends to be amber, and later one tends to be darker. In fact, the last harvest we did in June produced some frames of ludicrously light honey, but the harvest we did last August was like deep chocolate brown molasses! So when I open my honey cupboard, I see a very eclectic array of density and color to use in mead. It so happens I just started a batch yesterday using 15 lbs of the amber stuff...the most 'regular' honey in the cupboard.
Now I know 15 lbs of light honey weighs the same as 15 lbs of dark honey, but does color and thickness reliably relate to sugar content at all? Or to gauge sugar content %, should I be more focused on guessing what the bees are making the honey from (e.g., sage? vs toyon?). I am guessing my late season honey is darker mostly as a function of what plants are blooming a little later in the season, so 'honey color' and 'plant-type' seem like they would be related heuristics.
Anyway, if you have any insight...thanks! For now I will just assume my amber is about the avg of 79.6% sugars content that I have seen mentioned elsewhere.
Otherchuck
