Bee Pollen NOT as a nutrient replacement....

[Dr_Floyd]

I've busied myself lately with developing a carbonated session mead with a little more going for it than just straight up honey and water. It suddenly struck me today as I wandered through an unfamiliar produce market and came across some Bee Pollen for sale that I've never considered using it in a mead recipe before! I then remembered that several months ago I tried a honey from a local Apiary which had pollen and comb whipped in to it and I can honestly say it tasted amazing. So I do my research and all I can come up with is a ton of hokum about it's purported health effects, discussions about nutrient replacement or Whole Hive Mead recipes. While the nutrients are cool and all I'd rather find out what it does flavor wise to the mead.

What does Bee Pollen taste like? I know it depends on the source but it has to have an underlying flavor right?

Does the flavor remain present in the finished product?

I've read it changes the color of the mead to a darker amber, has anyone experienced this?

And this is one for someone with actual experience, but how much should I use per gallon to get a flavor from it?


Thanks for any help you can provide, I'm very in to experimenting meads and love to test finished batches for........ science.....

Recipe to follow.

 

[Firestix]

So, I'm new to mead/hydromels also. But I am a beekeeper that practices "treatment free" beekeeping. We use the crush and strain method to extract honey so I have a lot of crushed up sticky comb at the end of each honey harvest. I usually melt down the wax, and sell it. But I thought that I could wash all the excess honey off of the crushed up wax and save that "honey water" to try my hand at mead. So, not knowing absolutely anything about making mead ... I rinsed the honey wax
Captured the honey water
Boiled it (10 min) and skimmed any of the surface debris
Chilled the pot in an ice water bath to bring it to room temp
Took a reading of 1.070 (I'm not sure how I got such a high reading from so little honey ... I'm thinking possibly the pollen, propolis, and wax threw it off)
Poured it in a sanitized 1 gal glass jug with some yeast nutrient.
Pitched some thawed Nottingham yeast I had had harvested from a successful cider brew and frozen. (that process can be found here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/freezing-yeast.html)
I let it brew until is slowed down ... (I didnt want it dry)
When I racked it, it was about 5% ABV and super tasty.
When I tried to scale this up with our jarred honey, it did not come out as well. So far the batch is tasting very sour. I'm not sure what went wrong, but we are trying to fix it.
This is just the experience that I had. I hop it helps.

 

[honeycon]

So, I'm new to mead/hydromels also. But I am a beekeeper that practices "treatment free" beekeeping. We use the crush and strain method to extract honey so I have a lot of crushed up sticky comb at the end of each honey harvest. I usually melt down the wax, and sell it. But I thought that I could wash all the excess honey off of the crushed up wax and save that "honey water" to try my hand at mead. So, not knowing absolutely anything about making mead ... I rinsed the honey wax
Captured the honey water
Boiled it (10 min) and skimmed any of the surface debris
Chilled the pot in an ice water bath to bring it to room temp
Took a reading of 1.070 (I'm not sure how I got such a high reading from so little honey ... I'm thinking possibly the pollen, propolis, and wax threw it off)
Poured it in a sanitized 1 gal glass jug with some yeast nutrient.
Pitched some thawed Nottingham yeast I had had harvested from a successful cider brew and frozen. (that process can be found here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/freezing-yeast.html)
I let it brew until is slowed down ... (I didnt want it dry)
When I racked it, it was about 5% ABV and super tasty.
When I tried to scale this up with our jarred honey, it did not come out as well. So far the batch is tasting very sour. I'm not sure what went wrong, but we are trying to fix it.
This is just the experience that I had. I hop it helps.

I am in a similar situation as you with regards to beekeeping. If you crush and strain, simply place the excess comb into a bucket and add water. Wait a couple of days and stir it up well. You now have mead must. Pour it through a colander and into a carboy. Mine usually is at about 1.12 sg.

As to the OP. Pollen does change the flavor and color of the mead, I have found it best to still use about half as much yeast nutrient as you usually would and use the pollen as a supplemental nutrient. In other words about half and half. I do not know the quantities of the pollen as it is mixed up with the crushed comb. I do know that I have used a bunch of pollen and the mead was still good, perhaps a bit more tart and slightly bitter.