Bitter honey.

[RealFloopyGuy]

I have some honey that I have had for a while in a glass jar. 2-3 years old maybe. It is local wildflower honey. I ate half the quart previously and I don't really remember it being bitter but I am not sure. I have so many different types of honey that I really don't know. Anyway, it wasn't really good to eat. Not nasty exactly, but not exactly something I would smear on a biscuit.

A couple days ago I made a 5 gallon batch of apple cider and there was a small amount of yeast stuck in the corner of the package. I put some water in the package and then poured it into a 1 gallon fermenter. I mixed the honey with water, raisins. Shook it up til it was dissolved, then I added some other types of honey to it and topped it off with some apple juice. It was pretty sweet but I couldn't find my hydrometer. It was happily fermenting the next morning.

Do any of you have experience with making mead from a bitter honey or why the honey would be bitter? Should I be adding anything like lemon to maybe cover it up some?

 

[GHBWNY]

Honey is the only food on earth that doesn't spoil. If it has a bitterness, then it's from whatever pollen the bees used to make it, and trying to disguise or neutralize it will likely prove futile. If you can taste the bitterness right out of the jar, you'll likely taste it in your beer. I wouldn't use any ingredient that didn't taste OK prior to adding it to my brew. That's just me.

 

[loveofrose]

Bad honey makes worse mead. I've learned this the hard way several times. I wouldn't expect this to be drinkable.


Better brewing through science!

 

[RealFloopyGuy]

I know plenty of people who would drink urine if it was alcoholic, it will get drank one way or another. I just ordered some honey from Northern Brewer along with some yeast and brewing equipment.

I don't remember this honey being this bitter previously and I must of eaten about a lb of it previous to this. It was in a sealed glass jar and I knew honey doesn't go bad. Any idea why it would turn bitter if it wasn't before? It isn't like it was inedible, but it wouldn't be enjoyable. I doubt I would of eaten that much of it if it wasn't good to eat. The must tasted ok but with a bitter aftertaste, just putting the honey and water together made the flavor much more agreeable. Kind of like eating a lemon isn't too great but squeezing one in water is OK. I probably should of used it in a bitter beer. I think the bitterness would of elongated the hop flavor in a strong beer.(Is that the right way to describe it?)

Are there any styles of mead where bitterness is desired?

 

[f0xtr0t]

It is a sneaky practice to cut honey with sugar syrup or high fructose corn syrup which are not as stable as honey and might ferment. It might have had too high of moisture content and that allowed sometime of bacteria, yeast, fungus to grow. Also my honey from May has two distinct floral sources. Since I don't separate by honey source and just mix it into one bucket before bottling sometimes I can see a separation in coloring...so in your case if one was a bitter flower it could have risen to the top. ....or (I know I'm brainstorming here) when you bottle honey there is little bits of wax and other particles float to the top, since good honey isn't heated and ultra filtered ...just strainied the particles might have made it past the sieve. so after it sat for a while it floated to the top. Also did you know your sense of taste changes as you get older your ability to taste sweet is more muted while salty and bitter is increased. Or maybe you ate something and your taste buds were all wonky that day.

 

[RealFloopyGuy]

It occurred me that I am old. :'( It was the bottom half of the honey, and it was local single source wildflower. It is entirely possible it had sat for a long time and the bottom half was more bitter. Oh well.

 

[RealFloopyGuy]

The bitterness is gone.

Fermentation is complete on this. Im the sample I used to see what the gravity was. It has a pleasant smell. It is a little light tasting and not very strong.(7-8% maybe?_ There is no discernible bitterness to it from the honey. I degassed it and I feel that this would be much more enjoyable with a little fizz to it. I put a little more apple juice in it and I will let it start fermenting again, carbonate it, and put it in the fridge to crash. I don't plan to age this or anything. It would hardly win any awards, but it is still better than drinking a Budweiser.

I have to say, I really dig the smell of the mead.

I got my gallon of wildflower honey from Northern Brewer yesterday, I plan to do a 5 gallon batch of mead this week when I transfer a 5 gallon batch of cider over to keg.