Is "heated" honey ok?

[heckofagator]

I came across this ad on Craigslist. Is this ok to use? Anything I need to be aware of or on the lookout for?

"BULK Orange Blossom HONEY - 55 GALLONS - $2
We bought a barrel of Orange Blossom honey and the heating unit malfunctioned and the honey is no longer "raw" as it was heated to 140 degrees. So we are selling it cheaper than the bulk price we bought it for at $2.00/ Lb. It would be perfect for making Mead which is fermented with three basic ingredients: honey, yeast and water. It isn't classified as beer or wine in the typical sense, but stands apart in its own rank of alcoholic beverage.

We have it available in 5 gallon food grade buckets. The price per bucket of honey is $120.00."

 

[bernardsmith]

At 140 F I think the volatile aromatics and flavor molecules have been damaged.

But at $2 a pound that is dirt cheap (1 gallon weighs about 12lbs so 5 gallons weighs 60 lbs and at $120 for 5 gallons , the price per pound is $2.00).

I am, however, not sure that this would be "perfect" for making mead unless your plan was to make bochet but I am also not sure that you will know that what you are getting is orange blossom honey and not say, syrup made from beets. After all, you are not buying this bulk honey from a beekeeper or from someone who sells bulk honey commercially... Looks like yer pays yer money and yer takes yer chance..

 

[Cavpilot2000]

That's a pretty good price for bulk honey.
If it only got to 140 or thereabouts, it is 100% fine.
I actually heat my honey before making mead every time.
I bring it short of a boil (but still well above 140), but hot enough that a white foamy film forms on top and I skim that film. I find that film to have a high concentration of wax in it (it tastes like beeswax), which I want to remove from my honey (I always use raw honey, which, being unfiltered, often does have a higher concentration of beeswax, pollen, and other particulates that I would rather keep out of my mead.

But the short answer is yes, t should be totally fine.

 

[heckofagator]

thanks for the thoughts. It does seem like a good price. I was about to buy a gallon of raw honey for $45 when I came across this. But yeah, I don't know enough about honey to know if I'm getting junk when I get out there.

But it sounds like with the "raw" honey, you want to heat it anyway. I'll have to look more into that.

 

[bernardsmith]

Not sure why you want to heat raw honey. One of the beauties of raw honey is that it is likely to contain wild yeasts and those wild yeasts will - unless you pitch a killer strain of yeast EC-1118 for example - play nicely with your yeast and so produce a very unique flavor profile in your mead. You heat the honey then you break down much of the unique aromatics and flavor molecules of the honey. Your call , of course, but heating honey to remove the complexity of the flavors and aromas is a bit like buying a bouquet of flowers then chopping their heads off so that they all stand in the bowl at the same height...If you really want to kill the wild yeasts in the honey add K-meta 24 hours before you pitch the yeast. That won't do anything to the aromatics in the honey

 

[Yooper]

thanks for the thoughts. It does seem like a good price. I was about to buy a gallon of raw honey for $45 when I came across this. But yeah, I don't know enough about honey to know if I'm getting junk when I get out there.

But it sounds like with the "raw" honey, you want to heat it anyway. I'll have to look more into that.

No, you don't want to heat honey!

I would go ahead and buy this, since it's a great deal. But overall, don't heat your honey. If you need to warm it a bit to pour it, or to get it out of the container, that'll be ok of course but you definitely won't want to heat it more than you absolutely have to!

 

[heckofagator]

I'm still new to this.....

I did a quick search on heating honey before asking here on the craigslist deal, and I saw several mentions of the need to heat raw honey. So I sorta thought maybe it was how it was done.

I'm not sure I quite understand raw vs what you buy in the store vs whatever else.

 

[Mainer]

You could make a crap-ton of braggot, or maybe stick it in a melomel where the fruit will cover up some of the imperfections...

 

[honeycon]

Almost all big honey distributors heat their honey. It arrives in 55 gallon barrels and is often crystallized. It is brought into a heated room to heat the barrel. It can now be pumped out of the barrel and is usually pasteurized, often micro filtered and then packaged into smaller containers. Dutch Gold is very open about their method. It is common to purchase honey that has been heated to 160-180 degrees. It really depends on how long it was at a high temperature.
But, nothing beats honey fresh from the comb. It is just not what most people get.

 

[Baabaadoo]

I'd buy that in a heartbeat. Amazing deal, plus I'd just make a melomel with it or something where you add fruit to it anyway. It's a great price for honey regardless the type. Buy it and make a 1 gallon traditional batch. That's how I would test it's true quality. How's it smell and taste?

 

[bernardsmith]

Almost all big honey distributors heat their honey. It arrives in 55 gallon barrels and is often crystallized. It is brought into a heated room to heat the barrel. It can now be pumped out of the barrel and is usually pasteurized, often micro filtered and then packaged into smaller containers. Dutch Gold is very open about their method. It is common to purchase honey that has been heated to 160-180 degrees. It really depends on how long it was at a high temperature.
But, nothing beats honey fresh from the comb. It is just not what most people get.

I guess I try to get most of my honey from local sources at farmer's markets and I look for raw honey, but I don't buy or need commercial sized quantities - a few pounds at a time is what meets my needs.

 

[mwilcox]

side note: anyone got a great way to get the amount you want out of a 5gal bucket of honey, without a mess?
...I bought a big bucket of honey once. Once.

 

[Auger]

side note: anyone got a great way to get the amount you want out of a 5gal bucket of honey, without a mess?
...I bought a big bucket of honey once. Once.

put on a lid with a pour spout, like you get on those 5gal paint buckets? or pour it into a bottling bucket with a spigot on it, although that might be a little slow.

 

[heckofagator]

side note: anyone got a great way to get the amount you want out of a 5gal bucket of honey, without a mess?
...I bought a big bucket of honey once. Once.

I finally picked up the honey last nite and I was wondering the same thing.....

so yeah, I guess someone ended coming and buying most of the honey so by the time I was able to make it over to the seller, they only had a half bucket left. Which was actually better for me, as I didn't particularly want to drop $120 on honey in one shot.

There was 36# left, about half a bucket, and I got it for $2 a lb. It seems to look and taste like I would expect. Now off to scour the receipe forum

On a side note, Ive only made 1 match of mead and it was JOAM, which turned out good. I remember spending quite a bit of $$ at the grocery store for 3lb of honey for the batch. Well last nite I checked, just for the heck of it, and they had a 3lb jug on the shelf for $10.99. That's not bad at all.