Newbie: Where do you purchase honey?

[r4dyce]

Hi. I'm just starting to think about trying to brew some mead. My question is where do you get your honey from? It seems prohibitively expensive (to me) to get this much honey through normal retail.

Thanks!

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Costco, usually has a couple available. Ordinary clover honey and a wildflower raw or organic, it's been a while so not sure which. And, welcome to the forum!

 

[myndflyte]

I started out making a cyser and so it required spending money on less honey than a normal mead. Sort of get my feet wet with mead without spending a ton. I just ended up buying the honey from Northern Brewer.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Some folks are lucky enough to have a friend beekeeper, or catch a local producer at the right time to get a good deal on a bulk purchase. I have not been that lucky. I found a pretty good deal at trader joes a while back. I want to steer clear of fake honey which may be difficult because the black market stuff is shipped all around the world.

 

[Ryue]

I get my honey raw from a local bee keeper in Washington. I don't know where you live but chances are that there is *somebody* that keeps bees within a reasonable distance, I would think.. Ask around, or if there is a farmers market around your area check/ask there.
This kind of honey gets expensive though, I pay $30 for 6lbs (I use almost all of it for one gallon of mead), but you can't put a price on quality, IMHO.

Edit: you can also get cheap "raw" (idk how accurately its advertised...) clover honey from Walmart for pretty cheap. I think I payed like $9 for 5lbs. Cheap way to test the waters if you have never made mead before and can graduate to more expensive honey later.

 

[r4dyce]

I get my honey raw from a local bee keeper in Washington. I don't know where you live but chances are that there is *somebody* that keeps bees within a reasonable distance, I would think.. Ask around, or if there is a farmers market around your area check/ask there.
This kind of honey gets expensive though, I pay $30 for 6lbs (I use almost all of it for one gallon of mead), but you can't put a price on quality, IMHO.

Edit: you can also get cheap "raw" (idk how accurately its advertised...) clover honey from Walmart for pretty cheap. I think I payed like $9 for 5lbs. Cheap way to test the waters if you have never made mead before and can graduate to more expensive honey later.

Both good thoughts. I did find a couple apiaries near me (Mass.) They advertise bulk honey for $112 for 20lbs.
I'll check out a cheaper option for the first go- around.

 

[CanadianJesus]

I can't seem to find bulk local honey. All the farmers markets in my area won't give deals for bulk amounts because they're normally able to sell that honey fast enough at their own price that giving me a deal would just be loosing them money. Prices have sadly gone up since I first started making mead. The other year I was paying $12/kilo and when I purchased the same honey from the same farm late last summer, the price went up to $18/kilo. It is still worth it because my craft is improving and I can make a good drink now. The first mead I ever made was from a large bee farm and it was wildflower honey for $9/kilo, now I only use honey from a specific berry farm at double that price but the honey tastes twice as good, so it's not really a loss to me.

IMO, making mead is not about making cheap alcohol (still cheaper than at a liquor/wine store though when I can make it at $5 per bottle roughly). It's more about perfecting a craft and making a high quality drink that cannot be purchased in stores.

There are plenty of recipes for other types of wine/beer on this website that can be made for very little money if making cheap alcohol is your goal, and many of those recipes produce a good tasting drink too.

 

[John Doe]

FWIW I'm really new at this, but all my searching has led me to the local Walmart. 5# for $12 and change.
I also bought some from Sams club and I feel the wally world stuff is better.

 

[imasickboy]

https://www.honey.com/honey-locator/

 

[Lefou]

Costco, usually has a couple available. Ordinary clover honey and a wildflower raw or organic, it's been a while so not sure which. And, welcome to the forum!

Costco usually stocks pasteurized blended US/Argentinian clover honey. Five pound bottles have cost me approximately $13-$14.
Farmers markets sometimes sell raw bottled honey from various sources and the price is considerably higher.

 

[GrandwizzardGillias]

My local brewing store sells it by the pound for a reasonable price