Pasteurize the Honey?

[mmlipps]

I am planning on making my first mead with local raw honey. I remember from John Palmers book that honey contains a lot of bacteria and wild yeast but it is inactive because of the lack of water in the honey. But when you make mead you add water, so the book talked about pasteurizing it before adding (at least for beer) is this true for Meade?

Also any suggestions for a first recipe? I was thinking the ancient orange Meade, but I am looking for something that will age for like 4-6 months maybe more.

 

[fuelish]

I doubt it's necessary, but do as you will......I don't bother with any heating other than maybe heating a bit of water to help the honey dissolve/blend faster....no real need for boiling nor pasteurization, really

 

[mmlipps]

I doubt it's necessary, but do as you will......I don't bother with any heating other than maybe heating a bit of water to help the honey dissolve/blend faster....no real need for boiling nor pasteurization, really

I just wanted to make sure it wasn't something so well known that no one mentions it.

 

[Chris_The_Rogue]

If your worried about infections then i would recommend using a campden tablet. Ive read that heating the honey too much can diminish the aroma and flavor to some extent.

 

[bernardsmith]

I agree that there is likely to be some yeast and other bacteria and the like in the honey but when you dissolve that honey and then pitch your yeast the yeast you pitch will create an environment that is best suited for it in terms of pH, CO2 and other elements and not so well suited for competing strains and since you are adding billions of cells and the honey may have, relatively speaking, only a few of these competing cells I don't know that you really have very much to worry about. But that said, if you are at all anxious k-meta (campden tabs) will further inhibit those volunteer cells and allow your own inoculant to thrive...

 

[Frognostic]

Last 3 gallons of mead I made, using raw honey, I added the honey cold to cold water. Only heating I did was warming the water to get residual honey out of the pots and into the fermentation vessel.