So HOW bad could "Glorybee Bakers Light Amber" Honey bee, uh, be?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Paul_F

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
84
Reaction score
23
Location
Eureka
I may have an opportunity to buy a 5 gallon bucket (60lbs, I think) of "Glorybee Bakers Light Amber Honey" locally for $75. Mead is ONE use I have for it.

I know it's a heat-treated, blended, honey probably with not much character designed for baking.

I'm wondering if it might do OK for mead recipe's where other additives would be providing a lot of flavor (heavily fruited, herbed, etc).

If anyone has actually TASTED this stuff, I'd appreciate a shout (in the positive or negative) before I get my hopes up too high.

I'm confident it'll make fine banana bread, but will it make drinkable Mead?

Paul F.
 
Never tasted it, but that price is pretty cheap, If you decide to try it, I'd make a 1 gallon batch and see how it tastes. Perhaps it would be good in a mead with fruit, spice, or other flavor additions. If its not so great, you'll have a nice supply of honey for baking. Honey doesn't go bad, unless its been watered down. A local supplier told me that their "bakers blend" is what settles to the bottom of their tanks when the honey is heated and filtered. Instead of chucking it out, they sell it at a discount. There's nothing "wrong" with it, but it does have a lot of flavors blended together.
Hopefully report the results here?
 
Personally, I go with the local cheap honey when I first assemble the ingredients, and switch to the nice floral honey later in the process, on the theory that the floral notes are just going to get blown out the airlock in the first stage of fermentation. But, then, I am following a pattern of 2 lbs honey to the gallon initially, and then adding more honey when I rack, because I'm aiming to get a sweet mead that maxes out the alcohol level, (Just my preference, I'm not dissing people who like their's light and dry.) and don't want to osmotically stress the yeast by pitching them into syrup.

Sounds like a great deal you got there. I'll have to find out if "bakers blend" is available locally.
 
Well, I went ahead and purchased the "Glorybee Bakers Light Amber Honey". Well, to be clear, the 60 lb pail is unmarked, but that's what the seller said it was. He was left with a PALLET of honey after buying out a restaurants stock and he was trying to unload it QUICK since he was out of storage space.

The honey is a moderate flavor, kind of a generic "wildflower-y" profile. It's darker than I expected being called a "light amber".
I'm planning a Cyser to "test" the honey.

Time will tell if this is a "great deal" or becomes a "white elephant" I have to find other uses for!

Paul F.
 
Seeing that 12 lbs. goes for around 55.00, I'd say you got a fantastic bargain. Looking forward to hearing about how the cyser turns out.
 
Well, hurdle number one has been passed - I have three one-gallon "test batches" fermenting.
1. Simple mead (nothing but honey, water, and yeast) - 71b yeast.
2. A cider with added honey (S-04 yeast)
3. a cider with added honey (Nottingham yeast).

The 71b came out of the gates the fastest, with S-04 and Nottingham trailing, but now the S-04 has pulled ahead of the Nottingham and is gaining ground on the 71b.
So, at least there's nothing in the honey that retards fermentation, even if it is a slightly "odd" tasting honey.

Probably be at least a few weeks before I can tell with any certainty how the final products are going to taste.

IMG_2678.JPG
 
IMHO, those deals are the cheapest honey you can get, but you get what you pay for. Quality costs money. That means taste and smell is on the bottom scale compared to raw-none-processed honey.

Using webrestaurantstore, I've bought since last year;
2 x Monarch's Choice 60 lb. Orange Blossom Honey
1 x Monarch's Choice 60 lb. Clover Honey
1 x Monarch's Choice 60 lb. Wild Flower Honey

One bucket came with burned honey that gives horrid after-taste that will NOT go away with time. Regardless of what fruits you mix. Otherwise - it's OK....especially if you want to just screw around and make a lot of cheapish booze. I think I spend around 2-3$ a 750ml bottle in ingredients.
 
OP here....
It's "OK" honey. Not a lot of character, but it has a slight "caramely" flavor (from the heat processing, I'm guessing).
I have used it to "fortify" a couple cider batches, where it worked very well, and a couple small batches of mead where the honey was not the primary flavor.
Since I got this bucket for below retail, I'm totally happy with it... but if I was paying full retail? I'd think very carefully before going with it.

Paul F.
 
Just proves we can ferment almost anything called honey. 🤔

Agree you get what you pay for. Bakers honey can make great mead if paired with the right additional ingredients or technique. It typically has a little more water and a darker color and more of a caramel, molasses or sometimes even a little "earthy" flavor. I too buy Bakers honey from the Webstaurant store but now only use it in Bochets or fruit bomb melomels with dark fruits like currents, blueberries or blackberries. Oak and vanilla work well with Bakers too.
 
Have a look where it comes from. If it is from China, there's a big chance that it is at least partially rice syrup.

A friend of mine works for one of the biggest honey import companies in the UK as a buying guy and he said that this is a huge problem in his business.
 
Back
Top