what to do with this honey?

[drummer3]

Hello, I've been making beer and wine the last few years and recently wanted to try Mead. I put together my first batch, a cyser, yesterday and it is fermenting nicely as I speak(write). I went to my LHBS today and he had a pail of honey (50pounds) that had just started to ferment on it's own. He said that he thought it was clover and had got it from a local bee keeper. He said I could have it if I wanted it, so I took it.
Now the questions, What should I do with it? Can I stop the fermentation of the wild yeast by putting it out in my garage( Temp 32F)? Will this make a good Mead or is it already too late? Could I pasturize it as I use it to kill the wildies? The honey taste great! I just couldn't turn down 50lbs of free honey!
All replies are appreciated!

 

[will_cbe]

Personally, I'd add some water, add nutrient, attempt to mix, and add an airlock.

Free... I need to find someone handing out free buckets of honey.

 

[Tusch]

Honey should have an extremely difficult time fermenting as it has a fairly low water content, sounds like you have 50 lbs of slightly watered down honey. Having said that, seeing as it is from a local bee keeper, that doesn't mean it isn't great honey. But when you do get to mixing your mead up, be sure to check your SG's.

Having said that, I am not sure what to suggest. You could put it in the garage to slow down the fermentation. While that is happening, you could pitch a real strong starter going, with a nice healthy yeast population. Then slowly intorduce some of your honey into your starter until the yeast is strong enough to over take the wild yeast in your honey.

Does any of the experts agree with me? Solstice? Kahuna? Hightest?

 

[summersolstice]

I agree with Tusch that your honey must have a lot of water in it, for whatever reason. I'd also suggest diluting it with water or fruit juice to get the gravity down below 1.170 and adding an agressive yeast strain such as Lalvin's EC1118, K1V1116, or D47 that will kill any wild yeasts already present.

 

[Tusch]

Guess I was over thinking it, thanks for stepping in solstice, and good to no if I am ever so lucky as to get free honey.

 

[drummer3]

I pasted this thread from another forum that I was not getting any responces from. The honey has been sitting in the garage for the last two days and I'm sure it's pretty frozen. How long can I leave it there? Do I have to use it all at once? All my carboys are being used right now. I could do some bottling and free up a couple. I would like to reserch some recipes first before thawing it out.
As always your advice is appreciated

 

[hightest]

Since the honey appears to already be fermenting, I'd dilute it with water down to the 1.110-1.120 range (about 11 gal depending upon the honey's actual moisture content), add nutrients/DAP, and pitch 20g rehydrated EC1118 (or K1V1116). After fermentation is completed, you can decide what to do with this "base mead".

This will be a big batch (~16+ gal)...

 

[conpewter]

I wonder if it would be helpful to toss in some potassium metisulfate (campden) and sorbate to stop the wild yeast, wait a few days then dilute and pitch the yeast you want?

 

[giligson]

Forget the sulfite. BOIL THIS HONEY. You really should pasteurize it. Yeast don't do very well in anything even remotely as sugar rich as honey it has too little aw - (available water). There could be any number of bugs in this stuff including clostridium botulinum. A little data would be helpful too. What is the SG of this stuff (if its too thick then just get a 1:10 dilution in water and measure that)

 

[BigKahuna]

Forget the sulfite. BOIL THIS HONEY.

That's jus Crazy Talk!
Follow What Summersolstice and Tush have said, and make mead.
Pathogens simply can not survive in a fermented beverage, so go with it. People have been making mead and fermented juices for years before we had Red Star yeast to use. Spontanious fermentation is still used to produce several verieties of lambic beer. Go for it....but don't boil it!

 

[conpewter]

boiling does not destroy botulism spores, which can be present in honey, but due to the acidic nature of honey (and soon to have alcohol) botulism itself can not grow. So due to the spores don't give your mead to anyone under the age of 1 according to most sources I've read... though you shouldn't be giving alcohol to kids anyway so I think you are safe in regards to infant botulism.

 

[bkvail]

this is why in history, many people thought water was not good for drinking - only wine! Because water made them sick - and they could drink wine w/o worries of getting sick (although back then they didn't know why the water made them sick of course).

I agree - make the mead - I'd buy a couple new carboys if I was given 50# of honey! Lucky dog!

 

[drummer3]

Thanks for all the responces,
I guess I'll take your advice and dilute it down, pasturize, and ferment it all. I like the idea of making a base mead, then I could rack it over any kind of fruit next summer as they come into season. I've got 51 gallons of various wines and Mead in carboys right now, but like bkvail said, 50 lbs of free honey sure is a good excuse to by a few more carboys.
Thanks again

 

[EvilTOJ]

No. no no no no no! Do NOT pasteurize it! You will drive off all the honey aroma and leave some funny tasting sugar syrup instead. If you feel like you really do have to muck about with the fermentation add some campden tablets to it. I'm sorry but I have doubts that it's actually fermenting. Honey is so viscous that it' can't start fermenting on it's own unless it's been highly diluted. To me it sounds like that you need to go carboy shopping to get some base mead batches going.