What's your favorite honey for mead?

[NeverDie]

So far, I've tried 6 different types of honey:
orange blossom
clover
Texas wildflower
Mesquite
Buckwheat
and Generic Walmart "Simply Honey"

Tomorrow I'll be trying Palmetto honey. A couple of months from now a friend will be bringing me some authentic Linden Tree honey from Russia to try, and I hear it's exceptionally good, but that's about all I know at this point.

What else should I try?

Up to now I've been using the generic Walmart honey as a learning tool, primarily because it's the least expensive, but having now tried these different honeys, I can see that the choice of honey may have quite an impact on the final mead (provided the honey's distinctiveness isn't fermented into oblivion--still not sure about that part of it). Also, I'm not sure to what degree an orange blossom honey from one source is the same/different as the orange blossom honey from another? And if different how do you decide which source to try?

So, what's your favorite for mead? What type of mead? And which ones don't you like?

 

[Blacksmith1]

Orange blossom will differ ever so slightly based on which trees are availble and how many other sources of nectar the bees find. Since oranges are not created equal it's reasonable to assume the honeys will reflect that.

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

I've used mesquite, orange blossom, and generic. Can't really say much about the mesquite, that was about 15 years ago, except that the prickly pear mead I made with it was good. It's been too long to compare, but I wouldn't mind getting some more to try.

Orange blossom is nice and floral, and the generic? Well, it's generic. You can tell it's honey, but it isn't anything special.

I usually go with the cheap generic in the primary on the assumption that the floral notes will blow off during fermentation, and then fall back on orange blossom in secondary and back sweetening. So far it's worked, but I've only really been back to making mead for a year or so.

I wouldn't mind running some small batches of straight mead, (I've been doing melomels.) with different honeys. Might be fun, to get a better idea what the honey is actually contributing.

 

[NeverDie]

I usually go with the cheap generic in the primary on the assumption that the floral notes will blow off during fermentation, and then fall back on orange blossom in secondary and back sweetening. So far it's worked, but I've only really been back to making mead for a year or so.

That's a clever idea. I recently fermented a mead all the way down to 1.000 SG, and I can't taste even a trace of the honey that I put into it (OG 1.061). On the other hand, a mead that I halted at 1.030 SG I can taste the honey just fine. So, I don't want to overgeneralize, but it does make me wonder whether I'm merely supplying the yeast with expensive sugar, and maybe it's only what the yeast doesn't eat that I can taste? I'd be curious what others have to say about this. If so, then I'm tempted to front-load with glucose, which the yeast should eat first, and then merely top it off with honey with the intent of interrupting the fermentation once the yeast have finished with the glucose.

 

[Blacksmith1]

That will change the taste. Sugar fermented dry does not have the same flavor as honey fermented dry.

 

[AzOr]

-Orange blossom- great mead but the tast varies significantly from different sources.
-Costco clover- good as a base for melomels etc
-Mesquite- only used 3 times. I thought it was a really delicate almost bland flavor.
-Raspberry- really good plain mead. When used in melomels or others, the flavor easily gets lost.

This spring I’ll be purchasing several new to me varieties to test. I’ll report back.

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

That's a clever idea. I recently fermented a mead all the way down to 1.000 SG, and I can't taste even a trace of the honey that I put into it (OG 1.061). On the other hand, a mead that I halted at 1.030 SG I can taste the honey just fine. So, I don't want to overgeneralize, but it does make me wonder whether I'm merely supplying the yeast with expensive sugar, and maybe it's only what the yeast doesn't eat that I can taste? I'd be curious what others have to say about this. If so, then I'm tempted to front-load with glucose, which the yeast should eat first, and then merely top it off with honey with the intent of interrupting the fermentation once the yeast have finished with the glucose.

I wouldn't assume that the only things in honey are ferment-able sugars and volatiles that blow away with the CO2. The cheap honey absolutely leaves behind some flavor that straight sugar wouldn't, including some scents that aren't as quick to blow away.

But most people don't realize that the majority of what we think of as "taste" is actually smell. The tongue can only detect a few different flavors, maybe with differing onset and decay, and a few sensations like a burn.

The nose, OTOH, can distinguish thousands of different signals.

All the real complexity of flavor is coming from your sense of smell... That's why I figure the subtle aspect of your mead can be supplied in the secondary, when it's not going to just make your brewing room smell wonderful.

But I don't think I'd go so far as to just feed the yeast glucose. You'd miss the "base" notes that don't leave by way of your airlock.

....

One of these days I'd really like to put a cold trap on that airlock!

 

[Shine0n]

I find that clover suits me best for melomels as it's cheap where I live and the fruit shines over the honey.
I absolutely love orange blossom as a trad.
I have a mesquite honey that's almost finished and could report back later.
Blueberry blossom was also nice as a trad as was raspberry blossom.
I've been reading a lot in the Scott lab handbook about yeasts and their characteristics and now I'm focusing on matching honey and yeast to how they would compliment each other.

I have been recently been fermenting completely dry with wildflower or clover and back sweetening with special honeys so they shine.

Also working with acids and tannins for complexity and mouthfeel.
Shoot, the possibilities are endless!)

 

[Pappers_]

In December, I had some mead made with Meadowfoam honey - oh heavens, it was delicious. Tasted remarkably like marshmallows. https://ashevillebeecharmer.com/shop/honey/meadowfoam-honey/

 

[Shine0n]

That one is on my list soon, I'll most likely make a bochey and also backsweeten with meadowfoam.

 

[Blacksmith1]

Tasted remarkably like marshmallows.

That is the most disgusting thing I have read on this forum yet.

 

[Pappers_]

That is the most disgusting thing I have read on this forum yet.

You need to keep a much more open mind. Meadowfoam mead is delicious, and its not just me saying that - at a recent competition I judged beer at, a Meadowfoam mead took the gold medal in the Traditional Mead category.

 

[AzOr]

In December, I had some mead made with Meadowfoam honey - oh heavens, it was delicious. Tasted remarkably like marshmallows. https://ashevillebeecharmer.com/shop/honey/meadowfoam-honey/

That’s on my short list to make.

 

[AzOr]

https://flyingbeeranch.net/honeys/

This place has a tasting room in Salem OR. I plan on making a trip there in the spring. There are so many varieties on the website.
A few that I want to try; carrot, coriander, meadowfoam, fireweed and white sage. I have a feeling I won’t leave there til I drop some serious coin.

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

https://flyingbeeranch.net/honeys/

This place has a tasting room in Salem OR. I plan on making a trip there in the spring. There are so many varieties on the website.
A few that I want to try; carrot, coriander, meadowfoam, fireweed and white sage. I have a feeling I won’t leave there til I drop some serious coin.

I'll have to remember that place, if I ever get out that way. A pity they don't have a sample collection.

 

[Maylar]

I have a mesquite honey that's almost finished and could report back later.

I've been reading a lot in the Scott lab handbook about yeasts and their characteristics and now I'm focusing on matching honey and yeast to how they would compliment each other.

Also working with acids and tannins for complexity and mouthfeel.

Are you participating in Squatchy's mead make-along at GotMead?
I am.

 

[ThirstyPawsHB]

Wallmart. $12/5lbs. Add fruit to liven it up.

 

[Soulshine2]

So far, I've tried 6 different types of honey:
orange blossom
clover
Texas wildflower
Mesquite
Buckwheat
and Generic Walmart "Simply Honey"

Tomorrow I'll be trying Palmetto honey. A couple of months from now a friend will be bringing me some authentic Linden Tree honey from Russia to try, and I hear it's exceptionally good, but that's about all I know at this point.

What else should I try?

Up to now I've been using the generic Walmart honey as a learning tool, primarily because it's the least expensive, but having now tried these different honeys, I can see that the choice of honey may have quite an impact on the final mead (provided the honey's distinctiveness isn't fermented into oblivion--still not sure about that part of it). Also, I'm not sure to what degree an orange blossom honey from one source is the same/different as the orange blossom honey from another? And if different how do you decide which source to try?

So, what's your favorite for mead? What type of mead? And which ones don't you like?

I'm not a Meader but I do know that a LOT of honey sold is not in fact honey. Most of what is sold as honey is cut with high fructose corn syrup because it is cheaper . I would not trust Walmart honey especially for this very reason . Do you have Netflix? look up a 5 part series called "Rotten" one of the documentaries in it is all about the honey market. There was a part that covered honey coming from china that was in fact blended with ...you guessed it...HFCS . It was discovered and the importation of honey from China was halted . China tried to pull a fast one and ran their product through other countries that we (the US) would still buy from.
I was in a local Tractor Supply store 2 weeks ago and had a mead and cider book in my hand , not sure why I didn't buy it ,but it had specific chapters on what recipes used specific source honey.
I would buy local honey from known bee keepers.

 

[Maylar]

Orange blossom will differ ever so slightly based on which trees are availble and how many other sources of nectar the bees find. Since oranges are not created equal it's reasonable to assume the honeys will reflect that.

Not only that, but California and Florida orange blossom honeys are different too. Californian oranges tend to be smaller and sweeter, and the orange groves are more isolated which means the bees don't wander into other fields as much as they do in Florida. I have a 12 lb gallon of California orange blossom honey that I'm trying to figure out what kind of mead to make from... when I stop eating it on toasted English muffins. Yum.

 

[NeverDie]

I picked up some more honey today and gave it a try. Tupelo, acacia, killer bee, and ling heather. The tupelo really stands out as by far the best I have had to date. The acacia was pleasant. The ling nicely aromatic. The killer bee was definitely "different".

 

[NeverDie]

I'm not a Meader but I do know that a LOT of honey sold is not in fact honey. Most of what is sold as honey is cut with high fructose corn syrup because it is cheaper . I would not trust Walmart honey especially for this very reason . Do you have Netflix? look up a 5 part series called "Rotten" one of the documentaries in it is all about the honey market. There was a part that covered honey coming from china that was in fact blended with ...you guessed it...HFCS . It was discovered and the importation of honey from China was halted . China tried to pull a fast one and ran their product through other countries that we (the US) would still buy from.
I was in a local Tractor Supply store 2 weeks ago and had a mead and cider book in my hand , not sure why I didn't buy it ,but it had specific chapters on what recipes used specific source honey.
I would buy local honey from known bee keepers.

Anything from China is automatically suspect. You would, for example, have to be insane to eat any fish from there, given their heavy pollution. Yet Walmart does sell a lot of fish from china, if you read the labels.

 

[Soulshine2]

I picked up some more honey today and gave it a try. Tupelo, acacia, killer bee, and ling heather. The tupelo really stands out as by far the best I have had to date. The acacia was pleasant. The ling nicely aromatic. The killer bee was definitely different.

songs have been written about Tupelo Honey...so it must be good.

 

[NeverDie]

I'm not a Meader but I do know that a LOT of honey sold is not in fact honey. Most of what is sold as honey is cut with high fructose corn syrup because it is cheaper . I would not trust Walmart honey especially for this very reason . Do you have Netflix? look up a 5 part series called "Rotten" one of the documentaries in it is all about the honey market. There was a part that covered honey coming from china that was in fact blended with ...you guessed it...HFCS . It was discovered and the importation of honey from China was halted . China tried to pull a fast one and ran their product through other countries that we (the US) would still buy from.
I was in a local Tractor Supply store 2 weeks ago and had a mead and cider book in my hand , not sure why I didn't buy it ,but it had specific chapters on what recipes used specific source honey.
I would buy local honey from known bee keepers.

How does one establish what a "known" local bee keeper is? Visit them?

 

[Soulshine2]

How does one establish what a "known" local bee keeper is? Visit them?

local "organic" health food stores or Contact your county Agricultural extension service as Apiaries are registered.

 

[Kharnynb]

All honey I use, mostly for honey-wheat beers and braggots, I get from a local beekeeper that has a stand at the local weekly market.

I won't trust any honey that isn't specified as local, Finnish honey, not even the "made in the EU" ones, too many are cut with sugar, as for chinese honey, you might as well eat batteries for what they've found inside that stuff.

 

[Blacksmith1]

You need to keep a much more open mind. Meadowfoam mead is delicious, and its not just me saying that - at a recent competition I judged beer at, a Meadowfoam mead took the gold medal in the Traditional Mead category.

It could take the gold in the olympic games, if it tastes like marshmallows then I personally am not interested. I've hated them my whole life. Most people at least like them. My own kids think I'm weird because I don't.

 

[Maylar]

I picked up some more honey today and gave it a try. Tupelo, acacia, killer bee, and ling heather. The tupelo really stands out as by far the best I have had to date. The acacia was pleasant. The ling nicely aromatic. The killer bee was definitely "different".

Where'd you get Tupelo? It's outrageously expensive. Rumor is that this year's crop was poor because of hurricane Michael.

 

[specialkayme]

I'm not a Meader but I do know that a LOT of honey sold is not in fact honey.

As a Certified Master Beekeeper, I can attest to this.

Most of what is sold as honey is cut with high fructose corn syrup because it is cheaper .

HFCS if you're lucky. Sugar water if you aren't. But the adulteration isn't the bigger issue to me. It's the latent minerals and chemicals that exist in the honey that comes from these regions.

It was discovered and the importation of honey from China was halted . China tried to pull a fast one and ran their product through other countries that we (the US) would still buy from.

Not tried. Did. And are still doing.

Look up the statistics on Vietnam imported honey. Once the Chinese anti-dumping laws were passed in the US, Vietnam's honey exportation grew something like 1,000x, way more than the country could ever produce. Where do you think that's actually coming from? Same holds true with Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, even some South American countries. The USDA caught some people, and they went to jail over it. But it's still rampant in the industry.

How does one establish what a "known" local bee keeper is? Visit them?

Basically. Go to a local, smaller farmer's market. Find the beekeeper and talk to them. Ask them where their hives are, and if they resell anyone else's honey. Some do, but not all. I don't, for example. I produce my own honey, and when I sell out I sell out. Most consumers don't understand, and ask for honey in February. I tell them I sold out last October, and it was harvested last June. They seem confused, as the super market has honey year round, why can't I just go back to my hives and get more? The disconnect between farmers and consumers is shocking.

If you can't find a beekeeper at the local farmer's market, contact the local beekeeper's association. Most counties, or regions of counties, have one. Talk to them about where their honey comes from. They can usually tell you the trees and the sources, and it all varies based on year and location. One year's honey will taste entirely different than another year's honey. Large producers blend honey to get consistent flavors. But to me the joy is getting that variety every year.

The killer bee was definitely "different".

There is no such thing as killer bee honey. It all depends on the nectar source, not the bees that make it (provided they are all apis mellifera).

 

[NeverDie]

Where'd you get Tupelo? It's outrageously expensive. Rumor is that this year's crop was poor because of hurricane Michael.

The brand I tried was from Savannah bee company. Yeah, it is expensive.

 

[specialkayme]

As for what honey is "best", I'm preferable to Tulip Poplar and blackberry. But mainly because it's my local main honey flow, I'm familiar with it, and its flavor brings back good memories.

If I want something lighter and more basic, I go with an acacia or alfalfa. I avoid clover, as what you buy is often super blended and not really true clover.

If I want something with a little more flavor, I'll go with a fireweed or a "wildflower". I avoid orange blossom for the same reasons I avoid clover.

I avoid dark honey, like buckwheat, for meads. I also avoid the really good stuff, like Tupelo and Sourwood, for honey. It's really great stuff, but a little too special for mead in my opinion.