Women do the darndest things....

[bob1852]

from the beekeepers handbook:
"sugar tolerant, or osmophilic, yeast spores, under high moisture conditions, are able to germinate in honey and metabolize its sugars...probably all honeys contain osmophilic yeasts."
the reason honey doesn't ferment in the pantry is because the water content is too low. honey that has a moisture content of less than 17 percent (all quality honey) and the yeast is inhibited. Add water in the carboy with fresh raw honey and you've just changed that moisture content considerably. Im not an expert, I only have 3 books on the subject and have done 3 meads prior, but every publication I own on honey warns against wild yeast. I know that many people out there use the "no heat" method with great success, so its def. possible to brew great mead without heating, but I certainly wouldn't say its 'useless'.

That's why some people will sulfite the must. It is pretty good about knocking out and potential wild yeast, but doesn't really affect wine/mead yeast at the recommended dosage.

I cold mix all of my meads, and have really good success. If you create the best environment for your wine/mead yeast (proper O2, pH, nutrient, etc.) you shouldn't really need to worry about wild yeast in honey.

 

[frydogbrews]

from the beekeepers handbook:
"sugar tolerant, or osmophilic, yeast spores, under high moisture conditions, are able to germinate in honey and metabolize its sugars...probably all honeys contain osmophilic yeasts."
the reason honey doesn't ferment in the pantry is because the water content is too low. honey that has a moisture content of less than 17 percent (all quality honey) and the yeast is inhibited. Add water in the carboy with fresh raw honey and you've just changed that moisture content considerably. Im not an expert, I only have 3 books on the subject of honey and mead and have done 3 meads prior, but every publication I own on honey warns against wild yeast. I know that many people out there use the "no heat" method with great success, so its def. possible to brew great mead without heating, but I certainly wouldn't say its 'useless'.

this is one of those cases that seems like great science for boiling your mead, until you know more about osmophilic yeast. they only reproduce is very high sugar concentrations. mix 30 pounds of honey into your five gallon batch, and you "might" have a problem. at regular mead making amounts, they can't reproduce. they act nothing like the yeast we use.

 

[WIMARIPA]

They may not be entirely reliable, but have you tried contacting the better bottle company regarding the safety of overheating their products?

 

[adamorantares]

Thats all very interesting info regarding the osmophilic yeast. I'll definitely have to scour the internets and learn some more about them. Like I said I never normally boil my mead, just gently heat it to a temp that will kill off wild yeasts. It really is about the easiest thing you could do. I've followed a number of threads on here debating this very thing, seems to be a very active debate. When you're used to all grain brewing something as simple as no heating just about feels like im cheating! Lol.

I looked on the better bottle website, and on the first page it says "BPA free" but a quick email to them would probably be very helpful in making my final decision as with what to do. I have a feeling that for liability reasons they will advice me to throw it out. Its a lot easier for them to advice that than risk anything.

 

[Matrix4b]

Yeah, but then the next time his girlfriend pours boiling hot wort in them, they shatter!

Actually it's thick walled glass. A very low chance of shattering. I have followed Ken's instructions on heating the must in 2 gal of water for 14-16 pound to 160 for 5 min and I have slowed it down to just getting it warm enough to easily melt and stir the honey into the water. The brews have actally turned out no differnet. So I would recomend only melting the honey then cooling and tossing the yeast. Stir and then put in your carboy.

For cleaning reasons, I have put hot water in my glass carboys before. Not boiling but just shy of it and have not had problems.

Hmm, you need to order your carboys, Sorry to hear that you don't have a HBS near you. I recommend next time you need carboys, troll for a bit on Craigslist. For some reason unknown to me, people start brewing then give up on it. Coming into my 4th year myself and if anything, need more honey and more carboys. Also, I find brew buckets cheaper than the standard carboy. Every time I need to do oaking, or fruit or anything but a little tiny hops bag of spices, rack to the bucket. Also if I have a large brew 6+ gal then I go to the brew bucket. My large one handles 6.5 gal easily, My little one will handle 6 gal. I only have 1 6 gal carboy and 4 5 gal.

Hope it turns out well,

Matrix

 

[mccann51]

ok, well, insert random chemical name here, will leach out of plastic when it is heated. heat up a petroleum product and junk comes out of it, bottom line. if its not bpa, its the thing we will call the next bpa, let's call it bpb.

Agreed. Even plastic water bottles begin to leech out chemicals if they're reused. Plastic degrades, no matter what, and that **** has to go somewhere (ie into your drink). Just because it doesn't have BPA doesn't mean it's safe; I'm confident there's other compounds that are just as unhealthy that we just haven't identified yet. I've heard stomach cancer is one of the worst types; the cost-to-benefit just wouldn't be there for me to want to drink it.

As for the yeast in honey: after my first batch of mead where I Campdened it, I've never heated or treated my honey since (I warm it slightly in a water bath to make it less viscous) and have never had an issue w contamination, even when adding fruit into primary (though I always freeze my fruit before brewing [to break down cell walls]). I've brewed dozens of gallons of mead at this point, sometimes with less than ideal sanitation methods.

In part, this probably has to do with the nature of osmophilic yeast that Frydogbrews mentioned. As well, the amount of yeast you're pitching is a force to be reckoned with in terms of out-competing spoilage micro-organisms. So unless you're making a brochet (or is it bochet?), there's no reason to heat the honey.