Honey - may be creamed - not sure

[homesteader26]

I was shipped a kg container of honey from a friend who has bees in canada. It is white and creamy like a spread and not golden like what I think of as honey. I'm thinking of making a mead with it.

Any simple mead ideas? I have made wine from grapes, fruit, and DB and Sp but mead I have no clue about. Do you think this creamed honey would make a good base for mead?

 

[dralarms]

Warm it up. It's probably fine.

 

[Deezil]

Creamed honey is just crystallized honey, with the crystals being very fine in texture/small in size. Warm it up as Dralarms mentioned, and it should go back to a liquid state that you're more familiar with.

A kg, being ~2.2lbs, is a little less than a quart of honey (3lbs). I would suggest pairing it up with a fruit, to make 1-gallon of mead. Usually you want close to 1 quart of honey per gallon, but an addition of some fruit would help bump the sugar levels up to where you want them when it's all included.

 

[homesteader26]

I would not be against buying more honey - would you mind posting a simple mead recipe that might be nice for a newb like me to try?

 

[Deezil]

3lbs of honey per gallon, roughly 1 quart honey per 3 quarts water. Use warm water, and stir the honey in until it's thoroughly dissolved; you dont want a lump of honey coating the bottom of the fermentation vessel.

Should put you in the right range, but you'll want to check it with a hydrometer to make sure your SG is somewhere between 1.080 - 1.095; aerate it well, and read about SNAs (staggered nutrient additions). Meads are pretty devoid of any (yeast-assimilable nitrogen) YAN, so there needs to be consideration taken into account for how to feed them. This post is a good place to start for understanding nutrient addition schedules. How much you need depends on what you use.

You'd need to figure out how much nutrient you need for the whole batch, then split it into 2 or 3 additions; the first addition is always after the lag phase, wait until the yeast are actually consuming the sugar and fermentation has begun. The second addition is at the 2/3 sugar break normally, with a final addition of nutrients at the 1/2 sugar break. If you're using organic nitrogen nutrients (Fermaid-O), you can add the first after the lag phase, the 2nd addition at 2/3 sugar break and the final addition at 1/3 sugar break.

Keep the temp low; how low depends on the yeast you use and its temperature tolerance. D-47 is pretty common for mead, it gives some mouthfeel/body, has low nitrogen needs, likes to be fermented cool and will enhance fruity characteristics.

I always use Booster Blanc & Opti-White as well, they can be sourced in single-batch sizes from Doug at Brew & Wine Supply, or through MoreWine. These have many benefits between the two, and will only enhance the final product.

That's about as simple as it gets, due to meads being a little more finickier than most fermentations because of the lack of yeast nutrition. But the effort is well-worth the outcome.

 

[homesteader26]

Thank you!!! I just placed an order with Doug a few hours ago but I will acquire what I need and try this basic mead!! Thank you!!

 

[Bergmann]

Everything you have been told so far is spot on. But I would like to add my 2 cents. As Deezil said creamed honey is crystalized honey. However, It is not something that just happens. Not like honey that it just turning to sugar, the process of making creamed honey is involved and requires a starting culture and considerable effort on the part of the bee keeper making the creamed honey. for a beekeeper to make a gift of creamed honey indicates they think more of the recipient than the average Joe. Were it Me, I would enjoy the creamed honey on my morning toast with my coffee, and get some run of the mill honey to make mead from, especially if you intend to add fruit and make a melomel. Not that I am saying quality honey should not be used in mead, as I make many meads from exotic varietal honeys.

 

[homesteader26]

Thank you Bergmann - I agree this person went to great effort in gifting this to me. We rarely use it as a spread but perhaps for my initial mead experiment I will purchase some honey at the store. Its not like it will go bad . Thanks for your two cents.

 

[homesteader26]

Deezil thank you

I read through the link you posted about nutrition needs. Much is over my head but I get the jist of it - thank you. I appreciate the effort in posting and I will make a few purchases before I embark on this trial run of mead. Like a decent wine I am assuming it will need to age a year or more.