General

[Fluff]

Over the weekend I picked up 5 pounds of raw honey. Does anybody have any recipes for mead or such that calls for raw honey vs processed? If I can use near 5 lbs as possible that would be great, if not no big deal.

[Schmitti]

Fluff... I will look when I get home. I don't think it will be any problem to use raw. Consider raw as the unfiltered version. It just has impurities in it like pollen, comb, .. ie flavor. It's also great for preventing allergies

Send me a pm tomorrow if you don't hear from me.

E

[Bradys71]

Fluff let me look, I have made mead before but I screwed up and the fruit I used rotted and t tasted like poo. I think really all you need to do is boil the honey in water or just heat it up (I think I used 10 to 12 lbs for 5 gallons) to get it to mix, then you use champagne yeast as the alcohol content will be higher then beer, and be prepared to wait like 6-8 months.

I will look through my recipes when I get home.

[Bob T Guy]

I've got a few books with mead recipies in them; I'll take a look. Are you looking for straight honey recipes? Or did you want honey and fruit?

[Fluff]

Whichever. I have been doing honey with fruit and gotten obscene abv with the right yeast. Was not sure if there was anything special I should do.

[sunshaker]

Originally Posted by Fluff

Over the weekend I picked up 5 pounds of raw honey. Does anybody have any recipes for mead or such that calls for raw honey vs processed? If I can use near 5 lbs as possible that would be great, if not no big deal.

1 Gallon recipe (the one I use)

Start with 1/2 gallon of water add 3lbs honey, stir (I use an egg whisk) until honey dissolved add more water until you hit the one gallon mark (every honey is a little different so the volume will be different), add Lalvin D-47 (a yeast recommended for meads, but you can use a champagne yeast), yeast nutrients (otherwise it will hang on you) and any other additives you wish. This should get you in the 12% alcohol by volume range. No boiling or heating required (unless your honey has crystallized, if that is the case you can put the honey container in a hot water (not boiling) bath for 10ish minutes which will loosen it up). I top up the must to 1 gallon at every transfer as well.

You could go with 2.5 lbs honey plus 1 lb fruit (freeze it first as that helps it ferment faster) or fruit juice (not sure how much, careful with these as they may contain preservatives that will kill your yeast). Add water and stuff as above (though the fruit will often contain enough nutrients to stop it from hanging, found that out the hard way, I had my first batch with fruit (strawberries) do a power ferment and clear in 1.5 weeks, though it was also summer but in the basement).

[oldschool]

dude - talk to Carter - he's the mead man

[Finnigan]

*bookmarks thread*

Speaking of which, does anyone know the url of the mead page Carter had put up, or if it is still up?

[Finnigan]

I have a question. Do you have to add the water to dilute the honey?

[Fluff]

Yes, otherwise it is too thick to effectively drink and way too expensive to make.