Best Honey for Mead Making?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 6 жов 2024
- Today we're discussing the best places to buy your honey for mead making! I have used a mixture of in store, online and local honeys. I'll be talking about some of my favorites. Here are the links to what I've tried and what I recommend:
Amazon:
5 Lb Clover: www.amazon.com...
3 Pound Arizona Wildflower: www.amazon.com...
3 Pound Orange Blossom: www.amazon.com...
12 Pound Desert Creek Honey: www.amazon.com...
12 Pound Florida Orange Blossom: www.amazon.com...
Dutch Gold Honey:
www.dutchgoldh...
You can also find lots of great honeys in stores like Costco, Walmart, Sams, Natural Grocers, Sprouts and really any store local to you.
You can also support your local bee keepers by buying from them. Most of the time they sell them at Farmers Markets.
www.ManMadeMead.com
www.Patreon.com/ManMadeMead
www.Facebook.com/ManMadeMeadery
Check out these links and thank for watching!
Merchandise: society6.com/m...
Patreon: / manmademead
Facebook: / manmademeadery
PO BOX: PO Box 21791 Oklahoma City, OK 73156
Paypal Donations: Www.paypal.me/manmademead
Facebook: manmademeadery
Instagram: @ManMadeMead
Twitter: @ManMadeMead
I'm a beekeeper so I'll say that the best honey for my mead comes from my back yard. I'm biased but I'd say buy local honey and help support a local beekeeper. Local honey is expensive because of the cost to keep bees for a small bee keeper. If I do sell any honey I personally sell it for $12 per pound and even at that price I break even on the bottle. I personally don't keep bees to make money so at the end of the year if I sell enough to cover the cost of the bottles I'm happy.
I found a local bee keeper and buy small bulk, around 50kg (I think that's about 120pounds) at $8 a kg (Australia). He gets a 5 gallon bottle or 2 when we meet up. Love local honey
I buy local honey, and I'm able to grab a gallon for less than $60. So win for me Hahaha.
Scrolled down to say something similar: Look up local beekeepers' associations, they typically have relationships with local businesses that sell locally-sourced honey and may even have surplus available from association members, and you can't do much better than locally-sourced honey for _any_ culinary purpose.
I honestly give away the vast majority of my honey to people that I know will enjoy it. Last year I harvested about 100 pounds of honey and only sold 10 pounds. That was enough to cover the cost of all of the bottles for the 100 pounds. Had I sold all of it I would've made a little money but when you take my time over the year into account on top of the equipment and other expenses I would be making so little it isn't worth it. I personally get more out of giving honey to people who will enjoy it than a few dollars in my pocket. After I harvest honey in the early summer I will ship some to him so that he can make some mead with it.
I found some local honey for a pretty good price. I’m just wondering if I need to do anything with it before I start my mead. I read a few things that say you need to boil it with water to get out anything left from the comb but the stuff I have seems pretty clear. Any advise?
Buying in bulk is almost always the least expensive option, but not always the best option for those of us that only make 1 gallon batches. That's where your local homebrew club comes in. The club can purchase a bulk amount from a local apiary and then part it out to members. It's a win for everyone.
Same goes for cider.
Keep it local, friends!
Bottom line is the better the honey the better the mead (assuming you know how to ferment it properly). If you can get local, raw honey from a bee keeper at a good price per pound then that is fantastic! If not, then Dutch Gold is a great way to go. Good video! 🥂
Agree with you. Here in India some local bee keepers have asked us in youtube to help them financially by buying their pure honey so that they can keep their business running smoothly.
They are willing to give us honey for INR 200 per kg that is approx $3 per kg if we buy in bulk. Thinking to buy 5kg at once for making mead for a year of stock. What is ur suggestion?
Doesn't matter much except for back-sweetening.
Does raw vs pasteurized make a difference? (As your video on heating the honey didn't seem to make a difference) just trying to understand all this 🙂 thanks
@@desireerudolph5992 you dont want pasteurized it ruins the honeys flavor by heating it to a temp that basically cooks it and caramelizes it.
I raise bees, if you're finding honey for less than about $4/pound then its definitely being cut with high fructose corn syrup. Which is extremely common in the honey you find in grocery stores. That's why buying local is so important. You'll always know what you're getting even if its more expensive. The typical rate is $8/lb (as of 2021). Any more than that and you're probably overpaying. Also if you leave the honey sit it should always crystalize. If it never does then its been processed which will remove some of the flavor.
Truth! I just started making mead and went with buying local from the co-op in my city. 5.23/lb for wildflower raw unfiltered. The bare tasting between store bought and the local raw honey is heavily apparent. If you can afford it, always go local. Support your neighborhood apiaries!
I also have hives. But Costco is actually decent locally sourced honey generally and changes seasonally appropriately. I've had an apiary in my orchard for 3 years but I've been making mead for 22 and Costco is a life saver when you need a basic screened but not microfiltered pure wildflower or clover honey for additional bulk. As for rate, it's variable to the amount the area produces vs buyers. Granted I brew everything I collect and don't sell it. But my local apiaries are way overpriced at $13-17lb in Washington state and are all back stocked 3-4 years because of their unwillingness to drop to market prices. They're the organic people who obviously can't say that legally because they can't force bees to stay on their flowers only, but because of honey always being organic itself get away with the marketing.
my local farmers market sells a honey from a farm with an apiary for 22$/3lb. They have a number on the side of the jar that im going to give a call and see if I can get my honey directly from them and its good to know what a general market value is. One thing I would like to add is the honey my mead master is teaching me with tastes like the store bought rice syrup that comes in a bear. The honey I have bought from the farm has a far more complex and pleasing taste to it. I cant remember off hand what brand he uses but when i do ill come back to this comment section.
The only caveat I would add is that honey pricing is very much regional and will shift in line with local costs of living. 8/lb in Washington state may translate to 12/lb somewhere else.
That honestly freaked me out the first time I purchased raw honey was the crystalization. My uneducated brain thought it was beeswax lol
Here in India we don't have much choice as the branded honey has no specification mentioned on packaging.
But on the brighter side I have met some honey farmers who intend to help us getting pure honey of particular variety. One of them showed us white honey of mustard flowers. I'm really interested in making mead from crude honey. These guys told me that we can refine the raw honey by placing it under the sun for a week.
You should try some mesquite honey next, and make some prickly pear mead with it. That's some nice south-west drink for a hot summer day.
Sounds divine!
Done that. For me, it has resulted in a dry mead. Which is just fine for me.
I literally just had this thought yesterday. I’m really going have to try this.
Yummmmy
I went all in and my first mead is a 6 gallon traditional with 18lbs of Orange blossom honey. Its still aging but it tastes great already at only 3 months old. I find that if you look for the honey brands main website you can find better prices and/or larger volumes. so its sometimes better to check their site before just getting it from Amazon.
A mead I really want you to make is one with meadow foam, yes I know it's expensive but man the best mead I've ever had was made with the stuff. Plan on trying to make one this next year myself! Thanks for the great video, gonna have to check out Dutch Gold.
Just some clarification for anyone new that comes through;
Monarchs choice (bulk 60lb tubs) are HEAVILY pasteurized (over 200 degrees) which they even claim in their product description.
Dutch choice is about as raw as it comes. They FILTER their honey, which simply means they filter it over and over and over again until honeycomb particles or bee parts or other organic stuff gets left out, which is pretty normal. They don’t actually pasteurize anything.
I know this because as an experiment, I’m brewing them both side by side currently in bulk 20 gallon waste drums (40 gallons total). Same yeast, same conditions, same starting nutes, everything except for the difference in raw and pasteurized. The heavily pasteurized honey is being absolutely run through whereas the raw is going niceeeee and slowwwwww. As we all know, the hare never finishes first. They both smell and taste the same currently as far as the profile of the orange blossom, but only age will tell. The pasteurized OB is only a few days from done and the raw OB is probably still 2-3 weeks out.
Beyond the experiment, Dutch choice is solid freaking honey. I’ve bought in bulk from them twice now and both times i got multiple pales and still super satisfied with the product consistency. MMM is right as far as saving money by buying in bulk. It’s dirt cheap in comparison, even with the better blossom honey like orange and blueberry. Best bang for your buck 👍🏻
Costco honey is 9.99 for either state raw honey (3 lb) or clover/wild flower (5 lb). Every where ive been this has been the case.
Your my Mead Guru! I’m waiting on my mead kit, which should show up sometime next week. Im educating myself in the meantime. I’m patiently excited ‼️
That's awesome! Let me know how it turns out!!
I must be extremely fortunate when it comes to local honey. I just bought a gallon from a local beekeeper, for making my first mead and it only cost my $60. If I enjoy making mead as much as I think I will, I have a feeling I'll be buying out his entire supply.
$60? Thats awesome
I feel luckier I just got 5 gallons for 60 and it’s so dark. The guy hardly spoke English but I understood that he sells 55 gallon barrels for 2500. I believe 55 gallons. Anyway he has a lot of be hives on his property and I just knocked on his door. God bless
@@DavidThomasTimmer does he speak Spanish?
@@blondequijote yes
@DavidThomasTimmer I need to make a trip there with an empty suitcase and 60$ maybe 120$.
I also recommend checking with your local brew shop. Ours here in Phoenix carries many different kinds of honey and it's sourced locally from around Arizona. The prices vary but it tends to be between $5-$7 a pound. Not bad.
Is that Brew Your Own Brew? I use them in Tucson.
@@martharetallick204 It is indeed!
Can we talk about how most honey on basic grocery shelves is just honey flavor rice syrup from china?
Agreed, most consumers aren’t aware of this! The best large brand honeys in the US will specifically state that they do not use any imported honey and do not blend with syrups (rice or sugar or otherwise).
The folks at WinCo will wig out when you fill a 5 gallon container from the bulk pump ;) 2 to 4 $ an lb
Wait what? Seriously I can see that. Is it raw homey?
I buy Pure and Simple at Walmart. 5 pound $12.00. Pretty good results
I get my honey from sams club. its bundled in 2 2.5 lb containers for $15. I like clover honey because it seems more ready to take on flavor from anything thrown into it.
Have you tried Deserts Creek Honey out of Texas… Just bought 5 gallons of there Texas Wildflower honey for $219. There was no shipping charge for over $50 purchase and no sales tax if you order directly from there website.
I used it quite some time ago. It was okay!
Costco @ OKC May 16! 5lbs for $11.99.
Can't wait! That place will be a madhouse when it opens.
Thanks for this Vid and the links! Cant wait to save up enough to get some dutch boy honey and syrup in a 5gal pail!!! In the meantime I will see what I can find locally!
I look up a lot of the honey that I get on honey.com using their honey locator, you can get them straight from the beekeeper's that way
Webstaurant has some good online options for bulk honey. I've used their Orange blossom and it worked great.
Raphael Schwarz I’ve been eyeing that. Do you make traditional only or do you add fruit??
Good price, I would consider selling at that price. I usually sell for $20/ quart.
@@MrYou105 I have done both fruited and traditional meads with the Orange Blossom honey from webstaurant. Both turned out great. Actually just polished off my last bottle of an orange spice mead earlier this month that I made back in 2019. It aged beautifully!
Majority of Australian honey is Yellow box.
I have yet to purchase 60 lbs of honey but sounds cost effective. I have used a local apiary here in San Antonio, so local they actually drove to my place and dropped it off, and it was by far the best in flavor with it being raw and unfiltered. It was a wildflower that blended well in my metheglins and cost 80 bucks. Amazon has been my choice in varieties with wildflower, orange, clover and now thistle, and the flavor and texture has varied. My biggest concern about buying any where is getting something that's been blended with HFCS and your only getting 50% of real honey. Its tough to prove but reputation goes along way. Great vid man, keep em comin!
That’s definitely a real concern. Dutch Gold and all of the other online options have all been true honey that isn’t blended. But I’ve definitely seen some suspect honeys in the past.
What apiary did you use? I'm also in San antonio and have been looking for someone
Its Holdman Honey - 1050 Youth Haven Road, Seguin, TX 78155. They have a website you can order gallon jugs and is about 45 min to an hour away. They have a few varieties including a mesquite I have yet to try. The purist that I am I went with the Bexar County Wildflower. Its truly raw and unfiltered, dark with debris. Did a wonderful job with my spiced meads.
I just bought 16,5 lb , 30$ lokal Honey. In denmark. So at the time i am making 11 gallon mead, 3 kinds.
Sam's Club, 5lb for $13.
I picked some up, will see how it performs this summer...
Have you tried Tasmanian leatherwood honey?
I haven’t! But it sounds really interesting!
Awesome vid man. Thanks!
I get local-to-me honey in 55-60lb buckets for $155. I'm curious about the Dutch Gold stuff to try new honeys but $80 for shipping is a bit much.
I actually have found 5lb containers of honey at walmart for around $12. The only problem with that is that it's not always in stock. As for the quality, my mead hasn't seem to suffer for it.
I think we use the same honey! It's definitely made some decent meads in my experience.
@@duayinepu2103 The biggest factor in mead making is patience really. You can have the best ingredients, but if you rush things it can ruin the batch. After you have a few batches around, though, patience is much easier. In fact, I've just been too lazy to bottle my last couple of batches so they just sit there and age.
@@ln108 Oh yeah, patience is super important, I've learned that the hard way. Some of my early brews just weren't done, but sometimes that gave a good carbonation. I've also had bottles explode, so I've had to learn the hard way to just let things finish.
@@duayinepu2103 Yeah, I made one that had a good carbonation, which is nice. Only one bottle in that batch blew open. It just blew the cork out, so it could have been much worse. Funny enough, it's probably the best mead for non-mead drinkers that I've made.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?
I'm a bee keeper. 70% of the honey at the store is not pure honey. Real honey will sink straight to the bottom of your water and does not readily mix well.
To be considered a certain type of honey, it only has to contain 51% of that type. So, your % could very.
Golden rod honey kinda smells of wet socks. Good luck with that
I have a couple videos up of catching swarms if anyone's interested in bees.
ever tried the TJO Bees Raw and Unfiltered Honey (from amazon)?
The best honey for mead is the kind that ferments
Definetly don't use the acacia honey. It tastes super on its own but as a mead it has this fructose sour sweet taste (not the same sour sweet as normal mead)
Interesting I love Slovakian light mead which is with acacia honey
@@thebrownpopegaming5762 must have been doing it wrong then
@@erathor9120 I have never personally used it so don't know for sure but our taste buds could also be very different
@@thebrownpopegaming5762 Aight. Fair enough then ^^
Meanwhile in Alaska local honey is $20 per lb and up. Dutch Gold honey here I come.
Oh wow! Dutch gold will change your world!
Yeah I contacted them and it was $253 shipping + honey cost. It sounds really bad due to shipping but ~$400 after all divided by 60 is $6.66 per lb which is much better than $20 per lb. I actually found honey on Etsy called Absolutely Raw Honey for 12lb for $59.99 and free shipping to Alaska from Utah (I feel this was my first and last time getting no shipping on this haha). Highly good rating, raw and unfiltered so we will see how unfiltered it really is.
www.etsy.com/listing/221630934/absolutely-raw-honey-bulk-raw-clover
They only have one honey of Clover Blossom so I'll be hitting Dutch Gold for other flavors after this.
Where can I get access to your links not sure how to access them equipment sources etc. Please
What do you think of melter honey
Is there honey that pairs better with fruit like pineapple or boysenberry?
What about mangrove honey?Has anyone tried it?
What is the baker's special honey? I couldn't find a description but it a great buy
Some sugar syrup mixed with HFCS?? Lol
Support your local beekeeper.
That’s nice and all if you’re the type of person who only makes a gallon for themselves like once in a blue moon. People like me who plan on opening a meadery? Supporting locally is financial suicide.
SAD. There are beekeepers in my area that produce in the multiple barrel / truckload levels.
Hey man I love the videos been alot of help I want ti make sure my mead I'm brewing it's a 5 gallon batch has the least amount of co2 as possible any tips?
Gently stir the mead once a day for 3 days ( He also had a vid ). This will degas the initial co2. And if youd like stir once a week after, trying not to introduce too much oxygen. Apart from that mead will release its c02 over time naturally. And given its best to age for several months you should be dealing with minimal co2 by time of drinking
Warrior Man is right! When you degas the mead (the process of stirring it lightly to get rid of any C02) make sure you don't stir too vigorously. You can stir a little more vigorously in the beginning because the mead needs some oxygen in it and it doesn't matter as much to add some in. However, when you get past the primary fermentation (the bulk of your fermentation) you don't want to add oxygen in. It will degas over time as the mead sits, so don't worry about it too much. Just lightly stir and let it set for awhile!
Thanks for the tips I'll check out the video and let you know how it comes out 👍
the only thing that has kept me from buying such a large amount has been the worry of getting the honey into my car boys any tips or tricks you use?
You could always get a funnel for a really simple solution
Buy one of these, www.mannlakeltd.com/shop-all-categories/extraction-bottling/honey-extraction/filters-pails-gates/5-gallon-18-92-l-pail-with-honey-gate
Are the cheaper honey's just as good as the more expensive honeys?
Definitely not! More expensive honey doesn't go through as much processing - meaning that it has more true flavors. Cheap honey is often pasteurized and filtered, which strips characters from it!
The goal is to have my own BeeFarm.
That would be awesome!
Has anyone tried BLENDING honeys for a more complex flavour profile? I have a pine honey that I absolutely love, but it costs a packet. Could I blend it 50/50 with wildflower honey in a basic mead without losing all the brisk notes of the pine honey?
Blending honeys is great! You can blend whatever types of honeys you want!
@@ManMadeMead If I blend them in primary, is it probable that I could lose the pine notes? Would it be better to try for a dry fermentation and backsweeten with the pine honey?
I just bought some meadowfoam honey. Do you prefer to back sweeten or stop fermentation to keep the honey flavor?
In a perfect world I would always just put more honey in to cap out the yeast and then not even worry about either of those. However, I normally tend to back sweeten. But I've experimented a lot with halting fermentation too!
How expensive was it? I heard meadowfoam has marshmallowie flavors!
I'm noticing that a lot of mead makers refer to honey in terms of weight, not volume. Why is that?
I think most people just associate their measurements to weight. It’s easier to track in my opinion!
@@ManMadeMead thanks for the reply!
Honestly. I found keeping my own bees to simply be cheaper.
What if you live in Colombia, any idea of what kind of honey is good here?
I wish I knew! I would try to get some online if possible, otherwise I’m not sure what’s around you
@@ManMadeMead Im making my first mead in August, but I have a problem selecting the honey, apparently they don't put the honey type when they sell it, but that's not going to stop me from making mead. Wish me luck 👍🏻
I'll ALWAYS go local- my guy gives me deals- and its BETTER
I definitely recommend to support locally when possible!
I don't have the buy honey my honey bees make it for me
Mead Ryan gosling
I'm going to be using some local washington state raw honey for my forst mead this weekend. Haven't tasted it yet but looks pretty dark and cloudy. Might be really good, might be pretty gnarly. We'll see
How was it? Any left u can sample half a year later?
Do you know any promo codes for that Dutch honey website?
I wish!!
Rango honey
I quit making mead, honey is too expensive for my fix income. I will stick to sugar 4lbs for $1.35
True but if you just make a traditional mead its about the same because you dont have to buy fruits and/or juices.
@@fishingwithkyle1894 I think you need to check your math, honey cost $15.00for 3 pounds.i can get 3 pounds of sugar for $1.35 I can all so make a gallon of wine for 10.00 and under. Leave the mead to the rich people.
Hard for me to find a good site to buy honey the good ones i see are usa only and dont send tk canada and the ones that sell here sell most half a pound of normal honey for $40 to $70 never found pound one fore under $40 including duck gold
Oh jeez! Are there any Local apiaries around you?
@@ManMadeMead unluck me no. I live in montreal its all cities and outside the iseland its hundreds of miles of farms and some bee farms but its all regulated in small jars for expensive price cause the quebec government regulates it that way since they dont allow free trade but i found some good cheap honey at dutchmans golds website was just looking at the more expensive ones before that didbt have the 3kg option but i found a good one now thank you for your help and ideas with your videos. Im a newbie myself and just started my first batch a month ago and i was an iditon and added more nutirents after 3 days
To bad Dutch gold shipping is overpriced
I have a feeling your mead contains a lot of corn syrup.
Not with the companies that I’m buying from!
Man Made Mead How do you know in general if honey bottles or containers only say honeymoon, if they have corn syrup
best honey is oak honeydew honey, period.
I haven’t tried it!
Hey get up with me I could possibly be cheaper than anybody or any where you have got it from before. I am a bee keeper.
Where are you located and do you have a Facebook page I can contact you through?
MMM's Shenanigans I don’t have Facebook . Sorry but you are welcome to txt me at 601-422-5092 if you would like
That honey is mixed nobody can't control what honey bees go forging on they're going to get whatever is out there and you're always going to have a mixture I'm different types of blooms
Avoid buckwheat honey.
Why would you say that? Price? Flavor? I actually have my 1st buckwheat traditional in secondary, for probably close to 4 months (originally started in Dec 2018). I didn't much care for it at the time of racking so I'll see if aging has helped. I'll be bottling it probably in a month or 2!
Trevor Socia In a traditional the finished product tends to taste like warm spit.