Honey, please!

[nicodiemus]

Hello folks!

Wondering if anyone knows a good source for particularly tasty / wild honey.
I make a fair bit of mead, and am going to be making some for a living history group (as a gift, of course, not for sale!).

They want a true viking experience, so ideally i want bits of bee in there

 

[match]

Your best bet is to contact your local beekeeping association, and ask local beekeepers. you can make the mead with the wax cappings and waste, which they will often sell to you quite cheaply (the cappings are the mush of honey and wax scraped off the honeycomb before it is centrifuged to extract the honey.

You boil up the cappings in a lot of water, then let it all cool - the honey will dissolve into the water, while the wax will solidify and can be lifted out. You then ferment the honey solution, possibly adding more honey to bring up the sweetness.

Either way, local honey will taste significantly better than shop-bought honey, and may be cheaper if you're buying in bulk.

 

[nicodiemus]

Yeah, i've produced this way before.. well, from whole combs i was given by a friend, but his hives have all died out from CCD. No honey from that source for a while!

It does taste different to the stuff you get in shops. I really don't know why manufactuers insist on adulterating it.. it's shelf life is indefinite so long as it doesn't absorb too much moisture.

 

[locum76]

honey production was low all round this year because of the crap weather. you might be pushed to find people giving it away.