OSR honey for Mead

[cliveystb]

Hi Guys
I’m looking to make some mead in the near future and will be after 12Kg of the nectar.
prior to this I read recently that OSR isn’t as strong in the flavour dept and that it crystallises very easily.
Is this the case about flavour?
The fact that it crystallises doesn’t bother me as I will be adding it to 19ltrs of water but the flavour side is important.
I have been advised that unripe honey is perfect for brewing but given that it looks to be a poor year for the bees to do their stuff does this mean that there will be more or less unripe honey?

I’m trying to gauge if I should buy the cheaper end of the super stores honey at £1.70 per jar given I need 12Kg of it or hang on for a while to see what comes of the next honey harvest.

any pointers or ideas would be great.

thanks

Clive

 

[MuswellMetro]

Hi Guys
I’m looking to make some mead in the near future and will be after 12Kg of the nectar.
prior to this I read recently that OSR isn’t as strong in the flavour dept and that it crystallises very easily.
Is this the case about flavour?
The fact that it crystallises doesn’t bother me as I will be adding it to 19ltrs of water but the flavour side is important.
I have been advised that unripe honey is perfect for brewing but given that it looks to be a poor year for the bees to do their stuff does this mean that there will be more or less unripe honey?

I’m trying to gauge if I should buy the cheaper end of the super stores honey at £1.70 per jar given I need 12Kg of it or hang on for a while to see what comes of the next honey harvest.

any pointers or ideas would be great.

thanks

Clive

the cheaper shop stuff tends to be imported brazillian honey ( sic Chinese) and can be quite strong....i have used ragwort honey on my mead.....a definite taste

 

[Tom Bick]

Unripe honey is good for mead and cooking as unripe honey cannot be stored for any great length of time and so it is perfect for mead and cooking.

Most beekeepers will have some unripe honey and this year with supers been capped then un capped with the bad weather I think there will be plenty of unripe honey available.

I will have approx two supers of 70% unripe honey to take off in a week or so and similar to you looking to make 5 gallons of mead this year to a recipe from MuswellMetro on the forum that was easy and worked a treat last year and the rest will go into marmalade and a bit of an experiment blackberry jam.

Contact a local association regarding unripe honey If my memory serves me right a chap at ours gives it away.

Good luck.