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making a mead out of already fermenting honey

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F

flyweed

NewBee
Registered Member
Jan 9, 2009
16
0
1
WI
Hi all. It's been quite a while since I've been here. It's actually been quite a while since I've made and MEAD either.

Anyway, I have a friend who is a bee keeper, and he has several containers full of honey that has started fermenting naturally on him. They are in sealed containers, but have still started to ferment on him. He can't sell the honey, so he wanted to know if I wanted to turn it into some mead. So I told him yes, I'd take it and turn it into something. So, should I do one pound of mead per gallon of water, should I bring the water up to hot water to kill off the current wild yeasts in it, and then when cool re-pitch an appropriate yeast starter? Any help on salvaging this honey and making it into something decent to drink would be great.

Thanks for any help.
 
Any cultured yeast you purchase will kill any of the wild yeast that's in the honey. The reason it started fermenting is it has too much water content in it. My guess is he harvested it prematurely and the bee's didn't dry it out enough for it to store for ever
 
Squatchy, thanks for the reply. I knew that naturally fermenting honey has more water in it than normally capped off honey. So I guess my question is, do I just add the honey to warm water to dissolve it well, and then re-pitch with something like 1118 or D47 and add some nutrient and let it go? Should I maybe add some fruit to it to add some flavor? Right now when I open the jars of fermenting honey i get a good nose of "bread yeast smell.
 
I hope you post a brewlog!

I'll be fermenting some of my own already fermenting honey once I get some stuff bottled and make some room in carboys! What I've found is that my fermenting honey when used in other things ends up just tasting like honey (in tea, in baking), so I wouldn't think you'd need to add fruit for taste reasons. Maybe keep that as an option in secondary?

I was planning to use K1V1116 for mine. I was told by someone who'd tested fermenting honey that the yeast causing that fermentation rarely will go above about 2% alcohol, but now and then he'd get a strain that'll go up to12%, so use your hydrometer so you know what your starting point is.
 
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