Hi everybody! Im new here and wanted to know if have you experimented any difference between using monofloral or multifloral honey?
Monofloral vs multifloral
- Thread starter meadambrosia
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The honey you use to make mead makes a huge difference in what results you get. Mannye will expound at length about the wonders of orange blossom honey - it has characteristics that come through in the end result really nicely. If you dig around you can find a few examples of folks like LoveOfRose using the same recipe with multiple varieties of honey to see what the difference is like.
A monofloral "varietal" honey gives a certain degree of reliability in flavour profile; buckwheat is always going to be buckwheaty and heavy, and orange blossom will always be fruity and citrussy, even if you switch from one apiary to another. What you get with "wildflower" honey is going to depend on whatever was flowering when the bees were gathering.
That said, it's not like wildflower is bad - it just means you can't tell from the name what it's going to taste like. If you can find out what time of the year and location it's from that will help - late in the year in my region may end up with darker honey containing among other things, more buckwheat. Midyear stuff around here is going to be mostly clover, but I believe there are hoops to jump through to be able to "prove" it's mostly clover honey, etc.
When you can, taste before you buy, if you have the option of buying from the beekeeper.
A monofloral "varietal" honey gives a certain degree of reliability in flavour profile; buckwheat is always going to be buckwheaty and heavy, and orange blossom will always be fruity and citrussy, even if you switch from one apiary to another. What you get with "wildflower" honey is going to depend on whatever was flowering when the bees were gathering.
That said, it's not like wildflower is bad - it just means you can't tell from the name what it's going to taste like. If you can find out what time of the year and location it's from that will help - late in the year in my region may end up with darker honey containing among other things, more buckwheat. Midyear stuff around here is going to be mostly clover, but I believe there are hoops to jump through to be able to "prove" it's mostly clover honey, etc.
When you can, taste before you buy, if you have the option of buying from the beekeeper.
I think the benefits of multifloral honey are more for the bees - more sources of nutrient. Also, possibly, for the yeast (for the same reason) - though that being said, apart from the sugar itself, honey itself isn't very nutrient rich - that's why some nutrient addition is always recommended when mead making.
I hear what your saying for sure. I am still so new to all this it's hard for me to taste things prior to fermentation and be able to imagine what it will taste like after I'm finished playin 
I have many gallons of things coming very close to start actually tasting. I sure hope I can distinguish flavors, one from another soon. I'm not such a control freak but I have sure dumped a bit of coin into things only hoping that it will be ok in the end. It is amazing how things change from just a month or two sitting in the dark
I have many gallons of things coming very close to start actually tasting. I sure hope I can distinguish flavors, one from another soon. I'm not such a control freak but I have sure dumped a bit of coin into things only hoping that it will be ok in the end. It is amazing how things change from just a month or two sitting in the dark
The monofloral or varietal honeys are unique, some can have very unusual flavors that in the raw form can carry over into the finished mead. The wildflower can vary a little from year to year of course depending on the predominant flowers the bees visit and also the season when the wildflower honey was collect, early spring wildflowers tend to give a light colored honey while the later wildflowers tend to be darker and have a stronger taste. So say you want to make a strawberry melomel, a lighter honey may pair with the strawberry best, while if you do a blackberry mel, a darker stronger flavored honey can stand up on its own to the stronger blackberry flavors. Find yourself a beekeepers group and go to their meetings to find out who has the best kinds of honey and appreaciates mead, you might even find some meadmakers in the crowd. I mentored my beekeeping mentor in making mead and now he has more carboys than I do and works really hard to find cool honey to make meads from in his travels around the country with his bees. WVMJ
Except that buckwheaty is a large breadth of character difference between really dark concentrated, to lightly slightly buckwheaty. Probably the same with Orange blossom.
Not entirely. In order to sell a varietal (for example "tupelo"), the beekeeper needs to managed their crops in a different way. Instead of just putting out the hives, coming back a month later, then harvesting, the beekeeper might need to move hives to an area where the desired flower is just before the major bloom, then harvest whatever honey's collected right after most of that bloom ends, so that the next flower bloom doesn't dilute the varietal. It's more work, requires more managing, and therefore the varietals often cost more. The cost/benefit doesn't always work out in favor of a positive cash flow.
As a smaller beekeeper, I'm beholden on the vagaries of what's around me -- I don't have time or resources to go chasing down varietals. So I get what I get, and I label it spring or fall wildflower since I can't/don't pinpoint a single floral source for the honey. As WMVJack points out, they're very different beasts. Spring = light --> a light mead. Fall = dark --> a bolder mead. (At least here in the Northeast.)
Shelly, do you get the fall goldenrod flow? I have heard some beekeepers move their hives to NY for their bees to pack their hives with goldenrod honey. WVMJ
Hi ! well, im in Costa Rica , the country is small , and the weather only has 2 major seasons , its either way summer or winter, and most important goverment regulations havent assigned specific types of honey by geographical zones; therefore everything is classified as multifloral, despite the fact that one might be able to know whats in it , for example I know this one guy producing his own honey and his bees are surrounded by great extentions of cofee plantations.
I appreciated all the replies since, I wanted to know what kind of knowledge can I gather before going to production.
I appreciated all the replies since, I wanted to know what kind of knowledge can I gather before going to production.
Yes, I sure do. Mine was heavily influenced by the knotweed this year, so it's more caramel-y in nature, and very silky.
I haven't pulled off strictly knotweed honey (it's possible -- it comes on just before the goldenrod). When the hives are putting on the knotweed honey, the apiary smells of caramel. It would probably make quite a nice mead.
One of my beekeeper friends makes knotweed honey, it does in fact make a great mead all on its own, and also can stand up on its own in berry melemels and he had so much of it last year we cooked off 5 gallons for Bochets. You just cant keep your fingers out of this stuff when you are working with it We are also doing a Polish mead with it and apple cider, its under some oak right now, going to be hard to keep this from being dissapeared so I am waiting until after the holidays to bottle it so we dont give it all away! WVMJ
We are also doing a Polish mead with it and apple cider, its under some oak right now, going to be hard to keep this from being dissapeared so I am waiting until after the holidays to bottle it so we dont give it all away! WVMJ
Is this the same thing? Bamboo honey comes from the Japanese Knotweed plant which is found in 39 of the 50 states. This plant is considered a very invasive weed. In the U.S.A. it is listed as an invasive weed in Ohio, Vermont, Virginia, New York and Washington states. Other English names for Japanese knotweed include fleeceflower, Hancock's curse, elephant ears, pea shooters, donkey rhubarb (although it is not a rhubarb), sally rhubarb, Japanese bamboo, American bamboo, and Mexican bamboo.
Yes, otherwise known as bamboo honey, Japanese knotweed, I have not seen a real plant in person but the honey it very good and rich. WVMJ
You probably have, but not known it. It's everywhere.
http://www.fws.gov/westvirginiafieldoffice/japaneseknotwood.html
http://www.fws.gov/westvirginiafieldoffice/japaneseknotwood.html
Thanks, dont think I have spotted it around here, we are sort of dryish, not much in creeks swamps wet areas around our farm but when I go out and about will keep any eye out, might find a good spot to put some bees. WVMJ
We see it all the time around here, even have one trying to come back for the last 5 years. Darn stubborn things do NOT know when they are NOT wanted. If we do not control it then the city/county/state can literally hose the AREA with up to 2 gallons of their choice of toxins (from the mouth of the person inspecting us yearly). We are totally organic here so that is not an option, so it's pull and whack when it rears it's shoots...
