Making Basic Mead. Honey and water.

caduseus · Jan 2, 2017

Konamimeed said:
Honey is predigested sugars. Raw It has the ablity to digest starch. -
So does human salivia.

How much I am not sure the amounts to add. But I guess this is the best place, someone must have tired to covert starch grains with Really Raw honey.

can you tell us where you get this information of honey itself digesting sugars?

Keep in mind that wild yeast are unpredictable. You may end up the best mead you ever made or the worst. There is absolutely no way of knowing.
People who create their own home yeast usually:
1) They are already experienced mead makers that know what they are doing. And yes mead is very different than grape wine. Grapes have their own natural nutrients to feed the yeast which honey does not have. This one fact alone makes a HUGE difference. Also even with pitched yeast grape wine requires much less attention than mead. I am making my first batch of grape wine and floored by how much easier it is compared to mead.

2) Usually these people do experiments in small batches like half gallon or quart size so if their experiment goes wrong, much less honey is lost.

Stasis · Jan 2, 2017

A google search gives links such as the following http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dissertations/AAI3025529/
It seems unprocessed honey might break down starch, although I'm curious if it is effective as much as something traditionally used to break down the starch such as koji

Squatchy · Jan 2, 2017

All have good points. Go for it. What the hell. A pound and a half of honey is just pocket change. It more likely than not will suck . But, you may just get lucky. Let us know how you do.

Konamimeed · Jan 5, 2017

Well, one and a half days............and its just a jar of honey water.

Stasis · Jan 5, 2017

Took about 4 days for my wild t'ej to take off. With no nutrients here I'd expect maybe even longer. Sanitation is very important since it is extremely easy for a wild yeast which was not in your honey to dominate this very long lag phase. I wouldn't open the carboy if I were you because the risk of contamination is way too great

pdh · Jan 5, 2017

Konamimeed said:
Well, one and a half days............and its just a jar of honey water.

Yes, it may take a while. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a week before you saw signs of fermentation.

That said... how will you know that it's fermenting? Do you have an airlock on the jug?

bernardsmith · Jan 5, 2017

When brewers make a starter they make sure that the starter is aerated constantly by using a stir plate. You refer to a "jar"... so are you incorporating air into this must every time you pass it by?

pdh · Jan 7, 2017

pdh said:
Really Raw Honey sells a fermented version of their raw honey, so clearly it can ferment to some extent:

http://www.reallyrawhoney.com/category_s/44.htm

Of course, fermented honey isn't mead. I just now sent an email to the Really Raw folks, asking whether they know of any attempts to make bona fide mead by mixing their honey with water, with no additional ingredients or starters. I'll report back when I get a reply from them.

I got a reply from Really Raw Honey, but it's not helpful -- they say they know people have made mead using their honey, but they don't know anything about the details -- they have no idea how people went about it.

josiah · Jan 12, 2017

I make mead both ways—with commercial yeast as well as wild fermented. If you want to play with wild fermentation, consider checking out Sandor Katz's book by that title (Wild Fermentation) in which he gives suggestions for getting fermentation going with only honey and water.

My first attempt took about a week of stirring multiple times per day and keeping the must open to the air by covering the jar with a cloth. Then it took a good long time to ferment. I think it was in primary for three or four months, and secondary another six or so, and I am tempted to think I bottled it too soon.

I used the lees to start another batch at racking time, and gave that about a year in secondary before bottling, and while that was probably longer than necessary, the point is that if you want excellent results, it'll take awhile. And yes, both of these batches of mead turned out nicely enough that I'll be doing that again sometime.

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Making Basic Mead. Honey and water.

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