Can decent Mead be made by wet honey that has fermented?

Do you think it's fermented throughout the entire buckets or just on top? Is it all wet or has it crystalized some and it's wet above the crystals? Taste it to see how it tastes and smell it as well. I don't expect wild yeast will go very high so you should at least try fermenting some. You could use a strain that has a kill factor> although if you use enough yeast they should still overwhelm the wild stuff. I would use 2 grams a gallon and rehydrate with Goferm as well. What kind of honey is it? Tasting notes for the honey?

I would surely think so if it's ok to make mead with it if it's good enough to eat.

Hi - I don't have first hand experience with it, and anyone here who does may not have had the same situation as you. Some things we don't know is what exactly is fermenting - e.g. what if malolactic bacteria, or brettanomyces got in there as well? I know the GotMead member loveofrose was doing some experiments with isolating and using wild yeast strains, so he may be someone to talk to (possibly try via www.denardbrewing.com).

All I can offer is what I would do. Mead is likely possible as long as there is residual sugar.

For any of the honey that I know/think is partially fermented, I'd try an experiment. Before that though, I might actually taste the honey that is in question. I could use about 5 quarts worth, make a 5-6 gallon batch, and I'm only risking some of my time, and the yeast and go-ferm costs at this point as the honey isn't sell-able. If it kicks off good and everything smells and tastes alright, I can risk the small costs of adding nutrients, and just take it a step at a time. I might even try a smaller batch just to get an idea of how it might taste. You might even end up with a rare flavor profile that is awesome (think positive ).

If you pitch enough yeast to overcome any of the wild yeast, you should be OK. Another tactic I might take is adding k-meta to the must after mixing it and letting it set for 24 hours (sealed) before pitching any yeast. My thinking here is that maybe I can knock out enough wild yeast to give the yeast I'm using a better chance.

As Squatchy said, pick a yeast that has a killer factor.

Please let us know what you end up doing, and/or find out.

Tunajohn, I'd probably do a test if I had more of my containers available. I've been ramping up the 'mead machine' so I'm not running out, and to get through my own experiments as well. It will be another 8 weeks or so.

Out of curiosity, have you smelled and tasted any of the buckets that seem to be in fermentation mode? (sorry if I missed that in a previous post)

Well, I don't know about time on determining if it's salvageable. There are a lot of unknowns based on your description. If it is truly fermenting, it will probably keep doing so and only get worse. It sounds like you have 50+ 5 gallon buckets of honey. If it was me, I'd check every bucket and separate them out into 3 categories - something like: perfectly fine, unsure (maybe partially fermented), and not good.

I would assume that the 'not good' version would smell/taste yeasty, fermented, maybe even bitter or sour. It may even have mold in it if there's enough moisture in the bucket.

I've seen some pics of fermented jars where you could tell that probably only the top half of the crystalized honey was tainted, and the rest was likely fine. I think this is what Squatchy was alluding to as well. If you have 50 buckets with the top 50% tainted, then you may still have quite a bit of perfectly fine honey to make mead with (you'd want to remove the tainted honey.

As far as testing it goes, it's probably only applicable if the honey doesn't have any off smells/flavors because that could come through in the mead. I think that's also why Squatchy was asking for tasting notes.

I expect this will go full circle to what I said. We'll see. If it's good enough to eat it ok to make mead with.