Mead Making: Does Heating Honey Matter?

Today we're testing whether or not heating your honey affects the flavor of your mead. I ran this test by using the same mead recipe and general same original gravity. I am attaching the recipe below so check it out there! In one of my meads I just mixed the ingredients and started the fermentation and in the other one I heated then honey at 140 F for 20 minutes and then mixed everything together. Let me know what you think of my results. I appreciate you all!
Check out Doin the Most! ---- / standardissue
Recipe Used:
3/4 Gallon of Water
2.5 Pounds of Clover Honey
2 Grams of Lalvin QA23
OG: 1.079
FG: 1.000
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[@perotross]

Love these "does it make a difference" type videos. There is a lot of info available out on the internet, much of it not backed at all by anything credible. You have put a lot of time and effort in these videos to help the whole community gain valuable, factual information. Appreciate it!

[@swamp1138]

I've come to realize that you hear more "bro science" in mead making than you do when lifting at the gym.

[@Rally825]

I toured a Winery a while back that got started doing mead and then branched out to grape and other fruit wines. One of their meads is a “traditional” boiled mead. The Wine-master (Mead-master?) explained to me that by heating the must to 180 degrees Fahrenheit (not actually boiling) and skimming the foam and solids off, it removes the proteins and that was an early way to help clarify the mead.

[@ManMadeMead]

I would love to put this to the test one day!

[@poisonjjivy]

I use the technique described by your guest in order to brew my meads: boiling the must and skimming the foam. The first time I brew mead, my family didn't have much faith in the results of my "experiment", but when they finally tasted it they truly like the way it turned out and we have done several meads since then using the same technique. I'm not a mead expert but I really believe that if you brew/cook/bake something and you are happy with the results then why don't keep on using that same technique and improving it your own way; I don't see the need of fighting over which technique is the best, just make it the way you feel comfortable.

[@franksuarez8531]

I am a beekeeper. Raw honey has always some amount of natural yeast. The bees know this, that’s why after collecting the nectar they add some enzymes and then store it in the wax cells. They left the cells open and they make a great effort to keep a constant temp and air flow so the nectar water content starts dropping. That is not considered honey yet. When the water content in the nectar drops below 18 percent we can call it honey. At that moment the bees capped the cells with a layer of wax. If they cap the cell with more water content the nectar will ferment because of the yeast present. Based on that I will recommend to heat your honey pasteurizing it for 5 minutes at 150 F before adding the water to make the must only if your honey is really Raw. If you are buying commercial honey most of those has already been pasteurized and there is no need to do it again, the yeast has been killed. Although heating a little bit your honey will make it more fluid and easy to dissolve in the must.

[@gapey]

It's a good experiment. I wonder if aging them longer would bring out any bigger differences. I never pasteurize mine but I do typically heat up the water first and then add the honey to the hot water, adding hot water to the jar and swirling it around to get every last drop I can out of it. I use well water which is one of the reasons I like to get the water good and hot first. I've never had any problems.

[@Yugophoto]

If burning or bocheting the honey is a concern, you could heat it with a double boiler (large pot of water on heat, smaller pot of honey in the water). It'll take longer but it'll ensure there isn't as intense, uneven heat on the honey that's on the bottom. You do the same thing if you want to melt chocolate without burning it.

[@timhaugen6410]

This is my 4th video, of yours I've watched and you've already saved me hundreds of dollars and, at least. a year of my life. Thank you for your experience.

[@ManMadeMead]

I’m happy to help!!

[@brocknspectre1221]

I love how you can time warp! Thanks for the planning and patience to make this!

[@ManMadeMead]

I'm happy to do it! Time warping is fun!

[@bababendot]

need more of these A/B Test experimeads from you guys!

[@ManMadeMead]

More to come for sure!

[@danielderencinovic3532]

there is a mead called "gvirc" in one part of Croatia. Traditionally it was made with whole pieces of honeycomb. You would add honeycomb to water and boil it, honey would dissolve in water and wax would float to the top and you would scoop it. When there was no technology to separate honey from honeycomb, boiling was easyest way to separate wax and make mead

[@ManMadeMead]

Very interesting! That sounds great!

[@victorinesara9743]

Great tip there!

[@benthomsen2220]

I'd love to see a boil with skimming vs. Non boil. A lot of old recipes recommended this even explicitly stating it wasn't necessary.

[@ManMadeMead]

I’ll add it to the list!

[@Imatyahoo1]

I think your test was well done. I also think you should consider revisiting this topic of heat vs not. From merely a cooking perspective, it almost always adds a deeper fuller flavor to your sustenance by letting it simmer or reduce. I really think the proces of heating and cooling, prior to the addition of your yeast, really brings it all together.. so to speak.

[@marksimmons8950]

It would be interesting to get a 2 years update on the 2 meads, just to see if the heat makes a difference in sitting

[@ManMadeMead]

I don't have these anymore unfortunately...

[@dswade59]

Biggest difference would be that you wouldn't need the extra step with not heating, which in Homebrew is a win in my book

[@christianr.b.6074]

Love your channel. There should be no harm in adding your yeast to the warm honey. QA23 is directed to be rehydrated at 104 F.

[@leocarlsson3753]

This is great for me, since most honey in Sweden is very firm, and unless heated will be impossible to pour

[@SodyPopInSpace]

Scoop it out with a hot spoon and blend it with water in a blender

[@mycrazylifewfawnlisette3582]

A friend of mine sent me honey in a Gatorade bottle. And it looks more like butter now, probably similar to what you have in Sweden. I will definitely have to do some heating to get it out. I had a cactus honey that was the same and although I scooped that with a spoon, it took sooo much shaking and stirring to get it to mix in/dissolve into the mead.

[@SodyPopInSpace]

Fawn Ricciuti Again, use a blender. If it’s stuck in a gatoraid bottle cut the bottle in half with a knife

[@leocarlsson3753]

@@SodyPopInSpace Oh, thanks! gotta try that, seems a looot faster than the methods I've been using so far. If nothing else, I can do that while shaking hot water in the honey jar to get the extra honey out of the jar :)

[@mycrazylifewfawnlisette3582]

@@SodyPopInSpace I might do that for secondary, I'm planning on using some neutral honey and 1/3-1/2 for primary. Then the rest back-sweetening.

[@julietardos5044]

MMM, I really appreciate the experiments you do. I'm in the middle of an experiment myself, loosely based on your 8 different yeast test. I'm trying out 3 different cider yeasts. At 3 weeks, they taste very different and have very different gravities. So interesting.

[@thisolddog2259]

You should try EC.118, I use it in both my ciders and meads with great results!

[@julietardos5044]

@@thisolddog2259 I've used 1118. It's not my favorite. Plus, I usually don't want my brews to go that high ABV. The 3 yeasts I used in this test mentioned were Safcider, SO4, and Belle Saison. At the time (3 years ago), the BS was the best, but I just opened the last 3 bottles last night, and the SO4 was the best tasting. Safcider might be good for something, but not for cider, ironically.

[@thisolddog2259]

@@julietardos5044 I understand, I do like a high Abv but an acceptable flavor balance. I've always ran pretty good luck with EC.118

[@SpottPhoto]

I was surprised to see that not heating the must was the normal method. All my musts have been brought to 150F for 5 min, ran through a chiller & pitched immediately. That is the way I learned to brew. The thought of mixing a must strictly at room temp seems too risky to me for outside contamination.

[@subjectego]

I have seen a lot of recipes which do the simmer-and-skim with at least the honey and water, if not all must ingredients. My first orange blossom traditional was from a recipe specifying this approach, and it turned out delightful! For the next variation of this test, that method would be a good candidate. It could also provide extra confidence for folks considering older recipes using this approach, but who are wary of diminishing the quality of the honey that way. I would also be curious about using a less neutral honey. Perhaps wildflower?

[@ManMadeMead]

I am definitely interested in trying the skimming method. I'm excited to see what the results will be from that!

[@mikesmicroshop4385]

There is nothing wrong with the sim and skim method from older sources. The main reason that they did that is because there were few if any good commercial fermentation yeasts and what were available and the ones that were did not necessarily get going fast enough to prevent wild yeasts and molds from ruining your must! The Yeasts available today get going really fast and form a huge vigorous colony, quickly overpowering any wild yeasts or molds that may be present. So today the need is gone, but there is still the fact that your change the nature of the Honey by simmering. Simmering drives off many of the more delicate Volatiles in the honey, and the scum you are removing from the top is proteins, Waxes, and other things present in the Honey. Bare in mind that Honey that is more delicate in flavors will be Much more effected by Sim & Skim than a stronger flavored Honey as more of their character is from the delicate Volatile chemicals present in the Honey! So doing that method will result in a different product than if you do not, in the end if you like the results, that is all that matters! !

[@KnobbyWobby]

I don't see the case for pasteurizing the honey itself, but would loooove to see a similar experiment with pasteurizing the finished mead for the people who don't like to stabilize theirs with potassium metabisulfite/potassium sorbate.

[@ManMadeMead]

I'll have to try that test in the future!

[@fotballfredrik1]

Love these comparisons of methods. Please continue to do so. Could you compare sanitizing methods as well?

[@ManMadeMead]

I can add it to the list!

[@ravendon]

Heating honey just makes it more fluid and also allows you to add other ingredients easily such as dice fruits and cut up raisins. It can sterilize the water you use. Honey by itself will kill most microbes except for a certain spore. So no need about destroying the living biome in the honey. Then just let it cool and use a funnel to easily add the must to your fermenter.

[@nicholashess5977]

I wonder if there are any sort of difference in smells? As every thing I have read and seen say you lose some of the subtle fragrance and flavors. As it is a younger mead, would be interesting to revisit in a year. Great Video!!!

[@ManMadeMead]

We didn't really notice a difference in the smells which I thought was also interesting!

[@oscars.kennedy1031]

I always heat my honey, cause I use raw honey and sometimes comes with bee wax and bee parts so that's the only way I can get them out, later I pour my ingredients like berries, cinnamon, vanilla, but let it cold in ambient so it doesn't kill the yeast when I add it, and my results always been good, thanks for your videos, they been of great help for me starting in the world of the mead

[@ManMadeMead]

I'm happy to help! Happy brewing!

[@tonymwanza1800]

What is this, a crossover episode?

[@Dogstickfetch]

Great test! Great info! Thanks MMM and BC!!!

[@RabbitOvHell1990]

this actually got me curious. i work in a dairy as a trained dairy technologist in germany. is pasteurization just defined differently in your country? here in germany it is commonly defined by a heating of a product to at least 72°C for at least a duration of 15 seconds, or a dfferent time/heat combination with the same effectiveness (meaning higher heat, less duration). it is specifically defined by an enzyme test for the enzyme phosphotase. if that enzyme is no longer active it is proof of a successful pasteurization. even higher heat treatments are defined by a peroxidase enzyme test.

[@briianhebert]

Thanks for the video! I have tried both ways in the past, as you have shown I didn't notice any real difference.

[@Flail_Snail]

Now I'm curious how different honey varietals would behave in a similar experiment.

[@ManMadeMead]

That would be an interesting experiment!

[@thibeault]

National Honey Board has a mead making pdf that you can find on the bjcp site that recommends pasturizing the honey/water mix at 190 F (!) For 10-20 minutes

[@carion2116]

Thank you for doing the testing for us. I have not done any brewing or mead making yet. I want to get my ducks in a row before I start trying it. I am getting great ideas to work with. I have seen one real positive from heating honey before mixing. Not everyone going to have a 6 gallon bucket designed for brewing or the money to buy the honey to fill it’s . Most of us beginners are going to be doing 1 gallon runs, which means we are using small neck bottles. An from what I have seen it’s a pain in the butt to pour honey through a funnel into the gallon bottle. Heating it takes a little time, but in the end you can pour it easier an not hold the funnel forever as the honey goes down. The mixing of the water and honey blends much better. This maybe an idea to push for beginners. Just a thought, what do you think. Thank you again for sharing the info

[@ManMadeMead]

I think as long as it's not overly heated you're good!

[@earlhaines8797]

I usually warm my honey, water or juice around 80 to 90° just for ease of mixing ingredients and oxygenation of the must, pitch my yeast with fermentation starting with in 30 to 45 minutes....

[@Kakiro_Miro]

From my understanding heating the honey might be better tasted if adding other things such a raisens or other tasting elements.

[@Andrew-W.]

Great video! If you haven’t already, could you make a video on heating or not heating your yeast during rehydration and it’s impact upon the final product?

[@mikesmicroshop4385]

You can warm a starter culture to speed its propagation, but you need to pay attention to the temperature range that the yeast is tolerant of, it is best to not get to close to its limit at any time!!

[@ManMadeMead]

I can add it to the list!

[@TheShorterboy]

So without sanitiser how would you expect people to sanitise the constituents it also sanitises the container

[@DointheMost]

I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee.

[@shasboom5807]

Next time, try a quiver 😉

[@dakotah6828]

Whoa man where can I buy that shirt? :^)

[@chipbennett2845]

I was getting off flavors from my traditional mead, so I decided to try pasteurizing the must (I did 145 degrees). It did help with the off flavors, but I thought it also took a bit of the depth of flavor out of the final product. The Jury is still out for me, I'll have to try it again and see if I get the same result.

[@mikesmicroshop4385]

I would try a different type of yeast, not all are good for making Mead! Also be sure you are using good quality Honey, not the stuff you get from the Grocery store as they generally blend many kinds of honey to get a more consistent taste and it does not always mean that they are using fresh honey in the mix.

[@falconsfortressbrewworx5972]

If I understand the original need to boil correctly one reason was to kill wild yeasts. Could you mix must for 2 gallons then dose half with a campden tablet? That would prevent any non-fermentable sugars from forming.

[@ManMadeMead]

Possibly!

[@jpmako]

It would be awesome if you would do a video of a traditional following Brother Adam’s Recipe/ Method.

[@yuridanylko]

Of course heating doesn't matter for taste. It's to get it as clean as possible and help dissolves the sugars to start fermentation better

[@edwardlam8277]

Isn't the bigger Q how raw honey compares with pasteurised? I've been making different kind of kombuchas and jun.. When i made jun with cheap honey it was ok but scobys took a long time to form and I sometimes got the runs.. Raw honey gave a better flavour but I found converting a cheap honey jun to raw honey often made it go mouldy over time.. So I'm thinking raw honey actually has some bacteria and/or yeast in it. Nowadays I'm making melomel using kombucha/jun concoctions, and other collected wild yeast with pasteurised honey, fruit juice and fruit.

[@DragonsinGenesisPodcast]

Old recipes mention hearing the must and skimming the scum off the top. I’m guessing they had really bad honey with tree bark, dirt, and dead bees in it. Also, their water was bad so it had to be boiled.

[@DISC0LEG]

What BC said about heating must up and skimming the foam off would be a better experiment.

[@ManMadeMead]

That’s one to do for the future for sure!

[@iamno1864]

Honey has antiseptic properties to it so pasteurization is not needed

[@mikesmicroshop4385]

If you heat the must to high for to long you WILL drive off some of the more delicate volatiles which can change the taste, if you boil the must as was done in the Middle Ages then you will also denature proteins and precipitate out other things that are present in the honey that would possibly effect the taste as they will no longer be there to effect the ferment or finished Mead! Low heat pasteurization I do not find has any discernible effect even though some Mead snobs absolutely say otherwise! However when I had them taste some Mead as you have done, NONE of them could with any regularity find any difference in taste!!!!! I personally do not bother pasteurizing and I have never had a Mead go off due to contamination from the honey! I do put the honey in the sink in warm water to loosen it up for pouring. As long as you have a good vigorous fast starting ferment you have nothing to worry about! To insure I get that start I usually use a starter culture of the yeast of choice! It does not speed up the completion of the fermentation as some say, but it does give your yeast the edge to over power any wild yeasts or bacteria that may have been dormant in the concentrated honey! That being said I have also not had any issues when I did not use a starter culture, it is just Belt and Suspenders in a way, I do it just in case.

[@pine5328]

I’m wondering now if pasteurization is just a necessary step for commercial distribution. If anybody can corroborate this, I’d greatly appreciate it.

[@javierchirinos28]

If I'm not wrong, honey starts caramelizing at 198 F°, I think the fear is that when you boil your must you are boiling away all of the aromatics

[@billy-go9kx]

but honey doesn't need to be pasturized.

[@Backroad_Junkie]

How hot does it get in a shipping container, semi-trailer or rail car during the summer? If the inside of your car can hit 170, I would imagine the same would be true for the honey while being shipped...

[@ManMadeMead]

Good point!

[@GrimReefer1983]

The honey i have is pretty much solid, so i dont have much of a choise 😅 Ive noticed that all the (american?) honey i see in these videos is dark and very liquid, while all the honey im used to is quite light in colour and thick/almost solid.. Whats the difference? 🤔

[@ManMadeMead]

Honey is different everywhere you get it! It could be the varietal of honey you are using!

[@xchm846]

Hey man, I started my first batch today, and I’m having a big issue with my fermenting vessel. The spigot was very poorly crafted and it is leaking. I can’t find a good fermenting vessel..something around 5-7 gallons. Could you please recommend me a good fermenting vessel because I keep finding poor ones with bad lids or what not and I don’t know what to get. I definitely will return the one I got because it’s very poorly made and it’s just leaking everywhere. Thank you!!!!!

[@ManMadeMead]

I would get a glass carboy! E.C. Kraus 6 gal Glass Carboy www.amazon.com/dp/B074Q6PH53/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabt1_4afUFbC9J8Q04

[@xchm846]

@@ManMadeMead thank you so much brother, and one more thing, will the regular rubber stoppers for the one gallon jugs fit this carbon? (Rubber stopper as in the thing you plug the jug with and stick the water lock in)

[@superodfx]

I poured a jar, not warmed, and in the middle was surprised by a big crystallized clot of honey-messy business :/

[@user-qi9ki2hj6t]

I dont understand, i thought you kill all the flavour and nutrients in the honey when you heat it? I read so many different things on it, its confusing

[@ManMadeMead]

If you heat it quite a bit (also called bocheting the honey) it changes the character of the honey by caramelizing some sugars and making them non fermentable. It also does change some of the nutritional side of the honey, but you should be using yeast nutrient anyways! I wouldn't say it kills the honey character, rather it changes it!

[@user-qi9ki2hj6t]

@@ManMadeMead Ah, thanks for the nice explanation. Your videos are always very helpful to me, recently made my first mead thanks to them and it turned out suprisingly nice!

[@joelchrysler6238]

Hope not I just made a bochet

[@BlinkVirus]

How did you just read my mind?

[@ManMadeMead]

Magic!

[@mc4ndr3]

I'll save you 16 minutes and 33 seconds: Yes

[@rickyknottsjr4042]

Are you sure the honey you bought was not heated to start with? Most big bee keepers heat their honey. Commercial honey spinners have heating built in them. It saves time and time is money. Most commercial beeks see it that way.

[@rickyknottsjr4042]

Also microwaving honey kills everything instantly

[@DISC0LEG]

Heat your local, unprocessed honey!

[@GreenWitch1]

I’ve never felt the need to heat my honey except when making a Bochet.

[@thomasa5619]

25 upside down is 15? What are you? An English teacher? *no offence meant*

[@bruceprosser8332]

From what I understand the tradition of heating the water was because of bad microbial life in the water itself. Not sure how true that is but it makes sense to me, but that is not really what you did here so there you go lol

[@witchplease77]

A couple points re: honey and pasteurization: 1.) all honey commercially sold within the United States has been high heat-pasteurized, which alters the flavor of the honey itself; and 2.) raw honey extracted straight from the hive should never be heated because it contains a lot of healthy and nutritional benefits that will be destroyed and driven off through the heating process, and it will not make it into the finished mead.