Honey

I spotted in the market today a lady selling local honey including cut comb honey which I hadn't tried before but I've always been interested in trying.

having tried some this evening I feel as If I've been short changed all these years with awful supermarket fluff! why do we eat it any other way?

genuinely the best honey I've ever tasted!

 

One of our neighbours sells honey, really should knock on the door and buy some.

Sounds like you'll be a regular visitor to her market stall then

How do you like to eat your honey?

 

Normally I'll have a generous spoonful on my porridge in the morning or sometimes on toast or pancakes if I'm feeling adventurous

But the comb honey I was just cutting up and chewing on it's own (and then getting rid of the wax) it was so yummy!

 

Never had it from the comb ... does sound rather tempting though!

 

You need to let mead mature for at least a year

 

I've never tried mead but I did see a clip with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and another chap drinking some a few years ago, I'll have to see if I can find the clip online it was very interesting.

Edit*

Looks like it was Series 6 Episode 8 but unfortunately it's not available on 4OD and there's no clips on Youtube either...

 

Mm mm my family were keen bee keepers. When I first met my husband we had to pay a visit to the old maiden aunts in Lincolnshire, aunt Liz and aunt Nel. It was time to take off the honey so hubby was given a job of slicing off the wax from the combs, before they went into the centrifuge. He had to allow the bees to sit in his hair, you must never kill a bee. That was his initiation ceremony into the family! He has never forgotten it, 45 years ago. My dad always made mead, lovely stuff, and there was always honeycomb at bottling time. I still remember hi m in his whites, with net hat and corrugated cardboard smoker, doing whatever he had to do to calm the bees or feed them in the winter with sugar syrup.

 

Its illegal to brew mead here, but if you are very lucky, I might just dig out a recipe for it that has been handed down through many generations since the time of Ragnar Lodbrok...

 

I think he may have been my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather: wondered who pinched the recipe If you post it here @Sandy Ground I promise to keep it a secret

 

Translated from the original...I've deliberately left it as bad English!

Do this
Mix 3.5 kg of honey with your 17 liters of water into the fermentation vessel.
It helps if you gently heat the honey to 30 degrees, no WARMER because you can ruin it useful in the honey.
Then mix with water and let the honey Act to room temperature (about 23 degrees), mix the yeast culture stirring, put on the lid and wait.

If you are going to put the fruits and herbs in your mead wait until fermentation has started properly. There is a risk otherwise that the wrong yeast bacteria take over care
and your yeast culture and mead destroyed. Herbs require different preparations depending on the variety. See the herbiaries and schnapps seasoning.

When you sat on the lid of your fermenter is only to be expected.
You can move on sometime in the brew to brighten up the yeast culture, but be sure to keep all utensils very clean and open the shortest time
possible so no stranger yeast spores will lose brew and mutates it. Never shake the fermenter as it has been formed carbonic acid during fermentation
which results in a smaller explosion.
Mead ferments slowly - be patient.

Since then this
After 3-8 weeks ending brew to ferment. It then has an alcohol content of about 4-5%.
Want stronger mead load of 3 kg of honey and ferment further.
When you are satisfied with your mead and it has stopped fermenting, just set it cool for 5 to 10 days, the fermentation is stopped and the sediment settles to the quiet of
vessel bottom. After cooling down and rest, you lose the mead in appropriate, sealed containers. Let the mead mature in about 4 weeks, drink, and enjoy MAKE POETRY.

Remember that mead is insidious by its nature, it is stronger than it tastes.

Save mead
The first 3-6 months, your mead little cloudy, very nutritious and healthy because it is a concentrate of honey, spring water and alcohol.
But mead is a bit stronger is also great to store in airtight containers, mead stored in underground cellars said to be the best after 5 years.
Stored mead becomes clearer, the different character and the last remaining yeast flavor disappears.
Stored mead is not as nutritious as fresh mead and can sometimes be a bit too dry in taste.

Stop fermentation
To save or store mead with some sweetness, you must stop the fermentation completely.
Chemical versions of yeast stop makes me shudder .... but there is a simple and natural alternative.
Both yeast and honey are sensitive to heat, but have different temperature levels. The yeast dies even at 40-50 degrees and the honey are destroyed at about 70-80 degrees.
So to stop the fermentation, heat your mead to 40-50 degrees for 10 minutes then you have stopped the fermentation but managed honey.

Brewing more mead
Take a pint of your past mead and honey mix in the next stroke to get started right away.
Do you want to save your mead yeast at a later time, you can keep your culture on the backburner in a tightly sealed container in a cool place, the fridge or cellar.
Enter your yeast culture with a hint of honey every three months to keep them up fit and healthy.

You can benefit from giving away parts of mead yeast to your friends, it's a guarantee that you can get back your yeast culture should anything go wrong.