Real Old Honey

[kc_in_wv]

I found several quarts possible up to a gallon. of honey in a box in the corner of a storage trailer of mine. This honey is very dark which in this are would make it either Catawba or possible blackberry. It was probably harvested in the mid 1980's to 1990.

It is still liquid even though it has been exposed to temperature extremes which makes me think it is probably Catawba honey. I am thinking of making Medieval Burnt Mead out of it.

Would you back sweeten it with the same honey or use something else.

 

[Bearmaul]

Taste it. Honey doesn't spoil and I've heard a few accounts of aged honey being heavenly. It might turn out that you're sitting on the holy grail of honeys and you might just want to make a traditional to highlight it.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Taste it. Honey doesn't spoil and I've heard a few accounts of aged honey being heavenly. It might turn out that you're sitting on the holy grail of honeys and you might just want to make a traditional to highlight it.

+1 traddy

 

[jay_mack1]

I've used honey to make mead that was put in jars in 1985! I still have it bulk aging in a carboy!

 

[fatbloke]

+ 2 on the traditional idea.....

I'd also check the taste first. It'd be a bloody waste just to burn it for bochet if it still tastes good.......

 

[WVMJ]

What a great find, you can find any other quality honey to make a Bochet with, this has already aged 30 years, got to go with a nice traditional, save some to backsweeten it. WVMJ

 

[troy2000]

It's been my experience that the older honey gets, the better it tastes. I've had completely crystallized, almost black honey out of the wall of an old house, and it was wonderful. I had to break it up, stuff it into jars, and set the jars in a hot water bath to liquify it...

When I was a kid, a dredger buried a couple of our bee hives while cleaning out a drainage canal (of course, being country bumpkins we just called it a drain ditch and went fishing in it). It was no accident; apparently the operator was just bored and amusing himself.

Anyway, several years later my older brother and I dug one out. Some of the honey had crystallized, some of it had fermented, and it was all delicious. We brushed the dead bees off and totally pigged out. Talk about a pair of miserable, sick, hung-over little boys... my mother thought we had caught some bug going around,

 

[Descender]

You guys just made me check on my old honey bucket. It's from 2000, raw with comb and bee parts. Still good. Crystals all up the side, a few ants that wandered to their death on the one day I didn't bag it up, and tasty... gonna let it go until I run out of the current pail. Might just pitch warm water and yeast on it someday ...

 

[kc_in_wv]

This honey is from my earlier days of beekeeping. This weekend I will see just how much I have and how it the taste is.