Getting raw honey out of bucket?

[stevo4361]

Hello,
First time making mead last night, and bought some local unheated, unfiltered honey in a 1 gallon bucket. Put the bucket in hot water in the sink to make it flow better like I usually do with malt extract, and found that the honey was more a waxy solid than a liquid. This I did not expect. Couldn't scoop it out, ended up putting the whole bucket in my brew kettle until it finally dissolved. Not ideal by any means, was wondering if you guys have a trick for this situation? Wasn't frozen or anything like that, had kept it at room temperature, and it was fairly fresh as well. Would sure appreciate any suggestions.
As an aside, my 5 gallon recipe was 12 lbs of honey, with a packet of Red Star Premier Cuvee, and 5 tsp. of yeast nutrient. Aerated that crap out of it last night until my drill battery died. Starting gravity of 1.076. Airlock is already showing some activity this morning. Am really curious to try it next year or so, as have no idea what mead "should" taste like, but sure sounds good.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Insomniac]

Difficult, most honey will turn to a liquid with heat so warming up the bucket would be enough. But if that wasn't enough then what you did seems reasonable as long as you only used enough heat for it to disolve. You probably wouldn't want to bring it to the boil like that.

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

5 gallon recipe was 12 lbs of honey, with a packet of Red Star Premier Cuvee, and 5 tsp. of yeast nutrient. Aerated that crap out of it last night until my drill battery died. Starting gravity of 1.076.

That's a relatively low gravity must and with curvee's high tolerance and pretty aggressive nature it should finish dry in a short amount of time, once it clears if you think about backsweetening (if it ends up dryer than your tastes like) you'll want to consider stabilization methods. Other than that it sounds like everything went ok despite having to work to get to your honey and in a year as you say you should have a tasty batch of mead.

 

[stevo4361]

Thanks guys. As far as stabilizers what do you recommend Medic?

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

generally people use potassium sorbate which inhibits yeast from reproducing and potassium metabasulfite (same as campden tablets) as a preservative/antioxidant. that way you can add more honey to sweeten the batch up without restarting fermentation and the yeast burning through the new sugars and taking you back to dry with a little more alcohol.

The other method (slower version) is cold crashing, waiting and racking, finish primary ferment, rack into secondary, let it start clearing, cold crash (refridgerate for 24-48 hours), rack again as many times as needed over time until crystal clear and no traces of sediment appear on the bottom of the vessel.

 

[fatbloke]

Stabilising is the sorbate and sulphite method that TBM mentioned.

The continual racking process is not stabilising. It can be "crystal clear" and there will still be yeast cells present, and introducing more fermentable sugars leaves you open to refermentation. If you didn't want yeast cells present, but don't want to use the chems then it would mean the racking process as already stated, followed by sterile filtration....

 

[stevo4361]

Thanks guys, sure appreciate it!

Cheers!
Steve

 

[huesmann]

And once again, pasteurization gets no love!

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

And once again, pasteurization gets no love!

Sorry huesmann, but unless it's name is bochet, I will bite the bullet and chemically stabilize, I will cold crash, hell I will put it in a blast chiller for a week and make mead slushies out of it before I will start boiling anything lol

 

[fatbloke]

And once again, pasteurization gets no love!

Why pasteurise something that is already natures most anti-fungal, anti-bacterial substance ? When all that happens is loss of aromatics and less of the subtle flavouring elements.....

After all its a honey must, not a beer wort.....

 

[Golddiggie]

Sorry huesmann, but unless it's name is bochet, I will bite the bullet and chemically stabilize, I will cold crash, hell I will put it in a blast chiller for a week and make mead slushies out of it before I will start boiling anything lol

Mmmmmm mead slushies. 18% traditional or 21% mocha?

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

Mmmmmm mead slushies. 18% traditional or 21% mocha?

mmm mocha mead slushie, skipping dinner and going right to dessert

 

[Golddiggie]

mmm mocha mead slushie, skipping dinner and going right to dessert

Then in the morning, a sweet 14% maple mead over waffles.

 

[roadymi]

As to your question on getting honey outta the buckets.........The honey you described sounds like what I typically use. I run a couple of gallons of hot tap water (as hot as my water heater puts out), I then scoop as much of the honey as easily comes out into the hot water. It will readily dissolve with a little mixing. I then place the mostly empty honey bucket into the microwave. I run on defrost cycle and heat just til honey liquifies. Pour it into your honey/water must. Use cool tap water to finish out your recipe, aerate the crap out of it and you are ready to pitch your yeast.

 

[huesmann]

Sorry huesmann, but unless it's name is bochet, I will bite the bullet and chemically stabilize, I will cold crash, hell I will put it in a blast chiller for a week and make mead slushies out of it before I will start boiling anything lol

Who said anything about boiling?

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

When I pasteurize ..................... Then I fill it with water and put it on the stove. I run a probe thermometer and boil the water until the mead temp hits 150ºF.

You did lol

 

[Golddiggie]

Heating up good honey above 100-110°F is just WRONG on so many levels. Not to mention completely unnecessary. Don't be surprised if the hive calls jihad on you for it.

 

[stevo4361]

Thanks roadymi!

 

[kc_in_wv]

As a beekeeper I will gently warm my honey to no more than 120*. (A microwave creates hot spots in the honey that is much hotter than this.) This temperature will not harm the enzymes that help make honey beneficial. After all the bee's keep it at 93* in the hive.

The big commercial honey processors will warm honey as high as 180* to extend shelf life and the speed the flow of the honey for bottling. This high temperature is not good for honey.

 

[huesmann]

You did lol

OK, OK, so I boil the water bath. I don't boil the mead or the honey (unless it's for bochet).