There's one good way to turn it back into honey; feed it to bees,
they'll dry it out. There will be a considerable loss in quantity and
its nature (buckwheat) will be altered by whatever else they might be
doing at the time.

Commercial honey packers have expensive machines to do this but they
can only deal with small amounts of excess moisture, nothing like what
you've got. Turn it into mead before it spoils.

That said, I never could stand buckwheat honey.

Best,
Michael Kiley
2beeherenowcom.wordpress.com

I made my first batches of mead in 1992 and only made beer
afterwards. Last fall I decided to uncrystalize the honey I had left
over from back then and make a batch of mead. I used a Wyeast Mead
strain and fermented it in a Sabco 15 Gal Stainless fermenter. I
can't give you the specifics as to which strain & Original SG
readings as that data is in CT & the Mead is in IN at my old domicile
(which I'm visiting as we speak)

I do have to say this is truly an enjoyable mead. The Stainless
fermenter is perfect and sampling is easy. Next time I will use a
Stainless conical so I can discharge the trub & then transfer it to
corny kegs for long term aging.

The nice thing about this particular mead is how it's clear as a bell
& has a great aroma & hints of sweetness yet the alcohol level is low
enough I can easily drink three glasses and it's not too much.

It's really nice to be back to fermenting mead again.

BTW, I do have 10 or so bottles of raspberry mead still left from my
initial foray into mead making back in 92. Tried one last night and
it was stellar. Yum,

Just sharing the fun with you,

Gary

Marcia, re Leon at Havill's – thanks for that bit of info, I'll see if I can
contact them by phone, email suits me better as I usually think of these
things late at night when people don't like phone calls 🙂 . I've heard good
things about their mead, and are the only Meadery(?) I've found in NZ that
is close-ish.

Paul

Rick <beekeepers@insightbb.com> wrote:
> > * *I have a question about alcohol content. I made the mead that is
> > described below. It was too high in alcohol content for everyone that
> > tried it. It tasted pretty "hot". I would like to have 2 glasses at a
> > time, but I start falling over. 🙂 *
> > *Assuming that I stay with the 71B-1122, how do I reduce the amount of
> > alcohol? If I start with more honey, I'm afraid that it will end too
> > sweet. I would really like to stay away from chemicals to stop the
> > fermentation. If I start with less honey, won't I end up with a very dry
> > mead? I like it pretty dry, but don't want to get so darn drunk so fast.
> > How do I get a dry mead with less alcohol content?
> > * –*Rick*

> > _

> > _ _Purple Haze_*

> >

> > From Ken Schramm?s recipe in The Compleat Meadmaker (minus blueberries)

> >

> > _July 22, 2006_

> >

> > 12 lbs honey (I may have used 15 lbs) My apiary is in a enormous
> > blackberry field, with clover and tulip poplar.
> > 4 gallons spring water (1 gallon too much probably). Don?t think there
> > will be room for fruit in two weeks. I should probably have used 3.5
> > gallons.)
> > 2 tsp. nutrient
> > 2 tsp. energizer
> > 2 packets of 71B-1122 yeast

> > O.G. 1.14 > > F.G. 1.00
> >

I'm guessing that you used 15 lbs of honey to get that O.G. I usually
used about 12 lbs of honey in a 5 gallon batch. Also, the fruit added
even more sugars to the must. Going from an O.G. of 1.14 to a F.G. of
1.0 would yield about 19% alcohol! I have not used that particular
yeast before, but I am surprised that it would actually ferment all of
the sugars in that batch. Those were some HUNGRY yeasty beasites! Aim
for an O.G. of between 1.090 and 1.100. That should yield an alcohol
content of between 12% and 13%. Yes, it is going to be dry if your
yeast acts the same as for the prior batch. The only way to prevent
that is to use a yeast with a lower alcohol tolerance (Note: This does
not always work) or to use some other method (probably chemical) to stop
fermentation before the sugars are all used up.

• —

Marc Shapiro
mshapiro_42@yahoo.com