I was just wondering where you guys buy all of your honey from. The 10 or so pounds needed for a five gallon batch could get quite pricey, and the local brew store has honey, but not sure about the quality or price. Any suggestions/ideas?
Cheaper Honey??
- Thread starter BluegrassyBrewer
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The national honey board's honey locater can be a useful tool for finding a local beekeeper near you. That can often be the source of the freshest and most affordable honey.
Online retailers such as BeeFolks or Miller's have fine honey but may be a bit more pricey and then there is shipping expense to boot.
Medsen
*'neath the green green grass of home.
try your local food co-ops or health food stores. ask them about special ordering in bulk. they should have info about any distributors that they use. they usually have a standard mark-up on bulk items of 10-20%. it's easy, and there's no shipping cost (for you). usually, they even have several varieties that they can get and the quality is generally good.
good luck,
dave
good luck,
dave
Call your county extension and ask for the names of a few local beekeepers. More then likely local beekeepers honey will be more expensive but its also an excellent way to aquire honey that has not been exposed to hard chemicals that is sometimes contained in the honey purchased from grocery stores. Its literally a different product as honey in grocery stores has been heated to make it clearer for appearance and reduce the time it takes to granulate. For myself I can't produce honey for the price grocery stores sell it for but then again I can't really compare prices as it is a different product. I had a fellow beek friend visit a major national honey producer and found out they heat their honey to 190 degrees. Yikes!
For the record, honey that has granulated (crystalized) is not bad. One can gently warm it in hot water, sunny window, etc to protect all the beneficial enzymes and in the case of the meadmaker the subtle flavors of raw honey that can affect the outcome of your finished mead. At about 120-130 degrees is the point where honey starts to really break down. We don't let our honey get over 100 degrees. The bees try to keep the honey at a temperature of around 93 degrees.
For the record, honey that has granulated (crystalized) is not bad. One can gently warm it in hot water, sunny window, etc to protect all the beneficial enzymes and in the case of the meadmaker the subtle flavors of raw honey that can affect the outcome of your finished mead. At about 120-130 degrees is the point where honey starts to really break down. We don't let our honey get over 100 degrees. The bees try to keep the honey at a temperature of around 93 degrees.
I have been really cheap lately, and I am finding Sams Club to have honey in five pound containers for all of $9.58.
It's Virginia Brand Clover Honey. It's not something that all stores carry, but if you have a chain and a membership, it's good enough for things like JAO and the odd brewing uh, experiment.
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=193268&pCatg=2453
It's Virginia Brand Clover Honey. It's not something that all stores carry, but if you have a chain and a membership, it's good enough for things like JAO and the odd brewing uh, experiment.
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=193268&pCatg=2453
does anyone know if trader joes typically has good honey? I went to buy my apple cider from a TJ for my cyser, but it didn't occur to check for honey there too, I usually get it from my local homebrew store, but it gets really expensive
I can't think of anything that is higher praise than a ringing endorsement from Oskaar!
fantastic, then i shall assume the rest of their honeys are of a high quality as well! now lets just hope the TJ's around me has a good honey selection, its pretty small
