Store bought honey?

[Norskersword]

I've read that I'm not suppose to buy store bought honey and instead should go to a honey farm. Last night at the store (a very large grocery store called Winco) I walked by the honey but realized they had a huge selection. They didn't just have the light-yellow colored plastic bear-filled honey, but had many large jugs full of dark clover honey. Many of them said "all natural" on the label.

Would it be a bad idea to use them?

 

[ThistyViking]

No it is not a bad idea. Many purists argue that the Rawer the honey the more flavor ingredients (and bee Parts ) available for the charachter of the mead.


Certainly different honeys contribute subtle and sometimes not so subtle differences. The more you filter these honeys the less diffence there is between them. The easiest way to be sure of a "RAW" honey is to get it from a local beekeeper. Typically it is also less expensive that way when bought in bulk.

I pay $24 a gallon for Orange Blossom honey. that is $2/pound the local store had it filtered much clearer for $3.60/12 oz .... I am only paying $1.50/12 oz from the beekeeper. so as you can see, I'm paying 40% of the price, and getting it in a less processed state which is probably "better" for the varietal charachteristics.

 

[ThistyViking]

I finished too soon.

I buy my buckwheat from the Store for $3.60/12oz because I don't have an Apiary source for it yet and i only use 4 pounds per 6 gallons or so. I may bite the bullet and get 60 pounds of it from the Bee Folks. That would be 15, 6 gallon batches of mead for the price of 6-7. I probably want to find a different souce where I can buy by the gallon for reasonable cost.

 

[Rurouni85Samurai]

I got my honey from BJ's. It was darker than the honey I saw at publix and sams club. The only problem was that I had to buy them in 3lb jars. For a gallon and a half of honey I payed 38 bucks roughly.

It wasn't worth the effort to going to the bee farm because the closet one to me is 40 minutes there and 40 back. Also the largest they sold that I could actually use was 6lbs jars or 55gal drums which where out of the question. If you can, go for a 5 gallon buckets if they sell it. After starting your first batch, just put the lid back on and it will last basically forever. And while waiting you can build those biceps with curls ;D

I just remembered something I should of done. In a basket from work there was this extremely dark honey in a jar. Maybe 1.5 lbs? But its dark dark, as in beer bottle dark honey. Any ideas what this could be? No name or anything on it. It looks like it came straight from a farm with the old style of capping jars.