# my honey has turned



## freeswarmremoval

can anyone help me. my honey has turned clear and taste like whiskey. :lpf:







anyone ever tried honeyshine boy let me tell you, its so good id take it over corn anyday. also found out I can mow the yard with it yes it runs my riding mower lol


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## phersbees

your going to go blind....... LOL


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## Bee Bliss

freeswarmremoval said:


> can anyone help me.


What kind of help do you need? Looks like you'll have a Ball (that's what it says on the jar lol).


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## freeswarmremoval

just being funny I guess. but I don't think ill go blind ive sampled it pretty heavy last night. and I had a ball lol


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## CessnaGirl

I can help you for sure. Send it all my way. I'll dispose of it.


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## Tim KS

phersbees said:


> your going to go blind....... LOL


It's something else that makes you go blind, but it's fun too. :shhhh:


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## freeswarmremoval

Tim KS said:


> It's something else that makes you go blind, but it's fun too. :shhhh:


:wiener: I wouldn't mix the two for sure. 

my recipe was 250lbs (or about 20 gallon) of honey to a 130 gallon of water and pinched yeast. worked super fast and totaled 20 gallon finished, it taste like any other MS but When you let off it you get a pretty strong honey taste but its not sweet at all. I filtered it thru 2' of activated charcoal in a filter I made from 1.25 in pvc. that make it much cleaner tasting for sure. 

a side note it may just be me but I swore I smelt honey when I burned it in the lawnmower. how cool would it be to make a beemobile that ran off honeyshine. maybe my work van paint it up like a queen bee put a stinger on back wings on top and with the honey smelling emissions no one would ever forget you. might bring more bee relocation work.


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## maudbid

Thanks for your honey liquor recipe. What style ******* juicer did run it through? Did you lose much honey essence after the charcoal, or just the heads/tails offness?


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## freeswarmremoval

maudbid said:


> Thanks for your honey liquor recipe. What style ******* juicer did run it through? Did you lose much honey essence after the charcoal, or just the heads/tails offness?


mine is a SS beer keg with a turkey fryer burner and a 1/2" worm. worm is in a 30gal berral with water hose for cool water. i run mine close to 190 deg. the charcoal did take from the honey taste but made it much smoother to drink. but if you want more honey tatse you can put a few drops of honey in each qt. only thing about that is it clouds the shine. i taste mine as it come out, about the first qt and a half i poured out. as for the tails i stop about the time is hits about 80 proof. then mix all togeather and proofed it with a sprits proofer. mine came to 155, but i might bring it down more with distilled water.


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## imthedude

freeswarmremoval said:


> :wiener: I wouldn't mix the two for sure.
> 
> my recipe was 250lbs (or about 20 gallon) of honey to a 130 gallon of water and pinched yeast. worked super fast and totaled 20 gallon finished, it taste like any other MS but When you let off it you get a pretty strong honey taste but its not sweet at all. I filtered it thru 2' of activated charcoal in a filter I made from 1.25 in pvc. that make it much cleaner tasting for sure.
> 
> a side note it may just be me but I swore I smelt honey when I burned it in the lawnmower. how cool would it be to make a beemobile that ran off honeyshine. maybe my work van paint it up like a queen bee put a stinger on back wings on top and with the honey smelling emissions no one would ever forget you. might bring more bee relocation work.


probably the best thing i've ever read on beesource.....thanks.


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## jcolon

This post has been hacked by moonshiners. Pathetic... :no:

:shhhh: Do you have a smaller volume recipe?


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## Dave H

Yo' Freeswarm, You may wanna try taking about 4 gal. of that bugjuice and put it in a 5 gal. glass carboy with about a quart of toasted oak chips. Don't put a stopper in it, just cover it loosely with a bit of Al foil. Should be just right in about a year or so.


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## Retroguy

Better keep it locked up. Other beeks might come over and rob it. LOL


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## imthedude

Retroguy said:


> Better keep it locked up. Other beeks might come over and rob it. LOL


exactly my plan.....


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## biggraham610

Dave H said:


> Yo' Freeswarm, You may wanna try taking about 4 gal. of that bugjuice and put it in a 5 gal. glass carboy with about a quart of toasted oak chips. Don't put a stopper in it, just cover it loosely with a bit of Al foil. Should be just right in about a year or so.


Toasted Oak is a blessing. I always put away a batch with oak off the pot regardless if its corn, rye, or a bourbon recipe I use. The oak makes it very smooth and ads a great finish. Don't have enough honey to try a batch but will on the horizon. Enjoy. G


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## buzzleblast

Depending on your locale, it may be harder to find white oak, but it is important to the finished product that you use white versus red. The red leaves an unusual flavor. Some folks liken the taste to cat pee, I don't have very good tastebuds but it does taste "off" to me. I'm in Florida, and white oak is hard to find, I had to get a stash from Virginia where it was all over the place.
Funny this appears here now, as I may or may not have just started feeding some yeast on honey and water myself...


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## Patrickshmoe34

i got enough hobbies and now you guys are going to make me add moonshining to the mix. lol


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## Vance G

That would get pretty oaky pretty fast. Figure surface area of a 53 gallon barrel and the surface area of a quart of chips and on only four gallons! I would be tasting it at least once a week! Why do I KNOW that! Must be my Scots ancestry. Hereditary knowledge or something! 

QUOTE=Dave H;1166225]Yo' Freeswarm, You may wanna try taking about 4 gal. of that bugjuice and put it in a 5 gal. glass carboy with about a quart of toasted oak chips. Don't put a stopper in it, just cover it loosely with a bit of Al foil. Should be just right in about a year or so.[/QUOTE]


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## Patrickshmoe34

as a Kentuckian i have to ask... has anyone tried making enough to fill a bourbon barrel and letting it age that way?


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## Vance G

Lots of 1 to five gallon charred white oak barrels for sale but it doesn't take long to get a lot of oak as so much more of the liquor is in contact with the wood. Surface area. They are pricey.


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## mjfranks

I've made my own recipe of Honey Shine for the past 20 years. Perfect use for Goldenrod honey. I call it my bee sting remedy. Kind of like " Hair of the Bee". I drink a bit every time Iget stung. Doesn't help the swelling or itch but I don't mind a few stings now and again.


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## Harley Craig

Tim KS said:


> It's something else that makes you go blind, but it's fun too. :shhhh:


 I just did it untill I needed glasses


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## Vance G

The foreshots that need thrown away are absolutely the best parts cleaner I have ever used and it doesn't stink.


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## freeswarmremoval

jcolon said:


> This post has been hacked by moonshiners. Pathetic... :no:
> 
> :shhhh: Do you have a smaller volume recipe?


I use about two pounds a gallon cook it to a boil skim stuff off top wax pollen so on let cool 24 hours use yeast of your liking cover with towel after a month taste for sugar content. once its dry tasting run it


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## laketrout

Maybe you guys can help me out , I had some honey I extracted that was on the thin side so I used most of it up in my tea . Well there is about a 1/2 gal. left and now it has a fermented smell to it . I didn't want to waste it thinking I could make some kind of mead or whatever out of it but have know idea where to start . I have the carboys on hand as I make cider from time to time , here's a good cider recipe--4 1/2 gals of fresh squeezed cider , 4 pds white sugar , 1/2 pd brown sugar , pinch of sacylic acid ( spelling) don't add any yeast , better to catch a wild yeast , I've tried all kinds of manufactured yeast and they never turn out as good as a wild yeast . Back to my fermented honey , any recipes .


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## biggraham610

I toast my white oak in the oven. Its amazing the sugars you can smell while its toasting. Then I torch a slight char on it. Then I just put a stick of it in the Quart jars. I get mine from seasoned firewood no real recipe for size, usually about 4"x 1" by 1/8" thick. I dont wait a year or any specific time. Just when the liquor turns amber and the flavor is right. Then the stick becomes a match for the woodstove. G


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## Nabber86

You can get all kinds of oak and level of toast from Northern Brewer. You can mix light and dark varieties to get a spectrum of flavors. Also the extraction of flavors from the oak varies with the proof of the liquor. So start at a high proof and slowly water it down to drinking strength during the aging process. 

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/winemaking/wine-equipment/oak-products


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## laketrout

So any help on ratio with my slightly fermented honey for a mead etc.


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## Vance G

Making mead is a whole different discipline. Get a hydrometer and control your sweetness and your yeast selection to end up with the alcohol content and residual unused sugar that will determine how it tastes and how long it needs to age before being good to drink.


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## phersbees

laketrout said:


> So any help on ratio with my slightly fermented honey for a mead etc.



if it was me id put your fermented honey in a mash for distilling. wild yeast can have all kinds of off taste. but the 2lbs of honey per a gallon is a mead recipe. I guessing that your honey is slightly diluted so id use a hydrometer to mix to desired sweetness


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## Beekeeper23

My husband thinks our turns into apple pie!


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## green2btree

When making mead, you will want some yeast energizer and yeast nutrient as well, honey is low on a couple of things that the yeast like. I also had honey start to lightly ferment, about 10 gallon worth from my first extraction. It has been rain, rain, rain here this year, I guess it was a bit wet even though capped. I was up to 4 am last night making peach melomel (official term for fruit and honey mix) and black raspberry melomel (both fruits from my property that I had in the freezer). I still have lots of honey left, I am going to start a straight batch tonight and am also going to stop and get some fresh pressed cider to do a cider melomel as well.

Now, the rest of you... confident bunch, aren't you? No fear the revenooers are going to see any of these posts?

JC


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## Steve56Ace

Truly an enlightening thread. Maybe I'll get there some day.


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## green2btree

Laketrout - oh, and I find a little more than a gallon of honey will make about 5 gallons of mead.

JC


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## Vance G

Now, the rest of you... confident bunch, aren't you? No fear the revenooers are going to see any of these posts?

There are so many laws that it has become Kafkaesque and they can get any of us about any time. So it really doesn't matter. Adding honey to applejuice or cider results in a cyser. Pear juice and honey, a Perry. Fruit and melter honey a bochetomel melter honey and yeast a Bochet.


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## Acebird

laketrout said:


> any recipes .


Sure, wait 6 months and wait some more. Flip a coin and take a taste. Wild yeast is not predictable which is why you kill it and add one that is predictable.


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## laketrout

I haven't found that to be true with cider .Wild yeast much better tasting !


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## Vance G

The old time whiskeymakers thought the taste of whiskey suffered when people started using yeast instead of relying on natural "souring". That being said, I select my packaged yeast because I want to decide how sweet my finished product is.


laketrout said:


> I haven't found that to be true with cider .Wild yeast much better tasting !


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## Ben Brewcat

+1 on cultured yeast. But I'm a bit of a control freak in the brewery


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## Acebird

Vance G said:


> The old time whiskeymakers thought the taste of whiskey suffered when people started using yeast instead of relying on natural "souring".


Do you make whiskey like you make wine? Where does a whiskey get its taste from?


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