Beer Forum

I am planning on brewing a mead in a few days, but I'm a little unsure as to what variety of honey I want to use. The selection here is VERY limited, but I am able to get hold of some pretty good heather honey. I remember Ken Schramm saying something about heather honey in the mead episode of the Jamil Show, but I cant remember exactly what (and i can't seem to find it again). Will I be able to make a good mead with heather honey (provided everything else is in place in my process)? And also, which yeast strains would work well with heather honey? I have ICV-D47 and ICV-D254 on hand at the moment.

You may want to go back and listen to the first Rabbits Foot meadery show . I vaguely remember some discussion on heather honey.

Never heard of either of those yeasts, so can't help you there.

I used to be a proponent of Wyeast's sweet mead yeast but lately I've been happier with Lalvin's K1116 for meads. It seems to kick off faster and finish off faster and gives roughly the same flavor profile.

I tried a heather mead at IMF in 2007 and the brewer back sweetened with some heather honey because it is so expensive in the US. AWESOME flavor and if you have access to heather honey go for it!! Depending on the price another option is to add heather tips in your mead while you are fermenting it. Really nice subtle aroma and flavor from the heather tips.

Both yeast you have would be fine just build your must around the final product you want keeping in mind the alcohol tolerances of the yeasts. Make sure you add proper nutrients for them too.

For folks in the US, http://www.beefolks.com actually have real Scottish Heather Honey. Expensive, awesome taste, but expensive for a straight heather honey mead.

I guess I'm pretty lucky after all. Heather honey is actually the cheapest honey avaliable here...
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Thanks for the tips.

Skål!

One of the characteristics of the expensive Scottish heather honey they discussed on the first Sunday Session Mead Show from 2006 is that it makes great mead but takes a long time to mellow out its rough edges...a long time as in 3+ years. I'm not sure if that is the case with the less expensive heather honey, though. A good place to get a reliable answer from experienced meadmakers is over at the gotmead.com forum.

I would make a sweet mead with ICV-D47. Make one batch every year and start sending it to me! Start at like 30-31brix, rehydrate the yeast with go-ferm, add fermaid-k at the end of the lag phase, aerate daily for the first three days, stir gently daily after that 'til its done. Rack to secondary once fermentation is almost done with a few ounce of your favorite oak. That's what I do with Orange Blossom honey. This years batch is my second year but I'm definitely doing it every year from here on out. That stuff comes out amazing.