John, Orange Blossom Mead should be made with 100% OB honey. Ferment it dry with Premier Cuvee or champagne yeast and then add more to sweeten to taste. This will help increase the character of the orange blossom honey. You'll also need to add sorbate and sulfite to prevent subsequent fermentation. In the case of mead making, adding honey to the "secondary fermenter" is referred to as feeding the fermentation. In truth, this is a continuation of the primary fermentation. I typically don't feed fermentations because it takes way too long and you no longer have an OG value that can be used for calculations since the SG of honey varies quite a bit. This technique can be used to increase the honey character but the much more effective and efficient method is mentioned above. In my opinion, fruit is best added at the beginning to provide the yeast with the nutrients it needs. It speeds up fermentation and the aging process. Also, you can more easily pasteurize the fruit at this time. I still add yeast nutrients with melomels, but I scale the amount back. The best yeast nutrient for mead making is available at Semplex. Mead fermentations are typically slow - no need to worry about the academic hypothesis of CO2 bubbles stripping away aromatics. If you want to add fruit extracts, you can do so after fermentation as the mead is aging or at bottling. I prefer natural fruit because of the flavor and the benefits mentioned above. Boiling honey has more cons than pros and most mead makers avoid it because the cons are significant. Boiling honey imparts a harshness that can take years to mellow. Also, boiling does diminish the aroma of mead. Boil the water instead and then add honey that's been warmed to facilitate extraction from the container. Let the must pasteurize for 15 minutes. Alternately, you can sulfite the must instead of pasteurization as it's done in winemaking. Which article are you referring to? I'd like to read it. Happy meadmaking and wassail! Christopher Hadden http://www.aboutmead.com/ Original Message: ----------------- From: John Longballa longballa(a)hotmail.com Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 09:59:03 -0600 To: mba(a)thebarn.com Subject: Honey Locator An article on mead in the latest issue of Winemaker magazine states: "There are several bulk honey suppliers that are good sources of honey; the National Honey Board keeps a list of them. (Go to www.honeylocator.com to search the NHB database. The site also lists beekeeping associations by state.)" I read a different article that said that lighter honeys, such as orange blossom, should be added to the secondary fermenter, rather than to the primary, in order to preserve their delicate aromas. Is the author simply telling the reader that the boiling process is too vigorous for the lighter honeys, or is there something different about fermentation in the secondary fermenter? I would think that the yeast would do the same things to the honey that is added to the secondary that it would have done to that honey in the primary. I've noticed that fruit extracts are often added to beer in the secondary. Won't the extracts suffer the same fate in the primary that they would in the secondary? I'm confused. Same yeast, same temperature (for the most part), what's different? Thanks. John Longballa -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .