Eucalyptus honey

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Sunday Nov 04, 2007 2:51 pm

I heard an interesting thing today...

Someone told me today that eucalyptus honey adds no strange flavour to meads. Apparently the strange flavours associated with that honey is due to the yeast.

I've used eucalyptus honey in beer and tasted some strange flavours, so surely in mead it would be a lot stronger?

I haven't use eucalyptus honey in mead to date for the reason I mentioned before, and the fact that experimenting with 3kg+ of honey is bloody expensive if you are wrong.

Anyone have any experience here?

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Sunday Nov 04, 2007 2:59 pm

Got 2-3 years?

http://www.winepress.us/forums/index.ph ... opic=21370

Everything I can see in a quick Google suggest what I always thought to be true, it is not a very good idea. I can not see how the yeast would cause the flavour? If so how would you get around that?

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 11:34 am

Yeah, that has always been the general concensus, but I wanted to find if anyone has had a positive experience with euc honey- let's face it, it is a LOT cheaper

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 11:46 am

Chris wrote:Yeah, that has always been the general concensus, but I wanted to find if anyone has had a positive experience with euc honey- let's face it, it is a LOT cheaper

I reckon we would have heard about it if it were true. A secret like that would not long last in the chatty gossiping community of home brewers

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 12:02 pm

Ah, but what about meadmakers...?

Funnily enough, I can only ever see meadmakers brewing in tweed jackets and hats, smoking a pipe...

Just for the record, I own no tweed myself.

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 12:25 pm

but you own a pipe?

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 12:35 pm

KEG wrote:but you own a pipe?

He likes to call it a cone...

bottle top · Post by **bottle top** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 1:01 pm

I did a brew with a couple of hundred grams of eucalyptus honey that was utterly undrinkable for about the first month, but it ended up delicious...

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 1:30 pm

Kevnlis wrote:
KEG wrote:but you own a pipe?
He likes to call it a cone...

...or a hop flower...

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 1:32 pm

So Bottletop, you recon the euc flavour diminishes over time? That would be great for a mead, as they are only considered green at 1yr.

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 2:06 pm

smoking hops eh.. that'd be interesting :-/

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 2:11 pm

Chris wrote:So Bottletop, you recon the euc flavour diminishes over time? That would be great for a mead, as they are only considered green at 1yr.

I think DoggerDan is big into the meads. Maybe you could track him down and see if he knows the answer?

NTRabbit used some "Rainforest Honey" from Woolies to make a mead recently. Ask him how it went.

warra48 · Post by **warra48** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 5:22 pm

Kevnlis wrote:I think DoggerDan is big into the meads. Maybe you could track him down and see if he knows the answer?

With apologies to this forum, but DoggerDan seems to only appear on this forum these days:
http://brodiescastlebrewing.com/index.php

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 6:15 pm

KEG wrote:smoking hops eh.. that'd be interesting :-/

Even better, use the other to brew

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 9:37 pm

Been done- do a search.

bottle top · Post by **bottle top** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 10:11 pm

Chris wrote:So Bottletop, you recon the euc flavour diminishes over time? That would be great for a mead, as they are only considered green at 1yr.

Well it did in my case, but I don't use honey a whole lot so there's not a good sample size from which to draw conclusions.

Just checked my notes - undrinkable at 3 weeks in the bottle, very nice a week later. Mind you we are talking only 200g in a 23L brew...

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Monday Nov 05, 2007 10:33 pm

Chris wrote:Been done- do a search.

I was not saying it could not be done. I was saying the beer is even better when it is done... properly...