30 Aug Honey Recipes – Got Old Honey? Make Wine!

Does Honey Go Bad?

The short answer: NO! NEVER! Not if you store it properly.

That means do not contaminate it with water or food. As long as honey is kept free of other contaminants, it will last as close to indefinitely as modern science can detect! Practically FOREVER! For more info about this remarkable feature of honey, please read The Science Behind Honey’s Eternal Shelf-life. The ancient Egyptians prized honey for many of the medicinal values it provides, and modern archeologists are still uncovering entombed vessels of honey that are unspoiled. So, since honey NEVER goes bad, we use it in everything we can.

Crystallization is a natural process that is both unavoidable and a sign that you have natural raw unprocessed honey. Crystals form naturally over time depending on the glucose:fructose sugar content ratio. Even though crystallization is both natural and unavoidable, people do not like to purchase honey that has crystals. So, what to do when you have honey that has crystallized?

How to Use Honey in Brewing

Honey makes a great substitute for processed table sugars in wine. It can be added to your home brew beer to supplement the malt sugars. You can substitute refined processed table sugars with raw BM Dooney Farms Honey in all of your brewing & wine making!

Honey Mead vs. Honey Wine?

Mead is a term that refers to wine made from fermenting honey. Traditionally, mead has no other sources of sugar to ferment, other than the honey. Honey-wine is a term used for wines made by substituting honey for table sugar when fermenting fruits. At BM Dooney Farms, we use our crystallized honey when we ferment the fruits from the trees & shrubs on the farm into honey-wines.

What about those of you that already made your locally harvested fruit wines? Maybe you have wines that did not taste that sweet? Well, again, honey comes to the rescue! Honey can be added to old wines and then diluted with water, which the Roman’s used to invigorate their troops as an energy booster. One of the first energy drinks that was used to boost performance was diluted honey-wine! Romans of all ages would consume this drink throughout the day, getting a low dose of alcohol that assisted in cleaning the water of potential toxins, and it kept everyone from getting drunk! Diluted ratios range, but are reported in various historical documents as between 20:1 and 4:1 water:wine.

Here is a recipe for wines that you can make in your home: Muscadine Honey-WIne.

Ingredients

To make 5 gallons Muscadine Honey-Wine you will need:

• 30lbs muscadine grapes
• 9lbs honey
• 5 tsp yeast nutrient
• 3/4 tsp pectic enzyme
• 1 tsp wine tannin
• 1 pkg wine yeast: Champagne yeast
• 10 Campden tablets
• 5 gallons distilled water

Directions

1. Sterilize ALL equipment prior to use. Wash all fruit thoroughly.
2. Place cleaned grapes into mesh bag inside primary fermenter. Crush grapes by hand inside the clean fermenter bucket.
3. Mix all ingredients EXCEPT yeast & Campden tablets into primary fermenter. Submerge fermentation bag of crushed grapes.
4. Crush 5 Campden tablets & scatter across the top of the submerged pulp bag/liquid mix.
5. Cover with a clean thin towel & place in cool undisturbed location (closet) for 24h.
6. After 24h, sprinkle yeast over top, add lid with airlock, allow to ferment 5-7days.
7. After 5-7d, remove pulp bag, squeeze all juice, discard pulp. Let settle, then siphon into glass carboy (racking the wine).
8. Let it set in a cool dark place for 4 weeks, Re-rack the wine, let set another 4 weeks. Repeat this step until desired clarity reached.
9. At final clarity, siphon off into clean bucket, add 5 crushed Campden tablets, bottle.
10. Enjoy!