Does HONEY QUALITY matter in mead? Testing CHEAP vs. EXPENSIVE honey in a Hydromel 

Good test. Makes sense that with less honey in the mead, the quality would be less important. Nicely done.

I think these used different types of honey, which will end up with slightly different tastes that one person may prefer over the other to start with. A better comparison would be with a cheap wildflower and an expensive wildflower for example.

This was awesome! A triangle test removes preconceptions, which creates a more interesting fact based discussion, which I found more interesting to watch.

> if you want to crush 5 of these after mowing you lawn You are speaking to my soul

Love these kind of videos. Cheers lads ... And lady

The lesson learned is: you never know until you try. 7:02 sums my experience with most beverages.

The real question is whether or not they tested the cheap honey to make sure it was real honey and not supplemented with cheap fructose.

I am loving these experiments. I would love to see the differences with full strength batches 10 to 14% even if it was just a one gallon batch. (Mannnnn are YOU going to be ready for christmas this year!)

So I've seen you on man made mead a few times thought you'd be a stand up guy I didn't make it 20 seconds before audibly laughing twice then immediately subscribing can't wait to see the rest of this video.

Awesome and informative! (chuckled at the Oregon trail reference!) LOL

Different stokes for different folks is what this video seems to sum up. I taste subtle differences and others may not. As long as we all get what we want... Cheers!

Did you ever do the next session with backsweetening? I can't seem to find the follow up

MATE yes, I was hoping for a video like this, because I was internally debating about using my lovely honey from my hive, but I've almost completely run out of it, and I want to make your blackberry hydromel! Was debating buying some cheaper honey, so I'll watch this video to find out :D

Great vid as always! I have a prediction for the next one. I think because the back sweetened honey remains unfermented, it is going to be much more discernible. I would be curious if a still room temperature mead might have betrayed the quality more readily in this test. But, it makes me feel better about my cheap Costco wildflower honey I have been using lol. I might spring for the good stuff for the back sweetening of my cherry cyser depending what your tests reveal 🙂

Question because i have started my first mead and i keep having to refill my airlock alot is this common or is there something wrong with my airlock and need a new one

12:15 ey, that's what I was going to suggest. Months later... But back-sweetening might make a bigger difference with better honey because it doesn't get ripped up by fermentation, you'll keep more of the raw flavor.

So... When you gonna do the backsweetening test?

did the follow-up video of using cheap/expensive honey to back sweeten ever happen? I can't seem to find anything link that in your catalogue...

Nice experiment! Answers a couple questions. Thanks guys & gal 😎

Great test! Do you have a preference to Patreon or RU-vid membership? Does one get more back to you than the other?

How long did you age your mead?

great video! now I dont feel bad about using the cheap honey

Enjoyed watching the experiment. I have a batch of the hydromel going as we "speak". Started it yesterday! Used blackberry honey. It is a dark honey so the final product will be darker.

I thought you were tasting to see which you preferred but realized your trying to taste out the expensive honey

Very nice

Do you think the difference in taste preferences might be due to complex vs simple tastes preferences? I think David said he like the simpler/purer taste(?) and that might mean the difference between your choices. My mind links these preferences with the same differences between some people liking beer over wine and vice versa. Maybe have an experiment with a couple more people that prefer beer/ale and some that prefer wine and do the same tests? That could be an interesting experiment.

Watching this brought up some interesting notions to me. From a historical perspective, nothing or very little went to waste. Use what was available, on hand or left over or else it went to waste. Generally as a rule, left over, on hand and available does not always equal top shelf quality. So your average everyday Baldric was drinking the remnants of last seasons left overs and surpluses. Oh I'm sure there were exceptions as evidenced by written recipe's but the mere fact of them being written indicates wealth and privilege. No, the average brew came from humble stuff. So it's no surprise to me that if top quality ingredients are used, you'll get superior results. However, what stood out to me was that they were debating nuances between expensive and cheap ingredients that most people wouldn't notice. Which to me, drives home the point that in the hands of a skilled and competent brewer, high quality results can be obtained from "iffy" ingredients.

Please compare the cheap with 49% sugar +51% cheap honey

Two bro's one cup ....

Yeah I'm not surprised. If those Brülosophy experiments have taught me anything, it's that it's VERY difficult to tell similar brews apart, even if they vary in one (presumably!) key ingredient. I think all the cultural (& scientifically bogus) hype around wine has led us to think that we can pick up on minute differences in flavor when maybe we can't.

Was this really a test of cheap vs expensive? Seems like the one could have been cheaper because it was a bulk buy? I would think a fairer comparison would be expensive “organic raw boutique brand” wildflower or clover vs Walmart bulk brand equivalent wildflower or clover

Just watched your video.............and wondered..........what makes one honey more expensive than another......in my search for an answer, I found this ..........The very first kilogram of Elvish honey was sold on the French stock exchange five years ago, and it went for $45,000 (about $61,000 dollars ..........I'd say someone had more money than they have sense.....

Aldi tends to have good honey for cheap. I don't find that I have to have one or the other with the stuff I find there. It's not super local brands, but I've found some that shows that it's from the US region that I live in at the least. I know there's fake or liar honey out there, but it's been great so far.

Wrong? Not wrong about what you like better. They weren't supposed to be finding the more expensive but which they liked best.

Okay, I’ve watched it now, here are my thoughts: I think a big part of why the two honeys would be different is going to be jaded on their individual honey origins. For a honey to be labelled as a particular type of honey, it has to contain a majority of that type of honey. There is no requirement for it to be a single source. I think a good reason for the higher price of the expensive honey is that the majority of it was a single source honey, either from one apiary or several within a close area. The cheaper honey was almost certainly a constituent blend of honeys from all over the place, likely with other honeys mixed in that were not orange blossom. I think it likely that the main reason you guys preferred different ones is because of a preference for particular types of honey. You probably like orange blossom more, so you consequently liked the mead made with honey that used more actual, single sources orange blossom honey. I also think that there needed to be some sort of variability for the amount of acidity used in the brews - I’ve found that the acidity of individual honeys varies surprisingly, and needs different levels of balancing depending on the honey. The honey I’m using for my brews at the moment is from our hive, and it is mostly blackberry, with a fair amount of lime and clover as well, so we’ll see how well it stands up in the recipe!

MONARCH'S CHOOOOOOOICE!!!! MY cheapo cheapo jam.

As usual, flavor is subjective.

Can you use a local wildflower versus big box honey? Orange Blossom is such an inexpensive honey already, I feel like "fancy" orange blossom honey is just marked up...it should never really be that expensive. Local wildflower versus big box honey is real honey versus rice syrup and illegally imported Chinese honey. Would be interesting to see.

Lol that’s not expensive.. the most expensive Honey in the world is Elvish Honey, it’s made in Turkey and costs up to $6,800 per Kilo.. lol whoever decided to make a mead with that is either insane or Rich as hell 😂

My friends are bee keepers and their honey is amazing. They told me most of the stuff you buy from the supermarkets (esp the cheap stuff but also the big brands) is full of trash honey from china and produced in way that would make you gag if you knew. It's kind of like the difference between buying an apple from an organic farmer at a local market for $1 or buying an apple from Chernobyl for 2c. The government (in my country) did a test of supermarket honeys and found over 70% were full of bulk junk honey from china.