BYO Magazine - Article on using honey in beer.

[Richard]

Ok this is a little rant.

I'm not exactly the grand-high master expert here, but I know a few things about honey & brewing. I read a guest article in BYO magazine that kinda annoyed me with its inaccuracies:

Tips from the Pros - Dave Chichura - Oskar Blues Brewery

We used [...] wildflower honey. [...] I added it to the last five minutes of the boil because according to the reading I've done this is the safest way to deal with honey. Because of the inherent bacteria and wild yeast in raw honey I felt it was risky to add it to the wort post-boil unless it was pasteurized. [...] be aware that the high fermentability of honey means that you won't get much flavor or aroma unless you're making lighter beers and strategically adding the honey [...] adding it to the fermenter requires pasteurising the honey

So... wildflower honey, yup that stuff tastes & smells pretty awesome. Then we go downhill. First of all - never add honey to any kind of boil as you can say bye bye to all that taste and smell. I thought this was somewhat common knowledge, but whatever. Second - honey does not contain yeast or bacteria since the massive quantity of sugars in the stuff pretty much completely inhibits micro-organism growth; not to mention the fact that much honey is actually anti-bacterial (some more than others, granted, but still; e.g. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 111037.htm). Mead-makers (myself included) often just dump raw honey into sterilised water, mix, and pitch; result = no contamination. The reason he's not getting much flavor or aroma is cause he boiled the honey, pasteurisation (not boiling) would also remove *some* of the flavor/aroma but is only for the truly paranoid. If you boil honey, pretty much all you're left with is a sugar syrup.

From Wikipedia:

Most microorganisms do not grow in honey because of its low water activity of 0.6.[3]

Excessive heat can have detrimental effects on the nutritional value of honey.[51][52] Heating up to 37 °C (98.6 °F) causes loss of nearly 200 components, some of which are antibacterial. Heating up to 40 °C (104 °F) destroys invertase, an important enzyme. At 50 °C (122 °F), the honey sugars caramelize. Generally, any large temperature fluctuation causes decay.[53]

So in summary: don't heat your honey, dammit.

[Kyle]

also don't use Lalvin 1118 yeast when brewing mead. Even in very small quantities, it is hangover juice.

[Chris Craig]

also don't use Lalvin 1118 yeast when brewing mead. Even in very small quantities, it is hangover juice.

What difference does the strain of yeast make in a hangover?

[Richard]

My guess is fusel production... if you don't believe us try getting drunk on Kyle's mead some time and see how you feel the next day

[brew]

An interesting article on Hangovers: http://hamsnetwork.org/hangover/

My money is on Congeners. They are lighter compounds like acetone, various "amines, amides, polyphenols, methanol, and histamine" - methanol is in there also, along with "isopentanol, ethylic acetate, and ethyl formate" among others. These things are all produced more readily when yeast is stressed, along with fusel's which are heavier compounds...

I'll bet if you started with a lower OG of the mead wash, the yeast wouldn't be working so hard (so to speak) and would result in a cleaner drink with less evil hangovers. I suppose a lower ABV might also contribute to less hangover as well... just speculating though...

[Richard]

Yeah the plan is to drop down considerably, probably 1.100 instead of the ~1.130 I was pushing it to... I'm still planning on dropping the 1118 for the next batch as there's anecdotal evidence that it's hangover fuel regardless of the ABV.

[pliny]

Richard, you should write BYO and tell them about it. The mead consuming population needs to know!