All Honey Ferments

All Honey Ferments are the same basic fermented thing as any Honey Wine/Mead, and like the popular Fad “Honey Ferment” that circulates on the Internet lately… “Honey Garlic”, most do not realize that most anything can be also made into an effective daily tonic using this fermentation pathway.

All the difference is, is that this ferment is left a bit thicker than a normal mead, so it can be used as a tonic, similar to any cough syrup for consistency and concentration.

Honey ferments via yeast action IF the moisture content of honey goes above 17.2% and better if at 25% and over, as the yeasts come out of dormancy in raw honey and work to convert the sugars in honey or added materials into alcohols.

Alcohols are an effective ‘solvent’ for med or flavor extraction of most herbals one can toss into this ferment.

(Honey is not Conducive to a bacterial ferment, however these days one should check the pH of the honey to make sure it is already under the safety line of pH 4.6 before one sets up the ferment… due to concerns of certain pathogenic toxin activity happening in raw honey).

IF pH is over pH 4.6 the honey has to be buffered down with a distilled vinegar or acid blends found at any wine ferment store outlet or online. The yeasts even like starting the ferment best if down at least to pH 4.0… 3.8 is ideal, same as with any wine or mead ferment.

Here is a pic of a honey tonic made with 19 local gathered medicinal herbs, berries, tree barks and roots in our local gathered wild jungle honey.
I call this one “19 Flying Tigers”. Local honeys and herbs etc. are the most effective immune boosters as all in them is local to one’s environment so train one’s personal space immune factors.

Honey from a distance is not so personally medicinal but is still a nice sweet product to ferment.

Pasteurized honey can also be used as all one does then is add a bit of water to raise moisture up and a good pinch of a good wine yeast to get the ferment happening!

Stir each day to introduce O2 as yeasts need that at the start. Use a loose lid to cover or a cloth perhaps just like with kefir or kombucha or WK, or any wine for the first “primary” aerobic ferment sequence.
When bubbling slows down then no more stirring for about a month as now yeasts go anaerobic with no O2 needed, and do the actual ferment which is converting sugars to alcohols.

I leave the material in the honey for perhaps 5 to 6 months, then strain them out, discard some… with garlic use it for cooking or munching and bottle the tonic honey for fridge storage or in a cool area where it can bottle age for years….. 5 or more years is ideal. … IF one can resist using it all up before then that is! lol    thank you Lance Hancherow