HAs anybody made...

...honey vodka? Can you make make vodka using honey or does it have to have a starch base?

You could make a distilled "clean" spirit very similar to Vodka using honey, but I think that by and large you would strip most of the honey like flavors off of it when distilling and filtering. You could always do an infusion of honey after the distilling process if you wanted more honey flavor, but dollar for dollar you are probably going to get more bang for the buck using sugar and water as your primary fermentable and then flavoring after distillation.

If you are looking for higher gravities when brewing you might be pleased with White labs high gravity ale yeast with the right nutrient and fermentables you can get close to 25% ABV. It can throw off some funky flavors every now and then....especially if fermented at the higher end of the temperature range. I would also advise having more head space in the fermenting tank since this is an active yeast strain to say the least. A bit of fruit with a higher pectin content will help in clearing the liquor.

Apart from the whole illegal distilling caveat, I'll agree w/ Jimmyhat. Except for the "I did it myself" reward, which I will never dismiss as unimportant :), I think it'd take a lot of honey that could've stayed mead or been used in some way that you'd know it was honey starting out. And it takes a large wash to make a little distillate. Distill your potatoes or your flaked corn if you must, but honey it afterwards IMO if you want to use honey. My Swedish predecessors make a concoction they call Bog Fog; vodka, berries of choice and sugar steeped a couple months. Great cordial, cheap and fun.

I would imagine you could retain some of the flavor if you freeze distilled... This can be done by accidentally leaving it outside too long in the winter ;) or by chilling it in the freezer too long... Skim the ice off the top and repeat the accident a time or two... It works well with hard cider...

The gravity will not be as high as distillation but have one or two more drinks and you will feel the same... :)

Yes you can. Bill Lord talked about having some in Afghanistan at a meeting once, he's the guy that does something with Neuse water quality and has a guest spot on NC PBS gardening show.

Can anyone taste the source of sugars in vodka? I have never tasted potatoes in mine...

As I understand the basics of making a liquor is you first ferment and then distill. So mak a mead and distill out the ETOH. Sugar gets converted to ETOH and CO2, plenty of sugar in honey.

Are you a meader beegee? Care to trade bottles?

I believe the reason it's hard to make out the sugar source is vodka is because it's typically distilled to a very high proof, and then cut with water back down to 40% or so. This would indicate that a liquor made from honey in the "vodka method," if you will, will likely not have much honey character to it. I suspect this method was adopted to rid the end product of the high amount of fusel oils that potatoes might produce.

Joe, not yet. working toward that though, maybe this year. I took no honey last year becasue of the drought.

"Tullymore" whiskey claims to use honey as a percentage of the fermentables. The effect is not noticable IMHO. Perhaps a strait mead brandy or calvados would be more pronounced in its flavor.

Check out Touch Vodka. They claim to make a honey vodka

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...&q=touch+vodka

hey, general info on whiskey. really what you call ti is just from the traditions and a little on method. you make brandy out of wine and whiskey from beer. the evaporation temp. for alcohol is i think 111 degrees. just below water. there is not a whole lot illegal about making alcoholic bev., just selling them. check out my friends at buck shoals winery, that just got an award for a cyser(mead made with apple juice). and also, award winners blacksnake meadery.

I've had some top notch stuff made out of cane sugar, as good as belvedere or gray goose.

Dan