Mead General

After a few years of making mead, I want to collect everything in one place.  In general, the washed wax mead tends to have a strong hive flavor, and pure honey mead is light and doesn’t have that additional funky flavors…  Some batches have gotten a “burnt popcorn” kind of flavor, which may or may not clear over time. But I’m starting to wonder if there’s anything I can do to improve the flavor of washed wax or whole hive mead:

Things to try:

1. Pressing the comb to get the last honey out instead of just washing it.
2. Washing the comb with cold water for a short time instead of overnight to reduce the additional off-flavors?
3. Boiling the must to deactivate enzymes and kill off any other bacteria
4. Pitching a minimal amount of sulphur to kill off any “bad” organisms but let the good yeasts survive, similar to the method for Cider.

External links to whole-hive mead:

• https://www.grit.com/food/kitchen-techniques/how-to-make-honey-mead-zm0z1809zcoo
• http://caidwiki.org/images/2017_Brewing_Mead_from_crushed_honey_comb.pdf
• http://www.rabbitsfootmeadery.com/CAGM/guide_to_mead.html

General Mead links that I found useful:

• http://forum.northernbrewer.com/t/good-mead-making-practices-and-fast-mead-making/2909