[Brentski]

     Good Morning, I've completed my 5th Mead Brew-Day and this batch is much darker than my previous batches.  I have always used the same methods and my brew time has always been the same (1/2 hour boil, and about an hour in sink ice chilled). My kettle is 8 gallons but I only make 3 gallons at a time due to my fermenter size.  I've used Brazillian organic honey in my previous batches and my wife and I have been very pleased with the "lime-like" hint it imparts on our Mead.  Now we can't find this honey, and we bought "Fresh and Easy" raw wild natural honey. The label shows U.S. Grade A,  but I have no idea where it comes from. After brewing and chilling yesterday, I racked it to my fermenter and pitched an English Porter Yeast that I had left over from a beer kit I recently brewed. The color of my mead is a darker gold-orange than we were expecting, so I started going through my steps again (thinking I mis-counted the amount of water, but that turned out correct at 3-1/2 gallons of spring water). The amount of honey we used was 64oz and the Must color looked pretty typical.  My previous Mead batches seemed a lighter shade and almost green tinted. Has anyone used this honey? Could the yeast have made this darker color? Normally I just use Red-Star bread yeast because we don't care about higher ABV content, but the product has that "fermenty odor" and can be a little "off-to-the-nose", which is why we decided to use a Porter Yeast.  I went to the company's web-page and it's listed in El Segunda, Ca., but that appears to be whom the honey is produced for, and not where it originates from.  Anyway, we are sure this will be fine and plan to share with friends in about 4 months. If anyone has thoughts or experience, please comment.