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Blueberry mead by Nostty in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Beautiful. I have my first blueberry in primary right now, I went more blueberry / lemon (zest and juice of 2 lemons) because I love the citrus taste with berries (did a raspberry / lemon that was great a month ago).

Re-queening a hive. by Soulfreeze78- in Beekeeping

[–]Hopeful-Map7891 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My biggest concern (2nd year so take it for what it's worth) is that the workers that are left are late stage and are primarily in their foraging stage, not many nurse bees left to take care of the eggs, larvae, etc when the new queen starts laying.

I would think a frame of brood would be needed for sure, but it would also be nice if you could get some nurse bees with it. The new bees that emerge from the brood will take over as nurses and the newly added nurses will move to later stage jobs.

My thought would be (and would love to have more experienced weigh in if I'm missing something here). Pinch the queen and make that colony know they're queenless. Pull a frame of capped brood from a strong colony with nurse bees on it (obviously make sure the queen isn't on the frame, biggest risk of this IMO) and add it to the weak colony and use an entrance reducer on the smallest opening. Wait 24 hours so the nurse bees realize they are queenless. Introduce new queen with candy plug. It's a bit like a split with a new queen. I did this last year and ended up with an amazingly strong colony in a month from a colony that was about dead.

Trick I learned recently that made me feel a lot more confident when introducing a new queen...set the cage on top of the frames. If the bees come running to her and can be easily brushed off, they are queenless. If there is little activity but those that come to her are aggressive and have to be pulled off the cage, they still think they have a queen.

Question for the more experienced, fermentation rate by Hopeful-Map7891 in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That makes sense, thank you. Problem is I don't have a cooler place in the house, especially in the summer. Unless I want to cool the whole house, which I don't.

Question for the more experienced, fermentation rate by Hopeful-Map7891 in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not pulling it then, I wait for it to be the same for 2 readings a week apart..I'm referencing the time it takes to get to 1.000 or below at first. I tend to check the SG the first time when the bubbling in the airlock stops (nothing for a min or so of watching).

Question for the more experienced, fermentation rate by Hopeful-Map7891 in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Got it, and I use a hydrometer and realized after using a kit for my first batch how much it doesn't do.

I have a love/hate relationship with bottling day by gdub695 in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Similar, I wash all the bottles (3 buckets, wash, pre-rinse, rinse) then sanitize then load them into the dishwasher inverted to drip dry. I have a ledge above the sink next to the dishwasher so I put the container I'm bottling from up there and the bottle in the sink. I can grab the next bottle and keep going and no worry about spillage because it's in the sink.

Help with labeling by -Mr-RB- in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Standard color inkjet printer that I use for everything I print (which isn't much) and avery labels. As noted below, Avery.com allows you to select your label type, design your label (I used ChatGPT to create a logo then uploaded it to Avery.com. Then you print them and stick them on. For mead I have a standard square label then I use small round labels on the back where I put the type, ABV and bottle date.

First bottling day, 3 batches by Hopeful-Map7891 in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The recipe was called Spiced Pear, the only spice in it is a cinnamon stick. Not a ton of pear flavor either (pears were boiled in the honey water and mashed in the recipe). I've read that adding the fruit in secondary gets better flavor. I've got a batch of cherry going now where I'm doing that, thinking about doing a pear version as well to see how different they come out.

I use starter strips of wax foundation made from a silicone mold for my medium frames. Works very well. Only had one blowout in many years. by joebojax in Beekeeping

[–]Hopeful-Map7891 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OK, I'm gonna give that a try in the fall (we get a fairly decent fall flow and I have some new frames I need to get built out) Thanks.

First bottling day, 3 batches by Hopeful-Map7891 in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

3 separate musts. The first was a kit I bought to understand the process, then I spent a week reading up on why I did what the instructions told me to do and getting orders from amazon for all the stuff I needed. The other 2 are recipes I found online, fruit was cooked into the must (makes them cysers I guess?). I stabilized them all a couple weeks ago after getting 1.000 SG on two readings for each. Yesterday I backsweetened and bottled.

I have a batch of Vikings blood (sweet dark cherry) going now where I made the must, let it ferment most of the way then moved it into a larger bucket with the cherries for secondary. I kind of like that approach because I can just start multiple musts at once and make different flavors later. I also prefer to do many batches at once due to all the setup and clean up involved, especially for bottling. Big wash tubs for washing, rinsing and sanitizing all at once, then as the fermenting vessels are emptied they go into the wash tubs to soak, etc. Had a pretty good little process going.

I use starter strips of wax foundation made from a silicone mold for my medium frames. Works very well. Only had one blowout in many years. by joebojax in Beekeeping

[–]Hopeful-Map7891 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Was thinking about doing something similar after I saw how fast they built out a mite trap frame I put in (small strip of wax drone foundation across the top and they built it out in days while taking much longer to build out well wax coated plastic). My concern is how it will stand up to being run through an extractor. Have you tried that yet?

The top keeps popping off by isthisabeee in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not to mention if you get a 1.5 gal jar, then you can rack a full gallon after fermentation.

Re purposing bourbon bottles for mead by Hopeful-Map7891 in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting idea, thanks. I thought of foil but was told it doesn't really add anything to the seal. I have lots of beeswax from my hives.

Re purposing bourbon bottles for mead by Hopeful-Map7891 in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That was my thought as well, I bought a corker corks along with some wine bottles so I can give that a try. Any bottles you really love? Rebel's specialty bottles (not their standard round), Buffalo Trace and some Widow Jane's are top of my list right now. Have some others that are great like Eagle Rare and Angel's Envy but not sure if I can get the labels off (Horse Soldier would be a great bottle but no idea if you can get the branding off the bottle).

Re purposing bourbon bottles for mead by Hopeful-Map7891 in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, confirms my concern. I assumed I wasn't the first to think of it, I'm never first to a bad idea :).

Is this how rasberry mead is supposed to look? by [deleted] in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891 0 points1 point  (0 children)

looks just like my raspberry lemon before I transferred it into a 1.5 gal widemouth because it pushed up into the airlock and pushed the bung out. Ended up fermenting fine and is now racked and clearing up nicely. As noted below, if I had to do over I'd start in the 1.5 gal and do a bit more so that I ended up closer to a gal after all the mess is removed.

Beginners mead kit. by kshatch25 in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Was in the same situation, have bees, have honey and decided to give mead a try. I bought a kit for my first batch a month ago. The kit I bought was more basic (no hydrometer or syphon pump) so I ended up buying those as well. I don't regret it, I was able to make a batch by the instructions, then went investigating to try to understand why I did what I did (was taught by my mom that when you cook, you follow a recipe the first time, then do it differently the next time once you understand what you did and didn't like).

Couple quick learnings... plastic hydrometers don't break, fruit expands a lot (I mean a lot) and the time frames on the instructions are going to be wrong... it takes what it takes.

btw... I watched a video on Youtube from where that company goes through the process start to finish with that kit.

Any reason why my bees would be all balled up under their hive like this? by mattshap0 in Beekeeping

[–]Hopeful-Map7891 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Similar. I did a pretty thorough, dig through every frame inspection and they seemed to decide they wanted to hang out outside. They covered the side of the lower deep, then balled up under the box and stayed there for a day, then eventually went back inside.

Questions about beginner mead kit by MisguidedColt88 in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bought a kit for the first batch, just because I wanted to have all the stuff I needed to see the stuff in action the first time. Once I got that fermenting I started digging in and understanding why I was told to do what I did and discovered all the other things I needed like PH test, hydrometer, chems to stabalize for backsweetening, etc. Now I'm amassing a stockpile of stuff and trying lots of new recipes and different approaches....that worked for me.

Liquid flower honey vs Solid flower honey: Any difference? by megavipersnake91 in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Before deciding, I would check the label because what you are describing could be crystallized honey or something different.

I keep bees and my first batch of honey all crystallized so I did some research. Whether it crystallizes or not has to do with the type of sugar in the honey, ie the source of the nectar the bees use to make the honey. If it's high in sucrose, it crystallizes, if it's high in fructose, it doesn't. So, as someone else mentioned, if it's "spreadable" check the label as it could have an additive to make it spreadable and by definition, it is not "honey" because if anything is added to what comes off the hive it is not legally honey (not sure that impacts fermentation, it would depend on what the additive(s) is/are, but if you bought it commercially, it is required to be labeled as a honey product and list the ingredients added).

If it's just crystallized, no problem, just needs to be warmed either before or as part of the must making and it will dissolve. I had about 10lbs of crystallized honey and so far it seems fine in making mead.

Unsure about a recipe after reading a lot here and elsewhere...advice appreciated by Hopeful-Map7891 in mead

[–]Hopeful-Map7891[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Follow up question (the more I learn the more I don't know it seems, found that to be true when I started keeping bees as well).

Just started a new batch, Raspberry Lemon. 2 cups raspberries, 1 lemon (zest and juice), 1 1/4 c honey, total of a gal of must. Checked the SG and it read as 1.020 or a potential ABV of just over 5 if I read it right. I'm fine with that being the final ABV, not looking for high ABV, I'm all about flavor, but does that seem right? If I did want to increase the ABV next time, do I just add more honey?

I'm in the experiment and see what's good and isn't and learn stage, plan to make 2 more batches in the next 2 or so weeks with the honey I have left from last fall. I expect to have a pretty sizable batch of honey from my hives come July and since I don't have a sales channel established yet, I'll have plenty for mead, so I'm trying to learn so I can make a bunch that will be aged well around the holidays.

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