Major update tomorrow

I will have a MAJOR UPDATE tomorrow with some bad news and some really great news!

more mead

In cleaning out the freezer, I found a ton of fresh frozen unsweetened strawberries that were begging to be made into mead. I had the leftover chocolate too! So my brain got to thinking..... what would it take to turn this into something fantastic?


I went and got 2- 3 gallon carbouys and airlocks, sanitized everything and started in on the next and final batch of mead for a while....

Chocolate vanilla strawberry mead

3 gallon carbouy filled to just under top line
1/2 cup Nestle Quick milk powder 25% reduced sugar
4 tbsp Hershey’s chocolate syrup
1 vanilla bean cut lengthwise and in half
2.5 tsp Fermax
9 lbs honey
4.5 lbs frozen strawberries
3/4 cup wyeast sweet mead yeast and d-47

secondary added 2lbs frozen strawberries and pectin enzyme

Vanilla strawberry mead

3 gallon carbouy filled to just under top line
1 vanilla bean cut lengthwise and in half
2.5 tsp Fermax
9 lbs honey
6.5 lbs frozen strawberries
3/4 cup wyeast sweet mead yeast and d-47

secondary added 2 lbs frozen strawberries and pectin enzyme

I am still going to have to invest in a bunch of small wine bottles, corks and a corker.....
 
I will get some pictures of those soon. I can tell you, if these get started right and not contaminated, they will be awesome!

Mead update

Well, the nice chocolate orange smell is gone and it is now replaced by a sulfur, rotten egg smell coming from the chocolate mead.... It is pooting away about 1 Silent But Deadly per second. Apparently d-47 yeast makes Sulfur Dioxide as a by-product.... Defiantly keep this one well far away from living space.


The chocolate still smells nice fro the airlock. It got so excited the last few days that it bubbled up into the airlock. If it gets clogged, I will have to pull it off and clean it. I don’t want to risk losing the mead to oxygen or bacteria, so I hope it stays clear.

2 months to go before I rack both into new carbouys. Then 1 more month before I bottle... And a year until it is ready. I am going to add a mead countdown clock on the right if I can find a good one.

mead update

I might have used too much yeast in the Ancient Orange to get it going.... It is foaming and bubbling like crazy! I am a bit concerned that it might bubble up through the airlock because I left about 7" to the airlock, and it is half way there with bubbles on day one..... Here is a pic of the Orange:

I would post a picture of the chocolate mead, but it looks a bit like it sounds, chocolatey bubbling slurry.

Both have about 1.5 burbles per second out of the airlock, and the closet smells like chocolate/oranges/christmas spice.... Man, these will be good around christmas....

MEAD!!!!!!!!

Okay, it is official... I am insane.

For christmas I got a Mr. Beer home brew kit and have made some really good beers.... A West Coast Pale Ale that is light and citrusy and a High Country Canadian Draft which is mellow and nice.

This got me thinking about mead.... I have always been a little curious about it and I do make my own strawberry vodka, peach vodka and blueberry vodka....

Today I got the urge to make mead bad enough I went to the local brewery supply store and bought 2- 6 gallon carbouys, and all of the equipment to make, rack, ferment and store mead....

I ended up making these two recipes:

Joes Ancient Orange Cinnamon Clove Mead


Filled 6 gallon carbouy to just under top line

3 ½ gallons water
2 large naval oranges cut into 16ths then halfs
3 medium/small naval oranges cut the same
3 pinches nutmeg
5 cinnomon sticks
4 cloves
18 lbs clover honey (1.5 gallons)
½ cup loosely packed Sunkist raisins
2 packets fleschmans baking yeast (4.5 oz)
2 tsp Fermax nutrient


Chocolate Mead

Filled 6 gallon carbouy just under top line

8.2 oz Nestley quick milk mix 25% reduced sugar
8 oz Hershey’s chocolate syrup
18 lbs clover honey (1.5 gallons)
3.5 tsp acid blend
5 tsp Fermax nutrient
1 pack D-47 yeast

The chocolate mead is my own variation of the Lady Bridget version here: http://www.ladybridget.com/m/chocmead.html and a few other recipes....
 
The biggest issue with the chocolate meads is that they take 1-2 years to be mellow and good and not bitter from the cocoa.... so just like a wine, I will have no clue if it is good for a LONG, LONG time.... They also call for back sweetning where you add honey or sugar after fermentation, I used a yeast that stops fermenting at around 13% ABV, so there should be plenty of honey left....

Another beekeeping class

I just got out of the second beekeeping class for the Forsyth County beekeepers.

Today consisted of general fram inspections and lighting a smoker. nothing new and everything I learned from a book and working with Larry Tate. Most of the people in the class have 0 knowledge of bees or biology (which is how the class is geared).

On a brighter note, I won a door prize. I won a boardman feeder. The other two prizes were basic hive tools.

I have to go get ready for the Wake Forest VS UNC basketball game... GO DEACS!!!!

Long time, no post

I have not had much going on in the ways of the bee world.

I am working on a grant proposal to hopefully get some scientific research done, and have someone else pay for a few hives! If I get the grant I will post its details here. Maybe everyone out there reading would like to participate? I cannot give away anything as of right now, but soon.....

I also took the first beekeeping class offered by the Forsyth County Beekeepers Association yesterday. I pre registered, so I got a free cookbook for cooking with honey! There were about 85 people there. It was all information I already knew, but I guess it was good to get it reinforced. The class takes you through everything beekeeping. Yesterday's class was assembling woodenware and foundation types in the demo stations. The lessons were very basic history and biology of bees. It was only supposed to go from 9:00-11:30. So I scheduled a bunch of flights from 1:00 on. I figured 30 minutes would allow them enough time to wrap it up then I could get to the airport and prep the helicopter while grabbing a fast food lunch. When 12:00 rolled around, and we still had one and a half demo stations left, I had to grab my stuff and sneak out. They were talking about frame building and I already had all of mine built. I learned on my own. The last station was protective equipment and basic tools. I already had all of my equipment.

Maybe next week's class will go better.... I am planning on it running an hour long.