My Second Attempt at Mead

Not content with just having one batch of mead brewing at a time, over the weekend just gone I decided to start a second larger, more adventurous batch.

Though a simpler recipe this mead will be more challenging to make and take a lot longer. The recipe for this batch is just honey water and yeast (plus some yeast nutrients). Also with this batch I am not just following a recipe but deviating slightly and fingers crossed for a good result. I did do a little research before diving in the deep end and got a rough idea of how much honey to water I need to be using. With this I have used approx 6kg of honey diluted in water to make up to about 25 litres. I am using wine yeast due to that being the only yeast available in Wilkinsons! The original recipe I am loosely following asked for champagne yeast. The original recipe also asked for "acid blend" to be added, being unsure what this was and also not seeing this in Wilkinsons I decided to leave this out and hope for the best. Also I'm not sure in ancient times these extra additives would be available! One additive I have bought is Campden tablets, these are used to stop fermentation, I will probably use these as mead has a tendency to stop fermenting and then start again. This causes bottled mead to become dangerous due to risk of fermentation restarting and making the bottles explode! This mead I am making will have a higher alcohol level than my previous mead as it uses a yeast with a higher tolerance, I'm not sure how strong it'll be but am expecting it to be between 15% and 17%. Due to this there will be a much longer fermenting period, approx 6 months. Also this batch will need racking. This is done when there is a layer of sediment in the fermenting vessel and is done by syphoning off all the mead to leave the layer of sediment behind. This is done because this layer of sediment can effect the taste if left in too long. When it has been racked a little extra water is added to bring the level of mead back up to original volume and then it's left again to continue fermentation. Further racking may be required if more layers of sediment collect but hopefully not too many times. When fermentation has finished, and campden tablets have been added to make sure it is fully stopped, then it's time to bottle the mead. I have started saving empty wine bottles and will buy some new corks closer the time they are needed. When it is bottled it can then be left to age but no doubt I will crack a bottle open before it has had any time to age. With 25l I should have plenty of bottles to leave and forget about so they can age. I have read somewhere of mead that has been aged over 10 years but highly doubt I'll be leaving it that long before drinking!


At the moment my smaller batch of mead is bubbling away steadily after having a fast start and my larger batch is going quite vigorously after only been in for a few days, causing a loud bubbling noise approx every 3 seconds. Though I find this a very satisfiying sound it does get rather annoying after a while so will be moving the mead to another room soon. The first mead has developed a thick layer of sediment but the recipe says no to racking so I will resist and wait while march to open it!

My First Attempt at Mead

In the past few days I have started to brew my first batch of mead. The recipe I have chosen to follow is for Jao The Ultimate Beginners Mead.

I have chosen this recipe due to it's simplicity and how quickly you get results. This mead is ready in little over 2 months. The research on the net I have done prior to making this brew always tries to steer away from using bread yeast but this recipe is designed for it. Using this yeast instead of more alcohol tolerant yeasts does produce a weaker mead but still 12% isn't bad! The honey I am using is not from my own bees (as I still haven't acquired any yet) but has been supplied by a family member in bulk and with any luck this will not affect the outcome too much. I am making approx 3.8 litres but if successful will probably make a larger batch in the future. At the moment fermentation seems to be happening quite happily with the airlock bubbling every minute or two. If I've followed the instructions correctly I should be tasting the mead as early as march and will post my thoughts on the taste as well as the views of anyone else who tastes it. Just need to get some bottles for when the mead is ready so I can store some rather than just drinking it all at once!!

Below is a few images. The first is the demijohn with all ingredients inside and airlock on top. The second is covered in black bin bag to stop too much light getting in, ideally it should be kept in a dark cupboard but I have to keep it in living room due to winter temperatures and living room being only room that is consistently warm. The final picture is a close up of the air lock.



Natural or National

After doing lots of research into becoming a Beekeeper I have come across an alternative to the national hive that I have already posted details about. The hive I talk about is The Top Bar Hive or TBH. Unfortunately I started reading about this hive design after I had purchased my National hive or I would have strongly considered the TBH option.

For the hobbyist beekeeper the TBH has lots of advantages over the National standard option.

•  The first obvious one is the cost. My National hive was a budget option that I had to construct myself and was over £100 (£190 including suit, smoker etc), while a TBH can be constructed using spare wooden boards or the timber can be purchased relatively cheap, even as flat pack they can be bought for £60 or there about.
• The second major advantage for the hobbyist is lack of heavy lifting involved. With a National hive if you want to inspect the brood body you have to lift off the supers above and if there is a large amount of honey in them they can be heavy, also by removing a large section of the hive you have a risk of annoying the bees more than needed. With the TBH there is little to no heavy lifting, once the lid is taken off you can lift each individual bar one at a time to inspect the colony, the only weight being lifted is the weight of the bar and the weight of the comb (plus any bees that stay on the comb).
• The third reason is ease of harvest. With the TBH all you need to do to harvest is to remove the comb that has honey stored in it and cut the wax away from the top bar then place the bar back in place for the bees to remake the honey comb, you then can mash up the honey comb and strain to separate the honey from the wax, this also gives you more beeswax than a national hive and removes the need for expensive equipment to spin the honey from frames like in a National hive.
• The fourth reason is probably the most important reason and that is the Bees health. A TBH seems designed to be healthier for the Bees. The Bees make their own comb with a TBH so you don't have to buy wax foundation, further decreasing the cost. Bought comb can contain residual traces of disease or pesticides that shouldn't be put in a hive and when the honey is released from a National hive frame you put the comb back in. This apparently has the advantage to the Bees in that they have already got their comb built so can concentrate on collecting honey thus giving a higher yield, though I have read somewhere that there isn't a great difference in yield. With a National hive the tendency is to remove large quantities of honey at a time by taking off full honey supers and with TBH you take it as it's ready, 1 or 2 combs at a time. By taking it in small quantities at a time you a leaving the Bees with more of their natural food, honey, thus keeping them healthier. Also due to Bees making their own comb in a TBH they make it to their own size that they require unlike National where the foundation is already pressed out to a size defined by the manufacturer of the foundation. The Bees that make their own size comb are usually healthier and manage pests, such as Varroa, better.

There are other advantages and disadvantages but these are the main ones from my point of view. As I already have my National hive I will be sticking with that for the first year but come the next one will be looking into building my own TBH and putting Bees from my National hive into the TBH. I will post photos of the TBH when I start making it. For now I have a couple of photo's obtained from The Natural Beekeeping Forum.

These pictures have been kindly supplied by user tonybloke from The Natural Beekeeping Forum.

The picture on the right is a unoccupied TBH. This image is lifted straight from Phil Chandlers Natural Beekeepers site. The main page for Natural Beekeeping is here and includes free plans to build your own TBH.

Wakefield and Pontefract Beekeepers: September Meeting

Yesterday I attended my first Beekeepers meeting at Newmillerdam. I would say I was definately the youngest person there by several years so felt a bit out of place at first. The meeting had a guest speaker who was talking about candlemaking and the properties of Beeswax. I found it very informative and when I finally get some bees and eventually have a bit of spare wax, I will then have a go at making a candle or 2!

After the meeting I got talking to someone who does beginner courses in beekeeping starting in May and I was surprised to find they only cost about £35!! Bargain! They also come with the option to buy some Bees at a discounted price at the end, approx £75, however by the end of the course it would be too late in the year for a new colony to produce enough honey for the beekeeper to take. I told the guy I intended to get my Bees prior to the course starting and do the course alongside being a first year Beekeeper and he said this isn't a problem. Maybe I'll still take advantage of the discount Bees with a mind to have a second hive up and running by the summer. One of the main questions I had to ask when at the meeting was whether members of Wakefield Beekeepers had access to a extractor for when the honey crop was ready, unfortunatly that question slipped my mind at the time and I forgot to ask. Oops!! I told the guy who hosts the course that I had already bought and assembled my hive and that I'd already made the frames including putting the foundation in. Unfortunately this was the wrong thing to do as the wax foundation can spoil if taken out of it's protective plastic wrapping. Oh well, I was excited about it all arriving and the foundation isn't the most expensive if I need to replace it. He did say that as long as I don't store it somewhere too cold it should be ok. I will see in the new year how big a mistake I made!!

Mead

One of the reasons I have decided to get into Beekeeping is obviously for the honey but there are other uses to honey than just spreading it on your toast. One of these uses is for mead production. Again with mead I have no experience making it but decided to give it a go anyway. It will be about a year before I can get started though as without any bees there's no honey and with no honey there's no mead but thought it was a good idea to start researching now.

The process for making mead looks relatively simple once you have all the equipment needed. It basically the same equipment used in making wine. It involves heating up honey and water so that all the honey is dissolved into the water, some people advise to boil the mix to kill any natural yeasts, some don't. When it has cooled you add yeast and leave to ferment for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. I will continue to research this over the coming year and find a recipe that would be suitable to me and publish my findings. Once the mix has fermented the mead can be left for a considerable length of time, periodically racking your mead (racking is where you siphon from one container to another leaving the sediment behind), until it is ready to be bottled.
Various things can be added to mead in its production to aid fermentation and help the brew clarify but these aren't essential and I will look in to the various options closer the time.
There are many different variations of mead and one that interests me is Melomel or mead made with fruit. As my dad has a allotment that always has a abundance of plums I think at some point I will try a plum Melomel!