Making Mead

During the beekeeping "offseason," one of the things I like to do is make a few small batches of mead. Mead, for those who don't know, is basically a wine made from honey, water, and yeast. I thought I'd post my favorite mead recipe, called "Christmastime Mead." It's flavored with a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, which together make up the pumpkin spice taste that's so popular between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Ingredients for 0.8 gallons of wine:
- Spring water (non-chlorinated), 1 gallon
- Honey, 4 lbs
- Cinnamon sticks, 1 oz (coarsely crushed)
- Whole nutmeg, 4 pieces (coarsely crushed)
- Whole allspice, .75 oz (coarsely crushed)
- Lemon, 1 small sliced
- Yeast nutrient, 1/4 teaspoon
- D47 wine yeast, one 5-g packet
- Earl Grey tea, 1 mug steeped in spring water and cooled to room temp (adds flavor depth and helps keep the wine from being too sweet by adding tannins for astringency.

Steps:
 
- Microwave 2 oz of spring water for 15 seconds to make it slightly warm.
- Pour yeast packet into warmed spring water, stir, and set aside while you assemble the other ingredients.
- Prepare the tea.
- Warm the honey container(s) in a water-filled pan to help it pour more easily.
- Use the cleaner and sanitizer to prepare any equipment that will come into contact with the mead.
- Add the ingredients into a 2-gallon primary fermenter.
- Mix well. This mixture is called the “must.”
- Test the specific gravity (SG) using a hydrometer. It should indicate about 14% alcohol potential. If not, add honey.
- Seal the primary fermenter and install the airlock.
- Use vodka to fill the airlock. This provides an added defense against germs entering the mead.
- Primary Fermentation:  Allow the must to sit for 2 weeks in a dark, cool location while it ferments. During the first week, gently swirl the vessel every couple days to keep ingredients in contact with each other. Proceed to first racking after 2 weeks.

 1st RACKING:
- Clean and sanitize your racking siphon and tubing.
- Microwave 2oz of water for 1 minute. Add 1/2 teaspoon of bentonite to the hot water and stir until dissolved. Let the bentonite mixture cool to room temperature, and then pour it into the empty carboy you’re about to use.
- Rack the liquid into the cleaned and sanitized 1-gallon carboy with the bentonite slurry already poured in.
- Test the specific gravity in a hydrometer. A 1.0 reading indicates most of the sugars have been converted.
- Install the airlock.
- Secondary Fermentation:  Allow the mead to sit for 3 weeks in a dark, cool location while it ferments some more.

CLARIFYING RACK:
- Clean and sanitize your racking siphon and tubing.
- Microwave 2oz of water for 1 minute. Add 1/2 teaspoon of bentonite to the hot water and stir until dissolved. Let the bentonite mixture cool to room temperature, and then pour it into the empty carboy you’re about to use.
- Rack the liquid into the cleaned and sanitized 1-gallon carboy with the bentonite slurry already poured in.
- Test the specific gravity in a hydrometer. A 1.0 reading indicates most of the sugars have been converted.
- Install the airlock.
- Allow the mead to sit in a dark, cool location until it clarifies.

BOTTLING:
- If, at this point, there are still solids settled in the bottom of the mead, rack one more time to segregate the clarified mead before bottling.
- When there’s no more noticeable fermentation taking place, prepare for bottling.
- Clean and sanitize bottles, and then run them through the dishwasher without detergent. Also do this with the funnel and any other equipment that’ll come into contact with the mead.
- Test the specific gravity in a hydrometer. A 1.0 reading indicates most of the sugars have been converted.
- Bottle and cap the mead.
- Label the bottles. Try to include the date you began the primary fermentation and the bottling date.
- Break open one of the bottles to try it out.
- Store the remaining bottles in a cool, dark place until at least a year has passed since the start date to let the flavors blend and moderate.

The end result; a bottled batch of mead

First Test of My Bee Hive Snow Visors

Hive with a snow visor

We had our first snow of the winter last week, so my homemade snow visors got their first test. The results were good, but not great. For 1-2 inches of snow, the visors were able to keep enough away from the entrance to allow free passage of bees in and out of the hive. But there was still snow on the landing board, and a couple more inches would probably block the entrance. The current configuration is effective enough to buy me some time before I need to clear the snow off the hive, but next year I'll probably mount them a bit lower or build them a bit larger. That should make a world of difference.

Uh Oh...

While preparing to do my winter oxalic acid treatment, I found these dead bees clogging up the bottom of a hive. So I removed the mouse guard and scraped them onto the ground in order to clear the entrance and clean the bottom board. Since the weather was fairly warm, I opened the hive and checked for signs of life with a flashlight. Sure enough, there's still a cluster of bees in the brood chamber. I'm not gonna lie...I'm worried about whether the hive will live until spring. I'm hopeful these were just summer bees that made it into early winter, and that the remaining cluster is still big enough to withstand the next 3 months of cold. I'm bolstered by the fact that I've seen this before, with seemingly large losses of individual honey bees mid-winter; in each case the colony has survived. So I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic until they give me another reason to worry.

Another quick note regarding oxalic acid vaporization. If you use OAV to treat varroa mites, now's a good time to do your winter treatment. In the next couple weeks, as the days in the northern hemisphere start getting longer, our queens will instinctively get broody. Believe it or not, this celestial shift can mean there will be brood in your hives in January--even in cold climates. So it's about your last chance to treat a completely broodless hive, which is the best time to use OAV since none of the mites are hidden in capped cells.

A Rafter of Turkeys

I don't get around to downloading pictures from my game camera very often, but I did it today. Among other interesting photos was this shot of a group of turkeys walking through my bee yard. As I began to type this, I initially wrote a "flock of turkeys." But a little fact-checking revealed a group of turkeys is referred to as a "rafter." I guess it makes sense because when you look up the word "raft" in the dictionary, one of the definitions is a "large amount of something." So I learned a new thing today. And there's a good chance I'll forget it tomorrow.

Cold Fondant

My bees have eaten through most of their fondant, so it was time to make some more yesterday. For the first time, I tried making "cold fondant." Anyone who's made large batches of fondant knows it's a house fire waiting to happen, carefully trying to keep the flammable concoction from overflowing until it hits 240°. It also requires whisking vats of 200° syrup, which makes everything within a few feet a sticky mess. So I tried something new and made it without heat as follows:

For each hive, thoroughly mix 4 lbs of sugar and 1 cup of water. Spread the mixture on wax paper or (for small batches) in a baking sheet. Let it sit for a day to dry out, flipping it with a spatula once to let the bottom dry too.

Viola, you've got "cold fondant." I guess it's not really fondant since it wasn't cooked, but that's what I'm calling it. The finished product is nearly indistinguishable, and I doubt the bees will notice either.