Preparing the last glasses of honey...

After taking the honey I needed for the two batches of mead I am working with now, I kind of forgot the last honey - about 7½ kg - still in the bucket I used when harvesting. I had spiked with crystallized honey to inoculate the crystallization, but nothing happened in the following weeks, so I assumed that the inoculation had failed.

Now that I opened the bucket the honey was completely solid. So solid that It was difficult to push a wooden spoon into it. Actually I broke it when I tried to dig a spoonful out "¤¤%#%&. It is becoming quite expensive in kitchen utensils since, according to my wife, it is "break one, buy a new set......" 

I found that it was easier to cut it with a flat spoon from a rice cooker. Fortunately I have two of those, so armed with these tools I started to fill honey glasses with 450 g of honey. It took a very loooong time. Next year I will remember to do this while the honey can still flow like a liquid.

Go Movember !!!!! (I am looking so much forward to a full shave again)

To save me some work I took out 3.20 kg out for yet another batch of mead, though it will only be a 8.5 L batch.

All in all I ended up with enough 450 g glasses and 200 g glasses to get through Christmas and still have some left for family breakfasts, glazing of meat, salad dressings etc..... :o)

Weighing the hive - control of food status

After I harvested the last honey I fed the bees with Apivert three times during October. It was quite surprising that the bees were able to move 3-4 kg of Apivert into the hive in just 2 days. Wow - one bee carries a few µl so talk about a major team effort.

This was also the first time I saw that bees actually have a quite long tongue. Never seen that :o)

Anyway, I ended up feeding them 1½ bucket and by the end of October the entire hive weighed 30.5kg

Yesterday, the 24 of November it weighed 26.7 kg a loss of weight of 3.8 kg - so about 4 kg the first month.

I use the "suitcase scale" that is shown in the picture. Great and cheap tool - a "must have".

Throughout the winter I will weigh the hive to see how it develops. The mass should drop slowly throughout the winter. In the spring it should suddenly increase when the bees start collecting nectar and pollen again. Then it is time check on the bees again.

Last work with the bees for this year - formic acid and oxalic acid treatment

Go Movember :)

At the end of the season the bees are treated with first formic acid in October and then with oxalic acid in November.

I performed the formic acid treatment start October this year. For 4 day in a row 30 ml of formic acid was distributed on a cloth and put on the bottom plate of the hive. This was a massacre of the family. Usually dead bees are carried away the the workers but this time several hundreds dead bees were scattered all around the entrance of the hive. I could only hope that the queen was still OK. 

Above: Evidence of massacre of formic acid treatment :(

I checked the tray 2 weeks after but I could only count about 160 mites.

Last weekend (16th November) it was time for the oxalic acid treatment. This is done by spraying an oxalic acid solution ON the bees. 35 ml of the solution was spread as evenly as possible on the bees between each honey board. 

Yesterday I went back to check on the bees and I must say that I expected the worst. But I was relieved to find that there was not many dead bees. When checking the tray I could count about 400 mites. This is not bad considering I have heard of hives with mite counts of 2000-4000. 

Above: Every black dot is a mite - and this is not that bad....

So now there should be no more work with the bees until the spring - besides an occasional check/cleaning of the tray once in a while. 

Recipe 2: Sack mead (continued 2) - Racking

My sack mead was up for racking today. It has been bubbling nicely for almost a month now and I was curious to see how far it had come. I did set my hopes to high based on my experience with recipe 1.

Anyway pH was measured to somewhere between 3 and 4 with pH strips, so that was spot on

I measured the density to 1.012 which was great. This seems to end up with complete fermentation (target 1.010).

Going back to a previous entry the ethanol content can be estimated by:
Low estimate: ABV: (1.120-1.012) / 0.0075 = 14.4%
High estimate: ABV: (1.120-1.012) / 0.0065 = 16.6%

Now the high estimate seems to be just rubbish since the yeast should have a maximum of 16% which must be under the best conditions - and not initial try of an amateur :o)

Since the low estimate is for low ABV beverages (beer etc) and that the conversion should go up due prolonged fermetation phase (no sugar "wasted on" the lag phase and aerobic phase), I guess the ABV is about 15%.

I also read that fermentation can becomes inconsistent due to the lack of potassium. Since pH was a bit low (remember that I added a bit too much citric acid initially I figured that i would try to add a bit of "pot ash" as it is called in Denmark, or Potassium Carbonate (K2CO3)

I added 3 grams or 21mmol  (= 42mmol (1,6g) of potassium in 19.5L = 84ppm K+) and checked pH again. I started fizzing heavily for a while due to relase of CO2. With strips there was no visual difference so the must is buffered. I think I should stop fiddling with it so I put the lid back on and attached a clean airlock. I did not bother with generating CO2 since the release from the must due to the carbonate addition should be adequate.

Movember time

November is Movember time, and yes, I am participating again. It a great excuse to grow a mustache and see how it turns out even though I generally feel it looks silly. Now it is finally beginning to look like I mean it, and not like I just missed shaving my upper lip :o)

It is for a good cause, and it is fun. Go Movember !!!!

Recipe 1: Cyser with rosehip (continued 6) - clarifying....again

The fermentation never re-started, so now after more than a week I decided to rack it again to get rid of the excess yeast which has precipitated by now.

When I opened the fermenter the pleasant smell of apples and honey strikes me. Also, it is great to see how clear the mead has become. Even though it cannot be called crystal clear, I could see the siphon tip all the way to the bottom. Hmm, forgot to take a picture.

I measured the density and once again it was 1.066, so nothing has happened since the new yeast was spiked. I had hoped to see just a little change - but NO change at all.

The taste is still strongly acidic but with a pleasant sweet honey taste in the aftertaste. Perhaps storage will take the edge off the acidity, which will give it a genuinely pleasant taste.

Well, I racked the mead until the yeast in the bottom reached the siphon. I could transfer 18 L, so I have lost 2 L so far - not so bad considering the endless number of rackings so far :o)

I will use the same clearing kit as before. First Kieselsol was added and the mead stirred well. After 30 min the package of Chitosan was added and the mead stirrred well again.

To protect the surface I flushed the fermenter with CO2 in the same manner as before, closed the lid and attached the airlock, filled with fresh water.

It should be ready for long term storage in a carboy in about a week.

Recipe 1: Cyser with rosehip (continued 5) - ...bugger

Like a little boy I was getting up during the night to see if the bubbling had started. Not much happened but in the morning the lid was bulging a bit and the airlock seemed like it was almost going to release it first bubble - yes.

Best as I thought that I had successfully started the fermentation again, the pressure in the fermenter slowly went down, and the water level in the airlock evened out - as if the gas is let out of a ballon. 

--- so close but no cigar ---

I do not think that the mead is not going to ferment any more. I will attempt to clear it (again!) during the coming week, and then leave it to mature. 

My best guess is that the earlier used yeast was still active and had killed of the newly added yeast.

All I can say is: "Bugger"

Recipe 1: Cyser with rosehip (continued 4) - Re-starting fermentation (racking again! 4th time)

OK, time to see if I can get the fermentation restarted.

Ingredients

Vinoferm - Bioferm Killer 7 g

Wyeast yeast nutrition 2g / 10L

To get the fermentation going again I am going to add the Bioferm Killer yeast when it is through the lag period and well into the respiratory phase.

I dissolved 20 g of sugar in 200 ml of boiling water in a 500 ml flask. Once the sugar was dissolved I added 0.5g of yeast nutrition and swirled the solution well. I put the solution in the refrigerator until the temperature was 23C (target was 25C or below). The flask was closed and the solution shaken violently to get as much air into solution as possible. Then the yeast was added - the entire package - and the solution was swirled again to mix.It did not take long before the bubbling started and soon a thick layer of foam was generated. I guess the yeast now had now already entered the respiratory phase.

Not sure if it was even necessary, I thought it might be advantageous to acclimatize the yeast to the must, so after 2 hour, I sampled 200 ml of must which was stirred with the kitchen mixer to get as much air into it as possible. 

This was then mixed with the yeast starter.

Now the catch could be the the old yeast comes out of its dormancy and knocks out the Bioferm Killer - but with the name KILLER it should stand a change, I hope.

An hour later the must was transferred (again) back to a clean and disinfected fermenter. But this time the aim was to mix plenty of air into the must so I just poured it into the fermeter ensuring plenty of splashing so the the yeast can continue the respiratory phase and multiply for a while yet, before entering the fermenation phase.

An airlock was attached to the fermenter, and now it is just time to wait - wait and wish that by this time tomorrow the airlock will once again be bubbling....fingers crossed. 

Recipe 1: Cyser with rosehip (continued 3) - Racking 3rd time for maturing

It has now been over a week since I added the clearing agents so now I assumed it was time to transfer the mead to a glass flask for maturing. Opening the fermenter I got somewhat disappointed - the mead did not look quite clear.

I figured that it might not be so bad so I started transferring the mead and it becomes so clear: The mead is NOT clear at all. "#¤#¤"%&!

The clearing agent did not do the job. On the bottom of the fermenter there was a layer of about 5 mm so at least something had precipitated.

After the transfer I topped of with 5 L of CO2 to protect the surface of the mead.

Honestly, I think this is my own doing. I used all of the apple juice - pulp and juice - instead just sieving it before boiling so I probably have a large excess protein and other components that are difficult to precipitate - way more than the kit for precipitation could handle.

I also measured the gravity to 1.066, just as the last measurement. On the other hand pH had raised a bit to pH 4, so all conditions are just right for further fermentation. Perhaps the "unknown" knocked out the Kitzinger Port that I bought and an ABV of about 10% is the limit of this "unknown" yeast.

The taste matches the results. So far the mead has an initial strong acidic mouthfeel, which is then followed by sweetness of the residual honey. The aftertaste is pure sweet honey. Each end of the spectrum but not many taste notes "in the middle" to round off the taste.

I think I will try to add a well hydrated portion of Bioferm Killer to see if I can the fermentation going again. This should take the edge off the pure honey taste, and aging should reduce the acidity.

I can hopefully buy some Bioferm Killer yeast tomorrow and get on with the fermentation.