Recent content by Arpolis

Sorry I have been busy with bee keeping recently. It is swarm season here. Never tried any of those but I think Côte des Blanca would do alright. I personally ally would not choose 1118. I think it has too little character for a rice wine. But if you do a stepped feeding like in real sake the. I...

Brood add little flavor, full grown bees however... Even better if you put live ones in a bag and shake them to make'em angry. That adds kick! Lol never actually done that. But I forget where but I remember reading that with an old article regarding whole hive mead. Never had brood in my mead...

That is correct for most thing. Just divide by 5. But for simplicity sake I would just to 1tsp in 1/3cup hot water. But make sure to get that water to boiling and I use a blender or such to mix the bentonite and water. Spoon or fork never seems to cut it. And mix it for a good 2min or so. Hot...

My batch was cloudy as ever still. Refuses to clear. I think there is still some fermentation going because degassing daily and still no signs of releasing that pressure. I racked, added 2TBS of cocoa powder and 8 oz lactose. It has an almost rancid smell. Like there is a lot of lactic acid in...

Now that I think about it. If your Koji is dry then you may need to rehydrate it. Give it an hour at room temp in just enough water to cover it. Then later it. Fermaidk isn't fine for nutrients. You don't need much. Like 1/8th to 1/2 tsp worth of nutrients.

When I make sake I use 1 1/3 cup Koji to 5 cups rice. But I make my Koji fresh and so probably why my 200g is about a cup and yours is about 2 cups. Milky queen rice should be great. Cold fermented 1116 enhances a lot of the floral aspects of the rice. Less fruity tones like sake yeast. And no...

Right? Today I have planned some time to bottle up a couple bottles and then start fermenting the half batch of new must and Bochet. I'll see if I can rob a taste then and post preliminary results.

I could see a juiced fruit be easier than whole/crushed fruit in the way of racking losses and such. But the two products will be different. Like for instance in pyments using grapes. With juice it is good to add tannin to compliment the flavors but if you ferment on the grape skins you get all...

Kome-Koji will convert about 4 times the rice by weight. 200g is about a cup right? So 4-5 cups of rice and I would add close to 8 cups of water to give you about a gallon batch. You can start by layering your steamed rice and Kome-Koji in thin layers. Let that sit for two days. In the mean time...

That yeast will ferment that fast. No issue here. I will say however that yeast is really, really hard to flocculate out. It takes a long while and when you think you are done. Even more sediment drops out. Leave this mead alone for at least another 26 days. Don't rack it yet. You want a good...

Just read the article. Pretty cool stuff. I like the philosophy he has about having a bee engine for providing material for failing hives.

I only took a small fraction of the bees from the strong hive. I am trying to get both bees wooing on comb building and foragers in the weak hive. Keep the decision of labor there. That's at least the theory. I only did this after consulting with some locals and backed up with other experiences...

I smoke the bees when I check my hives that are established but I figured loose bees that I am trying to get comfortable in a new home, may not want smoke stressing them out. I only have the comb next to eachother to sandwich the queen cage in between. I will try and manipulate to prevent fat...

Oh I want to start doing some splits. Get my hive numbers up. Just talked my In-law into letting me fill the back part of her property with hives. She wants some pretty hives though so thinking of making some long langstroths on tall legs so her dogs are not eye level with the bee entrants...

That's how I like to roll. Dive in head first and either drown or come out swimming. Just found out my neighbor has been on the swarm call list and has gained 8 swarm hives this year over the last month! This puts her at 12 hives now. I need to get me on that list!