Honeycomb

[Skot_88]

Hey all,

One of my gallons of mead is due to be bottled soon and I have some honeycomb that I was thinking to add to some of the bottles... has anyone tried this before? It's edable, packaged honeycomb in honey but I'm concerned the waxiness might give off some bad flavours? I definitely want to add the same honey I used in my must to my bottles once the fermentation has stabilised but this honeycomb would be of a different kind.

Many thanks.

 

[Bhunter87]

It wouldn't add off flavors.... It's made to hold honey.

I'm not sure if anyone has done this before, but it would look cool in nothing else.

The fact that it's comb from a different type of honey is no big deal either.

Long time mead makers may have better input, but there's my 2cents

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I'm curious to know how you plan to get the honeybomb into the bottle.
And I'm wondering if beeswax is soluble in alcohol, that may or may not be a concern.
Regards, GF.

 

[Bhunter87]

+1

 

[biochemedic]

Also, I'd be aware that you're essentially adding priming sugar, so unless you have stabilized, you'll get some refermentation/carbonation...be careful how much you add or you could be looking at popping cork or worse, bottle bombs!

 

[Aquavitae]

Beeswax is a wee bit soluble in alcohol, but I don't know what the strength would have to be. If I am remembering correctly, the alcohol would also have to be warm. Still, personally, I wouldn't risk it. The dissolved wax wouldn't necessarily hurt you but I don't know if it would taste good.

 

[Atek]

*following*

 

[Bhunter87]

Yeah it might not affect the flavor a ton, but might affect clarity if nothing else. Ew who knows what could happen?! Fun experiment I think!!

 

[Penguinetti]

well, I'm now intrigued...

 

[Bhunter87]

Speaking of putting crap in the bottles, if you make like a strawberry melomel or something, and want to have a whole strawberry in the final product bottle, you can find a baby strawberry on the plant and put the bottle (needs to be clear) over the berry. It will grow into a full berry INSIDE the bottle! The just pull the the berry will come off! I feel like the alcohol will preserve the fruit and it won't turn to mush. I don't think it will affect the flavor, but will be aesthetically pleasing!!!

Fun idea. Works with other fruits as well. I used to do it with peaches and plumbs in my back yard, but didn't put alcohol in it, so I'm not 100% sure what would happen to the fruit after 5 years

 

[jblaschke]

Lots of commercial Japanese plum wines come with a whole plum in the bottle. Of course, it's a wide-mouth bottle...

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

Interesting presentation, maybe a clear 2 liter growler with a ceramic swing top that you could lock down, larger mouth so itd be easier to get one decent sized clean cut peice of honeycomb in the bottom, get a slight carb on it, but could look and taste pretty good....liking the idea

 

[Atek]

I take it hanging bottles in your beehive is out of the question? ;-)

 

[Skot_88]

Right then! Let the great honeycomb experiment commence! :rockin:

I've cut some slices of honeycomb and added them to a mead thats been bottled for about a week with the intention that the honey in it should back sweeten it and mask any of those nasty lingering sorbate/sulphite flavours.

Despite being rammed down a narrow bottle neck the comb appears to be mostly in tact and the mead itself is still looking quite clear.

I'm going to let it sit in the freezer for a bit and then add a balloon to the top just incase any fermentation re-starts.

 

[fatbloke]

Ha! I was gonna suggest that because getting the comb sliced thinly enough to get it into a bottle would be a bit of a bastard, maybe you could just try it in an old jam jar or something like that.

A small square of comb into the jar, then filled up with your mead (of course, properly stabilised to prevent any refermentation taking place), to just below the top rim of the glass, so that when the lid is placed on it, the mead doesn't actually come into contact with it.

That way, it would be easy to monitor to see if there's any dissolving of the wax etc or whether it changes in appearance.

Don't forget, any cells that are open, and the honey is likely to mix in with the mead over time, so you'd be left with just a piece of cellular wax bobbing around in the mix. Which might not be very attractive looking, certainly not "pretty" like when you see those bottles of olive oil with pieces of herb or spice in them, in the poncey food shops, christmas catalogues etc. After all, they're just to sell what's basically a commodity product for mega bucks, because the mug punters think it looks nice..........

 

[Blackbox_Brewing]

I suggest heating some water to 150 or 160, adding the comb and skim off the wax if you want to use honeycomb for priming without the comb sitting in the bottle.

But yeah, +1 to above - sell that stuff to Trader Joe's and let the hippies pay a fortune for it! Near where I used to live they sold vodka with a dead scorpion inside for $$$$.

 

[Skot_88]

Well yep, the honey in the comb mixed with the rest of the mead over night making the comb float to the top... pretty un-chique. Certainly not for the discerning hippie-brew connoisseur!

Nevertheless though I've since sieved off the comb and the result is an extremely delicious back-sweetened mead! All the sulphite/sorbate flavour has mellowed considerably and it seems far more thicker in its consistency, albeit a little more murky. Unlikely the comb itself was responsible for this in anyway other than as a vessel for the honey.

Fun experiment nonetheless!

 

[Skot_88]

So we went from this...

... to this.