Recent content by TimV

A melomel, and they're about 2.5 months old. And they don't last much longer :-)

And Elderberries literally grow on the same properties as many of my hives, so there's the macho factor of harvesting all the ingredients yourself :-) Stupid, but I guess a man thing.....

In our area the spring honey flow starts as early as January, and the honey is very light. Here's a glass from a nice batch

Thanks! Here's the beekeeping/mead related part of my website: http://www.pbase.com/beekeeper/bees

I am a bit spoiled! Total cost for me is about 50 cents per bottle. Getting the crap stung out of me isn't always pleasant, but still worth it :-)

Looks like it works. 12 pounds honey in the bottom of the 6 gallon primary bucket, added EC1118 yeast that had sat in a coffee cup half filled with blood warm water 15 minutes, add just under a table spoon of yeast nutrient and yeast energizer each, then filled with RO water from a pressured...

This is to see if I can post pics here. This was made from my own honey and raspberries harvested from a farm my bees pollinate. This glass is about 6 weeks from the start of the fermentation process, and very drinkable.

Don't know what kind. I added about a fourth of a cup chopped. It's been three years and I tried a bottle a few months ago and it's poison :-(

When I get honey from a tree or house I usually make mead with it. If you just squeeze the wax a bit underwater for a few minutes the was floats up to the top. But putting comb into water without crushing it will keep the honey from disolving for quite some time; even as long as natural...

I agree with fatbloke. I put in just a few leaves of lavender and some anise seed in a 5 gallon batch and frankly ruined it. It's just not drinkable. I'm also puzzled as to answer the question, since if you don't like wine or honey you'll almost have to mask the taste, and it would seem counter...

Thanks!! I graduated from there in 1983, BSc in Pomology.

Sparkaloid is all that I use. Just keep in mind that while the wine or mead looks clear sparkaloid is super efficient. What that means is that in a week you'll see gunk on the bottoms of the wine that you've bottled.

A good book; he's got lots of good theory that he turns into practice. As to your question, yes, one bubble every 15 seconds is how I do it. PS the difference between one and two per 15 seconds is 100 percent :-) so you might want to do the one thousand and one.....one thousand and two thingy :-)

I took a small shed and insulated it, put in a few shelves, scrounged a few carboys, spent 16 dollars on ebay for a corker....you get the idea :-) But I've got it down to a total of an hour for a 25 bottle batch, from start to drinking, so I haven't had to spend too much time and money. I fear...

Make moonshine. It's a zillion times faster than wine and more of your friends will be impressed :-)