Bee Stuff

[JDWebb]

This is what $150 worth of bee product looks like. Picked it up this morning, 32 pounds of honey, and 8 oz of pollen.

 

[damdaman]

Nice... I usually add some pollen, propolis, and if I feel like spending a little extra, royal jelly in my meads to act as yeast nutrients. Works great.

 

[JDWebb]

I was curious about the bee bollen, I saw a YouTube video of a guy making mead using pollen as a nutrient. SOme have said it's not that good, requires a healthy amount and may not be cost efficient. While I don't particularly care about the cost, I am interested in using as much "natural" and/or organic products as I can.

 

[damdaman]

Yeah I started doing it after reading about the health benefits, both to humans and yeast. I don't think I've ever tried a ferment with JUST pollen, I always use at least 2 extra hive ingredients (like propolis or royal jelly), but I have awesome, healthy fermentations that don't stall out or require staggered additions. It makes sense when you think about it... honey is extracted from all the other hive products and is thus lacking in those nutrients those products provide, requiring people to add nutrients. Why not just use the natural ones?

 

[damdaman]

Here's an old thread I started on the topic:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/whole-hive-mead-381773/

 

[JDWebb]

Thanks, had I seen that before our trip to buy honey, I would have picked up some propolis and royal jelly. The propolis comes in capsule for however, I'll have to check and see if I can get it in the raw form.