Mead Lover's Digest #78 Tue 26 January 1993


Forum for Discussion of Mead Brewing and Consuming
John Dilley, Digest Coordinator

Contents:

Making mead from fermenting honey. (malcolm roe)

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Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 18:23:10 BST 
From: malcolm roe <roe@crosfield.co.uk>
Subject: Making mead from fermenting honey.

Although I've kept bees for some years I'm new to mead making.
This year some of my honey has started fermenting. Can I use it to
make mead? Should I treat it in any way first such as sterilising
it? If so, how? It is all oil seed rape honey which means that it
has set solid (apart from various bubbling geysers).


Note for non-beekeepers:-

Nectar from flowers contains naturally occurring yeast spores and
will ferment. The bees prevent this by evaporating much of the
water, thus raising the sugar concentration just above the level at
which yeast can reproduce. When they have done this we call the
result honey. If the beekeeper takes the honey before the bees
have finished "ripening" it there is a risk of fermentation. I had
such a good crop last year (:-)) that I had to extract a quantity
of the honey in a hurry to maintain sufficient space. It is some
of this honey that is causing the problem (:-().


Malcolm Roe Phone : +44 442 230000 ext 4104
Crosfield Electronics Ltd Fax : +44 442 232301
Hemel Hempstead, Herts. HP2 7RH, UK E-mail : roe@crosfield.co.uk




End of Mead Lover's Digest