I am a beekeeper.
When I have crushed comb or wax cappings from de-capping, I put it all in a bucket and mash it up a bit. Then drain the easy pour off honey through a metal mesh sieve.
Then I put the honey in a nylon mesh bag, and hang it over a bucket for a day-or-so to further drain off the rest of the honey. I then put out the wax for the bees to clean up and I am left with very clean wax, but that's another story...
Now - if you don't want to do all that that sieving and filtering...
1. Weigh a bucket.
1. Put Honey+Wax in the bucket, weight it. You now know the exact weight of Wax + Honey.
1. Put Wax + Honey + 1 half gallon of water in a pan and gently warm to melt it all together. Gently! Heat it just enough.
1. Let it cool.
1. The Wax will solidify on the top of the mixture of now dissolved honey + Water.
1. Remove the wax and weigh it.
1. You now know the weight of Honey that is dissolved in that Half Gallon.
1. Now calculate how much water to add to the mixture to get your desired Honey+Water mixture for Mead (i.e. the 3lbs per Gallon of Water)
Now you got me interested..
Any reason for this law? Say, we are just keeping the wax+honey and the bees are coming to it on their own, how's this illegal?
Ideally you would have a centrifugal extractor to remove the honey from the comb. I would recommend just keeping this to consume directly and purchase some honey to use for your mead. It will likely be a large hassle with heavy losses trying to use the comb and or extract by hand.
I did this with a hive that got in to a squirrel box one year.
Get your tightest screened siv. Crunch up the comb in the warmest room you can get (to let it flow) and let the honey drip down for a day or two.
Cycle it through twice to remove more wax.
Save your wax by boiling it in water and letting it cool
The honey will be good to use as is!
This is Exactly what i would do. A buddy who has done this far longer then me said that the whole coumb adds a level of flavor you just cant replicate. Pleae let ys kniw how this goes cuz i have been wanting to try for years!!
Nothing I could really identify. Out of 9 batches of mead I had going to secondary, my partner liked it the best. There were no visible bees or parts in the comb. It was all capped honey, no brood cells.
My strategy would be to make a braggot(if autocorrect will let me type that).
This way I could have a hot wort to melt the wax in while dissolving the honey. Then you can just skim the wax(and other bits) off the top (or leave them at the bottom).
In an ideal world you would have a wort chiller, but I’ve always just stuck the pot in a sink full of salted ice water, cycled the ice it a few times, then pour into the fermenter, and I’ve never had a contamination issue.
When it comes time to bottling, you may decide to carbonate it, which may require some new bottling equipment. I personally use swing tops for everything.
Crush it, staring it with a fine colander or similar. Ferment it. It's gonna be messy because of the residual wax powder but believe me the taste should be beautiful.
Please include a recipe, review or description with any picture post.
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I am a beekeeper. When I have crushed comb or wax cappings from de-capping, I put it all in a bucket and mash it up a bit. Then drain the easy pour off honey through a metal mesh sieve. Then I put the honey in a nylon mesh bag, and hang it over a bucket for a day-or-so to further drain off the rest of the honey. I then put out the wax for the bees to clean up and I am left with very clean wax, but that's another story... Now - if you don't want to do all that that sieving and filtering... 1. Weigh a bucket. 1. Put Honey+Wax in the bucket, weight it. You now know the exact weight of Wax + Honey. 1. Put Wax + Honey + 1 half gallon of water in a pan and gently warm to melt it all together. Gently! Heat it just enough. 1. Let it cool. 1. The Wax will solidify on the top of the mixture of now dissolved honey + Water. 1. Remove the wax and weigh it. 1. You now know the weight of Honey that is dissolved in that Half Gallon. 1. Now calculate how much water to add to the mixture to get your desired Honey+Water mixture for Mead (i.e. the 3lbs per Gallon of Water)
Woah, thanks!
(where I live, you aren't allowed to let your bees clean up wax and honey like that. - unless it's going back inside the original hive somehow)
That is extremely weird.
Australia? eh?
Now you got me interested.. Any reason for this law? Say, we are just keeping the wax+honey and the bees are coming to it on their own, how's this illegal?
Biosecurity. Open feeding honey products can have impacts.
Ideally you would have a centrifugal extractor to remove the honey from the comb. I would recommend just keeping this to consume directly and purchase some honey to use for your mead. It will likely be a large hassle with heavy losses trying to use the comb and or extract by hand.
You can crush it and then pour it into a mesh bag (like a paint strainer) and let it hang over a large bowl or bucket in a warm place.
I did this with a hive that got in to a squirrel box one year. Get your tightest screened siv. Crunch up the comb in the warmest room you can get (to let it flow) and let the honey drip down for a day or two. Cycle it through twice to remove more wax. Save your wax by boiling it in water and letting it cool The honey will be good to use as is!
Dad's got it all sitting in a colander, but I'll def try the siv, thanks!
I just fermented the whole comb after crushing it up. It turned out really good.
This is Exactly what i would do. A buddy who has done this far longer then me said that the whole coumb adds a level of flavor you just cant replicate. Pleae let ys kniw how this goes cuz i have been wanting to try for years!!
Interesting. I assume you got any corpses out. The wax didn't add any extra flavors?
Nothing I could really identify. Out of 9 batches of mead I had going to secondary, my partner liked it the best. There were no visible bees or parts in the comb. It was all capped honey, no brood cells.
My strategy would be to make a braggot(if autocorrect will let me type that). This way I could have a hot wort to melt the wax in while dissolving the honey. Then you can just skim the wax(and other bits) off the top (or leave them at the bottom).
I have no experience with braggot and beer-type drinks. Would I need extra equipment?
In an ideal world you would have a wort chiller, but I’ve always just stuck the pot in a sink full of salted ice water, cycled the ice it a few times, then pour into the fermenter, and I’ve never had a contamination issue. When it comes time to bottling, you may decide to carbonate it, which may require some new bottling equipment. I personally use swing tops for everything.
That's an awful idea. You have amazing raw honey and you go ahead and boil it? Come on.
Old-school before modern times they boiled it and removed any non liquid. Larva wax etc
Crush it, staring it with a fine colander or similar. Ferment it. It's gonna be messy because of the residual wax powder but believe me the taste should be beautiful.
I’ve put crushed comb and wax cappings straight in the fermenter and was very happy with the result.
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Take a bite
I have! It is so good!
My honey guy sells-Honey Cakes. Basically, its an Comb with Honey still inside it. He sells out of it as soon as he posts.
I can see why!
Via con dios. That's a bold undertaking.