An interesting little observation. After adding CO2 to the meads yesterday, the airlock was filled with fresh water and attached to the carboys. The water levels in the two chambers were equal. Within a short time the meads began to generate a small vacuum shifting the levels of the airlock. This must be an uptake of CO2 in the meads. I thought the meads would be saturated by CO2, but apparently not. This will also push pH down a bit.
This weekend I decided to do the final adjustments to my meads. Recipe 1: CyserThis mead has been covered in dark plastic for quite a while now. When I removed the plastic I was surprised to see that it had almost turned black (?) – Not sure that was a good sign. Opening the 20 L volumetric flask, I was a little hesitant to smell it. But to my surprise it just fantastic :o). I took a sample and found that when the light paths was reduced, the mead had a very pleasing dark golden color. A thin layer of precipitate was found on the bottom so now it is […]
Just found this PDF on from 2007 (DCA Aarhus Universitet). They have measured the weight of their hives in exactly the same way as I have done this winter, so the results can easily be compared. On page 2 you find the weight loss to be very close to the 40 g that I have also observed. Also, they observe that the weight loss is approximately linear, just like I do.Link to PDF
It is now the middle of February and time for another weighing. Going to the garden you can feel that the spring is coming. The first spring flowers are already here, snowdrops and winter aconite. Now, back to the bees. The mass of the hive was today 23.4 kg, and plotted into the graph, the use of food is still pretty constant – about 40-41 g/day as indicated by the slope. So it does not look like the bee have collected anything from these first flowers. In my last entry I estimated that for the winter the bees would need about 10 kg of food to sustain the colony throughout […]
Once during January and here at the end of the month I measured the mass of my hive again. January has been a cold month (danish standards) and the average temperature was significantly different than for December. Based on this I expected the use of food to increase during the past 2 weeks of January as a consequence of the the decreased temperature – but this was apparently not the case As shown in the graph the loss of mass of the hive is pretty much constant from end November till now – no temperature dependence at all for the range -5 C to 5 C. Considering the errors of […]
My elderberry melomel was now up for some final adjustments Opening the fermenter the smell is very nice but also acidic. Basic measurements:pH around 4denstiy 1.008 The taste was very acidic with a harsh aftertaste. I know the fresh elderberry juice has a very similar taste which is very well complemented by the sweetness of honey. Ergo, I would have to add quite a bit of honey to this mead to get it to taste like I planned for. Also I figured I could remove some of the acidity by adding K2CO3 like I did previously The taste of the star anise was gone – so a lesson for the […]
Long time since since I did anything to my meads, but last weekend it was time to try to adjusting the taste by acid addition. Opening the fermenter with sack mead I am still surprised about how pleasant the smell is. The last yeast has precipitated on the bottom and it is now totally clear. The basic measurements: pH: about 3.5 density: 1.015 I was hoping that the pH had raised a bit due to degassing of CO2 but I cannot see any difference from my last measurements. The density is still 1.015, so there is absolutely no indications of even slow fermentation – great :o) The mead was then […]