First major check on the hive

Sunday the 17th of April was a great day with plenty of sun and only a little wind. I can really feel the summer coming. So today will be the first major check on the hive. But first things first. I did not get a chance to disinfect my equipment during the fall last year so this had to be done first. All boxes was scraped to get as much propolis off and then it was all sprayed with Virkon S which do its work and then decompose afterwards. So all I had to do was spray and leave to dry. All minor equipment was soaked in household ethanol for […]

2014 batch 2: Currant mead (13) – Not quite ready for bottling yet

The currant mead has now been standing for quite a while, and from several samples it looks clear. I decided to transfer it to a final glass fermenter from which I will bottle the mead. I used my electric pump for the transferring which went well, but I was surprised to see how dark it actually is. I was expecting it to be more like a brownish rosé wine, but instead it was almost pitch black After the transferring was completed, I added 5 L CO2 with my CO2 generator, to be to minimize the risk of oxidation now that the mead has been stirred up.  Interestingly the mead take […]