Hi From the UK

[peteinwilts]

Hi Guys

I am a hobby beekeeper in Wiltshire in the UK, living in the oldest parish in England. With an ancient Abbey nearby, the 'local' mead is commercially made over a hundred miles away (hhhmmmm)

beekeeping = lots of honey = mead and honey + fruit based drinks, which is why I am here.

I made my first alcohol in the form of 5 gallons of JAO in late September. It fermented in a month and a bit and has cleared. Even without aging, it is amazing and the best mead I have ever tasted by far!!
I am hooked!

I am subjecting my work colleagues to it nearer xmas to see if I am bias!!

I know aging can take a long time, so have bought several 5 gallon containers and 15 x1 gallon containers, so am looking to perform a lot of 'experiments'

I am very much new at this, and hopefully my questions will not be too tiresome.

I will be trawling the site for recipes, but if you vouch for tried and tested recipes, that would be great. The trouble with home made mead type recipes, is there are no reviews!
Cheers
Pete

 

[mr_wibble]

Maybe you should brew beer too, that way you'll have something to drink while your mead ages

I made my first (and only so far) JAO mead in April. Since then I've bottled it, even tried some.
It was good, but someone commented that it still tastes a little "young". So back into the cupboard it went... I don't really know if it needs more ageing or not though - how do you tell?

One thing is to be sure to keep lots of good notes, that way when you dust off a truly magnificent batch, you will remember how to make it.

 

[nu_brew]

"Hobby Beekeeper" excellent.

I am getting my first hive this Sunday. Well I already have a hive but the bees are coming this Sunday!

Welcome to the forum!

 

[peteinwilts]

careful! beekeeping can become an obsession!

This was my forth year of beekeeping, and I peaked at 50 hives this year. I then lost 8 to wasps and combined down to 32 for overwintering.

I had 15 producing hives that resulted in 780lb honey. (which was a lot less than I had forecast thanks to our crappy august!)

You are very lucky! I understand their is no varroa in Australia!

Not sure about beer making. I spent a lot of time working in Belgium and sampled some of their huge array of beers. I realise how artificial UK beer tends to taste, and have drunk very little since. My beer tastes are extremely fussy, and am not sure I could make to my own standard.
I am more of a cider drinker.... looking forward to making Cyser!

 

[nu_brew]

No Varroa in Australia, yet. They say it is inevitable that we will get it here but so far they have managed to keep it out.

 

[Bribie G]

Welcome to the forum, ah for a pint of Wadworths 6x :icon_drool2: