2015 batch 1: Cyser - Juicing apples

This year i will again make a cyser. I will only make one batch of mead but this time I will scale up by a factor of about 2

As this has been a terrible year with really poor weather. I have only harvested 23 kg of honey from my one hive, which is about half of what I harvested last year. I had planned for at pure honey mead, but I also want some honey for my self and some to sell (this is what pays for the bees). So I have only been able to put about 15 kg aside - not enough for a 50 L batch

So cyser it is :o). Fortunately it has been a great apple year and my apple trees have been full. Especially my "Ingrid Marie" tree. So I figured I wanted to try to make and Ingrid Marie mead. The great thing about this apple is, that it is quite low on acid, so malolactic fermentation should not be necessary at all.

Last year I pressed the apple myself, but I found that a local apple plantation offered to press apples for free, so I figured I would wait for this even though it was in October which is a bit late for these apples. But again the poor weather was a great help, since the apples matured 2-3 week later than usual and most of the apples were just perfect when the day arrived.

Most of the apples are Ingrid Marie apples - only the third box from the top contains Pigeon apples and a bit of "Red Ananas" apples - (sounds silly if translated to English...and I do not know if the sort have a proper English name?)

The automated shredder and press are so much faster than when I did it manually - and the yield significantly higher. I ended up with a bit more than 25 L out of about 35-40 kg of apples. So far so good

Setting up the Chronical fermenter

First the fermenter had to be cleaned with a TSP solution. TSP is quite cheap, so I had no problem making a 10L solution in a mixing ratio according to the producer. All valves, seals and tri-clamps was dipped in the solution and scrubbed with a bottle brush. Then these were rinsed in water. The inside of the fermenter was scrubbed with the TSP solution using a soft sponge and rinsed with water.

A solution of StarSan was prepared by mixing 2 ml StarSan in 1L of demineralized water. This solution is used for passivation of the steel. The solution was added to a sprayer and sprayed onto all surfaces of the fermenter and valves. The StarSan makes a nice foam that covers the surfaces quite well. The surfaces was sprayed a couple of times over half an hour and the entire fermenter and valve was rinsed with water before being set aside for drying. 

The next day the fermenter was collected

Clean fermenter on leg extensions

Jacket to isolate the fermenter. I associate the smell of neoprene with great times as scuba diver, so I felt strange being so happy while dressing up a fermenter.

The fermenter was no ready for use, with thermometer in the center. It looks fantastic :o). The small cooler is for ice water to be used as cooling source - hope it is large enough. I also purchased a somewhat larger airlock due the larger volume and hence the increased amount of CO2 produced during the fermentation.

One thing though. The pump for FTSS temperature control is connected to the wall with a US plug. If you buy this fermenter get an adapter for European power outlets. 

Shopping for a conical fermenter

I have for a long time been looking at a conical fermentor as this would be an alternative to racking the mead again and again. I have been looking at several brands. Basically, I do not trust that the Chinese fermenters are food grade stainless steel, even though they are specified as such, so these was fairly fast out of the equation.

I was also looking at Blichmann's but these are really expensive. They might be great but right now I am not sure if this is the way to go for me.

Over the last year I fell head over heals for the fermentor from Ss Brewtech, but these were not sold outside the US.

As time went by I found that a new home brewing shop opened very close to were I live named Humlecentralen (HERE) - and what do you know - he sold equipment from Ss Brewtech. I was thrilled.

So now I have the Chronical half barrel fermentor equipped with FTSS temperature control - and it is just so sexy..... :). Even Alexander think it is a great toy

I also purchased the leg extensions which I can only highly recommend, because the bottom valve is really positioned low so unless you open directly to a drain you cannot get a tray underneath it unless the fermenter is lifted.

Now that a stainless steel fermenter has entered the scene I also got chemicals for cleaning (TSP) and passivation (StarSan), as recommended by Ss Brewtech.

TSP (tri-sodium-phosphate) is a relatively strong base that is used for cleaning the fermenter. This is done by scrubbing the surfaces with a soft sponge wetted in a TSP solution.

After the cleaning the fermenter is passivated with StarSan which is a solution of phosphoric acid (~50%) which passivates, dodecyl-benzene-sulphonic acid which is a foaming agent (5-15%) and some antibacterial component(s) which is hush hush (proprietary according to the MSDS)

This is the mild version of the passivation process I know from work which is sodium hydroxide wash followed by a nitric acid passivation bath..... Not really a process you want to fiddle with at home in your kitchen

Looking so much forward to try it out

Death in the family

It has been a while since my last post. My mother was very sick during the spring with pancreas cancer. It is a horrible type of cancer and there is almost nothing you can do to stop or slow it down, and she passed away this June.

With funeral, clearing and selling the house and ending all ongoing arrangements in her life and just dealing with the loss, I have not been doing much about brewing of mead, and of cause not posted anything on this blog.

Now that some time has passed, and most of all the things I had to deal with have been finalized, things are getting back to what can reasonably be called normal.

May she rest in peace!

Pic is from December 2014 when my mother and I when to a fish spa for some mother and son quality time. She died 6 month later

All I can say is that whenever you have an opportunity to give money for cancer research, do not hesitate to donate.

2014 batch 3: Bochet (9) - Bottling the Blackberry Bochet

So, when I cannot bottle my currant mead, I will just start bottle the Blackberry Bochet instead.

Same procedure. Washing bottles.

This "Double Blast" bottle cleaner is worth its weight in gold. Also the "Fast Rack" frame in the back fits perfectly for my choice of bottles. The bottles were also sprayed with Star San and then rinsed again.

Alle the gear was lined up

All clean and ready

The bottles were filled with my trusted siphon. Unfortunately I did not get a picture.

Placing the black heat shrink capsules on top of each 0.5L bottle. This is also a presentable way of hiding the silver colored screw cap :o)

Shrink the capsules in slow boiling water. A quick dip in the water is enough to get the tight seal. Just remember to use a glove to protect the hand, and a tool to hold the capsule in place. I am very fond of my bent knife - works very well.

The bottles were cleaned to get rid of spots and finger prints. Then the bottles were labeled. Using my primitive set-up to put the label in the same position, just adds a more appealing look to the bottle.

and voila!

2014 batch 2: Currant mead (14) - Still does not clear up

I was actually planning on bottling my currant mead but it does not clear up. So I started shopping for equipment to try filtering the mead

I will try to push the mead over the filter using vacuum on the collector side rather than pressurizing the mead. to push it through the filter. The idea is that it would be less risky to remove air/CO2 from the mead by vacuum rather than increasing the amount of air (+ air pollutants) by pressuring the mead

The inspiration I got from YouTube. Here is part 1:

And here is part 2:

I like the concept of filtrating the mead rather than using clearing agents. For removing particulate matter you can use 5µm or 3µm filter. Using 1 or 2 µm filters will remove yeast cells. Finaly, for sterilization you can use a 0.45 or 0.22µm filter will also remove bacteria cells too.

What you use will depend on what you wish to remove, and how much material you expect to remove, and how will you want to remove it. Smaller pore sizes will result in higher back pressure, and as the material is trapped in the filter the pressure/vaccum needed to move the mead through the filter must be increased.

I have no issues with un-wanted organism, so I will go for just removing particulate matter, and/or yeast cells - but it depends on which filters I can get my hands on. :o)

I have started shopping for the process. It is quite amazing what you can get on ebay and aliexpress from China for hardly any money when it comes to electronics and wires etc. :o)

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 several hours and the leftover propolis can then be scraped off easily - this was a tip from another beekeeper that I read in a magazine and it works beautifully :o) It is very effective, and the equipment can just be left to dry in the kitchen sink and then is look as good as new.

Then it was time to go through the hive. First I weighed the hive and it had gained weight for the first time - so the honey collection has started.

The slope on the curve 0.044 kg or 44g corresponds to the average daily loss in mass during the winter. This is almost the same as last year where the daily loss was about 40g

The family is now very big and more than half of the 10 plates in the winter box contained sealed breeding cells. Also pollon was present and almost a full plate with recently harvested honey - the honey cells are a bit darker than the cell from the winter feeding.

Furthermore the edges of some of the breeding plates contained cells for drones. These cells are a bit bigger than the cells for the normal working bees. This means that it is definitely time to insert the drone plate - a plate were the bee can built freely which they will dedicate for drones.

So I removed the plate furthest away from the entrance which was the only one containing winter feeding and it was still almost full and weighing about 2 kg. Then moved two plates containing fresh honey back and inserted the drone plate. Hereafter the 6 plates with the breeding cells were found and finally the plate with pollen by the entrance. This was almost exactly how the hive developed last year

Since the bees already started to collect honey I decided to add a second box today too. I was a bit surprised that the bees were already investigating it less than a hour after I assembled the hive - guess the bees were more than ready for the expansion of their hive.

I all looks great. Unfortunately I did not find the queen, but judging from the size of the hive, she must be doing fine.

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 up some CO2 which can be seen on the airlock which shows a slight vacuum. 

Now, it the mead ready for bottling? I am not sure. I tried to shine a LED flash light through it to get an impression of the clarity, and it still does not look ready. 

And this is how the light looks through the flask...

It still looks slightly unclear, but perhaps I just need a stronger light source (?).

I will check up on the mead periodically to see if the clarity changes. 

2014 batch 1: Cyser (10) - Bottling of the Capsi-Cyser

It has been a while since I have been writing, and in the mean time my mead has been standing in the corner of the kitchen maturing. After tasting the Cyser and evaluating the clarity visually I was certain that it was time to bottle the mead.

Monday I lifted the fermenter up on the kitchen table and tilted it a bit. I added 5L of CO2 to ensure that the mead was saturated. Then I let it rest until the next day. Later Monday, I sterilized all the bottles I needed for the racking plus a bit extra just in case any of the bottles were damaged.

Today it was time. Gathering all needed equipment on the table and I was ready to go. The mead looks so tempting with a slightly dark yellow color. All bottles were filled next to my reference bottle containing exactly 500 g of water, i.e. 0.50L. You see it to the right in the picture.

Filling the bottles took some time but it is so rewarding to se the final product take shape. When the pleasant smell of apple hit the room I felt sure that this is going to be a great mead.

Then it was time to add the chilies. I have not been able to get my hand on more Birds Eye chili, but instead I found "Red chili" from the same region. According to the sales person they were a bit less strong but with more taste. My own tongue could not pick up the difference, so I added the same amount of chili as I would with the Birds Eye - ½ chili without seeds to 0.5L

Bad experiences has taught me to use plastic gloves when handling more than just one chili :o), but I could still feel the tingling of the chili in the nose. Finally ½ a chili was added and the screw cap tightened.

Now it was time to make the bottles look good. I bought black bottle crimp tops to "hide" the silver screw cap. I was very surprised to learn how easy they are to put on:

First you need a tool to hold the crimp top in place. No proper tools were available, so I bent a knife for the purpose (ssshhh don't tell the wife...). Then a glove to protect the hand.

The process is quite easy. Just keep a pot of water boiling lightly. Hold the crimp top in place with the knife and just dip the top of the bottle shortly in the water (1 sec) - and voila - you are done.

Then the bottles were cleaned and finally the label was added. This is a home printed label but next year I will be ready with some more pro-looking labels. Never the less, I like the rough look to the bottle with the chili swimming around - it is very presentable.

Can't wait till my next bottling :o)

2014 batch 2: Currant mead (12) - More oak....

Tasting my currant mead against the sample I took before I added oak first time, I found that the difference between the two was evening out with just a bit of aging, so I decided to give my mead one more shot of oak. Same oak as before: American oak chips - medium toast.

I added 25 g again, but this time I did not boil the oak. Instead I just rinsed the chips and hop bag in cold tap water and put the bag in the microwave for 60s at full power.

The smell of the wood was quite intense, and it must have been all that great stuff I boiled off last time. Then I took a small sample of the mead for reference before I finally I dropped the bag into the mead and sealed the fermentor.

Today, after 1½ week, I did a tasting and compared with the sample I took before the second oak addition. The fruitiness was still present but now the oak was quite significant but not overpowering the mead. So I decided to remove the oak again. Also, the mead feels sweeter with the oak, and the fruit acids had been mellowed out quite a bit. I get the feeling that when using oak I should probably not have sweetened the mead to 25 oechsle but rather stopped at 20.

Still, it tastes great, and I would like to have used a much larger glass for tasting....... :o)

2014 batch 3: Bochet (8) - Racking using pump

The Bochet has now been resting for quite a while, so it was time rack it to get rid of more sediment. For this purpose I tested my newly acquired pump.

I prepared the clean fermenter by pouring boiling water into it, and over the tubing going to the pump. I figured I would used the bottom part of my old racking cane to have a controlled distance to the bottom of the fermenter.

Then I attached the hoses to the pump and pumped the hot water out of the fermenter. I still needed to draw the water to the pump because it is not able to pull air. Finally, I just shook of the water out of the tubes and I was ready.

- Turn on the pump,
- Dip the tip of the racking cane into the Botchet,
- Suck the liquid to the pump
- Put the exit tube into the new fermenter
- and then just focus on the keeping the racking cane below the surface of the mead.

I set the power supply to 7.5V. Judging from the litre scale of the new fermenter, it took about 25s to move 1L which is about 2.3 to 2.4 L/min, which was just perfect.

Not much sediment was present in the bottom of the fermenter, so I will now leave it for maturing now. Next step will be bottling.

Cleaning the pump was done by pulling about a litre of boiling water through it, after removing the racking cane tip. Finally is pulled a bit of demineralised water through the pump and tubes because the water here is quite hard.

Was it easier? First of all I did not have to lift the full fermenter to a table and risk disturbing the sediment. For larger volumes it will hardly be a option to even move the fermenter. Hereafter, I think the work load was pretty much the same. One more advantage was that when I pull a bit of air into the racking cane, the flow did not stop, but the pump just pushed the bubbles through. My old racking cane would have stopped flowing right away. I also like that I can clean the pump with boiling water. My old racking cane cannot be cleaned in boiling water and need to be washed with detergents. All in all, I am very pleased with my new "toy".

New pump to be used for racking

This weekend I received my new toy - a small pump to be used when racking meads.

The pump was purchased at solarproject.co.uk. It is a small 6W pump which is specified for home brewing among other uses. The pump specifications are:

Voltage: 12 V DC (7-14V DC)
Power: 6 Watts (500 mA at 12 V)
Temp. range: -40 to 105 C
Flow: approx. 6 L/min unrestricted flow
Vertical head: 2 m

It is great that it can pump freshly boiled water, so it will be easy to clean and sterilize before use.

I also purchased fittings and tubing (2m) at the site, but not the power supply, since it would not fit Danish power sockets.

Well 6 L/min might still be a bit high so I guess I will be running at a lower voltage. Using 7V I need a little less than 1000mA. I found a power supply from GooBay which can deliver 1000mA at 3, 4.5, 5, 6, 7.5, 9 and 12 V DC. It comes with several different connectors, so any can be picked.

The pump is on the other hand is delivered without connector, but I found a plug (female) which can be attached with screw locks instead of weldings at Brinck Electronik in Copenhagen. It works great and it looks good too. Solarproject should sell something like these too and the kit would be complete.

I tested the pump with water, mostly to ensure that I did all the connections correctly :o)  - nice steady flow, but the pump is not able to pull air, so I still need to draw the mead to the pump initially when racking, since I do not have an outlet in the bottom of my fermentors.

I will hopefully get to try it out on my bochet later this week.

2014 batch 2: Currant mead (11) - pH adjustment

I finally found time to do the pH adjustment of my currant mead. I have measured it earlier to about 3.4 and I want to have pH in my mead within the "sweet spot" of 3.6 to 3.8.

To raise pH I use pot ash or potassium carbonate (K2CO3). Potassium has no risk limit in foods because it is considered harmless and just as important, potassium does not impart a salty taste. CO3-- is on the other hand a quite strong base, and should be handled with care.

So, as titrator I used a 0.10 M K2CO3 solution (Mw 138.2g/mol) by dissolving 0.70 g in 50 ml of tap water using my old but trusted analytical scale and a 100 ml glass measuring cylinder. As titrand I used 40 ml of currant mead again measured with a 100 ml glass measuring cylinder

To add the titrator in a controlled fasion I used a 1 ml plastic syringe with needle. The needle provides a sufficiently small exit hole to control and "cut" small droplets. After each addition to the mead, I gave the solution a quick stir on my home made magnetic stirrer (ref HERE), and measured pH with my pH meter (ref HERE).

Adding in total 2 ml moved pH from 3.41 to 3.89. I found that adding 1.2 ml resulted in a pH of 3.70. Targeting this pH, I would likely be within the "sweet spot" with some error in the volumes used.

Converting the addition in ml to add K2CO3 in g to 1L the graph looks like this:

Some of the fluctuations from linearity might be due the various pKa values but with the general uncertainty of all numbers involved, I figured I could approximate the data as linear.

So, to get pH 3.7 I would need to add 0.42g K2CO3 to 1 L of currant mead. Since my batch size now is about 19 L I would need to add a total of 7.98 g. I have tested my scale with analytical reference weights and found it to be off by 6% and the error is proportional. Therefore I can just correct the target mass by 1.06 and I would need 7.53g K2CO3 and the actual mass will be 7.98g.

The entire amount was gently sprinkled into the fermenter and the entire volume was stirred well afterwards. I left the fermenter for 10 min to let the K2CO3 dissolve fully and mix with the mead. Then came the crutial check: Target 3.70 -> measured........

PERFECT !

Check-up on the bee hive

It was great weather today (4/1) so time to check up on the bees. After 2 formic acid treatments and a late Oxalic acid treatment I had my fingers crossed the the hive was still alive and well and that I had finally gotten rid of the extreme numbers of varoa mites.

A quick look around the hive, there was no dead bees - so far so good. Also, there was not off smells indicating diseases. Putting my ear to the hive I could hear a happy buzzing, so all looks and sounds good.

Pulling out the tray in the bottom of the hive also looked great - only 4-5 mites which might as well be the last of the clean-up after the oxalic acid treatment in december about a month ago.

Finally I weighed the hive. Total mass was 26.05 kg which is a drop in mass of 4.1 kg since end October. Still it is a little more than one kg more than last year where the starting mass was pretty much the same at the end of October. It could mean that the winter family is a bit smaller than last year or that there has been something to feed on for longer (?)

Anyway, I look like I will have a healthy family in the spring ready to collect honey for mead :o)