Yesterday, we started our first batch of mead. Most of the honey in the batch was collected from the uncapping tank. When you extract honey, you cut the thin layer of wax that the bees cover the honey with from the honey comb. This layer is called the “capping” and can contain a lot of honey. We added the remainder of last year’s crop (about a pound) and a pound from this year’s crop to start the three gallon batch of mead (also called a must). The must bucket smelled yummy as we stirred in the hot water to dissolve the honey. We added the yeast this afternoon after we were sure that the wild yeasts had been killed and used a dry wine yeast. The mead must will sit in a 5-gallon bucket for the next couple of days to give the yeast time to grow a large population. We’ll stir it a few times a day to provide the yeast with a lot of oxygen. When it looks pretty fizzy and frothy, we’ll rack it to the 3-gallon carboy and stick an air lock on it.
In preparation for racking the must to the glass carboy, we bottled the watermelon wine that we’ve been aging since February. The wine was begun as a single must, but I separated it into three different 1-gallon carboys and added a few tablespoons of additional sugar to two of the jugs. It was amazing how different the three wines tasted. One was very dry, one was sweet, and one was right in the middle. The wine is a really pretty amber color and does have a watermelon flavor.

We also got the wax rendered yesterday. To clean the beeswax, we heated a pot of water that’s about half full. We added the wax to the water and let it melt. Since beeswax is an oil, it floats after it melts, allowing the heavier impurities to fall to the bottom of the pot. After the mixture was boiling, we ladled it into a jelly strainer to separate out the lighter impurities. The cleaned wax was captured in a silicone bread pan and allowed to cool. From the cappings and burr comb removal, we ended up with about a pound of gorgeous yellow wax.

We made the most of a Friday night by playing a game of Trivial Pursuit followed by a game of Monopoly. I actually beat Eric at Trivial Pursuit (!!) but then he creamed me in Monopoly. Be careful y’all, that guy is heartless when it comes to collecting his rents.