The ultimate stags breath?
- Thread starter British Red
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Toddy,
Honey bees do not go feral here, they do swarm if they get ahead of their keeper of course, but they can't make the winter through. Everything has been tried, and other than moving them to a warmer place for winter, they always die. I enjoy the honey, and the keeping of bees, but here there is a sadness to the whole affair, this business of buy them, let them work, rob them, and let them die. Of course, I buy pigs sometimes too, keep them until they "must sit down to eat their last bushel of barley" and then make pork of them, but it isn't like simply letting them starve after I've gotten the pork, as it were.
I've a brother, who lives several hundreds of miles south of me, and he keeps bees. The temptation is to truck them the thousand miles to his house to winter over, but his land is covered with his own bees. So, I buy bees every few years, and then can't do it again for several years.
Honey bees do not go feral here, they do swarm if they get ahead of their keeper of course, but they can't make the winter through. Everything has been tried, and other than moving them to a warmer place for winter, they always die. I enjoy the honey, and the keeping of bees, but here there is a sadness to the whole affair, this business of buy them, let them work, rob them, and let them die. Of course, I buy pigs sometimes too, keep them until they "must sit down to eat their last bushel of barley" and then make pork of them, but it isn't like simply letting them starve after I've gotten the pork, as it were.
I've a brother, who lives several hundreds of miles south of me, and he keeps bees. The temptation is to truck them the thousand miles to his house to winter over, but his land is covered with his own bees. So, I buy bees every few years, and then can't do it again for several years.
How cold does it get there Haggis? Ours would sail through a Winter with lows of 0F - but the Winters are much shorter I suspect.
-40º is not at all uncommon in winter, (it does get far colder, and I have seen/felt -65), and generally by mid-November we have snows that sometimes will not melt until well into April. Our fishing season opens around the second week-end in May and frequently the lakes are still frozen. The cold will freeze the bees, but even if it did not, our happy season for bees only lasts from mid-May to early September. From then until mid-May again, there is nothing for them. So about 8 to 8 1/2 months of the year, there is nothing for the bees, except the honey they may have gathered during our very short warm season.
I like a bright cold winter, but ours are long enough; I don't think I'd manage eight months of it.
I like a looooooong growing season
M
I like a looooooong growing season
M
For those have the time and inclination, here is a 3 minute or so video of me snowshoeing out for a boil-up on March 26th of this year, and winter hadn't yet shown any signs of heading back up north. Imagine poor bees in such a place, what with the last available blossoms and pollen in early September, and the next pollen (willow here) still more than a month away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC4kCDIuyOs&list=UUJ3cVYyP3MXWikKm0fUE8yw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC4kCDIuyOs&list=UUJ3cVYyP3MXWikKm0fUE8yw
So, for those who would like to see the process
Take two bottles of dry sack mead made from a light wildflower honey
Mead Label by British Red, on Flickr
Blend with one bottle of light, Lowland single malt
When thoroughly and gently mixed, pour into jars of raw complete comb honey
When all but the wax has dissolve strain off the wax using a muslin lined sieve.
Straining stags breath by British Red, on Flickr
This should catch all the small pieces of wax as well as the large empty comb
removed honeycomb by British Red, on Flickr
Bottle the resulting blend which should be about 20% alcohol
Stags breath by British Red, on Flickr
....and store on the "shelves of weird booze"
Collection of odd drinks & wines by British Red, on Flickr
Red
Take two bottles of dry sack mead made from a light wildflower honey
Mead Label by British Red, on FlickrBlend with one bottle of light, Lowland single malt
When thoroughly and gently mixed, pour into jars of raw complete comb honey
When all but the wax has dissolve strain off the wax using a muslin lined sieve.
Straining stags breath by British Red, on FlickrThis should catch all the small pieces of wax as well as the large empty comb
removed honeycomb by British Red, on FlickrBottle the resulting blend which should be about 20% alcohol
Stags breath by British Red, on Flickr....and store on the "shelves of weird booze"
Collection of odd drinks & wines by British Red, on FlickrRed
You will indeed - this and the Cranachan raspberry whisky have proved a great hit with the friends and neighbours.
At this stage Red, very nice, a dry honey from the mead and a pleasant whisky undertone, I am optimistic it willbe as big a hit as the Blackbery brandy we gave friends this year when we hand it out as a christmas gift nine months hence. Will try to remember to post on how it is when the ho ey has dissolved and it gets bottled.
The blackberry brandy wegave this year was as well received by friends as by me, which is to say a lot ! It really is the nicest hedegrow spirit I have made, but its good to try new stuff too, hence the stags breath.
just bottled a batch of blackberry wine this afternoon as it happens !
just bottled a batch of blackberry wine this afternoon as it happens !
I'm glad you liked it. It only gets better with some age. I must say its become one of the makes that is hoarded for special occasions here.
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