Would a “Whole Hive Mead” be classified as Traditional or Historical under the guidelines?
Would a “Whole Hive Mead” be classified as Traditional or Historical under the guidelines?
- Traditional
- Historical
0
voters
Will the bottles have chunks of hive in them?
LOL. no not any chunks of hive floating around. Beautiful, clear, golden color.
depends on the location. that kind of distinction must purely be for humour, right?
the hive might have a whole bunch of yeasts on it, which could start the fermentation off by itself, so in that sense it could be something practiced many thousands of years ago in some places.
in east asia it is fairly easy to find alcohol which has had bees or pieces of the hive itself and bees added to distilled alcohol and let sit for a period of time. though funny enough the concept of mead (fermented honey alcohol) is basically unheard of in contemporary korea/japan at least.
Then what about it would make it different?
The best mead I ever made was a braggot made with smoked malt and honey that was harvested with big chunks of hive.
Not meant to be humorous. I make my Whole Hive Mead by using only raw honey ( not heated above 100 degrees ). It goes thru the first screening but not the fine screening. I put pollen from hives, royal jelly, propolis, and also include some of the wax cappings in my original ferment. A bee keeper gave me approximations of how much of those ingredients would be in a normal hive. However, I don’t throw any bees in it, that would be to cruel…LOL. This makes an incredibly good mead. From what I have been hearing over the past 10 years of making it this way I may be the only one in the country making Whole Hive Mead.
We will need you to send a few bottles to the mods on the forum to verify this. 
Haha, I’m sure a lot of people would like a bottle or two. Anyone in the southern Ohio area is welcome to come for a taste.
As someone who has made mead for a long time and has kept bees for just as long I am intrigued. I can see what propolis and pollen could add to flavor, not sure about wax.
I pass my honey from our hives through the typical double strainer and use it for mead and as food raw.
I assume you also make traditional mead. Can you describe the difference in taste, aroma, etc. vis a vis mead made just from honey?
could imagine extra stuff could add some nutrients for the yeast?
Yes. Bee pollen is excellent nutrient. Obviously not a cost effective one if you can’t collect it yourself.
Old wax is pretty gross looking, and probably has a bunch of pesticides in it.
Sounds like a ton of work to make it, unless there’s an easy way of collecting royal jelly that I don’t know about? I seem to remember hearing about a “health” beer (low abv) brewery that made beer with pollen.
I just add a little of the cappings because years ago when a wild hive was found they would use the “whole hive” in the making of their mead. Don’t know if it adds any flavor or nutrients. I have tasted several meads made from just honey alone and they are very plain compared to a whole hive mead. I have had good luck with Lalvin K1-v1116 yeast.
I’m a beekeeper, wax will accumulate pesticides over time, I would be weary about adding anything other than freshly made wax to a drink. Propolis is known to have pretty potent anti fungal and antibacterial properties. Are you adding propolis as well? Bees also lacto ferment pollen into highly digestible “bee bread”. Do you find that mead made in this fashion is more acidic than typical? Also, do you know what kind of mite treatments have been used on the hive you are getting this from? Things like Apivar definitely leave chemical residue in the hive
If it tastes like a traditional - put it there. If there are significant flavors contributed by the odds and ends, then historical or experimental.
Yes, I add propolis as well, tried to incorporate everything that was in the hive. I guess the problem with any honey a person uses you can’t tell bees where to get there nectar and pollen. They can fly into pristine woods or a chemical laden crop. I do use only Ohio honey from reputable sources. No fake China honey! Two books I will recommend for all brewers are “Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers” by Buhner and the “Art of Fermentation” by Katz. Been making beer and wine for 45 years, mead for 15 and these two books changed my thoughts and approach to brewing.