hist-brewing: Historical Mead

[Melanie Wilson]

>Boiling would be done for scum, bee (any unfortunate ones) and wax
removal.
The wax will melt and float to the surface, making for easy removal.

Yes I understand why but I don't see it as an absolute necessity

>Buhner's point and my contention was that in medivial times, they would
find a
wild hive, dig it out, and plop the whole thing in a pot without much

Well there were bee hives wicker & daub ones, even back to the Bronze age

>attention paid to capping, and angry bees stuck all over everything,
buzzing
and stinging their protest.

and I really can't see why having gone to the trouble of bee gardens etc
they wouldn't use smoke , hive transferance and other forms of bee
management which are not at all difficult and far easier than getting badly
stung every time you want honey 

>He also theorizes that early meads were a different animal, because they
used
more of the hive (propolis, royal jely, etc.) and got more of the medicinal
benifits.

I'd agree on that one.

Mel

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, send email to majordomo at pbm.com containing
the words "unsubscribe hist-brewing" (or unsubscribe hist-brewing-digest, if
you get the digest.) To contact a human about problems, send mail to
owner-hist-brewing at pbm.com