Beekeeper’s Notes: Bees Drunk Down-Under And Mead

Published on: 1 Jan, 2020
Updated on: 30 Dec, 2019

Hugh Coakley keeps bees in Worplesdon

We’ve made some mead this year for the first time. To our huge delight and surprise, it tasted good, came out beautifully clear and smelled and tasted of honey.

Worplesdon Mead. It tastes good for making it for the first time. The condensation on the cold bottles masks that it is beautifully clear.

I say we were surprised because we had been to a mead making talk earlier in the year and it sounded really complicated.

Beginner’s luck must have been on our side as it couldn’t have been simpler. Honey, water and yeast together – nothing else. After fermentation, we left it to settle then bottled it.

Success is vital as we are having a mead competition with one of my sons-in-law, who generally brews very good beer and wine. I supplied the honey and he has made his mead to his formula.

We will compare after a couple of months, when it is said to be at its best, and a winner will be declared.

The trouble is, if it is successful, I’m not sure that we can do it again as we didn’t keep the recipe. Oh well.

We aren’t the only ones with alcoholic woes.

The head beekeeper at the Australian Parliament in Canberra said that, as the weather started to heat up in October, the bees were getting drunk on fermented nectar.