Waxing Bottle Tops

I bottled the peach mead that had been sitting in a carboy in my closet for 6 months now. I decided to add an extra flare and dip the top of these bottles in wax. After researching the topic I found there was two different ways to do it. Either premade wax balls you can buy in hobby stores or mixing your own using crayons and hot glue gun gluesticks. This thread was very helpful.   The ratios he stated gave me a basic guideline to go off but I found some experimentation was necessary, I think partly because I used the cheapest crayons available to me. I attempted to use a double boiler to melt the wax/glue but it was too slow and wasn't really working. I ended finding the easiest method was to heat the oven.
Once liquid the process is very straight forward. Dip the bottle and slowly rotate it while the wax cools.  I am very happy with how the bottles turned out, the only worry I have is that the wax will not be too brittle.

After a long break.

Sorry about the long break in updates, We have been moving and other various life issues. So after settling into our new apartment I pulled the homebrew equipment out and bottled the milk stout. It smelled hoppier than I expected, but it will hopefully fade in the bottle.
I racked the 3 gallon peach mead into a fresh carboy with new fruit and some yeast energizer. I've also racked the tart cherry mead into a fresh carboy with some fresh cherries and yeast energizer.
After tasting samples from various carboys I've decided that the Whole foods cider is ready to be bottled as soon as I get some lactose to sweeten it back up, as it very dry currently. The cherry mead also seems ready to bottle within the next month and I'll probably do the peach mead at the same time.

I've changed the plan and I am no longer going to pitch Belgian yeast with the Patersbier  kit I have. I am going to just go with a clean fermenting American ale yeast. I am hoping to brew that tomorrow.

Previously Fermenting

So this is what I had in carboy previous to this blog.

-A Peach Mead
-Blueberry Wine
-Orange/Tangerine Wine
-Apple Wine

The only one I am actually excited about is the peach mead. The orange and apple wine were the first things I ever brewed and they are thin rocket fuel with a sulfur taste. The blueberry definitely has the potential for greatness. It has a great berry taste but its rocket fuel with some sulfur in there too, so I plan on letting it age and mellow out. The mead was made from clover honey and frozen peaches picked from parents property. The peaches were pureed and still haven't settled out, but its been less than a month.

 

Tart Cherry Mead

I put together a one gallon batch of tart cherry mead. Ive found myself more enamored with mead lately and am excited to see what happens with this. More juice came in the frozen cherry bags than I had anticipated, about a quarter of the carboy was filled with juice before the cherries were added, but this should just add to the taste hopefully. I went with the Lalvin D47 yeast as it seems to die out around 14% alcohol content and that should allow for sugar content without having to back sweeten. By the way hydrometer is out of commission so no hydrometer readings until I get a new one. Here is the recipe I put together. 

-2 Pounds 8 Ozs of frozen cherries
-3 Lbs of clover honey
-Lalvin D47 yeast.

I just warmed the honey till it was fluid enough to pour and put it on top of the cherries and juice in the carboy, then filled the rest up with spring water.