wwyd - beetle juice - literally!

TattyGina · Jun 23, 2015

HI, started my first mead and after a couple of weeks racked it into two Demi-Johns, first one just plain, the other on to shop bought frozen raspberries.

Here lies my problem! After a few days I have worked out one of the raspberries has a small, but most definitely there, beetle :-(

I have hooked said raspberry out with a sterilised metal instrument, but what do I do now with the rest of the batch? Chuck it or keep it? I am leaning towards keeping it as whatever a beetle has can't do me that much harm.....?

bernardsmith · Jun 23, 2015

Hard to imagine that large wineries crushing tons and tons of grapes are not also including beetles, bird poop, spiders eggs and all manner of other organic junk. And true, their volume means that the presence of foreign matter is likely to be small compared to the gallons of must they ferment. You snagged and removed the offending creature? It was for all intents and purposes "intact"? My guess is that there is probably more than enough alcohol in the mead to render any possible pathogens a non risk to your health. As far as whether the presence of the bug is psychologically disturbing, only you can say. I think if I were you I would not be overly worried about this bug and I seriously doubt that it's presence would in fact contaminate your mead with any bacteria that would compete with the yeast to spoil the batch. Consider calling that batch Betelgeuse and pretend that nothing happened.

TattyGina · Jun 23, 2015

Did get it all out, took some effort!
Had actually already tried a bit before I decided it definitely was a beetle type thing and not a shadow....so far, so good

Crowing · Jun 23, 2015

Some other guy recently found a maggot in his batch with no ill effects.
I'm pretty sure I actually saw a thread on gotmead where some guys pet ferrets went for a swim in his must and it turned out fine.

EJM3 · Jun 24, 2015

Not to worry, they just provide nitrogen for the fermentation, the honey for my organic OB Traditional has plenty of bug parts floating around because I used an unfiltered raw honey. I'm over at some friends helping with their garlic harvest (3/4 acre so far), for breaks and snacks we raid the raspberry bushes. In those there are a lot of "shield" or "stink" bugs, amongst a few dozen other critters, we have no problem with them, accidentally eating one with a mouth full of raspberries that is. Protein & chitin are the main constituents of those and other bugs. Not saying that they are all kinds of nummy and tasty so that we hunt them more then the raspberries, but they are part of the scene. After 42 years on the planet, lots of them camping & hiking in my slightly younger days, I've eaten lots of bugs, drank a few too (tequila anyone?)

TattyGina · Jun 25, 2015

Thank you for the reassurances - I will be keeping this batch going having survived my initial tasting ;-)

Chevette Girl · Jun 26, 2015

bernardsmith said:
Hard to imagine that large wineries crushing tons and tons of grapes are not also including beetles, bird poop, spiders eggs and all manner of other organic junk. And true, their volume means that the presence of foreign matter is likely to be small compared to the gallons of must they ferment.

^^^ THIS.^^^

This is exactly why I don't stress out about what makes it into my mead despite my fairly rigorous quality control.

I had a batch of wine contaminated with fruit flies (I think what happened was that there was a bit of must in the airlock and some enterprising fruit fly laid eggs in there and when they hatched they ended up inside the carboy), I strained them out but didn't get them intact (and though I'm fine with drinking something I picked a bug out of, I'm not comfortable about only having removed most of said bug, ew) so I bought a wine filter and ran it through the filtration system. It turned out as one of my better early wines.

EJM3 · Jun 26, 2015

I think that we've got a pretty reliable trap for said fruit flies, AKA: "The Devil's Children", that is easy & cheap (I've been called worse): Fill a quart jar ~1/4 full of water, add a couple splashes of cider vinegar & a small squirt of soap, mix till foaming but don't fill the whole bottle. Last wipe the rim dry & place tape so that only a very narrow slit along the middle is open. Set them out where you have problems and watch the body count rack up fast!! Change every other week or when they get too raunchy...

mannye · Jun 27, 2015

I am using "straight from the hive" honey right now and it's chock full of bee parts and a few entire bees! Nothing to worry about. I may even start saving the whole ones to put in the bottle a la tequila.

Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.

EJM3 · Jun 27, 2015

Drop one (or more) in every bottle of sack mead, call it meadquila con gusano...

58limited · Jun 27, 2015

As the others have said, don't worry about it. I've had a few bee parts and a few fruit flies in my meads but no problems. The worst I had was a 2" raft of mold floating in my purple starthistle mead. I pulled it out and the mead is great! Won a gold medal even.

TattyGina · Jun 30, 2015

All very good news

I am not overly fussy about bugs generally so was hoping that was the right way to go - it's still go strong, can't wait to have another taste

Search

wwyd - beetle juice - literally!

TattyGina

NewBee

bernardsmith

Got Mead? Patron

TattyGina

NewBee

Crowing

NewBee

EJM3

Honey Master

TattyGina

NewBee

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE

EJM3

Honey Master

mannye

Administrator

EJM3

Honey Master

58limited

Premium Patron

TattyGina

NewBee