Today, I decided to get some more honey for another batch or two of mead. You'll see from the picture 2 small buckets of honey on top of two other buckets. One is orange blossom honey, the other is lavender honey. Both are in 1.36kg/3lb "buckets".Below them, on the right is a 5 gallon fermenting bucket, that contains the remains of 15litres of pulped apples (mainly eating/sweet apples).
On the left, is a "fruit pulp strainer". Actually it's not, it's 2 buckets, one with most of the bottom part cut off, so it acts as a collar, to hold a cloth (in this case, it's actually a straining bag). The idea for this comes from Luc Volders Blog on winemaking (yes it's in english, as well as his native dutch - you just have to scroll down for the english translations).
It's a damn good idea, as it saves a lot of time separating the juice from the pulp if you either don't have a full sized fruit press or like me a small press (mine holds about 1.6 litres). You can use a "tea towel" type cloth or maybe something like a piece of muslin. If you have to process the pulp further, once the strainer is assembled as per Luc's blog, you then just use another piece of cloth laid carefully in the top of the "strainer" (it's all explained in Luc's blog).
The buckets I used to make the strainer, are actually 2, 30lb honey buckets that I got from Paynes along with the honey. They work very well and seem to be very easy to cut (the one that's cut down for the "collar"). Plus at less than £2 a bucket they're cheap enough, as well as being made of food grade plastic. Ideal.
TTFN!
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