Propolis Query

[John Twidle]

I have been asked by a lady that I supply with honey if I could supply her with propolis. What sort of quantity / container / price / advice would anyone suggest who has experience of providing it?

 

[Wilco]

When I've been approached before people have generally been after a tincture of the stuff, which means dissolving it in alcohol. As I'm worried about getting the wrong side of the law selling alcohol, I shied away from that. I believe it commands quite a high value and IIRC, @ericbeaumont may be able to advise.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Easy enough to make a tincture. I have some I use for removing warts and healing infected cuts. Works well at both.
I fill a quart jar with propolis chunks. Pure propolis, not hive scrapings. Add the strongest ethanol you can find. We have something called Ever Clear. 92% Ethanol. Cover the propolis with the alcohol. The propolis will dissolve...takes a week or two. Stir it occasionally until the chunks are all dissolved. "Stuff" will settle to the bottom of the jar. Decant into a second jar, through a coffee filter. Leave the cover off the new tincture jar, allowing about half of the alcohol to evaporate. The tincture should be 50+% propolis. Put a drop on your hand to test concentration. When it's good and dark, and coats well, cover jar and use as needed.
I wish I had taken a photo of the last wart I had to deal with...on my right pointer finger. Every time I scraped top bars, the wart would be ripped open and blood all over. Now? Gone. I showed my rheumatologist before the wart was gone. She was quite doubtful. Six months later...she was well surprised.

 

[robinharman]

Mrs H prepares and sells a drug dealer sized bag for £10 with instructions how to make tincture with vodka.

 

[Blunt Spike]

Mrs H prepares and sells a drug dealer sized bag for £10 with instructions how to make tincture with vodka.

How big is the drug dealer that fits in the bag?

 

[John Twidle]

Mrs H prepares and sells a drug dealer sized bag for £10 with instructions how to make tincture with vodka.

Would your good lady be willing to share her advice on how to prepare the propolis tincture?

 

[BeeMania]

The rule of thumb is ratio 5:1 by weight.
For 1 ounce of propolis use 5 ounces of 95-96% alcohol.
I don't know about vodka proportions as I never used vodka so cannot comment on that, but I would assume since its only 40% I would probably use 1:1 or 2:1 the most.
Hope it helps

 

[Blunt Spike]

The rule of thumb is ratio 5:1 by weight.
For 1 ounce of propolis use 5 ounces of 95-96% alcohol.
I don't know about vodka proportions as I never used vodka so cannot comment on that, but I would assume since its only 40% I would probably use 1:1 or 2:1 the most.
Hope it helps

Going back too many years to my school science class days, but I would presume that you could put the vodka into a 2 litre pop bottle(due to expansion as ice crystals form) and then into the freezer and get much stronger alcohol out, as the water will freeze but not the alcohol??

 

[JamezF]

Going back too many years to my school science class days, but I would presume that you could put the vodka into a 2 litre pop bottle(due to expansion as ice crystals form) and then into the freezer and get much stronger alcohol out, as the water will freeze but not the alcohol??

Well, sort of. That's the way Applejack is traditionally made, but there's a limit on how much water will freeze based on the temperature and proportion of ethanol in the mixture. I'd need someone who understands the chemistry better than me to help and my son (who does) is at a dance competition today so probably not interested in the interruption, but I suspect that at 40% ABV you're probably not going to get much to freeze in a standard domestic freezer (usually set to somewhere around -18°C).

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Well, sort of. That's the way Applejack is traditionally made, but there's a limit on how much water will freeze based on the temperature and proportion of ethanol in the mixture. I'd need someone who understands the chemistry better than me to help and my son (who does) is at a dance competition today so probably not interested in the interruption, but I suspect that at 40% ABV you're probably not going to get much to freeze in a standard domestic freezer (usually set to somewhere around -18°C).

James

all the Russian ships I've boarded usually kept their vodka (and glasses) in the freezer - never saw one with ice in. We also kept our gin in the freezer for Sundays, same, never saw any signs of ice

 

[Blunt Spike]

Ok, Make a mock still with a pressure cooker and a hose from the pressure valve and boil the alcohol out.

 

[JamezF]

Ok, Make a mock still with a pressure cooker and a hose from the pressure valve and boil the alcohol out.

That may be possible with the addition of a condenser given some a lot of care, though JBM's mates might want to "have a word" if they found out. Temperature control is probably the limiting factor. It may be that such a simple setup isn't really practical when trying to achieve ethanol concentrations above those that you can easily buy already. I'd guess that ideally you'd want a reflux still which is a bit more tricky to make but still within the capabilities of a moderately competent bodger. If it were something I was going to put inside my body I think I'd also at least want almost everything to be made from stainless steel, copper and/or PTFE. Ethanol (vapour, particularly) dissolves a lot of stuff that probably isn't entirely healthy to ingest given the opportunity.

And no, before you ask, I have never built nor operated a still I do however hold a number of qualifications from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust and I like understanding how stuff works

("A lot of care" because ethanol has a very low flash point and burns with a smokeless flame that is not easily visible in daylight. Nasty accidents do happen.)

James

 

[Blunt Spike]

Vodka it is then

 

[North End Bees]

Ok, Make a mock still with a pressure cooker and a hose from the pressure valve and boil the alcohol out.

But ethanol alcohol is pretty cheap to buy. Less than the price of a bottle of vodka??

 

[Blunt Spike]

But ethanol alcohol is pretty cheap to buy. Less than the price of a bottle of vodka??

I dont know. I'm not interested in making tinctures. I was trying to think outside the box as someone mentioned vodka and then someone else said it needed to be stronger than vodka. You could always tell the person who does use vodka in their recipe. Thanks though