Propolis solutions - 150g = 160-420 pounds profit for you from your own propolis

[Calum]

viscosity is not so much what I worry about, you can only really clean propolis off with alcohol, and anything left over dries to a resin that gums things up something awful..

[Calum]

Update 2018:

got 1,5kg propolis to process right now. Still some capacity to do some more.
I have also started batch sizes with 70g propolis. With the product in 10/20ml bottles and the option of 50/50% split 20% propolis in 80% alcohol and low alcohol saturated solutions.

Did my first batch of ginger infused propolis solution too, that will go well once I balance out the recipe...

[Adam]

Great that you are doing this with ethanol rather than propylene glycol. The commercial products in the UK all seem to use glycol but the FAO guide indicates that a drawback of that is the higher temperature needed to make the extraction which degrades some of the compounds in the extract. Could be a good selling point ... although it is also said that some water-based lotions make it harder to disperse the propolis extract if you are mixing them. The glycol products declare themselves 'alcohol free!!' so the equivalent on the ethanol products should be 'propylene glycol free!!' which seems a better selling point to me .

http://www.fao.org/docrep/w0076e/w0076e14.htm

Do you ever get feedback on how yours performs compared to the usual commercial products? Does its ethanol base ever give problems with it drying up?

PS fatshark - we really need a 'Like' button!

Seeing from the attached that propolis has some effectiveness against AFB, I wonder whether scorching and scrubbing beehives to remove propolis is as beneficial as we might think. Maybe we should leave the inside of the hive covered in a protective propolis layer?

[fatshark]

Did you ever get the dispenser sorted out Calum?
Anyone tried one of those syrup dispensers for la-di-dah-flavoured syrups into coffee? These are about £5 and reproducibly dispense 7.5ml or 10ml.