Bees Wax

Today I made a discovery that I think will help. Processing wax can be very sticky and messy. While I was bottling mead today, I managed to get a good deal of wax stuck onto one of our sauce pans.

I was using some honey strained from comb to sweeten the mead I had brewed. I heated the honey in the saucepan but I did not realize there was still wax in the honey. The wax separated in the pan and made a skin which created a ring around the pan.

I had read that the pans you use for wax would better be dedicated to wax. My own limited experience has been to struggle, heat, scrub, struggle, then give up removing bees wax. Then I remembered the PBW.

PBW is a detergent produced by Five Star that is commonly used for sanitizing brewing equipment. I had some on hand to clean my carboy so I tried it on the sauce pan. A little hot water, a good solution of PBW, and about twenty minutes of soak time, the wax wiped away, effortlessly. It really worked well. It broke down the wax completely. It didn't smear or spread. The wax just wiped away.

So my tip for removing bees wax, pick up a container of Five Star PBW. It is available at your local home brew supply store, and big online retailers.