Soft set honey a little more soft than I'd like

[Neils]

I hadn't actually intended to make set honey, but when I came to bottle both batches of honey this year I found a lot of granulation going on, something that a few people in the area also found.

I ended up restraining the honey and forcing the larger granules through sucessively finer meshes. One batch of honey as a result has gone to a lovely soft set texture, the other is still very liquid whilst still having the overall consistency of a set rather than a liquid honey, in some respects it is neither one thing nor the other.

Off the back of that I'm unsure what to do with it and a few people who've had jars of it have come back to ask if that's what it's supposed to be like. Quality wise, I'm fine with it, but it's not "right", it's neither set nor liquid at the moment and I don't really know what to do with it.

Do I just sit on it and wait for it to properly granulate?
Stick it outside to try and speed the process up?
Leave it as is, use it as gifts and just say don't worry about it?

I'm not that happy with the latter option. I want my honey to be seen as I do, i.e. it's a quality product better than the £2.50 (crystal clear, but flavourless) supermarket stuff, and as is, people question whether they got a duff jar.

Set honey seems to be out of favour generally, I remember having it as a Kid, but a lot of people just don't seem to know what to do with it.

[Calum]

here most spring honey(dandelion) and raps honey is sold as creamy honey.
Mine I let set after harvesting, & warm it as I need it to 37°C for 24 hours till it is fluid. Then I let it granulate and stir twice a day till it is only just flowing. Then bottle.
I think it is correct that the closer the ratio of glucose and fructose 1:1 is the quicker it granulates.

[EmsE]

How about turning into mead?
Mine wouldn't set even though it had been seeded. I put them in different places about the house to see which conditions would suit this type of honey the best and found that the jars in the fridge set beautifully, but it took over 4 months to do so. The honey in the other parts of the house still aren't quite there yet so most went in the Demi johns today (I didn't have all that much honey, so only a couple of gallons on the go now)

[Neils]

Too much, about 30lbs of this batch, and too nice to turn into mead. Only problem is the consistency at the moment. Maybe once it warns up a bit I'll stick it outside for a few days and see what that does.

[Calum]

Hi,
I use one of these (http://kalthoff-frieling.de/635767-635767-large/einkochautomat-mit-hahn-ohne-uhr-1800-w-edelstahl-18-10-230-v.jpg) to liquefy all my honey ( as a big water bath for my 12,5kg buckets). Then it is stirred at least daily to get a fine crystallized even texture. Otherwise it will either go rock solid with large rough crystals or crystallize in stages similar to this (http://h10.abload.de/img/11zonm.jpg). According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey) the fastest crystallization occurs between 13-17°C which is about right I think.
If I were you I'd re-liquefy it, seed it (add half a glass of creamy honey) and stir till creamy. Straining the big crystals out isn’t a solution - it will go on crystallizing, so let it do what it wants to do anyway but try to influence it in a positive way..

[Neils]

I didn't so much strain out the larger crystals as use the filters to break them down into successively smaller ones. this worked fine for one batch of honey that has gone to a proper soft set consistency. The other batch from a different apiary has the look of soft set but is still very liquid several weeks after jarring it up.

I really don't want to have to rejar it if I can get away with it and other than it still being a bit runny I'm otherwise happy with the general consistency of the crystalisation so far, just somewhat flummoxed that despite appearing to crystalise how I'd like it to that it's refusing to fully set.

[Calum]

oh, a well...
how did you promote the crystalisation you were aiming for?

[Neils]

I wasn't going for crystalisation at all to be honest, but both batches of honey were starting to granulate anyway, I just broke down the larger crystals through the filters to get a finer crystalisation rather than throw it away.

I was led to believe that when granulation starts it tends to be the Glucose and just chucking it away therefore might upset the "balance" of he honey.

Pushing it throug the filters seemed to give a nice consistency on the first batch when it set but the second batch, from a different apiary looks like soft set until you open the jar and it still runs.

[EmsE]

.........., and too nice to turn into mead.

:eek: Nothing is too good for mead!

Page 23 of the PDF below describes how to clear your honey and an option on increasing the shelf life.

http://www.scottishbeekeepers.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/My%20Beekeeping%20Year.pdf

[susbees]

I think it is correct that the closer the ratio of glucose and fructose 1:1 is the quicker it granulates.

Nope, that isn't correct: the higher the glucose in the honey the faster the set, OSR and ivy being examples.

[chris]

A high glucose content (around 40%) will cause the honey to crystallize in 2 or 3 days, like osr and dandelion. A high fructose content (more than 42%) will allow the honey to stay liquid for several years, as is the case with acacia honey and the honeydews.Most honey is somewhere in between and crystallizes in a few weeks.
The two other parameters for speed of crystallisation are humidity and temperature.For crystals to form, the glucose molecules must meet up with "seeding nodules" and stick to them.Too much water hinders this, and so crystallisation is slower.On the other hand, if there is not enough water,the honey will be too viscous for the glucose molecules to move and so a "dry" honey will no longer crystallize. Temperature has a similar effect: a low temperature favours a higher viscosity (that of a honey at 20° is four times higher than at 32°. A high temperature causes the glucose molecules to vibrate and prevents them from forming crystals.Above 30° the crystallisation stops which is why honey stays liquid in the parts of the hive that are occupied by the bees.

The above is a rough translation of an article by Etienne Bruneau

[Neils]

Chris,

Wow, numbers and a name to tie it back to?

What you've posted backs up what I've heard from long standing Beekeepers round here though with more precision.