Honey gone thick and opaque

[Dogged]

I took only a few pounds of honey from my bees (new this year), crushed and strained. It was clear and runny when I bottled it, but now is slightly thick and opaque. Not related to storage temperature as the unopened jar in the kitchen cupboard has behaved the same as the stuff in the cold garage.

What has happened

 

[Oscarmonster]

It's granulating. Perfectly normal.

 

[Finman]

.
If you have much that kind of honey, it would be time to stir the honey bucket daily during few days. So you get soft honey.

When honey crystallizes in peace in the jar, it becomes like concrete. Sometimes rough and sometimes not, but hard anyway.

Then near 0C temp the surface may get white layer. It is air which goes between crystalls when the liquid part of honey constricts.

fructose stays as liquid
glucose forms crystalls

 

[enrico]

What finman says is correct with OSR but most English honeys are not like that. All honeys 'cloud' and then crystallise. Most English honeys go into a fudge like consistency. To be fair, some stay like jelly and some go rock hard but that comes with experience. To get them back to a runny state you can warm slightly but there is nothing wrong with them at all. It is what honey does naturally as long as you don't sieve the heart out of it and heat it like gales!!!
Enjoy
E

 

[Dogged]

Thank you - my nearest OSR is several miles away so not likely to have got into this honey. I'll relax and enjoy.

 

[enrico]

It is good to note how hard your honey does set this year. It will give you an idea of what it might be like next year. It is always good to sell your honey before the clouding stage, or after the set stage. I put a little sticky note on the jar explaining that this is what honey does naturally and it is not 'going off' . Best stored at room temperature and not in the fridge as it will set more readily when cold.
E

 

[itma]

OSR isn't the only nectar source that gives a granulating tendency.
Clover and Ivy are two of the others that are regularly encountered.

My personal suspicion is that 'crush and strain' gives a slightly faster granulating honey than extraction and fine sieve. Unless you add a fine filtration stage, crushing is going to leave you with tiny bits of wax in the honey that will act as nucleation sites for crystallisation.



Mild granulation can be reversed by long gentle heating. Something like 3 days at 30/35C.
Excessive heating spoils honey.
Be gentle, and patient!

 

[Arfermo]

All the best honey should granulate/crystallise. If it doesn't, that would almost certainly be because it has been 'over cooked'. Warm it to clear it by all means if you prefer runny honey but do not go above 45C or so.

 

[Finman]

OSR isn't the only nectar source that gives a granulating tendency.
.
!

I would say that all my honey granulates, every year. Yield is allways mixture and I do not get pure fireweed honey, and in practice it too granulates. Only in northern Finland they get pure fireweed honey.

In Finland we have lots of nectar plants. Fireweed is only which stays liquid all winter. Honey dew is another one but it is very rare.

My yields have been mostly 2/3 rape. I know it how it reacts after 40 years experience.

If rape honey is missing from container, the honey crystallized in unknown way. Sometimes it do it slowly and at the end it may be really hard.

That makes surprises because I do not know what they have there and how it is going to act.

So, to avoid surprises you may put into buckets. Then mix it that it get fine granules. Let it transform to end. When you put it into jars, warm up the hioney in water bath, or in warming cabinet. When honey is moving well, jar it, and it will be nicely soft , when it settles down again.

 

[Torq]

All the best honey should granulate/crystallise. If it doesn't, that would almost certainly be because it has been 'over cooked'. Warm it to clear it by all means if you prefer runny honey but do not go above 45C or so.

My honey never crystalizes, even after 2years in a cool environment. All I do is strain and jar, no heating. No OSR around here though.

 

[enrico]

To my knowledge there are a few honeys that never granulate, fuchsia is one of them but that has to be pretty pure! Acacia is another. The other thing is when the water level is high, it takes longer to granulate. Have you taken any readings for water content torq? I am intrigued. What are your main nectar sources to your knowledge? I am not challenging you ....just wishing to learn more!
E

 

[itma]

All the best honey should granulate/crystallise. If it doesn't, that would almost certainly be because it has been 'over cooked'.
...

Umm.
I beg to differ.
The tendency to crystallise depends on the nectars foraged, which in turn gives the fructose/glucose proportion - the higher the glucose the faster the granulation.
I'm not sure how 'cooking' would delay granulation.
However to declare that honey that doesn't granulate quickly is in some way inferior - is simply to declare a personal preference.

 

[Finman]

The other thing is when the water level is high, it takes longer to granulate.
E

No that way. It starts to ferment. The ldifference between rippen honey and fermenting is very narroa.

There are two factors in granulation. It is amount of galactose and some entzyme affecting too. It has been researched.

 

[enrico]

I agree finman, it does start to ferment, but also it does not crystallise before doing so in my experience.

 

[Erichalfbee]

To my knowledge there are a few honeys that never granulate, fuchsia is one of them but that has to be pretty pure! Acacia is another. The other thing is when the water level is high, it takes longer to granulate. Have you taken any readings for water content torq? I am intrigued. What are your main nectar sources to your knowledge? I am not challenging you ....just wishing to learn more!
E

I have kept a few jars from my first ever crop in 2009. It is very pale and crystal clear with a 17% water content. To my knowledge it would probably be Bramble and Rosebay largely.

 

[enrico]

Thanks.... Interesting, I have never had honey that has not crystallised, maybe I sieve less than you. I use the th or es double sieve, do you use anything more than that?
E

 

[Swarm]

I used to Enrico but not anymore, I'm with you on the coarse/fine double sieve and no more.
I did have one crop in my first year that was yellowish and gin clear, this was a late crop in wet supers given back for the bees to clean. Tasted slightly citrus to me with distinct floral notes )), harvested in September. It was exactly the same after a year in the jar, after that I couldn't say as it had been eaten .

 

[Erichalfbee]

Just the double sieve for me too.

 

[Ely]

My honey extracted in May has only just started to crystalise. I don't sieve too much. I like it to be more rustic with traces of pollen

 

[Torq]

To my knowledge there are a few honeys that never granulate, fuchsia is one of them but that has to be pretty pure! Acacia is another. The other thing is when the water level is high, it takes longer to granulate. Have you taken any readings for water content torq? I am intrigued. What are your main nectar sources to your knowledge? I am not challenging you ....just wishing to learn more!
E

The forage is mostly hedgerow with a bit of ... well, have a look at the apiary site and you'll get the idea. It's rural with one off housing, no arable crops, no sheep just a bit of cattle.
Unfortunately I've no idea what the water content is and I don't have any way of testing.