Another Soft Set Rape Question

[Millet]

Honey is hygroscopic have you left the lid off for any length of time i cant see a small seed hugely changing a bucket full
45c is high i never go above 35

I left the lid of and put my sweaty wellies above the honey to dry them out.

 

[Jambo]

My bet is the seed i made in the food blender had far too many air bubble in it which can raise the moisture level in soft set honey.

Maybe. I have recently seen something similar and it made me wonder how accurately refractometers measure honey with crystals (large or small) in it. I assume crystals are 0% moisture and therefore the surrounding liquid must end up higher % than it would be if the whole volume were liquid. I hae ma doots about whether a refractometer successfully averages this out. Thinking aloud.

 

[Millet]

Maybe. I have recently seen something similar and it made me wonder how accurately refractometers measure honey with crystals (large or small) in it. I assume crystals are 0% moisture and therefore the surrounding liquid must end up higher % than it would be if the whole volume were liquid. I hae ma doots about whether a refractometer successfully averages this out. Thinking aloud.

My Refractometer works fine on any honey.

 

[Jambo]

My Refractometer works fine on any honey.

How do you know? What are you checking the readings against?

 

[Millet]

How do you know? What are you checking the readings against?

Me ..

 

[enrico]

I can see jambo's point millet. I think he is trying to help not critisise!
E

 

[Madge]

Look at what the problem is
The gentleman has honey which is in jars and set like concrete.
He needs to get it out of the jars, so this requires heat.
And then do something to stop it setting hard again.
Melting the crystals and using a soft set honey to seed it is the obvious answer or am I missing something.

Ps. I don't profess to be an expert, I just learn from past experience... In other words it has happened to me in the past, and this is how I solved it.

I understood the question, Steve. Perhaps I should have answered more fully.

I think remelting completely and re-jarring is unnecessary and just extra work. He only needs to melt it to soft-set consistency.

If Millet has a huge amount of hard-set honey in jars, and he wants to sell them all at once in a market, then it will be a tedious task to get the jars ready. If he only needs a few at a time for his own use, then it's fairly easy.

He just needs to heat the honey slowly, and stir the honey in the jar regularly until soft-set. It's probably the quickest and easiest to put the jars in a microwave oven for a few seconds at a time and stir until soft-set.

 

[Millet]

I can see jambo's point millet. I think he is trying to help not critisise!
E

I have checked my refractometer against a fellow members who's works spot on and mine was reading the same.

 

[Jambo]

I was trying to help yes. You're not reading what I wrote Millet.

 

[Millet]

I was trying to help yes. You're not reading what I wrote Millet.

If it has nothing to worry or concern me i will ignore . so i am sorry if i have not read things i was told to read..