Clearing honey from a spinner

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maddydog

Drone Bee
Joined
Mar 24, 2013
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Location
north staffordshire
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
150+ nucs and hives
Having run my cappings through a wax spinner I'm left with 100+lbs of cloudy honey. At first I thought it was micro bububbles but having left it at 40c for a day it's not cleared and the cloudiness appears to be tiny fragments of wax that refuse to float. Tried filtering but it clogs immediately and would take forever. Seems a bit extreme to put it in the apimelter?
Suggestions?
 
would creeping the temp up help?
bee wax melts at 60ish degrees
It might be easier to separate at that temp.
 
would creeping the temp up help?
bee wax melts at 60ish degrees
It might be easier to separate at that temp.

Some of the honey left for two days at 40c was a bit clearer and I was able to skim a fair amount of wax off and filter. The stubborn stuff I'll raise the temperature and keep for my porridge and the mother in law :paparazzi:
 
More likley be crystals than wax. Take a jar off and as Millet suggests heat to 60C for an hour or so.
That won't cause any issues and should clear it.
 
Thanks gents. Think you're right it may well be crystals. I'm down to one stubborn bucket so will crank up the temp.
 
Please reflect before cranking up the temperature.
Can I provide a cautionary food science input on this. Heating honey can have a undesirable side effect. Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). Crudely HMF is an undesirable dehydration product of the base sugars in honey (in part glucose, but principally from the fructose). As such runny honeys (generally) are more susceptible than hard honey like rape. It is used as an indicator of adulteration, but has also gained negative press as a carcinogen. At a crude qualitative level, it conveys buttery and caramel notes to the honey. 40 mg/kg is the maximum level permissible in the EU for table honey. But depending of geographic origin HMF levels can easily (and naturally) be double this because of ambient temperature in the producing region.

Heating to 60’C rapidly increases HMF generation and levels, this then seeds elevated further degradation over ambient life. Harvested honey in a temperate climate might have 1-2mg HMF. 30mg HMF might accumulate in say 300 days at 30’C, but might take 800+ days at 20’C. Go up to 60’C and the 30mg accumulation timescale is 1 to 2.5 days. 70’C it’s 3-5 hours. It does not stop there; you then have the accelerated compound generation over the honeys’ life at the stored temperature because of this early temperature abuse.

From a food safety perspective read this in balance. Many products have much, much higher levels of HMF than honey and don’t even get me started on burnt toast! The point is, we sell at a premium from our doors; trading standards can easily test for HMF and the Honey Regs apply to all. Enforcement visits of ‘hobby’ beekeepers can and do happen (I’ve had one). Knowledge is power, having a documented HACCP is a superb insurance provided you comply with it and consider things like HMF along with general food safety and quality. Sometimes chasing a yield or a honey return come what may, is not always delivered without a price or loss elsewhere.
 
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Heat it to 60c for 24hrs..i had some cloudy honey last year and a good forum member advised this to me..the honey turned crystal clear..this was in jars though not buckets..wax should be floating to the top though if you are at 40c..
That was supposed to be for 1hr not 24hrs..:spy:
 
Heating to 60’C rapidly increases HMF generation and levels, this then seeds elevated further degradation over ambient life. Harvested honey in a temperate climate might have 1-2mg HMF. 30mg HMF might accumulate in say 300 days at 30’C, but might take 800+ days at 20’C. Go up to 60’C and the 30mg accumulation timescale is 1 to 2.5 days. 70’C it’s 3-5 hours. It does not stop there; you then have the accelerated compound generation over the honeys’ life at the stored temperature because of this early temperature abuse.
.

Yup, so heating to 60C for an hour results in a very minor increase in HMF levels and is not to be worried about.
Just don't heat it for days.
If we split the difference and say it takes 30 hours to reach 30 mg/kg at 60C and we assume a starting average of 15mg/kg for "fresh" honey and assume it's a linear accumulation then 1 hour at 60C will increase the HMF levels from 15 to 15.5 mg/kg. Long way to go to reach the illegal level of 40mg/kg.
 
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Beefriendly, each to their own but that 40mg figure is at any point in the saleable items life. You give your honey an 18 month best before and you have that normal accumulation from an accelerated base point. As the producer we are liable for quality and composition at any point in the designated life structure we apply. 60’C doesn’t happen immediately so also consider the cumulative heating and cooling area under the curve above 15’C. Finally any over temperature when targeting 60 will be a concern, look at the 70’C prediction to 30mg.
 
Not sure what you refer to by each to their own...
Rosti we are only dissolving crystals of honey.
But work it out for yourself...heat to 60 for one hour (now 15.5)....even a year after at say 20C...where are we now?
Still legal honey.
 
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Your honey, your risk assessment. I’ll make sure I don’t complicate any other threads with fact based info that didn’t seem to be known or considered.
 
Your honey, your risk assessment. I’ll make sure I don’t complicate any other threads with fact based info that didn’t seem to be known or considered.

My honey sells very well, thank you.
~The facts you refer to are well know but poorly understood by many beekeepers. I hope my explanations of how heating honey to 60C for a brief period of time leads to only a negligible increase in levels of HMF helps.
Something I'm sure you will agree on, given you seem to have an understanding of the simple science involved
 
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