Heating big mixture of cappings and honey

Rory Fields · Nov 1, 2023

Hi, I've got one of the 180cm Abelo honey warmers and had put a large bucket of heather honey and wax in (having opted for the crush and strain), but it's granulated badly, and 4 days at 38.5*c has proved fruitless. I'm reluctant to up it to 50*c per Dave Cushman, as I obviously want to keep it as 'raw' as possible, but with it being essentially all mashed up comb, what have people heated such mixtures to sufficient to go in my heather/fruit screen press and then coarse double sieve? Thanks, just lost a lot of confidence after ECT and needing to reassure myself!

pargyle · Nov 19, 2023

Rory Fields said:
Hi, I've got one of the 180cm Abelo honey warmers and had put a large bucket of heather honey and wax in (having opted for the crush and strain), but it's granulated badly, and 4 days at 38.5*c has proved fruitless. I'm reluctant to up it to 50*c per Dave Cushman, as I obviously want to keep it as 'raw' as possible, but with it being essentially all mashed up comb, what have people heated such mixtures to sufficient to go in my heather/fruit screen press and then coarse double sieve? Thanks, just lost a lot of confidence after ECT and needing to reassure myself!

Looks like this post got lost in the melee ... I don't think I have an answer for you but I've bumped your post .. Hopefully, it's a problem you have already sorted.

If the honey has granulated it's a beggar of a job to do anything with it that is not going to overheat it an render it into'Bakers Honey'.

If you have not solved the problem, I think what I would do is split it into smaller buckets and make one of my 'cappings seives' and persevere with the heat. The honey should gradually melt before the wax at around 40 degrees and find its way into the lower bucket.

Honey extraction shopping list

Post#32

drex · Nov 19, 2023

I think heat is the only answer as low as it takes to work. I have occasionally been forced to go up to 50. Keep time as short as possible. It takes 3-5 days at 50 for HMF to reach legal limit (hive and the honey bee) .

rdartington · Nov 20, 2023

pargyle said:
Looks like this post got lost in the melee ... I don't think I have an answer for you but I've bumped your post .. Hopefully, it's a problem you have already sorted.

If the honey has granulated it's a beggar of a job to do anything with it that is not going to overheat it an render it into'Bakers Honey'.

If you have not solved the problem, I think what I would do is split it into smaller buckets and make one of my 'cappings seives' and persevere with the heat. The honey should gradually melt before the wax at around 40 degrees and find its way into the lower bucket.

Honey extraction shopping list Post#32

I drill holes in the bottom of a shallow plastic storage box which then fits into a similar but deeper plastic box. The solid comb goes in to the top box and the two boxes just fit into the electric oven at home. I turn on the centre grill and set temp at 50 degC. In theory, only the top layer of comb gets the radiant heat, and as soon as the toplayer of comb melts, the honey runs safely into the bottom box where it is protected from heating. When all the comb has metlted the wax is a slumped mass left in the topbox. The honey is poured off thru a sieve and jarred. Some water is added to the bottom box and the temp increased to 80degC. The molten wax runs thru, leaving a layer of rubbish/propolis in the top box to be wiped out with paper. The wax cools to a cake that needs remelting in a bain mari and sieving before pouring into moulds.
This work fits in with winter eves, when the waste heat from the oven helps to heat the house, so acceptable - to me at least. (I am the cook here).
the plastic boxes just survive the radiant heat. Do not heat above 80deg.