More on honey heating

[Popparand]

In a previous post I was looking for advice on whether honey should be heated before bottling, as the books suggest. As far as I am aware most beeks tend to jar honey after allowing it to settle for a day or two, and without any further heating.

Thanks to EricA for the reply.

Heating honey to make it more fluid so quicker to filter, etc is another matter.

For what it's worth I have been filtering honey at less than 16% water content without any problem, even though it's are a lot cooler now. Clearing frames of any loose wax prevents the filters clogging up, which helps.

I think it best not to muck around bees and honey any more than absolutely necessary, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Beefriendly]

But what size filters are using?
If it's the stainless steel pair of filters that most use, these work at just about any temperature. Trying to strain the results through a 400 or 200 micron filter before bottling is a different matter. It works better if the honey is warmed to say 35C...hive temperature. There is still a surprising amount of small debris left after the first filtering.

 

[For want of a better word]

But what size filters are using?
If it's the stainless steel pair of filters that most use, these work at just about any temperature. Trying to strain the results through a 400 or 200 micron filter before bottling is a different matter. It works better if the honey is warmed to say 35C...hive temperature. There is still a surprising amount of small debris left after the first filtering.

Supermarker "Honey" seems to have been rapidly heated to ( Hopefully) kill any bugs... and then forced under pressure through a micron filter to remove any dregs of pollen, bees legs, wax moth poo etc
Perhaps it is these exclusions in real honey that give it its flavour as it ripens?
.... OFF TOPIC !!!
35 degrees seems to work best in my automatic bottling machine... never more than 40... but viscosity plays a part.

Yeghes da