OSR honey that has remained soft set

[Fatbee]

All, after your views if possible. Normally like many others on the forum I extract some OSR honey and have to battle with it's hard setting tendencies - although I do like the taste and think it's a great boost for the bees early in the season and useful for winter stores later in the season (so I'm a fan)

However, this year I took a batch of what I thought was OSR honey that looks like it (very white), tastes like it but has remained a lovely soft set consistency - it's naturally creamed you could say! Moisture is below 20% so I don't think there is any fermention issues and I have to say it's delicious but I wondered what has caused it to stay in this non rock hard state.

Do people have a feel for the proportion of other sources of honey mixed in (Fruit trees, sycamore and dandelion were out at the same time near me) that could cause it to remain soft? 5%? 10%? They were next to 60 acres of OSR and piling it in so I'm surprised they were foraging elsewhere. What's puzzling is that by taste and look it's OSR.

I'm certainly not complaining about not having a bucket of hard set to cream and will be interested to see if it happens again next year.

 

[masterBK]

If you harvested your OSR honey after the limes had flowered then the lime content can do this as lime has a higher fructose to Glucose ratio countering the high glucose % in the OSR honey. You mentioned sycamore and I think that will do it as well but I may need to look up its fructose % to confirm.

 

[Fatbee]

Thanks. Yes it was before lime but quite a few sycamores about and if memory recalls nearer the end of the OSR flow.

Do you have a source you can point me to regarding the differing sugar make-up of different nectars. I find it fascinating.

 

[masterBK]

Classic source (with over 600 pages) on all aspects of honey is simply entitled "Honey" edited by Eva Crane . Composition of honey is discussed in chapter 5 (by Dr Jonathan White). Contains data on several honies but unfortunately Acer honey (which includes Sycamores) not mentioned. Lime (albeit American Lime= Basswood) was mentioned with laevulose (fructose) content of 37.9%.

Most UK honey sources have a higher fructose % than glucose (apart from OSR, Dandelion and Ivy which contain more Glucose than fructose) so if another major flow on at same time as the OSR then you would expect the overall % of glucose in the mix to be reduced relative to the fructose . Sometimes late flowering blackthorn and willow overlap with early OSR. However Willow also high glucose honey.

 

[Fatbee]

Thanks for the very thorough response - much appreciated. Think I'm a bit late to get Eva Crane on the Christmas list - fortunately I have a birthday in February!

 

[Little John]

Do you have a source you can point me to regarding the differing sugar make-up of different nectars. I find it fascinating.

Here's some info - not very comprehensive, I'm afraid - but it's a start ...

Sorry about the size of the graphic - anything smaller is unreadable, and for some reason I can't get .pdf's to load as attachments ...

LJ

 

[Fatbee]

Perfect thanks!