Problem with Crystallized honey

[Bungle]

Hi,

I'm looking for advice about how to deal with a 50kg container of honey from 2021, which I've not been able to process until now (long story!).

My first mistake was putting it into a 50kg stainless steel tank (too heavy).
My second mistake was leaving it in a garage that i couldn't get access to until now (it crystalized throughout).

This year, I turned an old pine wardrobe on its side and lined it with 50mm kingspan insulation and added a tube heater, fan and a STC100 controller to make a warming cabinet. Its getting up to heat, but I'm not havin gmuch success.

I set initially set the temperature to 40c and it took two days to heat up (its much faster to get back to temp after opening the doors now the honey and cabinet are warm). After two days most of the honey had liquified, but there was a thick layer of crystals at the bottom. I've been stirring it daily for about a week, and although there are less crystals I'm concerned about the time its being exposed to heat. I turned it up to 45c for a day and there were less crystals again, but i imaging there's still a good inch at the bottom. I decided to decant half the tank into 4oz jars to help heat distribution. But after another day at 45c i still have crystals at the bottom of the original tank, and all of the jars have a layer of crystals at the bottom. Its driving me mad.

My understanding is that i need to have all of the crystals gone, or the honey will just re-crystalize in full?

Should i continue heating at 45c for a few more days, or would you increase the temperature?

Cheers
Keith

 

[ics19]

Are you checking the actual temperature of the honey with say a long probe thermometer (you can get good digital ones often used for jam making) rather than just relying on the ambient setting? I've found it can be 6-8 degrees less in the bucket even with a couple of stirs once it starts to go runny - the last few degrees can nearly take as long as the initial melting. I'd imagine the 50kg could of been a good few degrees less than 40 once it became runny'ish. You may of been better decanting into smaller 30lb (14kg) buckets at that point. How evenly distributed is the heat in your "cabinet"? Maybe it's cutting out ok where the sensor is, but that's not temperature at the base where the tank/jars is? I'd verify the honey temperature independently to start with and take it from there - it could be you need higher controller setting to get a true honey 40 temperature. I actually go for 42C in my water tank - the heat transfer is far better than air, so the warming time is minimised.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Hi,

I'm looking for advice about how to deal with a 50kg container of honey from 2021, which I've not been able to process until now (long story!).

My first mistake was putting it into a 50kg stainless steel tank (too heavy).
My second mistake was leaving it in a garage that i couldn't get access to until now (it crystalized throughout).

This year, I turned an old pine wardrobe on its side and lined it with 50mm kingspan insulation and added a tube heater, fan and a STC100 controller to make a warming cabinet. Its getting up to heat, but I'm not havin gmuch success.

I set initially set the temperature to 40c and it took two days to heat up (its much faster to get back to temp after opening the doors now the honey and cabinet are warm). After two days most of the honey had liquified, but there was a thick layer of crystals at the bottom. I've been stirring it daily for about a week, and although there are less crystals I'm concerned about the time its being exposed to heat. I turned it up to 45c for a day and there were less crystals again, but i imaging there's still a good inch at the bottom. I decided to decant half the tank into 4oz jars to help heat distribution. But after another day at 45c i still have crystals at the bottom of the original tank, and all of the jars have a layer of crystals at the bottom. Its driving me mad.

My understanding is that i need to have all of the crystals gone, or the honey will just re-crystalize in full?

Should i continue heating at 45c for a few more days, or would you increase the temperature?

Cheers
Keith

I'm wondering if heat can penetrate under the bottom of your tank or is it sitting on the bottom of the cabinet? I use an old fridge with the bottom grid shelf in position for containers to sit on and a tubular heater on the floor of the fridge. Rather than relying on the fridge shelf ledges I put wooden supports between the floor of the fridge and the shelf. The st1000 probe is about halfway up the space inside and warm air rises off the heater under the shelf and then convects naturally throughout the space.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Are you checking the actual temperature of the honey with say a long probe thermometer (you can get good digital ones often used for jam making) rather than just relying on the ambient setting? I've found it can be 6-8 degrees less in the bucket even with a couple of stirs once it starts to go runny - the last few degrees can nearly take as long as the initial melting. I'd imagine the 50kg could of been a good few degrees less than 40 once it became runny'ish. You may of been better decanting into smaller 30lb (14kg) buckets at that point. How evenly distributed is the heat in your "cabinet"? Maybe it's cutting out ok where the sensor is, but that's not temperature at the base where the tank/jars is? I'd verify the honey temperature independently to start with and take it from there - it could be you need higher controller setting to get a true honey 40 temperature. I actually go for 42C in my water tank - the heat transfer is far better than air, so the warming time is minimised.

That is exactly what I have been finding in my warmer. It takes a long time to get a large volume of honey to a consistent temperature. Decanting into smaller jars and giving a quick burst of high heat should do the job.

 

[Nige.Coll]

The air temp and honey tamp are different always.
Large scale ( container size) warming areas are generally set to about 55 to 60c as the air temp is always higher than the honey temp.
45c air temp will probably result in 35 to 40c honey temp, not enough for stubborn crystalisation. The stuff at the bottom will have the least water content as a rule.

 

[ics19]

This what I use for buckets (chuck away the spatula part!):
https://www.lakeland.co.uk/16004/thermospatula-silicone-spatula-and-thermometer

 

[Bungle]

Thanks for the replies
The tank is on a slatted timber frame that gives a 11/2 inch gap below, not much, but its about the maximum i can achieve because of the height of the tank, and the temp probe is half way up. I initially started with a a couple of small computer fans, but changed that after a few days for a 12inch desk fan so airflow is now much stronger.

i hadn't appreciated the temperature difference between the air and the honey! So tested it with a probe today, and the honey in jars was 37c when the cupboard was 40c .

I've increased it to 50c for 24hour , and will measure again tomorrow.

fingers crossed