Set honey

[HARoberts]

Hi,
This year my honey was slightly darker than before and now I’ve noticed it has set (it has been stored in the summer house which is cooler than the house). It doesn’t seem to have crystallised as it’s not grainy. Is this considered inferior honey to runny honey? I would be interested to know why this has happened too. I would be grateful for views as this is only my second crop, Thanks

 

[madasafish]

Hi,
This year my honey was slightly darker than before and now I’ve noticed it has set (it has been stored in the summer house which is cooler than the house). It doesn’t seem to have crystallised as it’s not grainy. Is this considered inferior honey to runny honey? I would be interested to know why this has happened too. I would be grateful for views as this is only my second crop, Thanks

Depends on who is eating it.

I used to like set honey when I did not keep bees.
The reverse is true now I keep them.
Most of my customers - indeed ALL of them -like runny honey. None has yet asked for set honey.
(But many - not all - are elderly and may be set in their ways)

 

[HARoberts]

Depends on who is eating it.

I used to like set honey when I did not keep bees.
The reverse is true now I keep them.
Most of my customers - indeed ALL of them -like runny honey. None has yet asked for set honey.
(But many - not all - are elderly and may be set in their ways)

Why do you think it’s happened and is there a way of avoiding it?

 

[seillean mil]

(But many - not all - are elderly and may be set in their ways)

....granulated grannies (or grandads)?

 

[Apple]

Hi,
This year my honey was slightly darker than before and now I’ve noticed it has set (it has been stored in the summer house which is cooler than the house). It doesn’t seem to have crystallised as it’s not grainy. Is this considered inferior honey to runny honey? I would be interested to know why this has happened too. I would be grateful for views as this is only my second crop, Thanks

Some ask for soft set honey.. others runny

Try warming some gently and see if it goes runny again?

The only inferior honey is the Chinese imitation some supermarket put on their shelves... yours will definitely be superior to that
Chons da

 

[Amari]

Hi,
This year my honey was slightly darker than before and now I’ve noticed it has set (it has been stored in the summer house which is cooler than the house). It doesn’t seem to have crystallised as it’s not grainy. Is this considered inferior honey to runny honey? I would be interested to know why this has happened too. I would be grateful for views as this is only my second crop, Thanks

I hope I understand your question correctly. Nearly all types of honey crystallise after a time, indeed you can buy 'crystallisation labels' to stick on the jar of liquid honey to explain to purchasers that the honey is likely to set but that it can be made runny again by gentle warming.

Some honeys, particularly oil-seed rape, set within a couple of weeks. A few others eg. borage take months or never. Spring honey sets quicker than July honey in this area.

Obviously then, set honey is not inferior to runny. I have a sales box on the grass verge outside our hedge (see my avatar, money received via a drainpipe). I reckon I sell two jars of set to one of runny.

Some honeys eg. OSR set very hard and maybe coarse grained - not popular. Many of us therefore warm set honey that was stored in honey buckets and convert it to 'soft set'. You can easily look up the method(s).

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Hi,
This year my honey was slightly darker than before and now I’ve noticed it has set (it has been stored in the summer house which is cooler than the house). It doesn’t seem to have crystallised as it’s not grainy. Is this considered inferior honey to runny honey? I would be interested to know why this has happened too. I would be grateful for views as this is only my second crop, Thanks

Set honey doesn't trickle through bread or toast into your lap. Most of my customers seem to prefer it.

 

[Murox]

Set honey doesn't trickle through bread or toast into your lap. Most of my customers seem to prefer it.

soft set, warm toast and lashings of real butter please.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

soft set, warm toast and lashings of real butter please.

- has to be Welsh butter as well to get the proper salt ratio

 

[Murox]

- has to be Welsh butter as well to get the proper salt ratio

Yum Yum

 

[HARoberts]

Thanks everyone, that’s made me feel a lot better. It has gone runny after warming. I live next to a forest so maybe they’ve been foraging there.

 

[hemo]

If the bees are near a forest of pines/ firs etc, then the honey might be Honeydew aka pine tree honey. The sweet nectar is waste produced by aphids from the sap.
Honey is dark with a strong not overly sweet taste. The stuff I had from my bees took about 8+ months to set quite gloopy & thick.

 

[Swarm]

It can be quite different from year to year, that's part of the fun. My Summer honey is usually a golden colour and granulates (sets) in a few weeks. This year they made some gorgeous amber honey that is only now beginning to cloud.

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

When I was young, fully runny honey ran messily off the knife as I was spreading it on the bread/toast. That is why my parents preferred set honey, but not so hard that it tore the bread as it was being spread on.

 

[Firefly]

I hope I understand your question correctly. Nearly all types of honey crystallise after a time, indeed you can buy 'crystallisation labels' to stick on the jar of liquid honey to explain to purchasers that the honey is likely to set but that it can be made runny again by gentle warming.

Some honeys, particularly oil-seed rape, set within a couple of weeks. A few others eg. borage take months or never. Spring honey sets quicker than July honey in this area.

Obviously then, set honey is not inferior to runny. I have a sales box on the grass verge outside our hedge (see my avatar, money received via a drainpipe). I reckon I sell two jars of set to one of runny.

Some honeys eg. OSR set very hard and maybe coarse grained - not popular. Many of us therefore warm set honey that was stored in honey buckets and convert it to 'soft set'. You can easily look up the method(s).

I agree with all of this, including the fact that my naturally set honey sells well and is directly asked for by some regular customers. OSR honey can indeed set quite hard, but I would describe it as "dense" rather than coarse-grained. To me, coarse-gained means large crystals; rapid crystallisation of OSR honey produces _small_ crystals - in the case of my hard-set OSR, so small that you can barely detect them on the tongue. In contrast, my summer honey, which has been slowly crystallising over the last 5 or 6 weeks, has large crystals and a grainy feel on the tongue - easily-detected crystals in a still-liquid matrix.

This is exactly the same physical principle as the one that creates basalt and granite rocks. These two have very similar chemical composition, but boring, grey basalt crystallises quickly on the surface, producing crystals so small that the eye cannot detect them. The fascinating and varied patterns of granite are produced by slow crystallisation at depth and under pressure, giving the magma time to separate out into large crystals of quartz, feldspar, mica etc. that we can easily see with the naked eye

"Bassalt honey" and "granite honey" amuses me, but probably isn't a marketing strategy

 

[ericbeaumont]

I’ve noticed it has set (it has been stored in the summer house which is cooler than the house). It doesn’t seem to have crystallised as it’s not grainy.

Set honey is crystallised honey, HAR, but has set so quickly that the grain (as Firefly pointed out) is undetectable.

Any plant in the brassica family will cause crystallisation and the miles of hedge mustard inside the North Circular could be the source.

Where are you in London? Oak and beech are no good for bees and I don't reckon much in a forest sets quickly. More likely that you have some ivy in the mix; ivy is dark honey and sets quickly and smoothly. When did you extract?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Set honey is crystallised honey, HAR, but has set so quickly that the grain (as Firefly pointed out) is undetectable.

Any plant in the brassica family will cause crystallisation and the miles of hedge mustard inside the North Circular could be the source.

Where are you in London? Oak and beech are no good for bees and I don't reckon much in a forest sets quickly. More likely that you have some ivy in the mix; ivy is dark honey and sets quickly and smoothly. When did you extract?

I have had the occasional year when the bees were all over the oak catkins for pollen though.

 

[ericbeaumont]

I have had the occasional year when the bees were all over the oak catkins for pollen though.

I've read that occasionally oak will produce a honey - very red, apparently, and I've seen bees foraging here on Holm oak (for pollen only?) but this Spanish honey seller states that Holm oak produces no nectar and that the honey is dark and produced by the myelates. What are myelates? Sap-feeders producing honeydew?

 

[enrico]

Don't forget to keep a jar labelled with the year. Never open it, do that every year for comparison and memories!!!!!

 

[enrico]

this is the label I put on my jars. I have blocked out my village and one controversial word to prevent arguments!!!!!!