slightly unripe honey

[mbc]

Cant believe noones mentioned a honey ripening tank, these are designed tall and narrow traditionally honey would be filtered into one of these and left overnight before bottling. sinky bits fall to the botom and floaty bits float to the top but also dense honey drops and light honey rises, if the ambient humidity is low the higher water content honey on the top will thicken ( check for a skin ) or if the ambient humidity is moist then the top layer will take in moisture. I dont know at what point either occurs but the relevant point is that for almost all honey the 95% you manage to get into jars cleanly from a ripener will be absolutely fine and only the very last bit ( which you'd normally keep for yourself anyway due to the previously mentioned floaty bits )might be wet enough for fermentation to begin

 

[BBG]

Doing nothing usually brings you nothing - dehumidify then add.

Maxim "One rotten apple......"

 

[plumberman]

I know it was <cough> years ago I did my biology O' level, but I thought osmosis was the movement of water due to concentration differences.. I just remembered it refers specifically about that movement through a semi permeable membrane.

I will stir up the bucket and add some extra honey if necessary so I am sure it wont ferment.

Almost there: passive movement of anything from high to low concentration is diffusion.

Stick in a semi permeable membrane and only allow water to diffuse through it: that's osmosis.

 

[user 6228]

Yes,small room with a decent dehumidifier in it,stack box's cross wise and direct air flow through stack.

Thats a very good idea, and with some cardboard and duct tape you could even duct the air through the boxes and back to the dehumidifier. then you would be dehumidifying the room less and the honey more

 

[MandF]

so yes if you use immediately the end results are the sum of the parts but if you leave for separation to occur

What do we mean by "immediately"? In other words, how long will, say, 21% water content honey take to ferment? I expect a "how long is a peice of string" answer, but roughly?

I expect I eat a 1lb jar of honey in about 6 weeks.. so if I had 2 lb of 21% honey, would it be ok for 2 months?

If it is that far over I may well mix it in with some (2 or 3lbs) of honey I was going to use to make some set honey, rather than keep it as is and risk it fermenting. Would just be interesting to know the timescales we are talking about.

Thx

 

[preyingmantos]

im not sure and i suspect it has to do with many variables but i wouldnt worry to much. it only becomes a issue if your trying to store for months. If you havent extracted you could always get the bees to sort the water content issue out. I also think the big jarring operations use high water content honey to make the soft set honey.

 

[drstitson]

your problem is having small amounts of high water content honey in big buckets. whilst normally best to keep honey in buckets in the case of slightly off stuff in small quantities then filling jars is better as less exposure to air.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I expect I eat a 1lb jar of honey in about 6 weeks.. so if I had 2 lb of 21% honey, would it be ok for 2 month

Thx

Place the two jars in a water bath up to the neck of the jar,lids on,heat to 62c for one hour, then cool rapidly in cold water,it will then keep a very very long time

 

[MandF]

Place the two jars in a water bath up to the neck of the jar,lids on,heat to 62c for one hour, then cool rapidly in cold water,it will then keep a very very long time

Thanks for the tip!