Wax rendering

[drex]

In the summer I use a home made solar wax melter to reclaim any wax. The wax is placed into a stainless steel baking tray, with holes drilled in the bottom edge. The holes are covered with a fine wire mesh. Wax drips into a non stick loaf tin and is usually quite clean. Any honey in the was gets washed off in the water butt.

I wanted to make some proper wax blocks. Bought an electric hot plate to use in my shed, having learnt my lesson from using her kitchen in the past. I put the rough blocks inside nylon and into the top of a veg steamer. Wax dripped into the boiling water ( rain water) in the bottom half of the steamer. I used a ladle to skim the wax off and pour into moulds.

turning out the moulds this morning, most were lovely, but two had a crystalline waxy layer on the bottom, this was easily scraped off. There was no water in these mould when turned out, so I had obviously not skimmed up water as well when I ladled into the moulds. Anyone any idea what this could be or what I could do better?

I will redo these blocks using a Bain Marie system.

 

[colinc]

Ive used the sam method letting it set over a thin layer of water. Is it Propolis forms on the underside as greyish gritty layer?