Hello Everyone,
It’s been three months since my last blog post due to a number of important events happening and giving me very little time to think, let alone write a mildly interesting post for you to peruse. My daughter Esme was born early August and my life has been flipped on its head ever since – those of you who are parents, I hope you understand. (Kat is currently editing this, one-handed whilst also feeding the baby!) So here is a brief catch up of what I have been doing business/beekeeping wise during that time:
By the end of August, I had managed to extract this year’s honey crop in between vomit comets and poo-splosions (I washed my hands, don’t worry). I also managed to prepare my new product of “Cut Comb”. Annoyingly I’m STILL waiting for the cardboard sleeve before I can sell it to you guys but here’s a sneak peek at the gooey goodness.
Bees wise, I treated them with Apiguard to kill any Varroa mites that may stop them from surviving through winter (just in time it seems) and did my final inspections.
September, I spent jarring all the extracted honey using my cool new jarring machine; it’s made this part of the process so much easier, and I would highly recommend it to other beekeepers. By the end of the month, I managed to get my honey into five local businesses ready for you lovely people to get your hands on. I took the treatments out of my hives by the end of September and started the winter feeding where I supply the bees with a heavy (2 sugar : 1 water) sugar syrup. Each hive needs around 20Kg of sugar so that’s a lot of syrup needing to be given to them on a weekly basis.
So, now that I’ve caught you up, it’s time to talk about the purpose of this blog post, the dreaded Crystallisation (dun dun duuuun).
My mother went to one of my stockists the other day and noticed that the honey on the shelf had started crystallising (annoyingly) and was worried that the honey was “going off”.
“Worry not” said I, “honey doth not go-eth off...eth…” continuing I said “tis but crystallisation mother dearest, a natural process that all raw honey do-eth ...”
Not sure why I was affecting an Edwardian brogue, but I was telling the truth. All honey crystallises eventually. Even supermarket “Franken-honey” will crystallise after an extended period of time. Honey produced from yours-truly crystallises quite quickly due to having virtually no processing done to it between hive to jar.
Why does honey crystallise?
Honey is a substance called a “super-saturated solution”; In essence this means that what little water is present in it is absolutely crammed full of other elements. My honey this year is only 15.5% water so that means for every 1% of water, there is 5.6% that is made up of other “stuff”! The chemistry involved in honey is ridiculously complex and I keep going cross-eyed trying to understand how it works, despite being a Chemist for my day job. In essence being crystallised should be honey’s natural form but bees are able to do some strange “bee-magic” to keep it liquidous (runny) when over 30°C (the internal temperature of a hive).
Depending on what plants the bees forage on, the average parts that make up honey are 40% fructose, 30% glucose, 17% water and 13% other sugars, pollens, enzymes, vitamins, etc. Glucose is the part of honey that crystallises, as it more readily comes out of solution when concentrations get too high. Usually, the crystallisation occurs because the jar of honey is stored in a cold area. This leads to the honey becoming more viscous which in turn retards the formation and diffusion of crystals. Pollen, which is suspended in the honey (rather than dissolved), acts as a launching point (seed) for the glucose to attach to and come out of solution, forming a crystal. Once one crystal is formed this in turn will help other glucose crystals form, and so on until the whole jar is crystallised. An easy visual aid as to what I mean is if you have ever used one of those hand warmers where you start the reaction by compressing a piece of metal floating in the solution, you will see how the crystals all form outwards in a wave from the point of origin.
Honey with high pollen and/or glucose concentrations are most prone to crystallisation which is why “raw” honey with minimal processing sets particularly quickly. Supermarket’s “Franken-honey” has been heat treated to destroy many chemical bonds that contribute to crystallisation. They also remove most of the pollen and sometimes add a lot of fructose in the form of corn syrup to reduce the glucose concentration (I talk about it here) so it generally takes an age for their honey to solidify.
How do I get my honey runny again?
Personally, I prefer my honey crystallised. It’s less messy/dribbly and you end up with big chunks of yumminess on your toast rather than it spreading out too thinly but if you are wanting to drizzle your honey over something like a hot Camembert then you’ll need it runny.
There are several ways to do this depending on the equipment you have on offer. In essence you need to get the honey to around 35°C (same temperature as that of a beehive) for all the crystals to dissolve completely. You have to be careful though as higher temperatures or constant reheats will denature the proteins, enzymes and carbohydrates changing the chemistry and the taste of the honey. Here are some well-known methods:
Microwave method
This is the simplest and quickest but will definitely damage the honey, only do this if you are using the honey for baking or are REALLY late for work. Simply take the lid off (as metal and microwaves don’t mix) and place jar into the microwave. Zap it in 30 second intervals with stirring in between (if you can). Usually takes 5 mins max to liquefy a full jar.
Pros:
Fastest method
Cons:
Will definitely damage the chemistry (and taste) of the honey
The hot water method
For this one, all you need to do is boil the kettle, pour the boiling water into a container, place the jar into the hot water and then put another bowl or plate, inverted, over the top as a lid. After an hour or two the honey will be runny again. This method is listed on every one of my jars as it’s the easiest without doing too much damage to the honey.
Pros:
Quick
Easy
Only requires two receptacles and hot water
Cons:
Ruins label
May damage the honey with the heat
Moisture could get under lid if it isn’t sealed properly and damage the honey
Radiator/airing cupboard method
Generally, the boiler in a house is set to around 45-55°C for central heating. This method involves putting the jar above a radiator or in a warm airing cupboard for an extended period. This can take a long time depending on your central heating and radiator type. It’s completely passive though and requires the least effort on your part, the chance of damaging the honey is much less likely too.
Pros:
Almost no effort at all
Little chance to damage honey
Cons:
Takes a while to do
If the jar is sticky, you may make your radiator and walls tacky
You may forget it’s there
The oven methods
This is my favourite method to liquefy honey. I have a pretty decent oven that has an awesome ‘dough proving mode’ where you can knock the temperature down to 35°C. It takes 2-3 hours for a jar to fully liquefy but its low energy and the chance of damaging the honey is virtually nil as it’s the temperature its designed to be at naturally.
If you don’t have a snazzy oven like me, you can still use your oven to liquefy your honey.
After cooking a meal in it, let the oven cool until you can touch the metal shelf without burning your hand (please be careful testing the shelf). Place the jar in the oven and close the door. Leave overnight and the residual heat of the oven will (hopefully) liquefy your honey by morning.
Pros:
Honey shouldn’t be damaged
Labels are left undamaged
Most controlled method
Can do multiple jars at the same time
Cons:
Takes time
Chance of burning yourself checking shelf temperature (do this at your own risk!)
How do you prevent honey from crystallising?
In short, you can’t stop it from happening. You can slow the process down, or sneakily use the process to your advantage …
Where you store your jar of honey makes a massive difference as to how fast the honey will solidify too. As mentioned earlier, cold temperatures encourage crystallisation to occur more quickly in honey meaning if you were to leave your honey in the fridge, chances are that it wouldn’t stay runny for very long. (By the by, honey, if in a well-sealed container, will almost never go off, so you really shouldn’t have any reason to put it in the fridge.)
UV Light and Hot or fluctuating temperatures can also cause your honey to degrade, so leaving it near/on top of the oven isn’t a great idea either.
The best place to keep your honey is in a hermetically sealed, UV, temperature and humidity-controlled box…. But if you don’t have one of those then putting it in a cupboard, or on the kitchen counter out of direct sunlight, should suffice. You just need to keep it around room temperature, and it should stay in its runny state for a fair amount of time ...
If you want to avoid crystallisation completely, the best thing to do is to just eat your honey before it crystallises! On average honey will usually stay runny for at least a few weeks and possibly months after you buy it.
“Prey tell of this sneaky way of using crystallisation to your advantage” I hear you whisper into the wind on this moonlit night.
Okay dear reader, please look around and make sure no one is nearby, and I shall impart the ancient knowledge of the “creamed honey”. Passed down from beekeeper to beekeeper, sworn to secrecy with honey oaths (like a blood oath but less gross and maybe only slightly stickier!) … until the written language was invented and then it all went out the window from there.
Creamed honey (AKA soft-set honey)
Creamed honey, in essence, is honey where you have manipulated the crystallisation process to make it spreadable, like butter. Many people prefer it to runny honey as it much less messy, it feels like velvet on the tongue because the crystals are so fine (hence creamy), and it remains looking good for a long time. The best thing is that once honey is creamed it stays that way almost indefinitely unless you heat it up again and turn it back to runny honey. What is best, is that it takes relatively little effort to produce, and autumn/winter is the perfect time to make some. The method I use is a modified version of the ‘Dyce Method’.
The Dyce Method first uses pasteurisation to prevent fermentation but doing this damages the honey and the water content of my honey is usually so low that fermentation is very rare in the first place. Other than this, the method is the same in that crystallisation is controlled by combining liquid honey with finely granulated honey called “seed crystals”. The seed crystals provide the basis for small crystals to form throughout the honey.
After combining the ingredients, the honey is stored at cool temperatures to facilitate the crystallisation process.
All you need to get started is a crystallised jar of honey, a pestle and mortar and one of the aforementioned methods of liquefying the honey.
Instructions
Take a big scoop of crystallised honey from the jar and put it in the mortar. Generally, one or two tablespoons worth of honey works well.
Seal the jar again and place it in whichever liquefying method you choose; The oven or hot water method generally goes best with this.
By use of pestle and mortar, grind the crystals as finely as possible. They should change colour and consistency from a crunchy pale crystals to a soft creamy textured white paste. Dip your finger in from time to time and taste on the tip of your tongue the crystals should feel velvety with almost no roughness.
Once the crystal size is to your liking and the jar of honey is liquid, it is time to let them both reach room temperature (around 21°C) and mix together gently but thoroughly. You are wanting a good mix between them both, but you don’t want to “whip” the honey by incorporating too much air or it will ruin the process and the honey.
Cool the honey to less than 14ºC, mixing every 12 hours or so. It’s easy to achieve this temperature in winter in an unheated garage, pantry or conservatory, in summer you can use a fridge or cool box with ice blocks.
Within a few days the honey will become quite hard to stir but if you use a knife, it should spread beautifully on a piece of toast.
There you have it, perfect honey that will remain spreadable virtually indefinitely! And also, it’s a sneak peek into my plan for a new product next year! The best thing is that if you are running low on soft set honey, save two tablespoons worth and buy a new jar of runny honey, it saves you having to grind up the crystals again!
Here is an easy in-depth tutorial by one of my beekeeping heroes Stewart Spinks:
Phew, it’s good to get back into the old blog writing saddle again! I hope you have enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it and you’ve learned not to fear a crystallised jar of honey!
I hope you’re all safe and well,
Greg
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