Subject: crystallized honey

From: [email-masked] (Andy Nachbaur)
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 02:12:00 GMT

N>From: [email-masked] (Dennis Hawkins)
 >Subject: Re: When freezing honey, can you use glass?

N>>[email-masked] (Mike Killoran) wrote:
N>>>The subject really says it all.  I always use canning jars
 >>>for my honey as they are available and cheap.  To ward off
 >>>crystallization, I'm thinking of putting some of these
 >>>bottles in my freezer.  Does honey, like water, expand when
 >>>frozen?

Yes you can freeze honey and it will not expand and rupture most
containers, if filled by weight they will not have honey to the top
with most containers anyway.

N>I thought that honey would crystalize when it got cold.  Wouldn't freezing be
 >a self-defeating activity?

No most honey does not crystallize because of cold, but if you want it to
crystallize, seed it with crystallized honey and store in a cool room, 55
degrees F. is ideal. Frozen honey or honey kept in a refrigerator should
not change at all, but honey that is kept at room temperature or warmer
will change with time and become black with age. It is still good but
not attractive on a hot biscuits, good in a pot of Boston Baked Beans.

Honey in the comb on the bees that is subject to repeated natural daily
heating and cooling does crystallize as this tends to speed up the
process. The same thing happen's at home if you do not use the open
container of honey and take it in and out of the refrigerator it will
set up faster, plus the dust around the dining room table gets into
the honey and also give the crystals some place to grow on. The moral
of this is to eat up all the honey and buy more.

In a honey house it is possible to delay the crystallization process
by steam cleaning the walls, and ceilings, and everything else. The
crystals that start the process are air borne and microscopic, and in
time if not washed away will seed all honey that passes through the
honey house. Few go to this trouble as crystallized honey once it's in
the drum is not a problem for the producer and has saved more then one
>from  disaster when a drum or two was knocked over anyway. But it does
cost money for the 2nd handler to melt the honey, which always results
in some loss of quantity and quality.

As far as I am concerned there is no better honey then real Sweet
Clover that has been packaged to be sold as crystallized honey, and
in some areas like New Zealand most retail honey at one time was sold
in the crystallized state, don't know if that is still the norm.

There are some honey's that don't crystallized, here in California
we have SAGE honey that never will crystallize and in the south there
is TUPELO honey. Many other honey's do not make attractive crystallize
honey, one is Orange and one that can't be beat for it's natural smooth
texture is Manzanita, much like Bon Bon cream, but it is seldom sold or
labeled as Manzanita honey. California Blue Curl honey and Cotton honey
make good crystallized honey. These last two get hard enough that they
will support the weight of a man walking on it without leaving foot
prints. I know because I once had a 1,000 gal tank set up, and had to
cut the honey out with a square pointed shovel. I installed a coned
shaped water jacketed heater in the tanks bottom the next season and
never had that problem again.<G>
                                         ttul Andy-

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From: Steve Bambara <[email-masked]>
Date: 16 Feb 1996 13:41:25 GMT

Just for the record, Mike Killoram was the one who asked whether honey
would expand in a jar when placed in a freezer.  My only comment was 
that it wasn't really 'freezing'.  The comment attributed to me below
was not mine.  It was pasted in by incorrect editing.  Dennis Hawkins
was the person who asked if honey would crystalize when it got cold.

>> In article <[email-masked]> Steve Bambara
><[email-masked]> writes:
>> I thought that honey would crystalize when it got cold.  Wouldn't freezing be 
>> Dennis Hawkins
>> [email-masked]

>
>Nope - Honey crystalizes fastest in the low 50 degrees F (52 degrees
>if my memory serves correctly). Any warmer _OR_ colder, and the
>crystalization process slows. High temperatures will reverse
>the crystalization process, but very cold temperatures just
>freeze the process (sorry - couldn't resist the pun!) I'm not sure
>what the actual temperature is for fully stopping crystalization,
>but your average household freezer does a darn good job.
>
>Rick
>[email-masked]
>a NE Massachusetts beekeeper
>
>I speak for myself today, not for my employer.

***************************************************************
Steve Bambara  Dept. of Entomology, Box 7626, Raleigh, NC 27695
[email-masked]    (919) 515-1661    fax (919) 515-7273