"The article stated that after he extracted his honey, he heats it to 105 degrees. Would this be to prevent crystallization? If so, what devise would I look for to do the same? I hold my honey in 5 gallon buckets. This year, when I ran out of bucket space, I siphoned off honey into gallon and half gallon jars.
I was looking at this product from Brushy. http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/5-Gallon-Pail-Heater/productinfo/848/ It's about time for the Thanksgiving sales, so I would like to have my homework done before then.""Last week, I pulled my fall honey. I have it in a room with the dehumidifier. The moisture content was right at acceptable, but I don't want to be concerned with crystallization down the road. I have someone who wants 24 1 pound bottles to give away at Christmas. I wouldn't want those bottles to crystalize on her prior to Christmas."bakers, i store honey as you do in 5 gallon pails. the 5 gallon pail heaters are a good investment. what i do, once honey is extracted and filtered once out of the extractor, these buckets are stored in the garage. store them where ever one has room. i put them in the garage, they might crystallize during warm months (i can't use them all) so they freeze through winter months. i keep one bucket on hand out of the extractor. i use the pail heater to get it to a temp to filter and pour easily, (use a temp gauge) and once again filter. i don't fill jars of honey and label them to sit around, i fill them as i anticipate i need them and some extras or for a roadside sale. if any begin to show signs of crystallization, i place the jars in a covered pan of hot water until the crystals dissipate. you can also use a bucket heater to achieve the same with larger jars of honey, like a water bath; in a 5 gallon or shorter pail. fill the bucket with water up to the shoulders of quart jars etc, put the bucket heater on, put the lid on, and the heater will dissolve the crystals, just keep an eye on the temp. if you use shorter jars, you have to use a rack on the bottom to elevate the jars in the water. bucket heaters are to be wrapped at least 1" above the bottom of the pail i think.
frozen buckets. it is easier to spoon off the gunk off the top of the honey when it has been frozen, bubbles, foam, whatever made it past the first filtering from extraction. i put the pail heater on. as the honey heats up, i will open the bucket 2 or 3 times to continue to spoon off the top what is not honey, and stir after. i heat the honey to a warm enough temp to easily pour and filter one more time into another 5 gallon pail with a honey gate on it. crystal clear honey, no crystallization and no particles.
like you, i will have upcoming thanksgiving and christmas sales. i may have enough in a bucket i have in the house. i may not. many times i can go through one or two 5 gallon pails for thanksgiving and christmas sales. i don't pour them in advance. i usually have customers tell me when they want them and plan accordingly and a little extra. so what i do is take one of those stored buckets prior to when folks want this honey, heat and filter it, pour it as close to the date they want it to avoid issues with crystallization before the gift is received.
this is how i do it. seems to work for me and my customers have been pretty happy. sometimes i tell them if they want to order christmas honey well before christmas, i warn them about the potential of crystallization...... we don't know how they are going to store it once purchased from us, or for us, we don't often know the nectar source of the honey, so i like to NOT have honey crystallize on them before they give it as gifts. i do the best i can. so far so good and it's worked for me.
i hope this helps.
