When do I start the soft set process

[Jack Straw]

I'm planning to extract a couple of supers this weekend. The honey is likely to be a mixture of kentish cob (think hazel but nicer nuts!) cherry and other top fruit and OSR. This invariably sets hard after a couple of months in the jar

I am planning to soft set it and have warming cabinet and seed ready.

My question is: do I need to wait for the honey to crystalise, then warm, mix seed, stir and bottle or can I do this now, ie before the honey has crystalised

 

[itma]

If you have your seed ready, you could just warm everything gently (30C?) and mix.

You may get a better result by heating the new honey to 40/45 for long enough to remelt any crystallisation that has started by the time of extraction. You could even do a 200 micron filter while it is warm. Then mix in the gently warmed seed after it has cooled to 30ish. Chill to 14C or thereabouts, stir again a few times if you fancy before rewarming to 30 ish for bottling.
You might get an even better result by letting it set completely before you start the melting ...

 

[Jack Straw]

Thanks

Thanks Itma, I'm in no rush so I'll let it set in a bucket and then melt the crystals in a month or two once it has set

 

[For want of a better word]

If you have your seed ready, you could just warm everything gently (30C?) and mix.

You may get a better result by heating the new honey to 40/45 for long enough to remelt any crystallisation that has started by the time of extraction. You could even do a 200 micron filter while it is warm. Then mix in the gently warmed seed after it has cooled to 30ish. Chill to 14C or thereabouts, stir again a few times if you fancy before rewarming to 30 ish for bottling.
You might get an even better result by letting it set completely before you start the melting ...

We have had good results by melting the honey that has set completely in storage buckets... usually this is the honey that is selected for soft set, once completely melted as you say the seed can be added as temperature drops to below 30 and gently stirred in.
Immediately bottling the warm honey and carefully keeping at 14C seems to work for us, and the temperature gradient seems to be easier to control in the smaller jars.... and saves a bit of energy required for re melting.

Doing a bodge job by chucking in any old soft set hard honey and whisking it up usually results in a horrible mess with the resulting crystalisation and separation associated with bottled OSR honey.. but then if you eat the product immediately that is of no matter!

Yeghes da

 

[Cockney Beekeeper]

Can I ask how people chill and keep soft set honey at 14c, I am presuming that room temperature this time of year is normally above that. I don't have any outside shed space.

 

[RogueDrone]

just place it it in the coolest room in the house, bed room on the north side ?

 

[Cockney Beekeeper]

Thanks, makes sense.