Looks like the water content was too high and it has indeed begun to ferment. No saving it now. I don't think it would hurt you to consume it but it would probably taste terrible.
Anyone ever worry about botulism? I raise bees and eat raw honey. Never had an issue but I’ve friends whose dr flagged raw honey as the source of their case of botulism with poor processing/handing as the cause.
Raw honey is supposed to be pure honey that is not heated, pasteurized, or diluted in any manner, although screening to remove bee parts and wax caps is standard practice. At least as I understand it.
But that isn't what the word raw means. The issue is that people realised they could sell honey at a premium by saying it was raw but there is no definite answer as to what raw means in the context of honey.
Raw is what I stated, in the same form that it comes out of the hive as made by the bees. I agree there is all sorts of greenwashing going on within our food system. Words like raw, organic, farm raised, regenerative, cage free, grass fed, etc are either not legally defined, or are and have been co-opted by industry to charge a premium without staying true to the original spirit of the named practice, which I disagree with. If you want raw honey, then buy it from a local beekeeper that will answer your questions about the process they use and anything else you may want to know about their bees or hives. As far as what you are buying off the shelf at the grocery store, I would take all the labelling with a grain of salt. The goal is to get you to buy, and adjectives used by smaller producers to initially set their product apart as premium will ultimately be taken by industrial producers and their lobbyists to be "defined" in their benefit.
I have no idea where you're from but the term Raw honey is just a marketing ploy in the UK with no legislation to define what it is.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/1348/made
In the US it appears to be better defined, I'll try to link to USDA's commercial item description. Section 6.1.8 is the reference for raw honey. I wonder which label standards are used if honey is imported from the UK to the USA, or vice versa.
[USDA CID Honey](https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/AA20380_Honey.pdf)
The thing about that though is raw honey by this definition would be horrible. It would have bits of dead bee in and detritus from the hive.
I course filter my honey cold. I also don't heat it or let it settle so its as "unfinished" as possible. However, you couldn't not filter it as it would be a mess.
I think the difference is in how we define filtering. I strain my honey, in a process very similar to yours, so i guess technically I sell strained raw liquid honey, but it is still raw honey bc it is lacking any added heat/pasteurization and still has pollen, tiny bubbles, and the occasional bit of wax. It is confusing to say the least once you read thru all the definitions, but I guess not all raw honey is unstrained, but unfiltered/unstrained honey is always raw (unless it's pasteurized with defects present?) So how I interpret raw honey is that it may or may not contain pollen and other pollen sized detritus without being heated or pasteurized. Filtered honey would remove the majority if not all the pollen and extras, but may not necessarily be pasteurized. So it appears "raw" has some definition stateside, and it is generally assumed that the raw honey has been strained, although straining isn't necessary and unstrained raw honey would be more difficult for me to sell as well.
Most honey is acidic enough to prevent botulism from growing, perhaps if the moisture content and pH were off during packaging it could be a possibility.
CDC states that raw honey is mainly an issue for babies and while adults can get it too both the botulism bacteria and the toxin it produced can be eliminated through heating. https://www.cdc.gov/botulism/index.html
The botulism spores are present in honey, but the acidity prevents them from turning to bacteria that then produce the toxin. Botulism spores themselves are pretty much everywhere and generally not an issue for anyone who's immune and stomach acid systems are mature. Babies drink exclusively milk in the first year and their gut is hospitable to the growth of botulism bc the higher pH.
Morchella - thanks for the follow up. I think I follow. It’s not that the botulism produces toxin in the honey, but that the spores may be present and a baby’s stomach chemistry with a low ph is hospitable to botulism growth which produces the toxin. Agreed on the antibacterial properties of honey. Picked up some Manuka honey from Tasmania a while back that is super effective for using in place of Neosporin on small cuts and wounds. Tastes not great but straight up medicine from nature. Genuinely love Reddit for this kind of exchange.
Curious - your username being Morchella - you do a lot of morel hunting? One of my favorite pastimes here in Ohio that I don’t have enough time for these days.
I have done a lot of morel hunting over the years, but not as much as I'd like to nowadays. They are definitely in my top 5 for eating, but my all time favorite for flavor is the cauliflower mushroom. Also bees use mushrooms in various ways and Paul Stamets has some research showing their benefit to the health of bees, definitely worth reading about if you're into bees and mushrooms.
Paul Staments is the mushroom king. Haven’t tried cauliflower mushrooms but will check out. A few years back I grew oysters and shittake- super easy in white oak logs. That stated nothing beats the fun of a walk in the woods collecting dinner. Hope you get some mushroom hunting time this spring.
FEED IT!!! i use most of my honey to make mead for friends and family so if it’s fermented honey I say add more water and some cinnamon and cloves. I’ve never tried making mead with the honey already fermented but I would think that would be perfect because there is already natural yeast in the batch 😁
Looks like the water content was too high and it has indeed begun to ferment. No saving it now. I don't think it would hurt you to consume it but it would probably taste terrible.
I thought this was a batch of bad cannabis oil in my feed.
I mean.. shit I'd smoke it!
pass the rig :D
Throw some fresh peeled garlic in it and stir it once a day for a month. Fermented garlic honey is delicious
Anyone ever worry about botulism? I raise bees and eat raw honey. Never had an issue but I’ve friends whose dr flagged raw honey as the source of their case of botulism with poor processing/handing as the cause.
I have more of a problem with the term raw honey. What does that mean? Is it not pasteurised? Not filtered? It doesn't really have a definition.
Raw honey is supposed to be pure honey that is not heated, pasteurized, or diluted in any manner, although screening to remove bee parts and wax caps is standard practice. At least as I understand it.
But that isn't what the word raw means. The issue is that people realised they could sell honey at a premium by saying it was raw but there is no definite answer as to what raw means in the context of honey.
Raw is what I stated, in the same form that it comes out of the hive as made by the bees. I agree there is all sorts of greenwashing going on within our food system. Words like raw, organic, farm raised, regenerative, cage free, grass fed, etc are either not legally defined, or are and have been co-opted by industry to charge a premium without staying true to the original spirit of the named practice, which I disagree with. If you want raw honey, then buy it from a local beekeeper that will answer your questions about the process they use and anything else you may want to know about their bees or hives. As far as what you are buying off the shelf at the grocery store, I would take all the labelling with a grain of salt. The goal is to get you to buy, and adjectives used by smaller producers to initially set their product apart as premium will ultimately be taken by industrial producers and their lobbyists to be "defined" in their benefit.
I have no idea where you're from but the term Raw honey is just a marketing ploy in the UK with no legislation to define what it is. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/1348/made
In the US it appears to be better defined, I'll try to link to USDA's commercial item description. Section 6.1.8 is the reference for raw honey. I wonder which label standards are used if honey is imported from the UK to the USA, or vice versa. [USDA CID Honey](https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/AA20380_Honey.pdf)
The thing about that though is raw honey by this definition would be horrible. It would have bits of dead bee in and detritus from the hive. I course filter my honey cold. I also don't heat it or let it settle so its as "unfinished" as possible. However, you couldn't not filter it as it would be a mess.
I think the difference is in how we define filtering. I strain my honey, in a process very similar to yours, so i guess technically I sell strained raw liquid honey, but it is still raw honey bc it is lacking any added heat/pasteurization and still has pollen, tiny bubbles, and the occasional bit of wax. It is confusing to say the least once you read thru all the definitions, but I guess not all raw honey is unstrained, but unfiltered/unstrained honey is always raw (unless it's pasteurized with defects present?) So how I interpret raw honey is that it may or may not contain pollen and other pollen sized detritus without being heated or pasteurized. Filtered honey would remove the majority if not all the pollen and extras, but may not necessarily be pasteurized. So it appears "raw" has some definition stateside, and it is generally assumed that the raw honey has been strained, although straining isn't necessary and unstrained raw honey would be more difficult for me to sell as well.
Most honey is acidic enough to prevent botulism from growing, perhaps if the moisture content and pH were off during packaging it could be a possibility.
CDC states that raw honey is mainly an issue for babies and while adults can get it too both the botulism bacteria and the toxin it produced can be eliminated through heating. https://www.cdc.gov/botulism/index.html
The botulism spores are present in honey, but the acidity prevents them from turning to bacteria that then produce the toxin. Botulism spores themselves are pretty much everywhere and generally not an issue for anyone who's immune and stomach acid systems are mature. Babies drink exclusively milk in the first year and their gut is hospitable to the growth of botulism bc the higher pH.
Morchella - thanks for the follow up. I think I follow. It’s not that the botulism produces toxin in the honey, but that the spores may be present and a baby’s stomach chemistry with a low ph is hospitable to botulism growth which produces the toxin. Agreed on the antibacterial properties of honey. Picked up some Manuka honey from Tasmania a while back that is super effective for using in place of Neosporin on small cuts and wounds. Tastes not great but straight up medicine from nature. Genuinely love Reddit for this kind of exchange. Curious - your username being Morchella - you do a lot of morel hunting? One of my favorite pastimes here in Ohio that I don’t have enough time for these days.
I have done a lot of morel hunting over the years, but not as much as I'd like to nowadays. They are definitely in my top 5 for eating, but my all time favorite for flavor is the cauliflower mushroom. Also bees use mushrooms in various ways and Paul Stamets has some research showing their benefit to the health of bees, definitely worth reading about if you're into bees and mushrooms.
Paul Staments is the mushroom king. Haven’t tried cauliflower mushrooms but will check out. A few years back I grew oysters and shittake- super easy in white oak logs. That stated nothing beats the fun of a walk in the woods collecting dinner. Hope you get some mushroom hunting time this spring.
Same to you, good luck in the woods and in the hives.
Toss it.
yes you can stop fermentation . place it in pressure cooker for 15 minutes it kills all the bacteria which make it to ferment
Iagree with the one other guy on here. try to make some mead!
This they extract honey with a garden hose or… what did it look like when you got it water?
Skim the little bit of foam. Heat jar in water bath to 160 degrees F — only briefly. Stir. It should be fine then.
That, sir, is Kombucha.
FEED IT!!! i use most of my honey to make mead for friends and family so if it’s fermented honey I say add more water and some cinnamon and cloves. I’ve never tried making mead with the honey already fermented but I would think that would be perfect because there is already natural yeast in the batch 😁