# How to tell between crystals and bubbles? *UPDATE*



## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

Within a period of time you will see more and more air bubbles on the surface of the honey. If the honey was heated more, the bubbles would rise and clear faster. If its cool honey or very minimally heated, it may take a day or two to clear. With time you can see more bubbles on top and a clearing of the honey.

You can always use one bottle as a tester, and heat it up a good bit. The air will rise with really warm honey.


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## J. Schneider (Sep 8, 2004)

So, you're saying that it may just take a long time to clear the bubles?

Is there any definate identifier/diferentiator for this situation?

Thank-you.


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

Air goes up and crystals go down. Real small bubbles with cool honey may take some time.

I have seen this a few times. I always worry if its crystals, and it almost always turns out to be air.

How about a magnifying glass?


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## J. Schneider (Sep 8, 2004)

Um, no magnifying glass, but by closer inspection, the substance/particle/whatever, seems to be bending the light. I'm concluding that while this has a "reflective/refractive look" honey crystals have more of a "flat" look. Therefore, at this point in time, I am concluding that it is air bubbles.


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## John Russell (Aug 8, 2003)

Most likely crystals. Given 24-36 hours, if its air it should rise to foam. If this isn't happening, then you have suspended crystals. 
This site has plans for a warming cabinet that I have found extreamly effective.....gentle and makes re-liquifying much less labour intensive.
J.R.

[ January 29, 2006, 10:54 PM: Message edited by: John Russell ]


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## J. Schneider (Sep 8, 2004)

*sigh* crap

I already bottle about 45 lbs of honey. This is not going to be fun reliquifying that many individual jars. The thing is though, I stuck a 1 lb. Jar of honey in 150 degree water for 1- 1.5 hours, and the state of the crystals/air bubbles did not change. You would have thought they would have been completely eliminated, whether they were crystals OR bubbles??


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## J. Schneider (Sep 8, 2004)

*UPDATE*

Okay, I've fiddled around with this for a while and been experimenting, and have come to the conclusion that the particles in question must just be miniscule wax particles that are suspended in the honey.

I pretty much brought my honey to boiling *oops* rendering a bottle of it unfit for sale, and the partciles are still there. This means it can't possible still be honey crystals, right?


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

If you boiled it the wax would have melted and gone to the top. But the crystals would melt long before that.


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## power napper (Apr 2, 2005)

"I heated about 4- 4.5 gallons of honey in the five gallon pail for about 12 hours, stirrign about 3 times during the process."

J Schneider-Are you talking about plastic five gallon pail?
When you stirred your honey while heating it in the (plastic) buckets, what did you stir it with? Is it possible that you could have scraped the sides of the bucket with your stirring device to cause chips of plastic? If you used a power stirring apparatus it would be easy to chip the plastic pail. At first I thought it was just air bubbles but now if it were my honey I would open a jar to get a sample of the impurity to see what it is. Hope this helps.


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## J. Schneider (Sep 8, 2004)

It may be plastic chips, but I stirred with a plastic spoon and didn't hit the sides that much.


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## guatebee (Nov 15, 2004)

I`ve had these stubborn bubbles in my honey before. In facts, some honeys seem to foam up when warmed . . . I know what you are thinking, but it is not fermentation!
It is a funny phenomenon, and one time I got so frustrated by the issue that I turned the whole batch into creamed honey. Sales went great so frustration become net income. 
Hope this helps get over the what-to-do question, although you still don`t know just what it is or how to prevet/undo it.


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## guatebee (Nov 15, 2004)

I`ve had these stubborn bubbles in my honey before. In fact, some honeys seem to foam up when warmed . . . I know what you are thinking, but it is not fermentation!
It is a funny phenomenon, and one time I got so frustrated by the issue that I turned the whole batch into creamed honey. Sales went great so frustration become net income. 
Hope this helps get over the what-to-do question, although you still don`t know just what it is or how to prevet/undo it.


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## power napper (Apr 2, 2005)

Guatebee--how do you extract your honey, crush and strain or extractor? The reason I am asking is just curious as to whether or not the extraction is done with a motorized extractor and at what speed the extractor is spinning? I think that high speed extraction produces air bubbles in the honey. Just curious!!!


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## newbee 101 (May 26, 2004)

Could it be just pollen?


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