# honey foams immediately after pouring into jars



## TimW (May 15, 2013)

Anxious to here responses on this one. 

I had foam top of some of my bottles when I bottled the honey. Wasn't sure what it was either. Tasted some of the foam, tasted like honey  and did not have a texture like it was wax pieces.


----------



## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

I get foam in my bottling tank. I just scoop it out into my feed back to the bee's bucket.


----------



## jrbbees (Apr 4, 2010)

I am clueless!

1. However have you tried pouring down the inside side if the jar. Like a person would pour a beer to deduce the head. depending on the drop height to the bottom of the jar the higher the greater chance of the honey capturing micro air bubbles when it hits the bottom.

2. Wild guess! you say "foam". hard to be sure what that means without further description. Here is the while part: Honey is acid. are you sure the jars do not have a micro coating of a base produce like the film left from real "hard" water. Could the foam be a reaction? Remember, I said it was a wild guess. wash and completely rinse a jar in distilled water?


----------



## MichaBees (Sep 26, 2010)

Fermenting?
Mead?


----------



## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

There are only two logical explanations given the set of facts you presented.

1. Fermentation (the most likely given your description of a head like beer)
2. The honey was pretty warm when transferred and was drizzled and not gently poured

BTW there are lots of beer purists on here who would argue with your assesment that a glass of beer with a head was "badly poured".


----------



## bevy's honeybees (Apr 21, 2011)

I am reviving this thread because I had this happen last night. I store some of my honey in glass quart jars, and then when I need them transfer to 1 pound and 8 oz jars. Last night I poured 16 one pounders and 16 8 oz jars. All were from fall honey. The light jars are fine, no foam.

The darker, with meleleuka, all put about 3/4 inch foam at the top of the jar. I noticed something strange last night when I was finished, but it was this morning when I looked, then opened, to find this thick foam on top. I don't heat my honey. Maybe with my new extractor (I spin for 20-25 min) I am over spinning, but that doesn't explain why this has happened to only the dark honey. I also noticed that the dark was a thinner pour than the light. 

I don't smell or taste fermenting--but I did plan to sell this at my market table tomorrow. I have uncapped the 12 jars and removed the foam and letting them re-settle. The foam does have a slight fermentation taste, but the honey itself doesn't seem to have it. 

While searching, on another thread someone said something about getting too much pollen in the honey in extracting. These are the frames (I posted the question at that time) about finding frames with capped red pollen interspersed in the honey frame. 

Maybe a no brainer question--I can't sell it now? The unopened jars in particular where I don't know if opening will then cause this to happen? I don't have a refractometer. Yet.


----------



## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

I'm not saying if this honey is fermented or not, but a couple of years ago I had some that did - for sure. Not a lot of fermentation, apparently it is limited by the low moisture content - but it smelled slightly (but distinctly) like fermentation, and foamed a bit when poured from container to container. 

I thought it was ruined, because you know, fermentation - that *must* be bad. Right? The thing is, it was delicious. EVERYONE liked it. Slightly fermented honey just needs some marketing and a French name on a classy label and we could sell it for double.


----------



## bevy's honeybees (Apr 21, 2011)

David, I like how you think!


----------

