# Foamy Honey



## 1955alram (5 mo ago)

I live in East Tennessee. I have a bucket of honey that tastes like Sweet Tarts. It is a bit darker than my normal honey. I rated it a 60 on Jack's Scale. It was robbed on 7-27-22. When I bottled it, it has a thick layer of white foam on top. Any ideas what the nectar source might be? The honey is delicious!!! And what causes the white foam that has formed on top of the honey? I can easily remove the foam with saran wrap. Does the foam mean the pollen count in the honey is high? Or does it mean something else?


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Hydrogen peroxide is given off by some honey resulting in foam ( foam is also seen in fermenting honey but I think you have ruled that out)

Skip to 16:45 in the video. See if that looks like a possibility


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

i usually get some foam at the top after extracting, and seems to be more if the frames contained some pollen buried beneath the honey, which is undergoing fermentation. also, i think some air gets whipped in during the extraction process.

by letting the honey sit in the bucket for 2 or 3 days, all of the foam rises to the top. since the honey gate is at the bottom of the bucket, and if i am careful, all of the foam ends up in the last jar that gets bottled, which we keep for ourselves.

after another day or two the foam in that last jar rises to the top and can be spooned off. i sometimes eat the foam, and it seems to have a wax note to it, so some of the foam may be traces of wax that make it through the strainers.


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## Alram (Jun 8, 2019)

This is what one of my jars looks like.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

yes, that's what the last jar of the bucket usually looks like. welcome to good raw honey. no problem whatsovever with it, but we usually keep those for ourselves because some folks might think there is a problem. or you can spoon the foam out and combine it with another jar, ect.


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## COAL REAPER (Jun 24, 2014)

what temperature was the frames at for extraction? the cooler/thicker the honey is at extraction the more foam i tend to see. in this case it is just entrapped micro bubbles rising to the surface. bottle off the bottom and save the last jars with foam for yourself. YUM!


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## Jack Grimshaw (Feb 10, 2001)

Air and micro particles of wax from extracting.
Totaly edible but it does detract from the appearance of your product.
Let your honey settle and skim before bottling or draw from just off the bottom of the bottling bucket.


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## mgolden (Oct 26, 2011)

In long term storage, the "foam" seems to start to ferment. Long term is a year or more. I suspect it must have natural yeasts in it from the small pollen particles. So it is best to keep this honey separate and consume it first.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Using a refractometer takes away a lot of guess work. If you know its at 17% moisture you can discard fermentation issues. If it is over 18% you can be suspicious. For about $30 it is cheap _peace of mind!_


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## mgolden (Oct 26, 2011)

I have honey that is four years old that was packaged in 500 ml with under 17% moisture. Some jars get 3/4 inch of somewhat bubbled yeasty smelling honey at the top. 

Not knowing any different, I used to stir the 5-gallon pail of honey as I packaged into 500 ml jars. My thought was that I'll disperse the slight foam to the last dozen jars or so.

I stopped doing this because I was getting the unexpected 3/4 of slight fermentation. I now let the 5 gallon pail settle over night and make creamed honey with the it. It then is used shortly thereafter.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

mgolden said:


> I have honey that is four years old that was packaged in 500 ml with under 17% moisture. Some jars get 3/4 inch of somewhat bubbled yeasty smelling honey at the top.
> 
> Not knowing any different, I used to stir the 5-gallon pail of honey as I packaged into 500 ml jars. My thought was that I'll disperse the slight foam to the last dozen jars or so.
> 
> I stopped doing this because I was getting the unexpected 3/4 of slight fermentation. I now let the 5 gallon pail settle over night and make creamed honey with the it. It then is used shortly thereafter.


You are surrounded by canola, are you not. As it crystallizes the sugar concentrates in the crystals and leaves the remaining liquid with a higher moisture content which can ferment. The higher moisture stuff is lighter and will stratify to the upper surface. As you say, I think that some honeys better creamed.


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## Fivej (Apr 4, 2016)

Like Squarepeg, I detect wax in the foam. Probably because it is lighter and rises to the top along with the rest of the stuff. J


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## mgolden (Oct 26, 2011)

One location has plenty canola around it. The other location is strictly urban flowers. I am not a big fan of canola honey as it has very little taste and does crystalize fairly quickly. The crystalizing makes it a poor source of winter food for a hive.

I often blend my two sources and package as a blend. Blend a very mild honey with a strong tasting honey. Customers rave about the taste as they are used to mostly canola honey on the grocery shelves.

Perhaps it is the canola honey crystalizing and leaving a higher moisture honey at the surface. I still wonder about the foam on the top as a partial cause of fermenting at the top of the jar. There will be oxygen in the foam and yeast from the honey and pollen.


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## amk (Dec 16, 2017)

My foam has always been caused from fermenting honey. They co2 given off in fermentation accumulates in honey as its very viscous and once you move it around or extract or maybe transfer the co2 comes out. This MAY NOT be what's happening in your case but its what happens to mine and it is always my late summer honey due to im assuming higher yeast loads on the flowers the bees are foraging out of canals where the smart weed and other stuff is growing. It isn't ruined or bad its just not necessarily shelf stable in a sealed bottle for months on end as it may pop open.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

while individual cells containing beebread and incompletely cured honey may be undergoing fermentation, it will stop and not start back up once all the honey becomes blended in a batch and the water content is low enough.

as a precaution, consider 'drying' the honey before extraction by bringing into a dehumidified room and running a fan across the frames for 48 hours or so. by doing this our honey averages about 17% water content, making it noticeably thicker and more flavorful, and it has never fermented.


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