Bottling Honey
Lexikon
Bottling is the last step of honey processing, in which the fully clarified honey, creamed if required for the desired consistency, goes into its sales jars.
Bottling is the last step of honey processing, in which the fully clarified honey, creamed if required for the desired consistency, goes into its sales jars. Before that, the honey passes through coarse and fine strainers, rests in the settling tank to clarify, and is stirred several times if necessary so that it later becomes finely creamy instead of hard or coarsely crystallized.
Whether and how much it needs to be stirred depends on the particular honey. Honeys with a high glucose content such as rapeseed honey crystallize quickly by nature and become very hard without stirring, while honeydew honeys, which are lower in these sugars, stay liquid longer. When creaming, the honey is worked through slowly several times a day over several days without folding in air, until it has a pearly sheen and a fine, spreadable texture.
Only once this state is reached is the honey transferred into a bottling tank with a gate valve and filled into the jars from there portion by portion. In practice: depending on the national honey regulations and the stricter requirements of the German Beekeepers' Association, there are limits on the water content, which must be ensured by checking ripeness before the harvest so that the bottled honey keeps for a long time and does not start to ferment. A typical beginner's mistake is bottling too early or too impatiently, before the honey has fully clarified and, if desired, been creamed to completion.