cultured or fermented honey

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cultured or fermented honey

Postby Jerri on Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:07 pm

Hello, I want to make fermented honey or cultured creamy honey. I plan to use the honey in a fermented granola I plan on making. Any suggestions on how to make fermented or cultured creamy honey without it becoming honey water or wine? Thank you for your time.
--Jerri
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Re: cultured or fermented honey

Postby cyndie lou on Tue Jul 31, 2012 7:41 pm

i looked that subject up just yesterday, there are many ideas out there, i followed a gal's tecipe where she just used kefir whey and so did i
another gal used1 part water 1 part honey 1 part water, she was somewhere tropical i guess. there are many topics on this, just search around, you are probably looking for a better answer than that, but i did find many ideas. i believe there is something on the forums listing here about making 'mead' as it's called. good luck!
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Re: cultured or fermented honey

Postby Tim Hall on Thu Aug 02, 2012 9:56 am

The bees go through a lot of trouble to prevent their honey from fermenting - primarily by fanning off moisture to about 17-18%. But because bees pick up all kinds things with their electrostatic fur, and because they have tons of probiotic bacteria in their gut, where the nectar is first processed, you don't need to add any cultures to raw honey to get it to lacto-ferment. Pasteurized honey is different.

If you have raw honey, all you need to do is get the moisture content up to +20%, let it sit at room temperature for a few weeks, and it'll take on a distinctly ripe or fermented flavor. Beekeepers who have harvested honey too early or during extremely wet seasons know this, and the product is generally considered not salable by the honey industry - mainly because most consumers are used to eating crystal-clear, pasteurized, blended clover honey from big packers.

If you get the moisture content too high though, you may have trouble with the creaming process. But I don't know for sure since I haven't tried it.
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Re: cultured or fermented honey

Postby Tim Hall on Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:12 am

Also, honey that is already crystalized or creamed can sometimes begin to ferment on its own. Same principle as above - because the sugars become concentrated in the crystals, there are pockets of high moisture where things can start to grow.
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Re: cultured or fermented honey

Postby Jerri on Thu Aug 02, 2012 9:02 pm

Hello Tim and thank you for the reply. I am really bad with math so when you say moisture content up to 20 percent can you translate that for me?
---Jerri

If you have raw honey, all you need to do is get the moisture content up to +20%, let it sit at room temperature for a few weeks, and it'll take on a distinctly ripe or fermented flavor.


If you get the moisture content too high though, you may have trouble with the creaming process. But I don't know for sure since I haven't tried it.[/quote]
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Re: cultured or fermented honey

Postby Jerri on Thu Aug 02, 2012 9:06 pm

Trader Joe has organic raw creamed honey at the right amount so I think I am gonna test with that amount first and see what happens.
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Re: cultured or fermented honey

Postby sarchjudith on Thu Aug 09, 2012 3:20 pm

Were you successful with fermenting the raw honey? I have some that has been sitting in hot weather for a couple of months. I am going to ty to ferment cooked beets with it as a dessert.

I guess I should add 20% water for the liquid.
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Re: cultured or fermented honey

Postby Tim Hall on Thu Aug 09, 2012 5:15 pm

sarchjudith wrote:I guess I should add 20% water for the liquid.


Don't add any water, if you're adding beets. And you don't need to add 20%. The moisture should already be about 17%. By adding the beets you're already adding extra moisture, enough to ferment.

Keep in mind honey tends to ferment slowly, so it may take time.
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