by 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.