← Honey and bee products H46-02 · Module 2 of 7 · Pages: 21 · Worksheets: 7

Honey quality, crystallisation and storage

How to measure water in honey, prevent fermenting and overheating, make soft-set honey, liquefy set honey and keep honey for years

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Honey quality, crystallisation and storage

In short

  • Up to 18 % water is safe, 20 % is the legal limit; above 19 % honey easily ferments.
  • Honey never above 40 °C (104 °F). Heat and time raise HMF and destroy enzymes.
  • Crystallisation is natural and no sign of adulteration. Finely crystallised honey is soft-set (creamed) honey.
  • Best storage: closed, dark, dry and cool, below 20 °C (68 °F); for long storage, the freezer.
  • Home tests (water, match, paper) prove neither quality nor adulteration. A laboratory does that.

What's inside

Chapters

  1. What good honey is
  2. Water in honey and fermentation
  3. HMF, enzymes and overheating
  4. Crystallisation
  5. Soft-set honey
  6. Liquefying set honey
  7. Storing honey
  8. Home tests and the laboratory
  9. When something is wrong
  10. Common mistakes
  11. Printable checklist

Worksheets

  • Quality and storage calendar
  • Soft-set honey and stock calculator
  • Date calculator
  • Quality record per batch
  • Tasting sheet
  • Honey store inventory
  • Labels for store jars

Fields and checkboxes can be filled in with Adobe Acrobat Reader (desktop and mobile), and the calculator adds up by itself. Filling in may not work in some browsers. A print version comes with the screen PDF.

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