18 : Oilseed Rape Honey
Uncapping Trays I am well aware that there
are uncapping trays that will deal with solid rape honey but the honey will be ruined and only fit for cooking. I am also aware that there are some bigger machines imported from Denmark (Dana Api Melter) where perhaps the separation process (wax from crystals) is not so sudden. It is all about the temperature difference between the heater and the honey. The Danish machine heats the honey using hot air, circulated with an electric fan. This might be a bit better, but not much. You cannot cook honey without destroying its nature and the taste. The only thing that British beekeepers have in their favour to be able to compete with supermarket honey is that they are able to provide honey that tastes of summer and the flowers that the honey has come from.
Honey from Abroad
Consider, if you will, a barrel of honey that has come from abroad. It has to be heated for a long period to liquefy the contents sufficiently to make it flow through a heat exchanger in order to heat it to 170 °F (76.6 °C) to kill all the yeast present and so it can pass through a fine filter to remove just about everything else as well. Even heather honey gets this treatment. If heather honey is heated above 50 °C it is ruined.
Light and time will degrade any honey and, in particular, heather honey, even in the comb. The reasons behind this would take another article. Honey in pails should always be stored in the dark.
Raw Honey
When a lady phones up for raw honey, we may feel that she is a bit of a nuisance but actually she has got it right. Unfortunately the terms ‘raw honey’ and ‘cold-pressed honey’ are too often used by shady honey packers. I hear sometimes of heather honey being sold in a high-class supermarket in our capital city where the label states that the honey has a hint of caramel. Enough said. As part of an integrated management system, nearly all our honey is produced in shallow frames fitted with a one-inch (25 mm) deep strip of foundation. Most of the rape honey is extracted at very low speed in a large extractor. Some of the rape honey is left on the hives to prevent the bees starving if the weather turns bad in June. When this honey is brought in during July, the comb is cut out and broken up in an industrial potato masher (see photograph). It is then stored in a warm space for a day or two to allow the wax to rise to the surface. The honey, which still contains a lot of wax, is pumped through a big slow- speed centrifuge that divides the
The Dyce Process for Soft-set Honey
• Heat the honey to 45 °C until it is clear. • Strain the honey to remove impurities and cool rapidly to around 24 °C.
• Add 5–10% of seed honey (with small crystals) which has been raised to the same temperature.
• Mix thoroughly using a honey creamer, incorporating as little air as possible.
• Leave to settle for an hour or so to allow larger air bubbles to rise to the surface.
• Bottle and store between 7 °C and 14 °C until completely crystallised.
www.bee-craft.com(Taken from The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture, AI Root Company, 2007.)
Stephen Purves cutting out comb to be mashed up at Chain Bridge Honey Farm. The green supers are made of polystyrene. A mould was commissioned for the Smith super. They have been a great success
mix into three phases: 1 – heavy crystals; 2 – liquid honey; and 3 – wax flakes.
The heavy crystals and honey
are then pumped through a very old homogenizer. The big crystals are pushed through a serrated cone sitting in a hollow and backed up by a spring set at 3000 pounds per square inch. This breaks the crystals up without having to heat them. Thereafter, the honey is stirred and put away to be bottled at a later date. Thus we are able to produce a soft-set honey directly from rock-hard comb using only background heat, certainly nothing above 40 °C, together with minimal filtration.
Separating Machine
When I was giving a lecture in Sweden about 20 years ago I was complaining about the difficulty of separating wax from honey that was mainly crystals. A gentleman in the audience, an amateur beekeeper from Norway, told me afterwards that he knew how to make such a machine that would do the work. And he did. And we have used it ever since. Which just proves once again that when
lecturers such as myself are out and about there will always be someone in the audience who will have some useful information.
When we first began to break up rape honey crystals we had a big granite roller mill that had been used to make nougat in France. A beekeeper friend made a beautiful set of stainless rollers for it (36 x 12 inches; 91 x 30 cm). Unfortunately this machine pulled air into the honey and made it difficult to sell. The rollers started to wear fairly quickly as well showing that rape honey crystals are as hard as stainless steel.
Conclusions
In conclusion I feel that most beekeepers will have found ways of dealing with oilseed rape honey but this article might be useful for beginners. It is most important to use as little heat as possible so that the finished product tastes like honey. And well-prepared rape honey is a superb product and greatly in demand. Forty years ago it caused many beekeepers to pack up for good. ♠
April 2015 Vol 97 No 4
Heather Thompson
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