Honey Tips

Straining and Ripening

Clean up your honey by straining it to remove debris. Use either individual strainers on a bucket or tank or the strainers that fit into honey tanks. A double strainer with a coarse and fine second mesh is more efficient than a single strainer. A typical second mesh will allow all pollen through and inevitably some specks. By leaving the honey to settle in the tank for a day or so, not only do the air bubbles rise to the top but these specks settle out, leaving your honey ready for bottling and sale.

Finer meshes are available, e.g. the tough monafilament nylon micron strainers, but the slightest hint of granulation in the honey will block the mesh. Before using these, you may need to warm the honey. Two tips. If you are using a strainer on the tap of the extractor which is blocking, forget about straining at this point. Concentrate on getting the honey into buckets and straining it later, heating if necessary. Secondly, splash out if you can on stainless steel equipment.