Carbonated honey

glassguy · April 05, 2009, 04:53:15 PM

I kept bees about 30 years ago and harvested several hundred pounds during my short career. The question I have today concerns a gift of honey that I received. It is a pint mason jar with a nice chunk of comb and then filled close to the top with honey. My wife noticed that the cap was bulging today and when I opened the jar it off gassed as if the honey was carbonated. Enough 1/4" bubbles formed that the honey actually overflowed the jar top. It appears that the honey has crystallized in the bottom 1/2 of the jar. I have eaten several hundred pounds of honey since I stopped keeping bees and in all my days I never have seen anything like this. I will return to the health store where it was purchased but I am still curious as to why this happened. Has it been tampered with? Any feed back will be appreciated. Thanks, Steve B

Robo · April 05, 2009, 07:13:45 PM

Sounds like it was harvested with too high of a moisture content and has started to ferment.

riverrat · April 05, 2009, 08:03:14 PM

when honey crystallizes if there is remaining uncrystalized honey it most likely will be of a higher moister content and thus more susceptible to fermenting

IABeeMan · April 05, 2009, 10:07:08 PM

Sounds to me like you have a jar of Mead!!!!
It has gotta be fermentation starting.

glassguy · April 06, 2009, 07:25:58 PM

Is it safe to eat? Can botulism ever be a problem such as honey being bad for infants?

Scadsobees · April 06, 2009, 11:33:56 PM

Botulism in honey only occurs because infants don't have as much stomach acid and bile, and that causes a neutral Ph in their intestines which is what botulism needs to grow, as well as a system without oxygen. The slowly growing bacteria causes a very slow poisoning of the infant. Our adult acid kills the bug.
Botulism in adults happens because the bacteria is in the jars of food which have a neutral Ph and no oxygen and they reproduce and make toxin, its the concentrated toxin that is bad, not the bacteria.

Short answer: no, botulism isn't a problem in the honey for adults. The fermentation is from the yeast, and as far as I know the fermentation kind of yeasts aren't poison. Sometimes a wild variety will cause bad smells, though...

JayC · April 07, 2009, 09:29:37 AM

Honey's low pH should suppress botulism, even if it starts to ferment. I had a sudden, semi-related thought. With all of the people who are taking Prilosec, or Nexium, or whatever anti-acid-reflux medicine du jour, is there any risk of these people getting botulism, just like an infant?

Irwin · April 07, 2009, 09:42:51 AM

Quote from: JayC on April 07, 2009, 09:29:37 AM
Honey's low pH should suppress botulism, even if it starts to ferment. I had a sudden, semi-related thought. With all of the people who are taking Prilosec, or Nexium, or whatever anti-acid-reflux medicine du jour, is there any risk of these people getting botulism, just like an infant?

I been taking prilosec for years and I haven't had any problems.

Scadsobees · April 07, 2009, 12:50:54 PM

Quote from: JayC on April 07, 2009, 09:29:37 AM
Honey's low pH should suppress botulism, even if it starts to ferment. I had a sudden, semi-related thought. With all of the people who are taking Prilosec, or Nexium, or whatever anti-acid-reflux medicine du jour, is there any risk of these people getting botulism, just like an infant?

No, those suppress excessive production, not stop it all togather. And adults eat a lot of different types of food which encourages lots of kinds of gut flora, while infants only eat milk.