Check Out This Crazy Honey!

[The15thMember]

My mom and I were rearranging the pantry today, and I found some honey from last spring that was leaking.  These jars were a mixture of two different honey varieties, and it seemed like part of the jar had crystallized and the rest of the jar was fermenting, as I could see bubbles trapped in the solid honey.  I tried to open the jars, but the pressure on the lids was so high, I could barely unscrew the rings.  Once I managed to get them open, as we were in the middle of rearranging, I just left the jars in a pan on the counter with the lids on the top but the rings off, and look what happened over the course of the afternoon!  The honey expanded and pushed the lids up almost a half inch off the top of the jar!  Some of the liquid honey spilled out into the tray, but the crystallized honey is just standing straight up!   
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Oh, also that's our cat Lyra in the background. 

[.30WCF]

You might be on to something with creamed Meade.


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[cao]

I had a batch that I had put into jars that once it started crystallizing, the remainder of the honey started to ferment and build up pressure in the jars.  I caught it before it got to your stage and fed it back to my bees.  Since then I always check jars by pushing on the lids to make sure that pressure is not building up.

[BeeMaster2]

When honey crystallizes, a lot of the time the water separates out and is very thin. It is this thin honey that ferments sometimes. I suspect it depends on how thick the honey is as to whether the water separates or not.
Jim Altmiller

[Acebird]

Just poke a hole in the top with a nail or something to release the pressure so you can unscrew the top.

[TheHoneyPump]

When honey crystallizes, a lot of the time the water separates out and is very thin. It is this thin honey that ferments sometimes. I suspect it depends on how thick the honey is as to whether the water separates or not.
Jim Altmiller

This.
Hence why proper -cremed- honey for long shelf life is stirred during the crystallizing process.
There was nothing wrong with the honey. It is just the natural effect of separation of water from sugars as the crystals grow. The areas in the jar where water separates out have much higher MC levels which can then begin the natural fermentation process.  Typically this is the top 15-20 percent level of the container.  You can skim off that foaming layer for other uses.  The honey below will still be on near perfect condition.

Hope that helps!

[The15thMember]

When honey crystallizes, a lot of the time the water separates out and is very thin. It is this thin honey that ferments sometimes. I suspect it depends on how thick the honey is as to whether the water separates or not.
Jim Altmiller

This.
Hence why proper -cremed- honey for long shelf life is stirred during the crystallizing process.
There was nothing wrong with the honey. It is just the natural effect of separation of water from sugars as the crystals grow. The areas in the jar where water separates out have much higher MC levels which can then begin the natural fermentation process.  Typically this is the top 15-20 percent level of the container.  You can skim off that foaming layer for other uses.  The honey below will still be on near perfect condition.

Hope that helps!

Oh, I know there was nothing wrong with it.  Some of the other jars from this same batch crystallized without fermenting.  What it looked like to me is that due to a lack of head space (a lesson I've now learned the hard way) the gases from the fermenting process were forced down into the solid honey, because before I opened it there were clearly bubbles suspended in the solid honey underneath.  Then when I popped the top, all those bubbles that were trapped in the honey just forced the honey out the top of the jar. 

The areas in the jar where water separates out have much higher MC levels which can then begin the natural fermentation process. 

What does MC stand for?

[TheHoneyPump]

MC = Moisture Content

[The15thMember]

MC = Moisture Content

Ah!  Thanks, HP. 

[Michael Bush]

It's fermented for sure.  As Jim pointed out, when it crystallized slowly with large crystals, sometimes the liquid portion has more water that left the crystallized portion and so it ferments.  If it crystallized quickly it forms smaller crystals, doesn't separate and therefore doesn't ferment.