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Raw honey protein precipitate

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Sid Lehr

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 21, 2021
19
7
3
Boca Raton, FL
I am a brewing beekeeper (it was a natural evolution from beekeeping to mead brewing) and I've noticed that my bees' raw honey, when dissolved in hot water, precipitates out a flocculent solid which I assume to be denatured protein, either from the pollen or the bees' own invertase enzyme (or other enzymes). It settles in the lees, but isn't very compact and causes a significant loss of final product when racking. Anyone know a better way to deal with this? Any fining agents work better than others? Another way?
 
Last edited:
Shelley said:
How do you process your honey?
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Centrifugal extractor. No heat until I'm making mead, then it's exposed to hot water to help dissolve it. No filtration. It's as raw as it was in the comb.
Shelley said:
what is its floral source?
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This honey is mostly Brazilian pepper from last autumn.
Shelley said:
Are you making the mead from cappings wash or the honey?
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From the extracted honey, I let the bees clean up the cappings.
 
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Yum! If you don't run your honey through a sieve, then likely there are some small particles that might be the culprit, like wax bits and general hive detritus. My screen always catches plenty of bits & pieces that I could envision as problematic. It could also be a honey haze as well.

There's been much discussion about fining agents on GotMead: you can start here for a search, or look for specific methods (cold crash, bentonite, sparkelloid, etc).
 
Thanks, Shelley. I omitted the part where I pass it through a honey sieve/filter on its way out of the extractor into the bucket. It's a standard two-layer sieve made for the purpose. It gets the big stuff, but nothing as fine as what I'm seeing in the aging carboys. It looks pretty clear until it's exposed to the hot water, which is what made me think I'm seeing denatured proteins precipitate out. I'll look at your link and figure out if it's honey haze.....
Sid
 
sdlehr said:
I am a brewing beekeeper (it was a natural evolution from beekeeping to mead brewing) and I've noticed that my bees' raw honey, when dissolved in hot water, precipitates out a flocculent solid which I assume to be denatured protein, either from the pollen or the bees' own invertase enzyme (or other enzymes). It settles in the lees, but isn't very compact and causes a significant loss of final product when racking. Anyone know a better way to deal with this? Any fining agents work better than others? Another way?
Click to expand...

hi there,
when you say hot, what temperature range are you referring to? you know, heat is playing a big role to destroy some enzymes (invertase as you mentioned). to increase the viscosity of honey without losing its components and nutritional value is a bit tricky and it should be around 40C-104F at max (i tried to keep it under 40 when i'm re-liquify my cyrstallized honey if needed). maybe that's why you are facing this problem?...
 
I'm sure you're right, it was too hot. I didn't measure the temp when I added the honey; the guy that taught me to make mead insisted that the must be (barely) simmered and skimmed as the first step, so I wasn't being careful. In previous batches, I did simmer and skim, but the presumed "protein" did not appear to contribute to the scum I was skimming off the top. I bet that if I were to do as you suggest (another batch is coming soon) this wouldn't be a problem. Incidentally, my mead mentor mentioned above is convinced that the scum skimmed from the top of the simmering honey/water solution had something to do with microscopic beeswax in the honey and, if not removed, could make nasty flavors from terpenes that might've been contributors to a mead hangover. But no one here is at all concerned with this, and I'm going to stop the practice.
 
sdlehr you could try bentonite in the primary to help with more compact lees. I've also taken to doing a clean rack and a dirty rack after cold crash. Basically I'll rack as well as I can for as much as I can for the clean one. Then I'll rack all the remaining must, with minimal concern about clarity, into a smaller volume vessel (taller and smaller diameter). Repeat the cold crash on this dirty rack, and then rack it once it settles/clears and combine down the path in the secondary. This can help reclaim quite a bit of the losses due to fluffy lees...
 
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