Dark Honey

[ltdan]

Hi All

We have extracted honey for the first time and it seems dark to us. It's about the color of coffee. We used low heat to get the honey to run out of the comb. Any opinions?

Thanks,
Dan

[cg3]

Probably not the heat, just the color of your honey.

[JRG13]

taste it. Some honey is darker than others, what was the main nectar source?

[squarepeg]

two of my buddies got honey much darker than mine, and it tasted different too.

one of them, who had a hive near a lot of sourwood, put a shallow of drawn comb on just as the sourwood started to bloom, and took it off not long after it finished blooming. the other friend's hives were only a few miles from the this one's.

[beemandan]

We used low heat to get the honey to run out of the comb.

How low?

[minz]

Two hives 6’ apart. I pulled honey on one at the end of the flow: frame of cut comb super clear, almost did not look like honey. Remainder of the extraction of the super, slightly darker. Second hive had about 90% capped and it was like your described, coffee. We used the dark for some cooking since we considered it a lower grade but the flavour was so bold it quickly overpowered everything else. Since the two hives were so close I am also open for an explanation.

[mac]

The bees just went to different flowers. I have customers that want dark honey. They like the robust flavor. It's like the difference between a light beer and a stout

[mike haney]

It should not be necessary to use ANY heat.
Heat is known to darken honey so that would be my suspicion.

[pegorsch]

It is probably the nectar source. We had very dark honey this year because our flow came early (blackberries) then shut off due to the drought. I have heated my honey for 35 years to get it to strain and I have produced the lightest colored honey. I never go over 120 degrees but more important is to minimize the time the honey is heated. Minutes will not discolor the honey at mildly elevated temps. Hours can... Ideally, if you keep the honey below 90 or 100 degrees, you will produce a more aromatic product. To summarize, unless you went above, say, 140 degrees for an extended period of time, relax and enjoy your dark honey. You may never get another crop that color...