fermented honey

[estuary]

In this article http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/honey.html Sally Fallon talks about fermented honey and provides a recipe for fermented honey crackers.

I've never had honey ferment (other than when I made Tej the Ethiopian honey wine featured in Wild Fermentation) - so I wonder, how do you make honey ferment?

Any experienced honey fermenters out there?

[tboroson]

Honey usually starts to ferment when it crystallizes beyond a certain point. The very high concentration of sugar in the solution is part of what preserves it ordinarily; when the sugar comes out of solution and crystallizes, the remaining weaker solution may start to ferment. I would imagine you could jump start that process by watering down the honey? But I wouldn't know by what proportion to water it down...

[tboroson]

With some googling around, I see that Really Raw makes a fermented honey product. I'll keep my eyes open for it at our local hfs

Here's what Really Raw's website has to say about it:

Moisture and warmth produce fermentation. When the moisture level of the honey is slightly elevated and the temperature is warm, fermentation may occur, due to the enzymes and the yeast in honey. Two main reasons for heating honey in modern times are to stop fermentation and be able to strain it. But fermentation is not harmful. Some people believe that it is more effective for digestion than honey that is not fermented, but we have not seen any documentation to either prove or disprove this theory.

[Taedareth]

All I know is, fermented honey is sure tasty! Adding a bit of moisture and keeping it in a warmish place, eh? I'll have to try that...

[newcastlemama]

Thanks for the info. That sounds cool. I just got Wild Fermentation yesterday and met Katz recently, so I am looking to ferment everything

[estuary]

hmmm...interesting!

Maybe I'll just have to put some honey aside (with a little added water?) and see what I can get to happen.

Fallon's article says you can make the crackers with regular honey too, but I'd be interested in the fermented honey just for the heck of it (hooray for Sandor Ellix Katz, eh newcastlemama?!!)

[quietserena]

Does fermented imply alcoholic as in mead?

[estuary]

Originally Posted by quietserena

Does fermented imply alcoholic as in mead?

I didn't get that impression from what I read in the article - more like the honey itself was changing to a fermented (slightly) state - with mead you add a significant amount of water to make it a drinkable consistency. Probably there'd be some small amount of alcohol created from the fermenting organisms (yeasts?), but I'd imagine it to be pretty little - like the difference between ginger *ale* and real ale... depends on how long it continues to ferment.

? Hope that helps

[JElaineB]

I bought some regular Really Raw honey once and I'm pretty sure it fermented on me when I was about halfway through the jar. It was pretty bubbly. It tasted the same though, so maybe it was just a little bit fermented?