Uncrystallizing honey time & temp?

I've got a five gallon bucket of honey that is crystallized. What is the recommended temperature to uncrystallize? I have the entire bucket sitting in a warm water bath at around 100F. I'm wondering how many hours it will take to liquefy the honey? It's hard to tell from just handling the bucket and I don't want to open it until I know it is ready.

I don't bother warming crystalised honey. I just weigh out how much I want to use for a batch and mix it with 1/3rd to 1/2 the water I'm gonna use, then hit it with a stick blender, which not only dissolves the honey, but also aerates the hell out of it too.

You can just mix the crystalised honey with the water and give it a stir, then let it sit overnight, and when you stir it again in the morning, most, if not all the crystals will have dissolved.

Just that its easier to weigh out when crystalised, than when its liquid.

Thanks, hm, I might try that method. I have a hard time even scooping the crystalized honey out of the bucket, like it's rock hard just about, and I don't have a strong spoon to scoop with. Well the bucket has been in the water bath overnight since I didn't have a chance to get to it yesterday, so hopefully that was long enough to re-liquefy it.

I noticed stratification in the crystallized buckets, like a rich liquidy honey in the bottom third, and a hard thick buttery layer on top. I thought that might be the different sugars separating into layers maybe? So I want to mix the whole bucket back up before using it I think.

Before fall I got a few buckets and those were completely liquid, that was easy I just poured it right from the bucket into a large funnel with the carboy on a scale so I knew when I reached the amount I wanted.

I keep bees. 40++ years. Honey is heated as little as possible to preserve the delicate volitiles. To remove crystals and/or re-liquify, I use a big (about 30 lb. of honey) double boiler (Two big stockpots) and heat to 140 degrees F. (Use a candy thermometer) Keep it there about 10 mins. A very clean garden trowel of high quality works well to dig solidified honey from 5 gal buckets. At 100 F a 5 gal bucket may take several days. The longer/more often you heat it, the darker/less flavorful it gets. Some honeys crystallize quickly, some hardly at all. Depends on the nectar source. Raw honey is best in the sense of fine flavor and active enzymes, etc.

Thanks for the info. So might a slightly higher temp such as 140F for a shorter period be better than say 104F for a longer period?

Yes it took 24+ hours in the 104F bucket-in-warm-water method to soften up. It didn't fully re-liquefy but it was soft enough I could get it through my funnel and into the carboys. Else it is hard like cold butter and almost impossible to work with.

I have the buckets on top of my refrigerators now to keep it about 75+F until I make some more honey brews in a few weeks.

Honey contains moisture, about 18% or less, (by law, may vary by state) and is made up of a variety of different sugars. As it crystallizes, the moisture content in the remaining uncrystallized honey can (and often does) cause the remaining liquid sugars to ferment. Especially in raw honey. Bees keep their hivee at about 95 degrees F in the area where they are raising brood and quite warm in the rest of the hive. In summer, a temp- of 104 F is not unusual or unnatural for the honey comb. So 104 F is fine for a bucket now and then if you have the time. Beekeepers raise the temp on heated honey just to get the job done quickly and get all the crystals melted for appearance sake. (Stays liquid on the shelf about 60 - 90 days). Much of the rest of the world, particularly Europe, uses honey in the crystalized form. Many beekeepers make a product called "creamed honey" which is just honey that is fully melted, cooled, and seeded with micro fine crystals and kept at about 60 F to produce a honey that is fully crystalized, but the crystals are so fine as to be undetectable in the mouth. Spreads like butter. This keeps well at room temp.Ordinary crystalized honey is like melt-in-your-mouth sand. But tasty! Use caution in keeping buckets of crystalized raw honey around at high temps. It may ferment and then is about useless. (Except possibly for mead) Tastes like wine/vinegar. Not nice or salable as eating quality honey.

The upshot of the previous post is that it is prolly better to liquify and "Pasteurize" for long term storage that to trust raw honey not to ferment after is crystalizes. Soured honey sucks.