Grocer's and Bottling Tank Temperatures

[jeremy37]

Greetings beekeepers and friends,
  This is my first post and I have always been lurking around here looking at the plethora of information these forums offer.  We are going to be purchasing a bottling tank this year to store our honey and provide refills for our customers.  What is a good temperature to keep the water in the water jacket at so that honey don't crystallize while sitting in the tank.  Will this temperature also discolor honey?  What is the safe temperature do I need to keep the heating element set at?  I have always used the Dadant Liquefier to liquefy our 5 gallon buckets.  Truthfully I get tired of heating five gallon buckets for just a few sales throughout the winter months when we are not active in the farmer's markets.  Any information is greatly appreciated.

[jdpro5010]

I would only heat it once and bottle it when the temperature reaches the level you want.  Keeping it "warm" for a long period of time only destroys that many more valuable enzymes, ruins the taste, and destroys the color. 

[rdy-b]

you probably know this already but the tank you want is the JACKET tank-not the double boiler grocers type tank-what i do in the slow season is bottle up a couple of buckets -2 buckets do 5 cases of one pounders -so the combination that works for me is 3 cases (24 to a case) 1 pounders and 2 cases (12 to a case) 2 pounders thats two buckets-might need to dedicate one bucket to quarts- so with this combination i will always have honey ready for the front porch traffic -I dont think it would pay to fill customers container from tank-the honey i bottle ahead of time stays in a warming cabinet that i made from a small fridge-this way what ever the call may be i can acalmadate -when the season picks up i just bottle more often and larger amounts RDY-B

[jeremy37]

Thanks for the replies..  I am ready for season to pick up most definitely.  We have a honey sign in our yard and we do have the occasional passerby who wants a certain bottle size.  We bottle in plastic bottles so just to make sure I am reading this correctly.  You bottle your cases and place the cases of your bottled honey in a "warming cabinet"?  That might be a very good idea for me that way I could have the honey available cause we keep our t-stat set on about 68 during the winter  months and it usually is back to solid in about a week!!  I hate having to tell customers who call ahead that they have to wait a day while I liquefy that evening.  How do you heat this "warming cabinet"?  Thanks for the information and help, I think you may have sparked an idea for me.. 

[rdy-b]

heating my small cabinet is done with one sixty watt light bulb-and a thermostat wired in line -cost for a 110v thermostat around $20 i have a larger one with two bulbs -i have learned for me the sixty watts work best -i tried 100 watts clear bulb but the heat was to fast and could melt plastic-i have done plastic jars with no problem just find the right temp-around 90 works for me RDY-B

[buzzbee]

Heres a link to plans for a small cabinet heater:
http://maarec.psu.edu/pdfs/honeyHeaterPlans/hhplans.htm