Fermented Honey Garlic (Plus, Tips to Avoid Botulism)

By Katie Krejci, MS, RD, IFNCP / September 29, 2023

Making a batch of fermented honey garlic is one of the best things you can do to get ready for the upcoming cold and flu season. A little bit goes a long way in boosting your immune system!

Raw honey and garlic are well known for their immune-boosting properties and the best part is that you likely already have both on hand making this super easy to whip up.

Worried about botulism? I’ve got you covered! I thoroughly researched the topic and provide key tips to keep this risk at bay.

Since this is a fermented product that takes 1 month to be fully potent, it’s important to make it now rather than when you’re feeling sick. Let’s do this!

*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links to products (including Amazon). I’ll earn a small commission if you make a purchase through my link, at no additional cost to you! Regardless, I only link to products that I personally use on our homestead or believe in.

Benefits of Fermented Honey Garlic

Both garlic and raw honey have been used in medicinal preparations for thousands of years. Garlic has been found in Egyptian pyramids and honey has been traced as far back as Stone Age paintings.

Garlic was even given to Olympic athletes in Greece to improve their performance – neat, huh? Both garlic and raw honey have a multitude of health benefits as you’ll see below.

Once you combine them into my fermented honey garlic concoction, you’ll be able to kick any illness!

Garlic – Garlic has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties while preventing cancer, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, lipid abnormalities, metabolic disorders, skin, bone, and other common diseases (Ansary, 2020).
Raw honey – Contains potent flavonoids and phenolic acids that have anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-cancer, and anti-diabetic effects. It also serves to protect the cardiovascular, respiratory, and digestive systems (Cianciosi, 2018).

Fermented Honey Garlic Recipe

You’re going to love how easy it is to make this fermented honey garlic recipe. The longest time is spent peeling all that garlic and waiting for that lovely fermentation to happen.

Ingredients

Raw honey: Yes, it absolutely has to be raw! Processed honey has been treated with heat, which kills off the essential bacteria and wild yeasts that we need for the fermentation process. Most grocery stores carry raw honey, but if you can’t locate it, Bee Harmony produces one that is lovely and it is from orange blossom nectar, which has a low pH (less risk for botulism!).
Whole garlic cloves: Any garlic will do as long as it is fresh, but homegrown is great if you have it!

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How to Make Fermented Honey Garlic

Step 1: Peel the garlic

The easiest way to peel garlic is to lay a chef’s knife over it (flat side down) and give it a firm wack with your hand. This will lightly break the tension in the garlic and let the skins slide off.

Crushing also releases some of garlic’s natural juices, which will aid in fermentation. Lastly, it converts alliin into allicin, which provides many of the health benefits of garlic. Cool, huh?

Don’t do it too hard, though! You don’t want to bust the garlic up into pieces. You want the cloves to remain whole, but slightly smashed and weeping. Peel enough to fill your desired jar ⅔ of the way up.

Step 2: Add the honey

This is the easy part! Pour in raw honey to cover all of the cloves and stir. As mentioned above, using raw honey is absolutely essential as it contains the bacteria and wild yeasts needed for fermentation to happen.

Honey itself is anti-microbial and the low moisture content keeps bacteria from growing, so how will this work? That’s where the garlic comes in. With our smashed cloves, it will weep out just enough liquid to kickstart that fermentation.

Step 3: Start fermenting!

Tuck the jar in a dark location (like your cupboard), but not too far out of sight that you forget about it. I like to keep it in my coffee or spice cupboard since I go in there daily.

This is one of the few ferments that we make without a fermentation weight! A fermentation weight would just get all sticky and gooey. Instead, give the mixture a stir (or flip the jar) every day or two to make sure that the cloves stay covered.

You’ll notice that the honey starts out thick (and hard to stir), but after just 24-48 hours it will thin out from the weeping garlic juices. It gets easier and easier to mix as time goes on.

Step 4: Give it a stir

Since this is a fermented product, it will release some gas as it ferments. It will need to be expelled, otherwise, your jar can explode. No thanks! There are a few options:

Standard canning lid: Screw it on tight, but “burp” it every few days.
Standard canning lid: Set it on loosely and leave it slightly ajar
Fermentation lid: Screw it on and don’t worry about the gasses (however, don’t “flip” the jar to mix the contents if using this lid. The honey might clog the gas vent)

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I personally do option #3 – use a fermenting lid and just stir it every day or two with a new, clean spoon. You can lick it off afterward and enjoy a tasty treat! Yum!

Keep an eye on your fermented honey garlic and after a week or so, you should notice some little bubbles forming. Hooray! After 1 month, it should be complete.

While it won’t be fully potent until after 1 month of fermentation, you can certainly use it before then if the need arises. If I don’t have fermented honey garlic on hand, I’ll just chop up some raw garlic and honey together and take it as is, and I still notice some benefits!

Step 5: Storage

Fermented honey garlic is one of the few ferments out there that shouldn’t be stored in the refrigerator. Yes, that means that it will continue to ferment a slight bit some as the months go on, but that’s okay! Most of it will finish out within the first month.

Tuck it away in your cabinet or cupboard and it will be just fine in there. Coolish temps are great (55-65 degrees), but don’t be tempted to keep it in the fridge. Otherwise, it’ll crystalize and turn hard as a rock.

So, how long will it last at room temperature? I’ve found that 6 months is pretty average. Therefore, if you make it in the fall then you’ll be set through the spring when sunshine and warmer temperatures take over. Perfect!

How to Use Fermented Honey Garlic

The most common way to use fermented honey garlic is to pop a clove and a bit of honey in your mouth anytime you feel under the weather. You can chop up the clove into smaller pieces, too, if you prefer less at one time.

To really up your game for immune-boosting natural remedies, make a batch of Homemade Fire Cider, too! I like to alternate between these two anytime I’m feeling a cold coming on.

Fermented honey garlic can also be used as a wonderful culinary addition!

Drizzle some of the honey on pizza
Add some of the honey to homemade salad dressing
Chop up the garlic and add it to sauces and marinades
Add some of the honey to tea
The options are endless!

Is Fermented Honey Garlic Safe?

The main concern circulating around the topic of fermented honey garlic is the potential for botulism. Honey can contain a bacteria called Clostridium botulinum, which is why it should not be given to infants less than 12 months old.

According to the CDC, garlic in oil is a high-risk food when it comes to botulism. So, is fermented honey garlic safe? If made properly, absolutely.

All about pH

For the spores to grow, the pH of the solution needs to be above 4.6 and the pH of honey is typically between 3.2-5.4. The pH of the honey depends on where the bees are collecting their nectar from:

Lowest pH (3.5-3.9): acacia, orange blossom, rosemary, sunflower, thyme
Highest pH (4.3-5.4): chestnut, dandelion, eucalyptus, honeydew, manuka

Therefore, I recommend using the right kind of raw honey to be safe. Garlic, on the other hand, has a pH between 5.3-6.3, which is still technically acidic, but it will raise the pH of the whole solution a bit compared to raw honey alone.

If you want to be absolutely sure that the pH stays below 4.6, you can test the pH of your fermented honey garlic solution using a litmus test. I like this specific test because the testing range is narrow (3.0-5.5), so you’ll get a more accurate reading than generic tests that detect anything from 0-12.

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If you notice the pH approaching (or surpassing) 4.6, you can add a little splash of apple cider vinegar (I like raw, with the mother) to bring the pH back down.

The fermentation action here also provides an extra layer of protection, so using RAW honey is key! Lastly, I dug around and couldn’t find a single documented case of botulism from this home remedy. Whew!

The takeaway: Use raw honey from low pH nectar sources and you should be fine! You can also test the pH to be certain 🙂

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Final Thoughts

I love having fermented honey garlic on hand as we enter this next round of cold and flu season. It’s amazing how powerful natural remedies can be if we learn how to lean into them and use them correctly. Enjoy!