When Should I Add these Ingredients?
 

I'll be making a honey beer next week and plan on putting something else in it, like ginger or a fruit. When should I add these when brewing? Beginning of the boil? Towards the end? In the fermenter? How much of a difference will it make depending on what time I add it?

Thanks.

The Ginger maybe that last 10 mins of the boil. Fruit like strawberries, and raspberries are usually done in the fermenter. I would add the fruit to the primary. I'm sure WoodLandBrew will chime in :) Here is the link to my Raspberry Wheat thread.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/raspberry-wheat-recipe-s-367352/

Ginger would be a late addition, <15min. Fruit would be added to fermenter and probably secondary.

Should I add the honey at the end as well?

If your gonna add honey do it at 5 min. But it's still going to boil a ton of the flavor and aroma away. If you're looking for a nice honey flavor I suggest some honey malt. Or you can pasteurize the honey and add it to the fermenter at high krausen. Keep in mind honey is almost 100% fermentable so your not gonna get a ton of flavor out of it.

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I have also been told to use Honey Malt instead of actual honey to get the flavors of honey in my brew.

Make a puree of the fruit and sterilize by bringing just under a boil for about 10 minutes. 180-190 would be fine. Add this cooled mixture to high krausen. You wont get much color from doing it this way so you can also rack to a secondary with more whole fruit if using berries or another puree if something larger like mango, apricots, pineapple.

You can also add the honey to your primary fruit puree and add at high krausen. This should get you the most flavor out of it, though there wont be much. I love adding honey to my wheats to get the ABV up a tad it provides a nice mellow mouthfeel in lighter styles.

Be VERY careful on the amount of honey malt you use, a little goes a long way. My "dirty blonde" is 9 lbs of 2-Row and 1 lbs of Honey Malt and it has a flavor that is very close to mead. I'll probably cut it down to 6oz in the future.

I thought honey couldn't hold bad bacteria because of the high sugar content. i could be wrong, though.

you add honey directly to mead without boiling. why not just put the honey in the very end to melt it.