Add honey after 2 weeks in the Primary?

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Cougfan

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I have done a search on honey and found that it is better to add honey after the fermentation has started. I am in the process of making a honey hefe, and already added the honey before the boil. This is the second time I have tried this recipe, and would like to get more of a honey flavor. I was thinking about adding some more honey right before I put it into the keg (diluted water and honey mixture). The beer has been in the primary for two weeks now. Should I add the honey and let it ferment for a few days, or should I add the honey after I keg it?
 
Going to do a search in a minute, but I think adding some to secondary should work out well..
 
Secondary would be my choice too. Honey is almost 100% fermentable so I would be very concerned about adding that much sugar to a finished beer. Also, honey takes a long time to ferment. Plan on leaving it for a few weeks if you add it to your secondary.
 
Not what I was looking for...

As Nurmey stated, I would let it ferment out some, and add your honey. If you can, go all-natural. I don't think store honey will have many preservatives that would hurt, but don't have any experience.
 
Thanks guys. If I add it to the secondary, will there be enough yeast to continue the fermentation. My original thoughts were that if I add it to the primary, there will be more available dormant yeast in the yeast bed to help with the fermentation.

Another side note is that I normally only keep the beer in a primary for one week, then transfer to the secondary. But after reading on this site, I decided to forget about the secondary for this hefeweizen. If I were to leave it in the primary instead of going to a secondary, is three weeks too long?
 
Another three weeks is not too long at all if you are skipping the secondary.

Unless you are using a really good (commercial type) filter system, there will always be enough yeast left in suspension to do whatever you need it to do.
 
Well, I had my plan of what I was going to do, then I talked to my wife. :cross: She said that she wants that beer ready for the family at Christmas. So I told her that I would leave this batch alone, but I was going to start another batch to try out adding honey after the boil. I guess it is a win-win. She gets her favorite beer without me screwing it up, and I get to start another batch ASAP. :rockin: Thanks for the info guys.
 
Honey is a nice clean touch to any beer. Buy Grade AA or better. Add it to your secondary by heating to a 90* temp add and then agitate non volatly; i.e. roll in a carbouy or add to secondary for racking to a bucket. For a FRESH taste of honey in the background add heated honey to a keg before filling for force carbonation.

For secondary, use up to 2 #'s of AA grade honey.

For kegging use .5 #'s to 1# of AA grade honey :tank:
 
I realize that this is an older post, but my questions about adding honey were all answered. I'm currently have a Kolsch in primary and plan to add in honey this weekend to dry it out. Thanks!
 
I realize that this is an older post, but my questions about adding honey were all answered. I'm currently have a Kolsch in primary and plan to add in honey this weekend to dry it out. Thanks!

I was wondering how this turned out and how much you added. I have an Altbier that I was thinking of doing this to any suggestions I also wanted just a little lingering background of some honey. Any suggestions. I currently have it in the primary (a little over a week) and am planning on moving it to the secondary @ 2 weeks.

Thanks
 
Thanks for asking. After 4 days in primary the gravity was 1.012 (it started at 1.049) so I went ahead and added a pound of honey. I didn't see any reason to let it sit for two weeks as suggested above - perhaps I'm impatient! A week after the honey addition the hydrometer read 1.009. From what I've read about Kolsch and honey I've been really surprised at how quickly it has fermented, but I did make a good starter and have a temperature control on my freezer - this beer has been dead on 65 F since pitching. When I tasted the beer I drew in order to take the gravity reading it was, although flat, very dry and crisp with a hint of honey (maybe the honey was just wishful tasting - but I'll take it!)... just what I was looking for! So far, so good and I now have high hopes for this being a great summer beer! I intend to bottle as soon as I get a chance.

Just a note on adding the honey: after reading lots of posts I decided to boil a pint of water and add the honey to the hot water, cool it down to 65 F and add it to the kolsch. I didn't want to boil off the honey flavor (as some suggest will happen) and I didn't want to add the honey straight into the beer (as others suggest could carry bacteria). So I split the difference.

Hope this helps. I'm a fan of honey so I say go for it! Also, 1 lb of honey, as I've discovered, will raise the ABV of a 5 gallon batch by 1%. So this Kolsch is now 6%.
 
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