Fixing to brew my first beer, got a question
 

I going to be brewing a cream ale this weekend and thought about adding some honey to it to 1) add a little sweetness to the finished product and 2) raise the ABV a bit. My question is would I add the honey during the boil, after the boil during the cooling of the wort, after the cooling of the wort but before the yeast is added or when I rack from my primary to my secondary?

Also, if I wanted to use honey to carbonate instead of the provided corn sugar how much should I use?

Oh yeah, concerning my fist question, how much would I want to add to the wort as well as at which stage?

Thanks guys/girls for the help. I am still trying to get this search feature down. I can't find a d@%m thing so far using it.

I would add it to the boil, with about 10 minutes left. Honey is highly fermentable, so it will only leave a touch of residual sweetness. I've never carbed with honey, so I can't help you there.

I figured it might need to be added at that point but I want to get it right or as right as I can. I don't have to carb with honey, it was just a thought.

Well, I just found on John Palmers website that while it can be done and can be good the standard kit I got most likely will not have the hops needed to accomidate the added honey and it gives off a nasty hangover, which I am not a fan of in any way.:drunk:

I would still like to here everyones comments on this and any experiences with trying this.

priming with honey is difficult because you just don't know how much sugars is in the honey. don't want exploding bottles or undercarbonated beer.

How much honey are we talking here? An extra half pound to a pound would give you a little extra alcohol boost, and shouldn't throw your beer too far off balance. But do keep in mind that honey does ferment extremely dry, so you really won't get too much sweetness off of it.

i was thinking trying a pound of honey in it. I found an article on BYO - Brewing with Honey that describes the process, how to do it and what to watch for. I guess I will give it a try, depending on how much the honeyis going to run me.

yeah, i was going to say 12-16oz would be good. why don't you just chomp on some honey while your drinking your beer? well, maybe not! :confused:

I not really going for the flavor part of it, I am more or less wanting to add a little more kick to it.

Hmmm, honestly its too late to add alcohol content now. All you would really do is screw up your carbonation with too much to too little. Save it for next time would be my advice.




Gedvondur