Raising ABV 1% with honey?

I know this topic has been discussed to death, but I still haven't really seen a definitive or semi-definitive answer of what the ratio is for honey to additional alcohol with a standard attenuation of 75% or so. I will be doing an IPA tomorrow which seems to come out around 6% for people, and I'd rather it be around 7% or so. Anyone know how much honey one would add to the recipe for a 5 gallon batch to get in the ballpark of 1% additional abv?

Honey is mostly fermentable, but it's difficult to say because we homebrewers don't have a good way of measuring how much sugar is in each honey, and they are all different. A lot of kits say to prime with honey, and it's not a good idea because honeys differ.

Hopefully someone will chime in with a good rule of thumb, but like I said, different honeys have different amounts of sugar (fermentable and non-fermentable) in them.

About a pound but you can accomplish the same thing with .75 lbs of regular sugar. If your primary fermentables are coming from malt extract I'd say it's a pretty safe addition.

1 lb of honey has about 33 gravity points. It will increase the effective OG of 5 gallons by 0.0065.

Honey is almost 100% fermentable (forget the 75% rule for honey) by all yeasts. So 0.0065 in gravity = about 0.8% abv.

Hope this helps you.

Or use a pound of table sugar, increases effective OG by 0.009 for 5 gallons = 1.2% abv.

Both are simple sugars. You will get very little flavor addition (if any) from the honey.

John Palmer says, "But be forewarned, honey based alcohol also tends to give nasty hangovers..."

Cacaman said:

John Palmer says, "But be forewarned, honey based alcohol also tends to give nasty hangovers..."

Click to expand...

Anyone told that to the Mead and Melomel brewers?

Thanks for all the info. I had never heard that about honey alcohol giving hangovers.. sounds a little bit like an old wives tale.

That's what the pro says. I have no evidence to back his data up. Maybe someone here does?

spiffywiffy said:

So when do I add in these sugars to raise my ABV %???

Click to expand...

In your boil is the way to do it.. theoretically I suppose you could add it whenever there is still yeast in suspension that can take on more work but you want to the sugars dissolved, otherwise you'd think they'd settle out. I could be wrong about that.

I just added 1lb of agave nectar to a brown ale I am ready put the wort chiller on in about 20min. I have found 1lb of Honey or Nectar will do the trick!

StophJS said:

In your boil is the way to do it.. theoretically I suppose you could add it whenever there is still yeast in suspension that can take on more work but you want to the sugars dissolved, otherwise you'd think they'd settle out. I could be wrong about that.

Click to expand...

too much sugar could cause the yeast not to convert it all over, right? when would would it be time to switch to a stronger yeast?

spiffywiffy said:

So when do I add in these sugars to raise my ABV %???

Click to expand...

Add them as the main fermentation is slowing. This will retain some of the aromatics. Anything from a sealed container can be added without boiling/sanitizing. Honey, by it's nature is sanitized; it is so concentrated that nothing can grow on it.

spiffywiffy said:

too much sugar could cause the yeast not to convert it all over, right? when would would it be time to switch to a stronger yeast?

Click to expand...

You'll want to be sure the yeast you're using has a high enough alcohol tolerance.

Ironically, this article actually suggests honey as a cure for hangovers.

UMDNJ Expert Suggests Honey for a Hangover Headache

You could also invert some table sugar in a pan w/ citric acid (lemon juice) and add that. You'll get nearly complete attenuation on it, and won't have much of a flavor addition, outside of alcohol.

spiffywiffy said:

So when do I add in these sugars to raise my ABV %???

Click to expand...

I made the Honey Brown Ale extract kit from Northern Brewer in early September. The recipe had me add the honey at 0 minutes left in the boil. As it ages, the honey really mellows out.

I'm learning through mistakes.

I made a pretty serious honey ale, 3 pds of honey post boil. Threw a Halloween party - there were definitely people complaining about hangovers, but that just could have been the massive amounts consumed!