Manipulating style parameters

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user 108580

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Ok..... I have a fairly complex question (at least I think it is).

I have a recipe that I have created using Beer Tools pro for an Orange Blossom Honey IPA. I plan on pasteurizing the honey and adding it at high krausean directly into the primary fermenter. I have read that by doing this you avoid boiling away the flavors from the honey, thus retaining them in the final product.

We plan on making 10 gallon batches (11 gallons total to include losses due to trub accumulation). My recipe calls for making 9 gallons of wort when cooled to pitching temperatures. I then plan on making a 2 gallon solution of my honey water (pasteurized) to add to the fermenters for a total of 11 gallons of wort.

My question is: How will this late addition of honey water affect my IBU's and OG?

I found a forum that showed and explained a formula for OG manipulation, is this correct?:

(OG 1 x Vol 1) + (OG 2 x Vol 2) / (Vol 1+Vol 2)

(55 x 5) + (90 x 1) / (5 + 1) = 60 or 1.060

I want to build my recipe in beer tools to reflect these potential changes so I don't dilute my IBU's to something outside of the style guidelines.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
I plan on pasteurizing the honey and adding it at high krausean directly into the primary fermenter. I have read that by doing this you avoid boiling away the flavors from the honey, thus retaining them in the final product.

Problem is that Pasteurizing utilizes heat and thus drives the volatiles off as well though a few minutes Pasteurization will doubtless be less damaging than two hours boil.

Honey contains lots of wild yeast and other bugs held in abeyance by the osmotic pressure of the sugar and the low pH of honey. That's why honey is stable and does not require Pasteurization as long as the moisture content is below 18% (I think it is).

We plan on making 10 gallon batches (11 gallons total to include losses due to trub accumulation). My recipe calls for making 9 gallons of wort when cooled to pitching temperatures. I then plan on making a 2 gallon solution of my honey water (pasteurized) to add to the fermenters for a total of 11 gallons of wort.

This should work but you must be prepared to lose some volatiles. The only other approach I can think of is to add the honey to the fermenter without Pasteurization but to do it after the fermentation is well under way. This relies on the pitched yeast being able to out-compete the wild yeasts. I believe this is fairly common practice.

My question is: How will this late addition of honey water affect my IBU's and OG?

Extract is extract regardless of when it is added. The effective OG, in points per pound per gallon (an approximation) is the total points divided by the total pounds per gallon. As noted above honey is 82 - 83 Bx so that 100 grams contains 82 - 83 grams of extract.


I found a forum that showed and explained a formula for OG manipulation, is this correct?:

(OG 1 x Vol 1) + (OG 2 x Vol 2) / (Vol 1+Vol 2)

Approximately if OG is in points or °P.


I want to build my recipe in beer tools to reflect these potential changes so I don't dilute my IBU's to something outside of the style guidelines.

Some of the brewing software (ProMash) does calculations of this sort more precisely and the method is not that difficult. Post again if you want me to set it out but given that you don't really know the Bx of the honey nor the extract potentials of the grains that well there isn't much point in calculating the original extract out to 3 decimal places.

As for the IBU's: they will dilute in proportion to the amount of change in volume e.g. adding 2 gallons of unhopped liquid to 9 gallons of hopped will change biterness from B IBU to 9*B/11.

I have not done what you propose to do but it is my understanding that it is commonly done without Pasteurization or dilution of the honey with water. Perhaps others will comment on this.
 
Wow, thank you so much for your thorough reply! :D

I knew there was wild yeast and and bugs in honey which is why I wanted to go the pasteurzation route. I'm wondering if I can find a honey that has already been pasteurized so that I feel a little more comfortable just adding it to the fermenter without any sort of sanitation treatment. I'm shooting for consitency at the end of the day, and if some wild yeasts are altering the final flavors as I do this over and over again than that is something that I really want to stop.

I wish more people would have responded. Perhanps I put this thread in one of the less popular categories on the homebrew forum. Maybe I'll write up another one or do a search for one about brewing with honey in general.

Thanks again for your reply. If you have any last minute suggestions, or things you thought about, please dont hesitate to repost to this thread!

Happy brewing! :mug:
 
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