sugar v.s honey

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ritchie

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when doing extract brewing and the recipie call for suger is it ok to add honey in the place of the sugar. And if the recipe calls for 1 cup sugar should i add 1 cup honey as an equal.
 
NEVER use volume measure for dry items, even sugar... Always go by weight of item...

That being said, honey is sold by weight, not volume. Also, honey is ~80% sugar, so you need to use 1.25x the weight of sugar in honey... So, if something calls for 8 ounces of sugar (1 cup [water] liquid weight), you would use 10 ounces of honey. I would suggest weighing the sugar you were going to add, and then use that to figure out how much honey to add for a replacement. If you don't have enough sugar on hand for the full cup measure, you'll need to either wing it, or figure something out.

Typically, you add honey (or even sugars) in pound increments. The only times I would add less than a pound of either, is if that's all I have on hand, or if it's for carbonation.

In a brew, I don't see much difference between adding less than a full pound of honey, and a full pound. Less than 1 pound in 5 gallons of wort won't really do all that much. 2-3 pounds of honey starts to become noticeable, with more [obviously] more so...

If you're looking to add this for flavor as well as just yeast food, then do so when the wort has chilled to below 110F (under 100F is even better)... Otherwise, a lot of what gives honey it's flavor will be gone. This is one of the reasons why mead makers often go with the 'no heat' method...
 
thanks for the tip on the honey

I am a small batcher brewer ( 2gallons). Brewing 5 gallon batches is just to much for me. The information you provided me with will be very helpful.
 
For a two gallon batch, 1 pound of honey will be a good addition.

I've made honey porters using 3-5 pounds of honey (in a 5 gallon batch) with good results. So one or two pounds in a two gallon batch will be ok.

Keep in mind, mead (which is made from honey) typically uses about 3-5 pounds of honey per gallon of must (fermenting mead). I have a few batches running right now that use 4 pounds per gallon of must (for two traditional batches). I also have a 'mocha madness' mead in process that used the same ratio of honey to must. I have a blackberry melomel that I went with less honey on. That's 8 pounds of honey to three gallons of must. But, due to adding fresh blackberries, it's still coming out well.

I think that using honey to prime it with later would also be a good move. If you use the same type of honey, then you'll have a light hit of the same flavors. I've been using honey to prime my beers so far. Knowing that you just need to alter the amount specified by the brewing software really helps. That way, you just get it to tell you how much sugar for the CO2 volume, then adjust for honey.
 
I asume the same substitution ratios (1.25 lbs of honey per 1.0 pound of sugar) applies to wine making as well???

jtl
 
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