So I brewed yesterday and later realized I forgot to add the honey I had plan on adding.
Anyone ever add Honey to the secondary?
Boil a small amount of water and mix the honey in after you take it off the burner. Cool and add it to the primary. No need for a secondary.
If you add it to the secondary, after you've racked off of the yeast, there will be little to no fermentation of the honey. You'll get more honey flavor and sweetness this way, but it's very easy to overdo it. Since the recipe called for adding it prior to fermentation, I would wait another day to add it, and not wait until secondary.
I don't think this is true. If there is any yeast in the beer (which there will be or else bottle conditioning would not work) they are going to consume all of the sugar in the honey that you add. Adding the honey after the most vigorous part of fermentation would be a good idea though because it will keep more of the subtle aromatics of the honey from getting scrubbed out with all of the CO2 that will be off-gassing.
. Sure, there's enough to create a small amount of CO2 for carbonation, but honey added to secondary will not ferment out.
i agree with peterj. if you add fermentables into any quantity of yeast they will eat it up otherwise starters wouldn't work, would they? it makes no sense that they would just give up fermenting because there are not enough of them, they just start reproducing.
That doesn't seem right, I have added fermentables to secondary and it seemed to ferment out. Why would the yeast not reproduce if enough food was available?
So if I add one cell of yeast to a 5 gallon batch of beer, it will eventually ferment out completely? Starters work because of the proportion of yeast to the amount of sugar. If you don't add enough yeast to a high gravity wort, won't it get stuck? Yeast don't always 'just start reproducing.' They can go dormant.
It all depends on how much yeast is left in suspension. If you're using a less flocculant strain, then there will be more yeast, and it will be able to consume more sugar. In my experience, there has been almost no fermentation when adding honey to secondary. The small amount of yeast that's left will consume a small amount of the sugar, but far from all of it.
Back to my original point, though, if you want the honey to ferment out, you would have better luck adding the honey while the yeast are still active, rather than adding it to secondary and hoping it ferments. Personally, if I was trying to add sweetness and flavor, I'd add the honey to secondary.
we're not talking about a one yeast cell or even a small amount. there are billions of yeast sells in a 5 gallon batch of beer, even in the secondary. fermentation can slow down or stop for a number of reasons; low temperature can stop ale yeast but not enough yeast won't, it slows down but will eventually finish (of course that assumes that the wort is fermentable which can also stop a fermentation). there are some yeast experts on these boards, i hope one of them chimes in here.
if the OP is looking for a honey flavor in their beer it will not be achieved through adding honey to the fermentation. honey malt in the mash is probably the best course of action, it adds body and flavor. some people claim that honey in the boil, primary, secondary, or at bottling works in adding honey flavor. i would imagine that would depend on how aromatic the honey is but i know honey malt works for sure.
So if I add one cell of yeast to a 5 gallon batch of beer, it will eventually ferment out completely?
Calichusetts said:Honey is 85-95% fermentable...NOT 100%
Adding it to the secondary will give the yeast the least suitable environment to to churn through it. Google "fake honey." The main issue with people not getting honey flavor to come through is that they are not using real honey.
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/tests-show-most-store-honey-isnt-honey/#.Uk1HkT9ybIU
Honey is 85-95% fermentable...NOT 100%
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