Nut Brown Ale - Adding Honey to Secondary

Hello,

I am currently brewing a Nut Brown Ale and wanted to add some honey into the secondary when I transfer it over for a bit of a light honey flavor.

Was wondering:

1. If this is a good time to do it?

2. How much honey to add

3. How I should do it (boil it, add some water, or just dump in)

Thanks in advance,

Mike

There's been some great "honey in beer" threads over the last couple of weeks, including one yesterday and the day before. Use the search function and you should find all the info you'll need...including some mighty tasty sounding recipes!

Thanks Revvy, I did do a search and could only find threads about adding honey to the boil or to be used for carbonation. I couldn't really find anything to do with adding it to the secondary, unless I searched wrong.

I would suggest mixing the honey with a little water and bringing it to a slight boil for 10 minutes or so, that should kill any nasties and not boil off too much of the aroma and flavor of the honey.

Then just cool it to the temp of your fermentation and add when you rack.

i think most places will tell you 2 parts water to 1 part honey, but 50/50 should be ok for your application.. if just straight honey then it will just coagulate and sit like a clump at the bottom of your fermenter

Mirilis said:

I would suggest mixing the honey with a little water and bringing it to a slight boil for 10 minutes or so, that should kill any nasties and not boil off too much of the aroma and flavor of the honey.

Then just cool it to the temp of your fermentation and add when you rack.

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I wouldn't boil the honey, I would pasturize it instead, take it up to 175 degrees and hold the temp for 15 minutes....even bringing up to a boil for a short times runs the risk of flavor loss.

I would recommend 8-12 fl oz (honey) and maybe bring a cup or two of water to a boil, remove from heat, maybe let cool to about 180*F and add the honey to it. Then gently stir that into your beer but minimize agitation so as not to add oxygen to the secondary. Adding the honey to hot water will make it easier to add to the beer. Boiling the water will sanitize it and drive clorine off of it. Honey itself is sanitary and usually safe to add at most any point in beer making.

Thanks for the quick responses, how much do you think I should add?

rohovie said:

Thanks for the quick responses, how much do you think I should add?

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All I can say is look at some of the recipes in the other threads and see how much they're adding.

Why don't you post your recipe as well, so we can see what ingredients your using, might help to figure it out.

personally, i'd forego adding honey at this stage. honey takes a loooong time to ferment and you will likely have to wait awhile for the beer to clear. if i ever do add honey to a beer again (and i'm leaning against it) i will definitely add it to the primary and be prepared for a long fermentation.

I am using a pre-hopped extract kit from Black Rock. No fancy recipe for me yet, i'm still fairly new to this.

Thanks.

that's another knock against throwing in honey. if you're new you presumably want to be drinking this sometime soon yeah? you're so close, all you have to do is let it clear for a week or two then bottle and wait for it to carb.

if you throw in honey now it could be weeks or even months before it's clear. you could do like i did and just bottle anyway, but the beer had a definite yeast bite (not tasty) for over a month after bottling.

that being said plenty of people have made fantastic beers using honey.

any way you add the honey, as a sugar it needs to ferment thoroughly. Once fermented, honey no longer retains the same flavor of pre-fermented honey, so you might not need it. There are malts that taste like unfermented honey, but I have no experience with them. I like to add honey to darker beers, to help them dry out and to boost alcohol somewhat. This can be done cheaper by using corn or cane sugar, especially if your final gravities are consistently high. The honey does add a flavor, but it is different than unfermented honey. I'd wait til next time and add your honey after your boil and the wort has cooled to pasturizing temps.