Why not boil honey?

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Yup...If you're going to boil Honey....save some money and use Cain Sugar. Honey is a very delicate nectar. The flavors and aroma are very easily cooked off. A local guy I know says that if it's too hot for your hands....It's too hot for your honey.
 
Honey is also very resistant to bacteria/mold growth due to the extremely high sugar concentration.

No sticky required...the info is easily found on this site and many others.
 
I used 2# in a recipe, I put it in at flame out, and it carried through some amount of flavor. Its still a bit overwhelmed by banana from pitching S-04 too warm. I have 28 16ozers left, hoping the bananna continues to calm down with time.
 
I've made mead by both a short 160F rest and by using maybe 90 to 100F water just to help dissolve the honey, and while my 160F mead was great, the others are fantastic. When I get around to honey in beer or full fledged braggots (got a killer name for one already picked out), I think I'd go with any time from when my chiller had it down to 100F or so to just after peak fermentation, so the yeast can help stir it up. Probably have to use a bucket primary to do it that way though.
 
I listened to the latest "braggot" episode of the session, and if you have complex difficult sugars to ferment, you add the honey after the primary fermentation has begun or even run it's course. The sugar in honey is easily fermented, so if you add it in the boil, your "beer" will just turn out quite a bit dryer. I brew a honey amber and add 1# during the boil, and then 3#'s into the secondary when racking (10 Gal batch). Works like a charm!
 
I listened to the latest "braggot" episode of the session, and if you have complex difficult sugars to ferment, you add the honey after the primary fermentation has begun or even run it's course. The sugar in honey is easily fermented, so if you add it in the boil, your "beer" will just turn out quite a bit dryer. I brew a honey amber and add 1# during the boil, and then 3#'s into the secondary when racking (10 Gal batch). Works like a charm!

In which case your secondary really is a secondary instead of just a clearing tank! Either way, I think adding honey after the beer has largely fermented (but is still well active) would probably minimize the loss of delicate flavors by being stripped away by CO2 (assuming that's actually possible).
 
The sugar in honey is easily fermented,

This is in DIRECT CONTRAST to everything that I know, and or have ever read. Honey is EXTREMELY difficult to ferment, hence the reason that many Mead makers have mead in Primary for months and months before even racking to secondary.
I will say that in the case of a braggot, Honey fermentation is greatly assisted by the presence of the nutrients that the grain bring to the party, but I still would never call honey Easily Fermentable.
 
This is in DIRECT CONTRAST to everything that I know, and or have ever read. Honey is EXTREMELY difficult to ferment, hence the reason that many Mead makers have mead in Primary for months and months before even racking to secondary.
I will say that in the case of a braggot, Honey fermentation is greatly assisted by the presence of the nutrients that the grain bring to the party, but I still would never call honey Easily Fermentable.

You are correct, I should have said "some" of the sugars in honey are easier to ferment. Not all are, this is why you have residual sweetness as well as aroma from adding honey to the secondary instead of to the boil.
 
This is in DIRECT CONTRAST to everything that I know, and or have ever read. Honey is EXTREMELY difficult to ferment, hence the reason that many Mead makers have mead in Primary for months and months before even racking to secondary.
I will say that in the case of a braggot, Honey fermentation is greatly assisted by the presence of the nutrients that the grain bring to the party, but I still would never call honey Easily Fermentable.

I think the sugars in the honey are 100% fermentable and there for you will get a very dry mead if you do not exceed the alcohol tolerance of the yeast. Unlike the sugars in wort which yeast leaves about 25% of them behind.

However honey does not have the correct nutrition for the yeasts so it will ferment slow unless you help it out. However wort does have nearly everything a yeast could want and so beer ferments easily but not completely.

I think it is just a difference in terminology. If you add honey to a beer those sugars will ferment completely, like they will if you add sugar.

Craig
 
I think the sugars in the honey are 100% fermentable and there for you will get a very dry mead if you do not exceed the alcohol tolerance of the yeast.

You are correct. Honey + Water + Yeast will ferment down to .990 if the yeast can handle it.

You are correct, I should have said "some" of the sugars in honey are easier to ferment. Not all are, this is why you have residual sweetness as well as aroma from adding honey to the secondary instead of to the boil.
If you are perceiving a "Sweet" flavor from adding Honey, it is either exceeding the Alcohol Tolerance of your yeast, and thus will not bottle carb, or you are getting what I call Mental Sweet. I've long hypothesized that the flavor and aroma of honey tell your brain "SWEET!" and your tongue can't convince it otherwise.
 
it's in my sig. Just stop heating honey, there is no reason for it except to waste money. I think the reasons have been covered.
Flameout? No. that's way too hot.
 
MOD EDIT: Threads merged.

So - does the rule with honey apply to Maple Syrup???? I'm more apt to use Maple Syrup then honey in a beer.
 
Same deal. You'll eliminating all flavor and aroma of the maple syrup when you boil it too much. Last 10 or so minutes of the boil sounds appropriate.
 
Same deal. You'll eliminating all flavor and aroma of the maple syrup when you boil it too much. Last 10 or so minutes of the boil sounds appropriate.

really, no that's way way too much heat.

do something for me.. anyone that really wonders how much this effects honey. Go home, boil a cup of honey cool it down and then taste it side by side a non-boiled cup. Now imagine if it's fermented on top of this. This will end these threads.
 
really, no that's way way too much heat.

do something for me.. anyone that really wonders how much this effects honey. Go home, boil a cup of honey cool it down and then taste it side by side a non-boiled cup. Now imagine if it's fermented on top of this. This will end these threads.

I clearly spoke too soon- I guess secondary would be a more appropriate place for maple syrup to preserve as much flavor as possible.
 
The owner of Long Island Meadery spoke at one my brewclub meetings and he doesn't even heat his must at all. Honey, cold water, energizer (pureed fruit if applicable) and yeast go into the fermenter.
 
OK, so what's the end result of boiling honey? Apart from the obvious - that it won't impart any honey flavors - are you just dumping extra sugar in there?

Here's why I ask: I just did a winter warmer ale, the recipe for which called for honey to be added to the boil. I used REALLY good freakin honey which I now see was a waste of money. Also, this batch is now in its 3rd week of active fermentation. The primary had this amazing krausen on top of it for 2 1/2 weeks and the thing is still bubbling away, though slowing down.
 
schneemann since you are the perfect test case, you could just wait until your beer is ready to drink, and then report back to the rest of us whether the honey aroma and flavors came through or not. :D
 
Crap, I just wasted 2# of honey.....except for the sugars. I think I'll just stick to kits where it's all spelled our for me for a while. :drunk:
 
So, even raw honey doesn't need to be pasteurized? I'm just wondering because why would the company put a sticker on the honey marking it raw seperately from the other honey if it doesn't make a difference?
 
I think that boiling maple syrup is fine. Maple sap is boiled for hours and hours to drive off extra liquid. Another few minutes isn't going to make any difference.
 
So, even raw honey doesn't need to be pasteurized? I'm just wondering because why would the company put a sticker on the honey marking it raw seperately from the other honey if it doesn't make a difference?

Honey isn't sterile.
It won't 'go bad' because there's almost no water in it.
But the bugs are there waiting for a little water so they can go to work.
 
The problem with boiling honey is that honey is made up of hundreds of different compounds that create it's flavor profile. Many of these flavor compounds are volitile, meaning they vaporize and dissipate with the application of heat. Honey that has been heated tastes dead, just a sweet syrup. The flavors that make it taste like honey are provided by these volitile compounds. Most mead makers do not boil thier honey, and many don't heat it at all.
 
"Honey is a miracle food; it never goes bad. It was reported that archaeologists found 2000 year old jars of honey in Egyptian tombs and they still tasted delicious! Many people find it rather surprising that bacteria cannot grow in honey because all things being equal, bacteria loves sugar. The unique chemical composition of low water content and relatively high acidic level in honey creates a low pH (3.2-4.5) environment that makes it very unfavourable for bacteria or other micro-organism to grow. " = you dont heat honey.
http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/honey-facts.html
 
That's good info, but it's not really applied to why you don't boil honey. Once honey is diluted it CAN get infected. It probably doesn't contain any bacteria, however, at the time you make the addition.

It's more about taste. Some people do pasteurize their honey, but boiling is never recommended.
 
you just dumped a 2 year old thread to chime in and agree with everyone else?
 
thanks for bumping, I'm just now doing my first orange, honey, wheat beer right now. Right now I'm planning on pitching my orange right at flame out and the honey about 4 days into fermentation.

I think I got this right, anyone care to chime in?
 
Ugh, why flameout? That still overheats your honey. Chill first, down to at least 130F or lower, then add honey. And yes, honey ferments very easily in wort. Oh, and honey can easily go bad, depending upon storage conditions and particulars.
 
Ugh, why flameout? That still overheats your honey. Chill first, down to at least 130F or lower, then add honey. And yes, honey ferments very easily in wort. Oh, and honey can easily go bad, depending upon storage conditions and particulars.

Reread what he posted, orange at flameout, honey 4 days into fermentation...
 
will adding honey into the fermenter after the boil still up the ABV%?

thinking about doing a summer american wheat and adding 1-2# of orange blossom honey. I don't want to overwhelm the beer with honey flavor, but would like to impart a hint of aroma and flavor while also boosting the ABV to ~5.2-5.4%
 
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