Bottling with Honey

So i would have put this in the bottling and kegging section but it seems like that section should be just called Kegging! I'm a newb with 4 batches under my belt, all recipes from the Brooklyn BrewShop book and they are big on using all natural elements so all the recipes pretty much call for honey or syrup for bottling. maple syrup is pretty thin and it easily seemed to mix into one of my batches. The first time I bottled with honey I goofed and racked to my bottling bucket and then added honey instead of racking on top of it. That time I boiled a cup of water and cooled it down and mixed it with the honey to thin it out a bit. Today I decided that I would just pour the straight honey into the bottling bucket and then rack on top of it. Things seemed to go fine but when I went to clean the bottling bucket after finishing bottling, it appeared that there was a fair amount of honey still stuck on the bottom of the bucket.

FWIW, the other beer that I primed with honey just went past the 2 week mark a couple days ago and i've had a few and it seems fully carbed but I'm just trying to get a feel for what the best practices are when using honey to carbonate.

I have an apiary (I'm a beekeeper) and if there is one thing that I know it is honey... and beer.
honey is not very soluble in liquid unless it is warm and priming is done at room temp (for ales) and it is not easy to incorporate the honey in the beer unless the honey is warm. If not you will end up with honey that sinks to the bottom. my suggestion would be heat your honey (to about 100 f ) before you add and stir well, or just use a different sugar for priming.

BackwoodBrewery said:

I have an apiary (I'm a beekeeper) and if there is one thing that I know it is honey... and beer.
honey is not very soluble in liquid unless it is warm and priming is done at room temp (for ales) and it is not easy to incorporate the honey in the beer unless the honey is warm. If not you will end up with honey that sinks to the bottom. my suggestion would be heat your honey (to about 100 f ) before you add and stir well, or just use a different sugar for priming.

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Thats what i was thinking which is why the first time around I boiled water, added the honey while it was hot and mixed it up, and then mixed the two together and let them cool. I was worried about doing something to the yeast if I added it when it was too hot but I suppose since i'm adding a relatively small amount of hotter substance into a large amount of room temp liquid it wouldn't be too big of a deal.

BackwoodBrewery said:

if there is one thing that I know it is honey... and beer.

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That's two things...

I just primed a 2 gallon batch with honey. If I did my calculations right, it was four tablespoons. I sterilized and heated a cup of water, mixed the honey into it one tbs at a time until dissolved, and then poured it into a bottling bucket and racked the beer in on top of it. We'll see how it turns out.

I only use honey for priming...try this:

3 tablespoon PER GALLON is the standard, but I use 4 since I like slightly overcarbed beers. Heat up the honey as stated...I put it in about a 1/2 pint of water and heat it until I see steam. Then I start stirring the crap out of it...get the water up the sides and all over...you should not be able to tell there is honey in there. Finally, bottle IMMEDIATELY! Yes the water is probably 100 degrees at first, but after you add the beer (whirlpool if you can) it will be fine.

Do not let the water/honey cool. My best beer to date was ruined by this as the honey started to stick and sink again. You can hand carb with honey if you own a cupcake baking rack and a large eye dropper, but thats a whole nother story and I think I am one of the only people who have tried this as I found no information on it...you would need to use 22oz bottles for the best results.

Calichusetts said:

I only use honey for priming...try this:

3 tablespoon PER GALLON is the standard, but I use 4 since I like slightly overcarbed beers. Heat up the honey as stated...I put it in about a 1/2 pint of water and heat it until I see steam. Then I start stirring the crap out of it...get the water up the sides and all over...you should not be able to tell there is honey in there. Finally, bottle IMMEDIATELY! Yes the water is probably 100 degrees at first, but after you add the beer (whirlpool if you can) it will be fine.

Do not let the water/honey cool. My best beer to date was ruined by this as the honey started to stick and sink again. You can hand carb with honey if you own a cupcake baking rack and a large eye dropper, but thats a whole nother story and I think I am one of the only people who have tried this as I found no information on it...you would need to use 22oz bottles for the best results.

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Awesome info, so if I get that right, are you saying when you pour the honey in the bottling bucket that you are pouring it all around the sides of the bucket and then racking it in there?

Yup...get a little whirlpool action going in the bottling bucket or pot, whichever you use. Get it up the sides and splashed around, I really try to get a high speed whirlpool going. It mixes the honey better and it helps with cooling.

Be ready to rack immediately after you put it down and be ready to bottle immediately. You don't have to be rushing around with your head cut off, do it right, but the longer you wait the more it settles and condenses again. Just have your bottles ready, caps (might want to put caps on but actually cap after they are all full.) and anything else.

My actual ritual:

Move carboy to kitchen the night before
Fill up sanitizing bucket and submerge siphon, tubing and any other equipment
Sanitize bottling pot
Add 1/2 pint water to pot, heat at mid setting
Submerge bottles in sani-bucket
Add honey...should see steam or feel heat (100-120)
Assemble auto-siphon and let it float in sani-bucket
Swirl honey...end heat
Uncap carboy, grab siphon
Place bottling bucket under carboy (get a nice swirl going)
Rack
Put bottles in sink
Rack to bottle
Done

From heating water in bottling pot to capping...I'd say its a total of 15 minutes, but again, this is a 6 pack of 16oz

If you use a syringe with warm/hot honey, 3 mL per 750mL bottle will give you good carbonation. Perfect for a Saison.
Search ebay for "plastic syringe".

dstar26t said:

If you use a syringe with warm/hot honey, 3 mL per 750mL bottle will give you good carbonation. Perfect for a Saison.
Search ebay for "plastic syringe".

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You can also find a meat-flavor injector to do this...I really like the idea of carbing individually

dstar26t said:

If you use a syringe with warm/hot honey, 3 mL per 750mL bottle will give you good carbonation. Perfect for a Saison.
Search ebay for "plastic syringe".

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Im not a math guy so I'll ask, how many ml's would i put in to a 12oz bottle?
And will the honey imapart any flavor of aroma?

Thanks!!

1-2 mililiters will work fine.

Any yes, you will get both aroma and flavor. I have only bottled with honey and love it...but it can be overpowering if you drink them early like IPAs. I just tried two of my imperials that spent 5 weeks carbing and 2 weeks in the fridge. Even though they are super hopped, have a few spices/fruit additions, the honey is still the first aroma/flavor I get. I also overcarb with it if that helps

Calichusetts said:

1-2 mililiters will work fine.

Any yes, you will get both aroma and flavor. I have only bottled with honey and love it...but it can be overpowering if you drink them early like IPAs. I just tried two of my imperials that spent 5 weeks carbing and 2 weeks in the fridge. Even though they are super hopped, have a few spices/fruit additions, the honey is still the first aroma/flavor I get. I also overcarb with it if that helps

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Excellent, think I will give this a shot with a wheat beer that's fermenting!

I used to prime with honey, but then realized that priming sugar at the LHBS was significantly cheaper than the local honey I get. And I have read that honey, being 98% fermentable, gives very little taste to the beer. I was never able to detect the difference, but my palette is quite unrefined, so maybe it's there and I just can't tell.

Either way, I used to heat the honey in a small amount of water and then rack on top of it in the bottling bucket. I never seemed to have any problem with settling or inconstistent carbing on the 1-gallon Brooklyn BrewShop kits I was doing.

You can definitely taste it...I do 1-2 gallon batches so I usually make big beers like IIPAs that are super hopped, yet the first aroma or taste is always honey...try orange blossom honey, I have found it the most aromatic and flavorful of the major commercial types of honey.

I have only bottled with honey yet I just started doing lighter beers and lagers and I am very worried about bottling with honey and how it might overpower the taste

UPDATE I think I'm screwed. It's now been 2 weeks since I bottled the ipa that I used honey to carb by pouring straight honey in the bottom. the beers aren't carbed at all. They make a very slight pfft when opened and when I pour the beer straight in the glass they make almost no bubbles whatsoever. I bottled a belgian 5 days agao where i heated the honey with water and then cooled it and slowly poured it in on top of the racked beer in the bottling bucket and I just chilled one of those an dopened it and it is fully carbed.

I'm well aware that sometimes things take time but when I made this ipa and put the honey on the bottom and racked on top of it by the time I finished bottling there was a pretty darn good amount of sticky honey on the bottom of the bottling bucket. I suspect that no amount of time is going to remedy this situation. What do you guys think?

Honey will take longer...try again in 2 weeks, especially if you did not dilute the honey first...might even take 6 weeks total

If a majority of the honey did not make it in you will have to add more honey and recap

Calichusetts said:

Honey will take longer...try again in 2 weeks, especially if you did not dilute the honey first...might even take 6 weeks total

If a majority of the honey did not make it in you will have to add more honey and recap

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so do you think if only a small amount made it in it's just gonna take a lot longer? since i've only got a few batches under my belt I'm at the phase where I try a beer 1 day after bottling, 3 days, and then 7 days just trying to get a feel for it. Presently at the 2 week mark they are at the same point as they were at day 3 which is why I really feel like there just isn't enough in there. The belgian beer I did actually came out closer to 6 gallons than the 5 it was supposed to be and it is plenty carbed up after 5 days. I know I"ve heard stories of it taking a long time for some beers to carb up but I'm just really wondering if I should just uncap em all right now and not waste 2 weeks time.

Honey, especially if you did not dillute it VERY WELL in hot water, then again in the beer, will be slow going. I used to cheat as well...trying my IPAs after two weeks, and I would usually get lucky and the first would be pretty well carbed...then I would try the second and it might be carbed. So I would crack 3 and 4 and they would be flat and I would be so mad that I couldn't wait in the first place

I really can't tell you if you should uncap since I have no idea how much was left it. Two batches ago I let the honey start to solidify and after I finished bottling there was probably 20% left in the pot after I added it to the beer. Carbing fine (9.5% IIPAs at 4 weeks carbing then 1 week in fridge) but it was still a little undercarbed. The rest should be fine.

I personally overcarb with honey...one to avoid it the solidifying problem and also because I like more carbed up beers than most (3 and up). I have only had that problem one time though and really enjoy using honey to bottle with.

Calichusetts said:

Honey, especially if you did not dillute it VERY WELL in hot water, then again in the beer, will be slow going. I used to cheat as well...trying my IPAs after two weeks, and I would usually get lucky and the first would be pretty well carbed...then I would try the second and it might be carbed. So I would crack 3 and 4 and they would be flat and I would be so mad that I couldn't wait in the first place

I really can't tell you if you should uncap since I have no idea how much was left it. Two batches ago I let the honey start to solidify and after I finished bottling there was probably 20% left in the pot after I added it to the beer. Carbing fine (9.5% IIPAs at 4 weeks carbing then 1 week in fridge) but it was still a little undercarbed. The rest should be fine.

I personally overcarb with honey...one to avoid it the solidifying problem and also because I like more carbed up beers than most (3 and up). I have only had that problem one time though and really enjoy using honey to bottle with.

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this is good info. I will give it more time and just let it do it's thing. I would also think that there would be some of them that got a decent amount of honey in it and others that didn't but they all have been at the same point thus far so perhaps they will end up okay

CPFITNESS said:

So i would have put this in the bottling and kegging section but it seems like that section should be just called Kegging! I'm a newb with 4 batches under my belt, all recipes from the Brooklyn BrewShop book and they are big on using all natural elements so all the recipes pretty much call for honey or syrup for bottling. maple syrup is pretty thin and it easily seemed to mix into one of my batches. The first time I bottled with honey I goofed and racked to my bottling bucket and then added honey instead of racking on top of it. That time I boiled a cup of water and cooled it down and mixed it with the honey to thin it out a bit. Today I decided that I would just pour the straight honey into the bottling bucket and then rack on top of it. Things seemed to go fine but when I went to clean the bottling bucket after finishing bottling, it appeared that there was a fair amount of honey still stuck on the bottom of the bucket.

FWIW, the other beer that I primed with honey just went past the 2 week mark a couple days ago and i've had a few and it seems fully carbed but I'm just trying to get a feel for what the best practices are when using honey to carbonate.

Click to expand...

i did bottle my belgian ale and did prime a few bottle with honey and did prime a few bottles with molasse, i didnt even take measurement, i just did add the syrup straight down the bottle than poured beer on top of it, clamped the groslch bottles, let that sit for a month.

now im so sad....because it was the first time i was priming with other than corn sugar, and the results were totally amazing! but there no beer left since i kegged the rest, the kegged version is good, the bottled primed with honey and those with molasse were just totally insane

dont be scared, just try, were a lot of people, all brewing differently, all methods are different but works.

my next belgian blonde will be ready to keg in 2 weeks i will prime a batch with honey again, another with molasse and another with maple syrup.

oh and btw yes it did add a honey flavor to the beer as well as the molasse too, just go bold and pour it down that bottle as long as its pasteurized.