Added A Lot Of Honey

I brewed a honey nut brown last night from midwest. The kit came with 2 lbs of honey and i added 5 lbs on top of it. The OG was 1.092. Is this beer going to have to sit for a couple of months, or will 4 weeks primary do the job?

sounds like you need a high alcohol tolerable yeast.. something like Safale S-33.

The yeast i used was Wyeast british ale 1098, and i made a starter. Is this going to work?

sounds like, as far as I know, it can tolerate up to 10% ABV.

I have to ask, why? Non-malt fermentables should usually be no more than 25% of the total, and I understand that excessive honey (more than two pounds per 5 gallon batch) can impart a saccharine finish that can really take away from the malty characteristics of beer. I am still fairly new to this myself, so others, please jump in here if I am way off base with this.

No real reason, just went for it.

Sounds like a braggot -- a beer mead hybrid. I made a dry mead on Thurs with 12.5 lbs honey for 5 gallons, and the OG was 1.096, so you're in the right ballpark. I haven't tried a braggot yet, but for Honey Porter, the honey completely ferments out, giving a rather dry beer, assuming you have a yeast that can handle that OG (not saccharine at all -- perhaps you're thinking of cane sugar and cider flavors?). My hydrometer says you're at ~13% potential alcohol, so the British Ale yeast might poop out leaving you with some residual sugar. You might want to add a bit of dry yeast if you really want it dry -- either a champagne yeast or at least some S-04 (the British Ale Yeast, but I don't see its alcohol tolerance listed on Fermentis site). If you're going to keg it, it may taste just fine off-dry. In fact, I think it sounds tasty!

thats gonna be a pretty thin beer when its done. That much honey will definitely cut down on the body.

One thing you may consider doing is letting it ferment for 2 weeks, then pitch in a high gravity yeast like White Labs WLP 099 as it can tolerate up to 25% alcohol.

92greenyj said:

One thing you may consider doing is letting it ferment for 2 weeks, then pitch in a high gravity yeast like White Labs WLP 099 as it can tolerate up to 25% alcohol.

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Some dry champagne yeast would probably do the trick too. That would be cheaper.

you might want to pitch some yeast nutrients and energizer in there as well, as honey has almost none.

eric, true, but you get what you pay for. I wouldn't use champagne yeast, let alone dry yeast. I use White Labs exclusively and have had nothing but stellar results.

pimento makes a good point too. didnt even think about the yeast nutrient

If i pitch the high gravity liquid yeast will i still need the nutrient?

Brasco20 said:

If i pitch the high gravity liquid yeast will i still need the nutrient?

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Couldn't hurt. It doesn't matter if your yeast can handle high amounts of alcohol if it is never able to multiply in the first place.

92greenyj said:

eric, true, but you get what you pay for. I wouldn't use champagne yeast, let alone dry yeast. I use White Labs exclusively and have had nothing but stellar results.

pimento makes a good point too. didnt even think about the yeast nutrient

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Not all dry yeast is bad. I'll put up a number of beers I've made with S-05 next to almost anything made with WLP-001. Sure, you have better range of yeast with liquid, but there are some good dry yeast strains in the world.

92greenyj said:

eric, true, but you get what you pay for. I wouldn't use champagne yeast, let alone dry yeast. I use White Labs exclusively and have had nothing but stellar results.

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Sounds like yeast snobbery to me. There are some stellar dry yeasts... and like mentioned, US-05 is one of them. It's my favorite, in fact. I've made beers with that I would put up against anyone's, anytime, anyplace.

There are some good liquid yeasts too. But nothing wrong with the economics of dry.

As far as the OP recipe... well, it will be beer ( or something close), eventually.

Good luck.

You started with a Midwest kit. Look at their Barleywine kit. It starts with a liquid yeast, (I used Wyeast 1056 American Ale when I made it), and then adds rehydrated dry champagne yeast to the secondary to help bring the FG down. So you could let the yeast you already have do most of the fermentation, and add its character to your beer.

Yeah, nutrients are a good idea. You want to keep your yeast happy. Also, it might be good to ferment on the cool side, at least under 70, to avoid making rocket fuel. If you can avoid stressing the yeast, you shouldn't have off flavors that need to be aged out.

You realize that you have used more honey than malt, more fermentables from honey than anything else. You officially have a mead, or a braggot, not a beer. It may be beer-like, but it is not a beer anymore, and it never will be again. Forget what you know about fermenting beer, and go hit up the mead forum and read some stickies there about the unique challenges of fermenting honey, such as lower ph, temps, oxygen, phenols, nutrients, sulfur, aeration, degassing, stabilizers, carbonation, and so forth. I can't figure out why you would add 7 pounds of honey to your beer. How did you mix it in?

Our selection of malt gives this smooth brown ale a hint of nutty flavor, while the honey delivers a sweet finish. A great kit for brewers who are starting to appreciate darker homebrews. Our ingredients for this recipe include 6 lbs. Amber liquid malt extract, 2 lbs. Minnesota Clover Honey, 8 oz. Crystal 10L Malt, 4 oz. Chocolate Malt specialty grains, 1.5 oz. German Northern Brewer bittering hops, 0.5 oz. Willamette aroma hops, 1 tsp. Gypsum, 1 tsp. Irish Moss, yeast, priming sugar and a grain bag.

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I believe traditional meads are the most problematic. The beer ingredients should help. If you can, read the braggot section in Schramm's Compleat Meadmaker. Sounded a lot like brewing a strong Honey Porter, to me, except that he uses a wine yeast. (OT, try adding a couple of pounds of honey to Midwest's Powerpack Porter -- it tasted great!)

Probably would be a good idea to gently de-gas it while you're adding your nutrients, and once a day for the first few days. Just stir out the CO2 gently, to avoid a mead eruption, then slowly add your nutrients and gently stir again until it stops fizzing. If you rush it, it may foam over. I didn't degas my first meads though, and they still finished fermenting in a week. But the fermentation does perk up with degassing. And, again, it's good to keep your yeasts happy.

In any case, don't panic. It will probably be fine, if not quite what you expected. It might help to read the stickies in the mead forum, too.

Thanks for all the info guys! If it doesnt turn out great, its ok, im just experimenting and having fun with it. Still new at this stuff. I'll let the yeast in there now finish up and see how it tastes, if its too sweet i'll probably add the high gravity yeast with some nutrient. Maybe it will be good a bit sweet, we'll see.

First off, I fully support what you did here. I've been meaning to try a braggot sometime just to see what it's like, but I've been unable to do so yet.

As others have said, read up on braggots and meadmaking. You've definitely left beer brewing territory at this point, but I think it could turn out quite well if you take the necessary steps. I think the finishing up with champagne yeast is a good idea.

Brasco20 said:

Thanks for all the info guys! If it doesnt turn out great, its ok, im just experimenting and having fun with it. Still new at this stuff. I'll let the yeast in there now finish up and see how it tastes, if its too sweet i'll probably add the high gravity yeast with some nutrient. Maybe it will be good a bit sweet, we'll see.

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I would add the nutrients sooner than later. Some nutrients aren't useful after certain points in fermentation. Also, if you're planning to bottle carbonate this, you'll have to add champagne yeast and let it dry out, you won't have the option of leaving it sweeter.

Fletch78 I added all of the honey the last 5 min of the boil, just stirred it in. After taking my hydro reading i tasted the wort, you can imagine how sweet it was, it actually tasted great, like something for desert.