Honey question - recipe vs forum discrepancy

I'd like to say I have searched but still have a question.

I just brewed a honey amber ale (extract & grain recipe) and followed the instructions exactly. The problem is that they instructed me to add honey with the malt extract at the beginning of the boil... i then boiled total mixture for nearly another hour (with the hops). After searching on here, it sounds like i surely boiled out the flavors and aromas of the honey since i boiled at the beginning and for much longer than 10 minutes.

Since the honey was the ingredient i was most excited about tasting in the beer, i am scratching my head about what to do next, so here are my questions.

Did i boil out all of the flavors and aromas of honey?

Is it worth adding additional honey when i rack to the secondary? The directions also call out that i add water to the secondary to fill the volume up (will yeild 5 gallons). I am thinking that i could add diluted honey in the water when i add the water to the secondary. Any tips on this? Any idea on how much honey to add along at this phase? What are the odds that this additional step would ruin the beer? My honey is grade A supermarket honey.

I would be adding the honey/water mixture on top of the beer.. any problems with that?

How about adding a diluted honey mixture in the keg during the kegging phase? I would intend on following the same procedure just in the keg rather than the secondary. One option better than the other?

FWIW - the OG of this beer turned out to be 1.061 (without temp correction); recipe called out an OG of 1.055.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: If I am fighting an uphill battle that has a slim chance of changing anything for the better, then let me know and i will just leave it as is and put my faith in the recipe.

In my experience, honey aromas don't generally hold out in the beer however you add it. The honey adds a certain element to the beer you can't get any other way I know of. But that element is more a dryness with a high, light sweetness in the aftertaste. It's not really honey flavor.
Adding really aromatic honey - i.e. orange blossom honey - may be a different story. I would add such honeys near the end of primary fermentation to preserve the aromas.

You could add honey to the secondary, though it may have difficulty fermenting out very well. If you do a later addition, add it before you rack off the yeast cake and let it ferment out. Honey is a natural preservative, so I doubt you'd be at any risk of infection by adding it then. If you want to be sure, you could put the honey in a jar and submerge it in 160*F water for a half hour, with a lid on loosely.

Again, not sure if this will really add discernible honey flavor. Especially in an amber ale. But you won't harm anything by trying; at worst you'll just boost your alcohol somewhat.

I agree with skyforger, honey doesn't stand out that much in beer. If you feel it necessary, I would add it to primary as well. That way it still has time to ferment some of the sugars in secondary and the beer wont be too sweet.

srl135 said:

Is it worth adding additional honey when i rack to the secondary? The directions also call out that i add water to the secondary to fill the volume up (will yeild 5 gallons). I am thinking that i could add diluted honey in the water when i add the water to the secondary.

Click to expand...

Yeah you can add honey to the secondary, it will kick start ferementing again so you'll have to let that finish.

I find adding the honey at 5min after flameout works fine , but I only use Leighton's Orange Blossom Honey after trying many,many other brands that would just fade away. No flavor nor aroma, but Leighton's brand would always work.

Honey will ferement 100%

I was wondering how everyone goes about determining if their fermenation is done? I would assume that involves taking at least 2 hydrometer readings on 2 seperate days that yield a reading that doesnt change anymore.. but if you want to minimize the # of times the beer is exposed to air, then wouldnt multiple checks on the hydrometer put the beer at a higher risk of over exposure?

Would it be a safe bet to stick with the 1,2,3 method i read on here about? Should 2 weeks in the secondary be enough even with the additional honey going in?

If you're wanting honey flavour in your brew, try adding honey malt; you'll actually get more honey flavour with honey malt than with actual honey. Regards, GF.

srl135 said:

I was wondering how everyone goes about determining if their fermenation is done? I would assume that involves taking at least 2 hydrometer readings on 2 seperate days that yield a reading that doesnt change anymore.. but if you want to minimize the # of times the beer is exposed to air, then wouldnt multiple checks on the hydrometer put the beer at a higher risk of over exposure?

Would it be a safe bet to stick with the 1,2,3 method i read on here about? Should 2 weeks in the secondary be enough even with the additional honey going in?

Click to expand...

Opening the fermenter up for two readings is going to be a lot less exposure than transferring the whole batch to secondary for no reason.

Your beer will be fine.

I've used honey twice now. Both times the taste the honey is nearly all gone. There is something it leaves though. When tasting honey, you will note a sweet start with a slight bitter end to it. The slight bitter shows up in my beers. It is noticable for me anyway.

If you are looking for a honey taste though, you need to use Honey Malt. That will give a slight honey profile to the taste.

I used honey this past weekend for the first time. I added it at flame out and hope for the best. LOL

We'll see.

It comes down to fermenting temp,quality of honey.

In my panty-dropper-honey-wheat I had to back off 1/2lb of honey as it was too strong.


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f70/panty-dropper-honey-wheat-151570/

well i am fermeting with WLP051 at 70-72F. Oh and the WLP051 yeast is definatly releasing it's sulfer aroma with some fury right now. My laundry room smells rank.

I dont have a way to even chill my ferment temp right now so i hope room temperature will work...

I added honey to a wheat at flameout. I was very surprised/ pleased how much of the honey flavor remained.

For the record, it was cheap honey (clover, I think) from walmart.

The recipe and pics are in my Recipes pulldown.