Adding Honey To Increase ABV

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Twtr25

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My LHBS gave me some info on how to make cider. In there info it said that honey could be added to the cider at the beginning of the primary fermentation to increase the alcohol content, and it had a table that laid out how much the alcohol would increase depending on how much honey was added.

Today I was at my LHBS and was talking to one of the employees about my cider I brewed about 3-4 weeks ago and I mentioned adding honey. She goes on to say, "Yes, honey can be used to increase the alcohol, but you want to boil it first in water to pasteurize it." NOWHERE in the instructions that they gave me beforehand did it say anything about using pasteurized honey or pasteurizing it myself BEFORE putting it in the cider.

So, my question is...if I just added regular honey that I bought from the grocery store, will that affect my cider at all?!?! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I didn't waste the last month for nothing.
 
Nothing grows on honey. It is naturally pasteurized. You can get some wild yeast or other undesirable bugs on its surface, but they will be in such small numbers that providing the main yeast gets going quickly, or as in your case, you have alcohol already, they will not be a concern.

Heating the honey can remove some of it's flavors.

Adding honey to beer, with lots of residual sugars could be a problem.
 
Nothing grows on honey. It is naturally pasteurized. You can get some wild yeast or other undesirable bugs on its surface, but they will be in such small numbers that providing the main yeast gets going quickly, or as in your case, you have alcohol already, they will not be a concern.

Heating the honey can remove some of it's flavors.

Adding honey to beer, with lots of residual sugars could be a problem.

Basically I threw together some apple juice, apple juice concentrate, some other juice concentrate, sugar, water, and then honey. Once all of it was mixed together very well, I pitched the yeast. And it started fermenting very rapidly (based on the airlock) in just about 24 hours, or a little less.

I'm thinking it will be fine, other than the fact that I will need to backsweeten it and also maybe add some acid blend.
 
Basically I threw together some apple juice, apple juice concentrate, some other juice concentrate, sugar, water, and then honey. Once all of it was mixed together very well, I pitched the yeast. And it started fermenting very rapidly (based on the airlock) in just about 24 hours, or a little less.

I'm thinking it will be fine, other than the fact that I will need to backsweeten it and also maybe add some acid blend.

sounds like prison hooch.
 
Sounds like a real dry cider with a high ABV. Wine conditioner works good for sweetening cider and time after bottling.:drunk:
 
Sounds like a real dry cider with a high ABV. Wine conditioner works good for sweetening cider and time after bottling.:drunk:

I expect it to be very dry and I'm guessing it will be somewhere around 10% ABV. My plan was to backsweeten it with one or two cans of frozen apple juice concentrate, and I'm also going to add some acid blend to add a little bit of tart.
 
I expect it to be very dry and I'm guessing it will be somewhere around 10% ABV. My plan was to backsweeten it with one or two cans of frozen apple juice concentrate, and I'm also going to add some acid blend to add a little bit of tart.

Unless you kill the yeast it is just going to ferment the concentrate. The alternative would be to pasteurize it (see sticky in cider forum), but that seems risky to me.
 
Unless you kill the yeast it is just going to ferment the concentrate. The alternative would be to pasteurize it (see sticky in cider forum), but that seems risky to me.

I stove topped pasteurized a cider, no mishaps and I'm an idiot. My flaw is the pasteurized cider tastes "tinny/metalic" compared to the un-pasteurized cider I had in plastic pop bottles. Might not be related, but it's the only thing I can think of.
 
I expect it to be very dry and I'm guessing it will be somewhere around 10% ABV. My plan was to backsweeten it with one or two cans of frozen apple juice concentrate, and I'm also going to add some acid blend to add a little bit of tart.

Wine conditioner is used to back sweeten cider by alot of people , because it sweetens and contains the sulfite and sorbate needed to halt fermentation when bottled.You can find more info here on HBT as to how much to use. I personally like the convenience. I would have used the acid blend at the beginning of fermentation, if at all. Cheers:)
 
I've added honey to my beer at flame out, so it never actually gets boiled, but the nearly boiling temp wort dissolves the honey quickly and makes it easy to add. I've never had a problem introducing any bacteria or anything like that, plus as others said, honey is naturally anti-bacterial. Most likely grocery store honey will be pasteurized anyway unless it says 100% natural or something like that on the label, either way, I wouldn't worry too much, I don't think you could ruin a batch with store bought honey.
 
Unless you kill the yeast it is just going to ferment the concentrate. The alternative would be to pasteurize it (see sticky in cider forum), but that seems risky to me.

I kegged the whole batch yesterday. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the yeast kind of quit working once the temperature is lowered to a certain amount?

As soon as I got it in the keg and backsweetened, I put it in my kegerator and I've been forcing Co2 into it.
 
Wine conditioner is used to back sweeten cider by alot of people , because it sweetens and contains the sulfite and sorbate needed to halt fermentation when bottled.You can find more info here on HBT as to how much to use. I personally like the convenience. I would have used the acid blend at the beginning of fermentation, if at all. Cheers:)

My LHBS suggested backsweetening with frozen concentrate, and it was simple enough just letting the cans melt and pouring it in without having to measure anything, so that's what I did. Luckily, I didn't end up bottling, so once I got it into my keg, it was immediately put into my kegerator.

I tasted it once I had it back sweetened and honestly, I didn't feel it needed any acid blend. Who knows, maybe I will wish I had put it in once I get a taste of it carbonated.
 
As you might have read in one of my earlier posts, I went ahead and kegged the cider yesterday...

It was backsweetened with 2 cans of frozen apple juice concentrate, and for added flavor I added some artificial raspberry flavoring. I tasted it after that and it tasted really good. Even my fiance', who's beer of choice is Butt Light Lime, liked it.

Lastly, after taking my FG reading and doing the calculations, this cider is approximately 8.9% ABV. Looks like New Year's Day could be spent hungover :)
 
I assumed you were bottling - my bad!

It does depend on the yeast, but most go dormant below 40 F (well, most actually go dormant by the mid 50s.

If it warms up again, they will get active.
 
I too assumed you were bottling. The wife likes the bubbles when I carb a batch. I have 4 liters for tomorrow, it was made last February and is perfect now. Enjoy & Cheers:D
 
I've added honey to my beer at flame out, so it never actually gets boiled, but the nearly boiling temp wort dissolves the honey quickly and makes it easy to add. I've never had a problem introducing any bacteria or anything like that, plus as others said, honey is naturally anti-bacterial. :eek:Most likely grocery store honey will be pasteurized anyway unless it says 100% natural or something like that on the label, either way, I wouldn't worry too much, I don't think you could ruin a batch with store bought honey.

I had a fairly protracted "discussion" with my FIL where he asserted this. I did a little research and learned that honey does NOT have any antibiotic properties. Bacteria cannot grow in a high sugar environment, which is why it does not spoil despite being packaged with no preservatives and no refrigeration. Once you dilute it in your wort, the sugar concentration reduces to a point where it *can* support bacteria. There could be bacteria on the surface of trhe honey, it just won't colonize the jar untill the sugar percentage is reduced.
 
I did a little research and learned that honey does NOT have any antibiotic properties. Bacteria cannot grow in a high sugar environment, which is why it does not spoil despite being packaged with no preservatives and no refrigeration. Once you dilute it in your wort, the sugar concentration reduces to a point where it *can* support bacteria. There could be bacteria on the surface of trhe honey, it just won't colonize the jar untill the sugar percentage is reduced.

I think that is basically what I said. See below:

Nothing grows on honey. It is naturally pasteurized. You can get some wild yeast or other undesirable bugs on its surface, but they will be in such small numbers that providing the main yeast gets going quickly, or as in your case, you have alcohol already, they will not be a concern.
 
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