Adding honey to an American Cream Ale

I'm working with a Brewer's Best American Cream Ale kit and I would love to add honey to it. Here is the current recipe:

1oz. Willamette hops, boil for 40 min.
Add 2lbs of Light DME and 1lb of Corn Sugar
Boil 5 min
Add 1oz Willamette hops, boil for 10 min.
Terminate boil

So my question is when to add the honey, or could I substitute the corn sugar for honey? Or should I use the honey when bottling? Or am I crazy and should skip the honey all together?

You can use it for priming...I've done that but you won't get much if any flavor contribution because you're not adding much. If you want to add enough to get a flavor and aroma contribution, I'd add it at flameout and chill quickly. The flavor compounds in honey are pretty volatile, so if you boil it or hold it at high temps too long they'll get lost.

I havent made a cream ale, but I usually add honey into my fermenter at high krausen.
If it is filtered and all that junk, ill dissolve it in preboiled water and throw it in. I usually use unfiltered/unprocessed honey which I dissolve in water then hold at ~160 for 10 min.
I have found adding it to an active fermentation will leave the slightest honey flavor as opposed to almost none when added during the boil. Also, I have not had any infections doing it this way.

microbusbrewery said:

You can use it for priming...I've done that but you won't get much if any flavor contribution because you're not adding much. If you want to add enough to get a flavor and aroma contribution, I'd add it at flameout and chill quickly. The flavor compounds in honey are pretty volatile, so if you boil it or hold it at high temps too long they'll get lost.

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+1.

One of my first attempts at tweaking a recipe I put 2.5lbs of honey in at 45 minutes. Not one of my finest brews.

Thanks for the advice, I will give it a go at flame out and see how it turns out. I'll try to get an update in a couple weeks at bottling.

I don't know too too much about it, but I've added at around flameout and nothing came through. Just boosted the gravity. I've heard at high krausen works well. I intend on doing this next time I use honey.
Other option...use a bit of honey malt.

Added 2lbs of wildflower honey at flame out, then cooled about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. QS'd to 6 gallons. OG:~1.055. It's locked away in the fermenter bucket until next week when I will rack to a glass carboy. Initial taste was very sweet (duh), but the hops mellowed it out nicely. I'm excited to see how this turns out. Thanks again for all of the advice!

btw you should never get an infection from honey, it is anti-septic by nature

Mostly true, except for Clostridium botulinum. This bacteria is the reason that it is not recommended to feed honey to infants. Under the right conditions, it can produce a toxin so potent that a thimble full could kill 2 million people. In diluted concentrations it is the active ingredient in Botox. I'm not concerned about it with the beer though, if the brew is rank after the second week, I'll dump it. The more you know!

Source: I'm a microbiologist.

Its not just Clostridium spores, there can be lots of spores in honey. Honey's antibacterial properties rely on osmotic pressure. When diluted into wort it no longer retains those properties, although alcohol is usually apparent to kill most spoilage bacteria that could grow.

True though that honey is not usually a source of infection.

ALofty said:

Added 2lbs of wildflower honey at flame out, then cooled about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. QS'd to 6 gallons. OG:~1.055. It's locked away in the fermenter bucket until next week when I will rack to a glass carboy. Initial taste was very sweet (duh), but the hops mellowed it out nicely. I'm excited to see how this turns out. Thanks again for all of the advice!

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I've used honey at flameout without any flavor coming through. It does boost the gravity and dries the beer out a bit (nicely) but no honey flavor. I too intend to add at high krausen next time. I will also be using some honey malt as well.

Good luck! Even if you don't get the honey flavor, you look set to be drinking a tasty beer!

Noob question here...would adding honey in the secondary be to late to add and possibly cause issues? If I added it to 2ndary would this prolong the duration of beer in the 2ndary? If the add is possible, how much could I add the 5 gals to taste a bit of the honey in the finished prod and would I need to dilute it or mix it with anything to thin it???

You would probably want to follow the pasteurization techniques listed above. I think you also run the risk of repriming the yeast by adding that much sugar to your batch. You will be looking at a high gravity situation too. Just my thoughts, not sure exactly how it would turn out.

I did the Midwest Liberty Cream Ale Kit and added 1lb of local honey with 5min left in the boil. It tastes amazing, but Im not sure I can taste the honey. It did bump the ABV nearly 1%

Well I transfered this yesterday because I wanted the yeast to pitch into a new batch2. ...............

At 7 days mine had a 5.9% ABV and tasted really good. I got anxious and kegged it, tried to force carb it and was not pleased with the results. Too much foam and the flavor wasn't right. It wasn't bad, just not ready. It's off co2 now and back at room temperature. I release the pressure a couple times a day hoping it will fix itself.

ALofty said:

At 7 days mine had a 5.9% ABV and tasted really good. I got anxious and kegged it, tried to force carb it and was not pleased with the results. Too much foam and the flavor wasn't right. It wasn't bad, just not ready. It's off co2 now and back at room temperature. I release the pressure a couple times a day hoping it will fix itself.

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Seven days is pretty early to go into the keg, not surprising that it didn't taste quite right.

ColoHox said:

Seven days is pretty early to go into the keg, not surprising that it didn't taste quite right.

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I was horribly impatient on this batch as I wanted something ready for this weekend when I built my keezer. I'd read all the posts to let it sit, but I'm stubborn and need to learn things on my own most(all) of the time. Hopefully time will amend my mistake and I will be enjoying a good homebrew in the near (but not too near) future.

Go for it. My mistake was being in a hurry.

What are the methods people are using to add it at "high kraussen"? Boil water and dissolve, then let it cool, then add it to the fermenter? How much flavor are you getting through by using this method?

USMCPayne said:

What are the methods people are using to add it at "high kraussen"? Boil water and dissolve, then let it cool, then add it to the fermenter? How much flavor are you getting through by using this method?

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That's the method. You get almost no flavor (honey malt is the best way to get that flavor). In fact my tongue is probably lying to me when I already know it is in there.

Besides Honey Malt, what are some ways to get the flavor of honey in the beer? I don't want to add honey and just have it boost the ABV.