Honey? Vanilla?

Hey all,
I'm fairly new to home brewing, so excuse my lack of..... well, "lingo?"
I brewed my first solo batch last night, and had a few questions.

I have heard that adding honey during the boil will increase the alcohol content, but will not affect taste.
I am looking for a little of both, so I added 1 lb. of honey, and plan on adding another 1/2 lb. or 1 lb. during the secondary fermentation to hopefully give it a nice hint of that flavor.
Am I understanding this correctly?


Also, I bought a couple vanilla beans to use.
How / when would I go about using those?

Thanks in advance!

honey actually adds quite a bit of flavor to a brew depending on what type of beer youre making. the lighter malt beers have a large impact from honey addition, while heavier malts will not make a big difference. as far as adding to the secondary, the problem is that you have to pasteurize the honey in the boil to elliminate the possibility of wild yeast and other microbiobials that may be in the honey. remember that honey is farmed, and not processed. and by the way, one lbs of honey is a lot!! dont add anymore, youll definitely notice that as long as your og is about 1.050 or lower, and your srm is below 16 or so. you just want subtle notes of honey, otherwise just drink the honey!!

the vanilla beans, careful with that---a lot goes a long way. one bean is sufficient.
slice the bean in half and put it in the secondary for the duration. thats all with that one.

brewmasterpodunkarizona said:

honey actually adds quite a bit of flavor to a brew depending on what type of beer youre making. the lighter malt beers have a large impact from honey addition, while heavier malts will not make a big difference.

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Yes and no. With honey, it matters a bit when it is added as well. If it's added in the beginning of the boil, it really won't add that much flavor (in terms of honey flavoring) regardless of the style. If it's added at the end of the boil or even knockout, then the honey flavor is fairly noticable, even with darker styles/malts.

If you want a nice honey flavor, try using honey malt. It adds the honey flavoring without the additional complications.

blakey971 said:

Also, I bought a couple vanilla beans to use.
How / when would I go about using those?
Thanks in advance!

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You know, before you further complicate this beer, you may want to taste it first. Honey and vanilla could be a good combination, or it might not be for this beer. I would advise that you proceed with this beer as is, and taste it. Then, brew it again, and just add vanilla to secondary (slice down the center of the bean, scrape every thing out, quarter the bean and add everything to the secondary) and see how that is, before you make a vanilla/honey whatever.

At the very least, I would recommend moving this beer to secondary when done and allowing it to sit for a bit, then taste it to see if it really needs something additional. With vanilla beans, the longer you leave them in contact with the beer, the stronger the taste. Also, as soon as the beer isn't in contact with the beans, the taste of vanilla begins to fade.

Thanks for the replies.

I've discussed this with a few other of my beer buddies, and they also recommended waiting on the vanilla for the next batch.

I found a recipe for an Apple Cream Beer that I think would be great with a hint of vanilla.

blakey971 said:

Thanks for the replies.

I've discussed this with a few other of my beer buddies, and they also recommended waiting on the vanilla for the next batch.

I found a recipe for an Apple Cream Beer that I think would be great with a hint of vanilla.

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Wow, that sounds terrible. If I could give you a little advice, it would be to make beers that tend to be a little more beer-like to get the basics down before delving into the more off-the-wall recipes.

Brew an IPA. It's fairly easy, and pretty forgiving of mistakes. Brew a Hefe because it's simple, ready quick and the dominent flavor is from the yeast.

I added 700 grams of honey to a wheat beer during primary fermentation and then racked it into a secondary carboy after 8 days. The beer isn't done yet, but the flavour is hardly there much to my dismay. I suspect it's because I added it to the primary instead of the secondary, although I believe the amount of honey I added is right.

I'm going to try honey malt next time, I've heard the flavour comes through much better.

srm775 said:

Brew an IPA. It's fairly easy, and pretty forgiving of mistakes. Brew a Hefe because it's simple, ready quick and the dominent flavor is from the yeast.

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+1 on the Hefe... simple recipe, very forgiving, and ready quick. Perfect for when you are still learning the in's and out's of your system.

SeamusMac said:

I added 700 grams of honey to a wheat beer during primary fermentation and then racked it into a secondary carboy after 8 days. The beer isn't done yet, but the flavour is hardly there much to my dismay. I suspect it's because I added it to the primary instead of the secondary, although I believe the amount of honey I added is right.

I'm going to try honey malt next time, I've heard the flavour comes through much better.

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Yeah, honey is a nearly identical replacement (lbs. for lbs.) for sugar. It is nearly entirely fermentable so it acts more like sugar, which has an overall contribution to the beer, but really doesn't add a ton of flavor.

srm775 said:

Wow, that sounds terrible. If I could give you a little advice, it would be to make beers that tend to be a little more beer-like to get the basics down before delving into the more off-the-wall recipes.

Brew an IPA. It's fairly easy, and pretty forgiving of mistakes. Brew a Hefe because it's simple, ready quick and the dominent flavor is from the yeast.

Click to expand...

I appreciate the input.
I haven't been brewing that long, but I have the basics down.
I've brewed / helped with a couple brown ales and one hefe, and the recipe didn't seem too difficult.

Plus the lady though it sounded good. Gotta keep her happy.