Whitehouse Honey Ale

Ok being as this is my first home brew after doing wine for many years. Its a Whitehouse Honey Ale kit and this batch its fermenting like nothing I have ever seen. There's probably a good 2 inches of foam on top. Its in a primary bucket with airlock and the bubbler is going crazy. Contents are listed in the attachment. My question is? Is this normal?

TheCacheGuy said:

Ok being as this is my first home brew after doing wine for many years. Its a Whitehouse Honey Ale kit and this batch its fermenting like nothing I have ever seen. There's probably a good 2 inches of foam on top. Its in a primary bucket with airlock and the bubbler is going crazy. Contents are listed in the attachment. My question is? Is this normal?

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I take it you have some actual honey in there? That stuff goes nuts! I brewed a honey-wheat with about 5lbs of honey in a 10gal batch, and the yeast went absolutely wacko between the wheat and the honey. Give it a few days and it will calm down. No worries

Yes it has 1 lb of Honey in it. Thanks for the response.

Besides the honey, theres also the yeast. It's also a dry yeast, which get to work a lot faster than the liquid varieties, but also calm down faster. Don't be surprised if you get nearly nothing from the airlock after only a day or two.

Thanks for the replies. Set my mind at ease. As of this morning the fermentation has dropped considerably. Still perking away but at a slower rate about one or two blurps / sec now.

I have to ask, how dry tasting is that beer with that much honey added to it?

Otterella said:

Besides the honey, theres also the yeast. It's also a dry yeast, which get to work a lot faster than the liquid varieties, but also calm down faster. Don't be surprised if you get nearly nothing from the airlock after only a day or two.

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from my experience anytime i've pitched a starter of liquid yeast i get heavy CO2 production (airlock bubbling) in a matter of hours... whereas with dry yeast it takes at least a day to get rolling

Gear101 said:

I have to ask, how dry tasting is that beer with that much honey added to it?

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Can honestly say I haven't tasted it since boil but it was extremely sweet at that point. SG was at 1.06 FG should be about 1.01
.

TheCacheGuy said:

Can honestly say I haven't tasted it since boil but it was extremely sweet at that point. SG was at 1.06 FG should be about 1.01
.

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It's going to be sweet until it ferments. The yeast are going to consume all of the simple sugars from the honey and leave you with a dry taste on the back end of the beer. Who know's though, the recipe could be great, i just never put much faith in gimmicky stuff like this

Gear101 said:

I have to ask, how dry tasting is that beer with that much honey added to it?

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Its pretty dry, from the batch that I brewed. Final gravity was 1.008. Recipe and info are here http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/White-House-Honey-Ale.html

Tasting notes and photos are here: http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/The-Blog.html?entry=white-house-honey-ale-tasting

To the OP, your fermentation is normal for a beer, honey or no honey.

Pappers_ said:

Its pretty dry, from the batch that I brewed. Final gravity was 1.008. Recipe and info are here http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/White-House-Honey-Ale.html

Tasting notes and photos are here: http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/The-Blog.html?entry=white-house-honey-ale-tasting

To the OP, your fermentation is normal for a beer, honey or no honey.

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Thing is you're doing an all-grain conversion with a low-ish mash temp. I'm not sure what other's people results have been, but I did a batch using all extracts to get the batch as "authentic" as possible and my OG came in at a fairly high 1.018.

In retrospect I wish I would have just done an all grain batch since the extract batch is a bit too sweet for me as is.

ArcticBear said:

It's going to be sweet until it ferments. The yeast are going to consume all of the simple sugars from the honey and leave you with a dry taste on the back end of the beer. Who know's though, the recipe could be great, i just never put much faith in gimmicky stuff like this

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As I have been a, wine maker for quite a few years I was pretty sure this was going to be a drier beer after I read the instructions. And for my 1st beer I figured I would try a more "gimmicky" brew. If I don't like it I am sure I will try again. I'm one to experiment with the things I do. Heck my first wine a banana was so bad the smell and taste reminded me of nail polish remover. ;p . But I didn't give up and most the wines I make now get rave reviews.

I wouldn't call this a gimmicky beer, its pretty straight forward - an English Pale Ale made with honey. Lots of commercial versions of honey ales based on a standard style. I think Great Divide makes an American Pale Ale with honey, for example. In BJCP terms, this would be a specialty beer, yes, but a pretty solid, well put together beer in my opinion.

This was sweeter than I expected. I still enjoy it, but it is quite sweet.

TheCacheGuy said:

As I have been a, wine maker for quite a few years I was pretty sure this was going to be a drier beer after I read the instructions. And for my 1st beer I figured I would try a more "gimmicky" brew. If I don't like it I am sure I will try again. I'm one to experiment with the things I do. Heck my first wine a banana was so bad the smell and taste reminded me of nail polish remover. ;p . But I didn't give up and most the wines I make now get rave reviews.

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certainly nothing wrong with any of your choices, if it's something you'd be interested in drinking, then of course its a good decision.

Pappers_ said:

I wouldn't call this a gimmicky beer, its pretty straight forward - an English Pale Ale made with honey. Lots of commercial versions of honey ales based on a standard style. I think Great Divide makes an American Pale Ale with honey, for example. In BJCP terms, this would be a specialty beer, yes, but a pretty solid, well put together beer in my opinion.

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i didnt mean gimmicky in the sense that it was brewed with something obscure or rare that would set it apart. yes, it is a straight forward recipe with honey added, i meant it's gimmicky that it was released by the white house as an "official recipe" and now everyone who thinks they give a damn about politics, the president, or this country want to brew it. I'm not trying to turn this political, it really is irrelevant what your views are, all i'm saying is that there are numerous people who only care about this or want to brew this because the white house released it.

i'm not saying this is the reason why the OP chose to make this, but there are quite a few people who have. Personally, i don't care for the recipe itself, and my distaste for politics in general make me sure to never take a swing at this recipe.

To each his own, everyone brew, drink and be merry

ArcticBear said:

i didnt mean gimmicky in the sense that it was brewed with something obscure or rare that would set it apart. yes, it is a straight forward recipe with honey added, i meant it's gimmicky that it was released by the white house as an "official recipe" and now everyone who thinks they give a damn about politics, the president, or this country want to brew it. I'm not trying to turn this political, it really is irrelevant what your views are, all i'm saying is that there are numerous people who only care about this or want to brew this because the white house released it.

i'm not saying this is the reason why the OP chose to make this, but there are quite a few people who have. Personally, i don't care for the recipe itself, and my distaste for politics in general make me sure to never take a swing at this recipe.

To each his own, everyone brew, drink and be merry

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I think for homebrewers it is interesting and fun that the White House chefs are making hand-made beer. Nothing to do with politics, the election or the President. This is my major hobby and I think it is cool that the chefs at the White House also do it.

Also, its great that in 80 years we've gone from Prohibition to beer being brewed at the White House. That is fantastic!

Pappers_ said:

Also, its great that in 80 years we've gone from Prohibition to beer being brewed at the White House. That is fantastic!

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http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/09/01/ale-chief-white-house-beer-recipe

What do they mean with:
4. For the second flavoring, add the 1 1/2 oz Fuggles hop pellets at the last minute of the boil.
5. Add the honey and boil for 5 more minutes.

If at step 4, they add the Fuggles at the last minute of the boil, how can they at step 5 add honey and boil for 5 more minutes?

The recipe I got with the kit reads
5 add honey with 5 min left
6 add Fuggles with 1 min left.