Why not boil honey?

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Ugh, I wish that I'd found this thread about 3 weeks ago, before I added ~2# of honey late in the boil on a Honey Rye. I swear Papazian harps on boiling honey in TCJOHB...

Perhaps I can prime with more honey to try to squeak out a bit more flavor, but this thread leaves me discouraged about whether or not it will work.

Oh well, lesson learned, and I'll have to make it a second time! :p
 
As much as I hate necroing, I was under the impression that you brought honey to a pre boil to remove the waxes and such from un processed honey because they make for a turpentine like taste when fermented.
 
so ... I want to add some honey to a cream ale i have fermenting (4 days now) ... it's in a bucket .. do i just squeeze it in? ... is that the best way? ... sorry i know the answer is in this feed probably, but I'm a Noob and want to be sure ... thanks :)
 
So after multiple pages I feel no resolution was had. ...is there ever one? :)

So here is my scenario. I am brewing a blonde like ale that I planned on using 2# of Door County (WI) raw honey I bought from a farmers market. My original plan was to add at flameout. BUT the more I read, the more I am fearful that it would be a waste to put honey in heat. I don't want to throwout $8 when I could've used sugar that I already had.

So then I thought about adding after 72 hours, just dumping into the primary fermenter. But then I read raw honey could carry bacteria and cause infection, obviously don't want that.

What do you recommend? Should I just skip the honey all together?!

My recipe:
3.3# Pilsen LME
2# Raw Honey
1# Wheat DME
1# Caramel 10 (steep)
0.5# Maltodextrin
Wyeast American Ale 1056 Liquid Yeast
 
Well, I've heard arguments that the bacteria commonly found in honey cannot thrive in beer, and cannot compete with yeast in active fermentation - at the levels we pitch anyway.

That said, when i made the ubiquitous honey nut brown ale recipe, I did taste the honey in it, but i didn't like it. In that batch, I added the honey at 15 minutes from flameout, iirc.

I primed with honey several times and never tasted the difference.
 
TimpanogosSlim said:
I primed with honey several times and never tasted the difference.
Click to expand...

The amount of honey you'd use to prime is so small, you'd never taste it depending on the beer style. You might in a very delicate or light beer, but not is something with a more robust flavor.
 
I have a honey nut brown fermenting now. I added the honey at flameout and after reading all of these posts I'm curious to see how it turns out. Looks like a good learning experience for me.
 
TimpanogosSlim said:
Well, I've heard arguments that the bacteria commonly found in honey cannot thrive in beer, and cannot compete with yeast in active fermentation - at the levels we pitch anyway.[\QUOTE]

I did see some of those same arguments, but then of course there were stories of contaminated batches after pitching in the fermenter. I guess it's trial and error, but I'd hate to waste 2# of raw honey in doing so.

I've only made a 2 gallon batch using honey and it was store bought and I added 15 minutes before flameout. I felt that I noticed the aroma but the honey was almost 50% of the recipe too. Plus my understanding is store boughten honey doesn't need to be pasteurized.

Ideally I'd love to just add at flameout, but if I am killing the aroma and any chance at taste I'd feel it's a big waste of money. I know its only like $8 in this case, but it still is $8 I could've spend elsewhere.
Click to expand...
 
natefrog255 said:
So after multiple pages I feel no resolution was had. ...is there ever one? :)

So here is my scenario. I am brewing a blonde like ale that I planned on using 2# of Door County (WI) raw honey I bought from a farmers market. My original plan was to add at flameout. BUT the more I read, the more I am fearful that it would be a waste to put honey in heat. I don't want to throwout $8 when I could've used sugar that I already had.

So then I thought about adding after 72 hours, just dumping into the primary fermenter. But then I read raw honey could carry bacteria and cause infection, obviously don't want that.

What do you recommend? Should I just skip the honey all together?!

My recipe:
3.3# Pilsen LME
2# Raw Honey
1# Wheat DME
1# Caramel 10 (steep)
0.5# Maltodextrin
Wyeast American Ale 1056 Liquid Yeast
Click to expand...

skip the honey.
 

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