Honey in 2ndary

I had this recipe ... an amber ale that called for 1.5 lbs of honey at 20 minutes left in the boil. My homebrew guy suggested waiting til the 2ndary. Anyway, it was thanksgiving weekend and i forgot to buy the honey and i made the beer. My intention was to ignore my hb guy's advice and make it as suggested in the recipe. So, I forgot. So now I am wondering whether to go ahead and get the honey for 2ndary as he suggested. I have never put honey into 2ndary. Anyone? The beer i made is AG amber ale, og58, ibu 48, if that helps

Well I would assume the reasoning behind boiling the honey would be to make sure all the nasties (bee butts and whatnot) are sterilized. I know some forms of honey are more "pure" than others so you might get infection adding this unpasturized honey directly to your beer.

As with the use of priming sugar, the yeast will wake back up upon the addition of more ferment ables so the honey should ferment out. Just cross your fingers you don't make your beer sick

If you boil the honey, you lose a lot of the flavor and aroma. I'd pasteurize it for ten or fifteen minutes at ~150-160 degrees, but I wouldn't add it to the boil or boil it separately.

the_bird said:

If you boil the honey, you lose a lot of the flavor and aroma. I'd pasteurize it for ten or fifteen minutes at ~150-160 degrees, but I wouldn't add it to the boil or boil it separately.

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come to think of it, the brewshopguy said to pasteurize it before adding it to the secondary ...

what i might do is taste it after ferment ... if its ordinary, i'll try the honey.

thanks for the comment

Not much can live in honey anyways, I wouldn't worry too much about it, but pasteurizing is never a bad idea

As far as losing flavors, you shouldn't lose too much if you do not scrape the protein off while you boil the honey if you boil it... There is not a whole lot of bacteria or fungi that can survive in honey so it's kinda safe... The only problem is that sometimes stuff can hang on the outside of honey and when it gets into the beer, it wakes up..

FWIW, I've only used honey once. just dumped it in at the end of the boil one pound. The beer tasted like crap. I kept tasting and tasting, and 4 months later I dumped 12 because I needed bottles. I tasted it just the other night, and it is very nice. Nice honey, tabbacco, leather flavors in a golden ale. So keep in mind it may take a bit of patience. 6 mounths. Another thing, did you say the FG was 1.058, and you are adding 1.5 pounds of honey? High Alcohol beer.

I'm sorry, I am full of more questions than answers. Why put it into the secondary? It seems like you will need a Third vessel for clarifying. I'd like to see the recipe if you don't mind sharing. I get some interesting honey occasionaly, and I'd like to get a bit of it into my beer. Though I'm not a fan of mead.

I prime my Belgian Style Wit with 1/2 cup Orange Blossom Honey and 3/8 cup of corn sugar. Even at a half cup, the subtle honey flavor comes through as the beer warms.