Fermentables in honey - experience?

RobWalker said:

I've used 500g of burnt honey in a gallon recipe (rocket fuel,) and it appears to be stuck at around 1.005, whereas i'm used to cider fermenting out at around 0.996 without honey - i'm still monitoring gravity with no apparent change, so should I accept that this may not ferment any further? It's cool if it's this sweet - in fact it's better!

It's also having trouble settling out, why would this be? I don't like to seem impatient, but gravity hasn't moved for a fair while!

Click to expand...

likwidbliss said:

You might want to post the recipe itself.

I have never had a beer go below 1.005 that I recall even with honey. I do have wines and meads go to 0.995. Grains have non-fermentables and will keep the gravity above 1.000 in most cases., but honey is all sugar, just barfed up by bees, and should ferment out.

If I am wrong I will corrected.

Click to expand...

likwidbliss said:

Maybe if you burnt the honey into a mass of carbon. I bet caramelized honey still can be fermented. I have caramelized sugar to make mead and it fermented below 1.000. Did you have grains in your recipe?

Click to expand...

There are still plenty of reducing sugars released to react with the primary amines in Maillard reactions to form the reductones, furans, pyrroles, pyrazines and countless intermediates that provide the characteristic flavors and colors to crystal and caramel malts. Once caramelized, these sugars are no longer sugars, and so are not fermentable by yeast.

Click to expand...