How long to ferment when honey is added to the secondary?

First, I have searched and read multiple posts, but I did not find a suitable answer. How long should it take for 3 pounds of honey to ferment when added to the secondary at approximately 62 degrees F?

In the primary, 6 pounds of munich malt extract was given a week to ferment before racking on top of the honey in the secondary. One week was chosen because I wanted to have a decent amount of yeast (American ale, Wyeast 1056; original amount: ~6oz settled yeast slurry from starter) still in suspension so that it may further ferment in the secondary. Additionally, I utilized secondary fermentation because I wanted to harvest the yeast from the primary so that I may make another batch without that yeast losing its ability to ferment maltose, as I've read about from batches that contain a high enough amount of (refined) sugars.

I've heard that honey takes quite a long time to ferment, but my secondary fermenter has been fermenting for around 30 days right now, and it still is exhibiting airlock activity. I am not sure if it is merely degassing at this point, but it would seem to be that the airlock activity is too much for a little degassing. The surface krausen/bubbliness appears normal; first it was present, then it collapsed, and now it has bubbles of various sizes that remain for quite an amount of time. Is it a possibility that I have wild yeast contamination from addition the honey directly to the secondary without any heating of it whatsoever? I've read various accounts of people w/ & w/o contamination.

Thanks for any insight you may offer.

wow, ive not heard of adding honey to a secondary for the purposes of fermenting - why would you do that?

My expereince with honey that it takes a long time to ferment. 30 days in a primary for my tripple i made last year. With you putting it in a secondary it will take even longer. Some of the yeast are sure to have settled out in your primary. Now you'll have less yeasts to do fermenting in the secondary. With that, the yeast will need to spend time multiplying before they start consuming the sugars for the purpose of making alcohol.

So how are you going to calculate alcohol now. You cant just do OG - FG becuase you added fermentables in between????

As with every yeast question, the answer is "it depends." MUahhahahahahha!!!!

Nobody will be able to tell you how long the fermentation will take. Is the beer still cloudy? If so, then it's still fermenting. If it's looking a lot clearer, then it's probably CO2 gassing off.

It's not likely to be infected - how dare you suggest it.

I've always added honey after "primary" fermentation because it preserves more honey characteristics than adding it right away (I don't know why, but it does). It's always taken a while for me, too, though I don't believe it's ever taken an additional four weeks. Just give it time, but do check for infection.

I've added honey to the secondary. Randy Mosher recommends it in his Radical Brewing book. It maintains the honey aromas, rather than being bubbled out in the primary fermenter. Another option is to wait until most of the fermentation is done in the primary, and add the honey there. I preferred adding it to the secondary, because I didn't want any honey flavor getting left behind in the yeast and trub when I racked (if that makes sense).

I left my ale in the secondary (with honey) for 2 weeks at 68 degrees. You'll want to check your gravity to be sure though. I was using Wyeast scottish yeast. When you carbonate bottles, it takes 2-3 weeks for the yeasties to eat the sugar. Same with the honey in the secondary.

Thanks for the responses. Kegtoe, I think your first question was answered above. As for calculating ABV, I am not too worried about actual ABV for this batch, but I did a calculation before brewing using some assumptions, and it should end up around 7%. Thanks kanzimonson for the comment about the clarity; currently it is a bit cloudy, and in combination with the bubbly goodness on top of the brew and the size of the sub-bubbles in the airlock I shalt conclude there's more fermentation to be done. I've noticed from anecdotal experience that many small bubbles inside the airlock are more indicative of degassing than of (more active) fermentation, with the latter typically having larger/no bubbles.

Thanks again, I'll be giving it more time and will be anticipating a tasty brew!

If you wnat to donate a bottle as a taste test i'd be more thatn willing to try it out for you. Good luck!

I just watched an episode of brewing TV where they added 1lb of honey at high krausen. Kind of what you were doing to preserve the essence of the honey and to add more fermentable sugar.

Sure, you can have a taste test pint or two, but you'd have to drive on down to get it~

It has ceased krausen activity and has since been clearing up nicely. Either this weekend or soon after I'll keg it and let yous know how it comes out...I might even run it through the stout faucet, sort of like a boddington's but heavier from the munich.

In case any of you were wondering, after about 2 months since brew day, the honey alt tastes great! A little sweet, with that honey flavor, but not too sweet where you might think twice about having more pints. It is very smooth too, no harsh fusels or other off flavors. Another testament to RDWHAHB.

I'm so glad to see this thread. I just bottled a batch of IIPA with 1.25# of honey, but I mistakenly bottled after 10 days of of it racked and dry hopped in secondary. Using US-05, OG was 1.078 and FG 1.007 (without honey being fully fermented). 3.5oz corn surgar added to bottling bucket for natural carbination. Beer was cloudy. Naturally, the honey flavors were strong...but so might be the bottle bombs???
Damage is done, now I'm bracing myself

Follow up: no bottle bombs, but over carbed.

I saw this because I put a bit of honey with hibiscus and spices in secondary for about 10 days. Then primed with sugar to ~3.0 vol CO2...walked away and thought, maybe I shouldn't have added that much sugar since the honey's only been working for so long. We shall see.