Honey primer

I'm about to bottle my 2nd batch of Papazian's Run thru the garden grand cru. The 1st batch turned out very well but being a side-line beekeeper...I'd like a little more honey flavor in the beer. Can I use my honey for priming instead of sugar to accomplish this? If so... How much for a 5 gallon batch? Thanx

I believe you would use the same amount of honey that you would sugar.

However, that might not contribute any 'honey flavour'. Honey is 100% fermentable, and will therefore be completely converted to alcohol. You might find that a little character comes through later. The defining character of honey (to me anyway) is the sweetness, so it might not get you the desired result, but it is certainly worth trying. I just don't think that the amount you'd use for priming would be enough to add any noticeable character.


When commercial brewers make a honey beer they either add the honey after they pasteurize the beer and kill the yeast, or after the yeast is removed by some filtering method.