Beer fest - Honey Beer Recipe.

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Adam's Apples

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I went to the annual CAMRA beer fest held in my city in Autumn this year and did the usual sampling - grabbing a half pint glass and getting through as many different real ales as possible.

While there I drunk a half of a beer called 'bumble beer', which was lovely. If you closed your eyes and somebody placed a glass under your nose, you would swear it was a honey jar under your nose. But it wasn't just the aroma, it really came through in the taste too. I would absolutely love to make a beer that retained such a honey flavour. Can any of you guys advise how this would best be achieved? I guess you would need to add lots of honey add secondary or bottling stage to get that, but I don't really know the best way to go about it.

Have any of you guys brewed anything like this? Any tips or recommendations would be great, if I thought I could produce anything that was half as delicious as what I tasted that night I would be chuffed.

Cheers
 
Honey malt. Lots of honey malt. Actual honey ferments out pretty complete and dry and doesn't leave a lot of aroma and taste to beer.
 
star with three lbs of really good honey like orange blossom or buckwheat added at flameout, also use a clean ale yeast like wlp 041 pacific ale. if there isnt enough honey there after its done fermenting add some more at secondary or prime with it. here is my recipe.

7#'s two-row
4 oz's honey malt
4oz's crystal 60
8 ozs munich
3 lbs raw buckwheat honey
1 oz amarillo 60 min
.5 oz cascade 30 min
.5oz amarillo 20 min
.5 oz cascade 5 min

single infusion mash at 150 for an hour. i batch sparge. boil then add honey at flameout.
 
Thanks guys.

I thought that it would ferment out almost completely, which is why I guessed Adding honey at secondary or bottling stage.

Honey malt!!! I never knew this stuff existed (I am only 4 batches into my homebrew career!!!) I have only used the muntons spraymalt (powder) or liwuid malt extract in cans (have used brewpaks stuff only so far I think). This stuff I have to find.

Stupidly, I haven't yet googled Bumble Beer, but I will check out your link - any clone recipes I find will be next on my brew list.

Cheers all
 
Excuse the spelling mistakes above, they reflect only my excitement at brewing a honey beer, not my stupidity!!!

Cheers :drunk:
 
star with three lbs of really good honey like orange blossom or buckwheat added at flameout, also use a clean ale yeast like wlp 041 pacific ale. if there isnt enough honey there after its done fermenting add some more at secondary or prime with it. here is my recipe.

7#'s two-row
4 oz's honey malt
4oz's crystal 60
8 ozs munich
3 lbs raw buckwheat honey
1 oz amarillo 60 min
.5 oz cascade 30 min
.5oz amarillo 20 min
.5 oz cascade 5 min

single infusion mash at 150 for an hour. i batch sparge. boil then add honey at flameout.

I am also new to the beer scene and just starting to experiment with not using kits. From what I have read I though that you wanted to boil the honey to prevent contamination
 
You're adding honey (which has antiseptic properties of its own) to a pot of wort that just got done boiling for an hour or so. Should be okay.
 
You're adding honey (which has antiseptic properties of its own) to a pot of wort that just got done boiling for an hour or so. Should be okay.

Thank you.
I have this book called Joy of home brewing 3rd edition by Charlie Papazian and it says that if one is to use honey it should be boiled due to beeswax, bees body parts, and wild yeast pores. I will try not boiling it and see what happens
 
I am also new to the beer scene and just starting to experiment with not using kits. From what I have read I though that you wanted to boil the honey to prevent contamination

No way do you want to boil the raw honey. you get raw honey because it is not pasturized. raw honey contains all that amazing lactic acid bacteria (LAB). this bacteria can convert fermentable sugars into CO2 and Ethanol.

We need to forget what the media and government have been saying about all bacteria. it is not all bad. fermentation is older than humans and has stood the test of time. Even the FDA has stated that there has never been a documented case of food-born illness from fermentaion. (of course, you'll want to look this up yourself if you're unsure). The good fermenting bacteria provide an environment that the bad bacteria (such as botulism and e.coli) have no chance of surviving in!

In fact you can make your own mead (honey-wine) in 1 week with raw honey. it really is as simple as: 1-part raw honey and 4-parts filtered or distilled water, all at room temperature. fill this into a glass jar with a lid. shake up until it's well mixed and come back every day to release the pressure (aggressive fermentation starts in ~48-36 hours). after a week, put it in the fridge to cool. you can drink this, or let it sit for months OR use this mead as your bottling sugar (if it's only sat for a few days, not a few months)
 
No way do you want to boil the raw honey. you get raw honey because it is not pasturized. raw honey contains all that amazing lactic acid bacteria (LAB). this bacteria can convert fermentable sugars into CO2 and Ethanol.

We need to forget what the media and government have been saying about all bacteria. it is not all bad. fermentation is older than humans and has stood the test of time. Even the FDA has stated that there has never been a documented case of food-born illness from fermentaion. (of course, you'll want to look this up yourself if you're unsure). The good fermenting bacteria provide an environment that the bad bacteria (such as botulism and e.coli) have no chance of surviving in!

In fact you can make your own mead (honey-wine) in 1 week with raw honey. it really is as simple as: 1-part raw honey and 4-parts filtered or distilled water, all at room temperature. fill this into a glass jar with a lid. shake up until it's well mixed and come back every day to release the pressure (aggressive fermentation starts in ~48-36 hours). after a week, put it in the fridge to cool. you can drink this, or let it sit for months OR use this mead as your bottling sugar (if it's only sat for a few days, not a few months)

IMHO, relying on wild yeasts and bacteria present in honey is a disaster waiting to happen. Additionally, fermentation by lactic acid bacteria alone is going to make a very sour beverage, and not a lot of alcohol. Typically, in mead-making, the 'must' (honey/water mixture) is heated (Never boiled!) to pasteurization temps for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, the wax particles, bee bits etc. can be skimmed from the surface of the must if they are present. This is sufficient to knock back any wild microrganisms, and yet preserving most of the delicate aromatics that would be driven off by a vigorous boil. At this point, the must is cooled and a domesticated yeast strain is added (mead yeast, wine yeast or more rarely a beer yeast).

I'm not saying its not POSSIBLE to do a wild fermentation for mead, but I wanted to point this out for newbies who may not have made a batch before. Although it is possible, there is a high probabilty you are going to end up with something undrinkable and with the extremly high cost of honey for a five gallon batch, not to mention waiting nine months to a year for the finished product, you might just swear off of mead making for life!

If you DO experiment with this technique, I suggest 1 gallon trial batches to see what happens, that way you haven't wasted too much precious organic honey if things go wrong.
 
Something else also occurs to me- that is- unheated honey and water can be used, but most mead-makers will use campden tablets (and waiting the proscribed amount of time) to sanitize the must before a VIGOROUS DOMESTICATED yeast starter is added. I've done plenty of mead batches and always pasteurize a short period of time and use a very healthy yeast starter and I've only had one batch out of scores go off.
 
sully said:
star with three lbs of really good honey like orange blossom or buckwheat added at flameout, also use a clean ale yeast like wlp 041 pacific ale. if there isnt enough honey there after its done fermenting add some more at secondary or prime with it. here is my recipe.

7#'s two-row
4 oz's honey malt
4oz's crystal 60
8 ozs munich
3 lbs raw buckwheat honey
1 oz amarillo 60 min
.5 oz cascade 30 min
.5oz amarillo 20 min
.5 oz cascade 5 min

single infusion mash at 150 for an hour. i batch sparge. boil then add honey at flameout.

Does anyone think I it would taste good if I added blueberries at secondary to make a honey blueberry beer? A # per gallon? Tryin to make a beer for the swmbo.
 
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