adding honey after done fermenting

[zerotwofour]

just curious to know what would happen if beer that was done fermenting were to be put into a secondary fermenter with 1 lb of honey to continue the fermentation

would anything negative come out of this?

 

[KYB]

Nope. Over a period of time I added 4lbs after primary fermentation was done. I heated the honey to 180+*F for a minute to pasteurize it, then cooled and added to primary.

 

[GuldTuborg]

No problem. You can heat your honey or not as you please; nothing nasty grows in honey anyway. I would boil and cool a little water first, mix the honey in that, and then add it to your fermentor. Mixing honey in water, especially cool water, is not an easy task. Add it to your fermentor straight, and it'll just fall down to the bottom and sit there.

 

[Quaker]

Slight correction, nothing nasty grows in honey, but it can survive in it. Once diluted, then any yeast or other spores that may be in it can propagate. But with the alcohol in the secondary, that's not an issue, so add away. As a beekeeper, once we take the frames of honey off the hive, we don't want to let them sit around for days before extracting, because any uncapped honey can absorb moisture from the air, dilute a bit on the surface, and promote mold or other spoilage. If sealed well, it lasts forever as often cited.

 

[Calder]

Adding additional sugars is OK. But too much can exhaust the yeast, and drive up the abv to a limit where the east will die.

Pasteurize at 145 F for 20 minutes, or 160 F for 5 seconds. Don't get the honey too hot as you will drive off some of the aromatics.