Adding Honey and lemon For Kicks

[jeffd10]

Hey all,

I have this last mrb kit before I graduate up to 5 gallon batches...and I have been thinking ...

A) Can I add Honey and Lemon to this kit

Whispering Wheat Weizenbier w/Booster™

B) How much honey could I add ? ....thinking I would still use all the booster

C) Would/Could this pump my ABV any ?

D) Ive heard about Santizing lemon peel/ or soaking in Vodka (which sounds tasty)

Please let me know if you have any thoughts ....Thanks

 

[Walker]

honey will absolutely boost your ABV. It's almost 100% fermentable sugars. What it won't do is leave much flavor behind. Too much of it, and your beer could become very dry because it ferments so completely, so go ahead and experiment with it, but maybe start small.

If you want a honey FLAVOR, then you might want to buy and steep some Honey Malt.

For the lemon peel, sanitizing it is probably a good idea. One suggestion is to use a zester to grind off some of the outer lemon rind. You want to avoid the white part (called the pith) that is in contact with the fruit because that stuff is unpleasantly bitter.

If you soak it in a little vodka, you might want to dump all of that into the fermenter. The alcohol will probably have absorbed a lot of the lemon zest flavor, and you don't want to waste it.

 

[Calder]

1 lb of honey is about 36 gravity points (varies with type), which will increase abv in 1 gallon by 4.5%, or 2.25% in 2 gallons, etc.

Be careful, as Walker said, honey will dry it out; you will taste the alcohol more with less malt/wheat behind it.

Think about it. A Mr.Beer can is 1.25 lbs. The booster is 12 ozs. If you add 1 lb of honey, you will have 60% of your fermentables from non-malt/wheat sources. This is no longer beer. Additional extract would be a better additive to boost abv. But, hey, what have you got to lose!

Zest the lemon and add the zest to the hot/boiling water you use to dissolve the booster.

 

[jeffd10]

Thanks Walker and Calder....

Calder, I totally agree with you about turning my beer into something else ...(which I do not want to do) Walker, thanks for the Honey malt idea...and dropping (the Vodka-ized lemon zest in it all. .. I was thinking like a cup of honey just to experiment and then to soak the lemon zest in a little local vodka ....and add at flameout... ( I guess in my minds eye I was thinking that this would REALLY alter the taste) but its all good

This will be going into the fermenter in a few weeks, I drop a line

Thanks Again..

Jeff

 

[RukusDM]

Hey all,

I have this last mrb kit before I graduate up to 5 gallon batches...and I have been thinking ...

A) Can I add Honey and Lemon to this kit

Whispering Wheat Weizenbier w/Booster™

B) How much honey could I add ? ....thinking I would still use all the booster

C) Would/Could this pump my ABV any ?

D) Ive heard about Santizing lemon peel/ or soaking in Vodka (which sounds tasty)

Please let me know if you have any thoughts ....Thanks

I've used honey a few times and as others have said, it will raise the ABV% and not allot more. It is basically just sugar.

The only thing I noticed when using honey was it leaves a very slight bitter finish like when you taste a spoonful, its starts sweet but finish with a very slight bitter.

The honey malt is a good idea if honey profile is what you really want.

 

[jeffd10]

Thanks Rukus,

Thanks for the bitter info. In the future I do plan on trying something with the honey malt .. I just wanted to see if I could jazz up my last Mrb kit, my LHBS said not to throw any more $$$ into this and just run it ..but I figured I had the honey, lemon and Vodka already inhouse