Adding honey when bottling...

[HTH1975]

Hi all, I'll be ready to bottle my first ever batch of homebrew in a day or so. I'd like to add honey to a few bottles just as an experiment. I'll be priming it with 90g dextrose, so I'm wandering how much honey to add - or indeed if adding honey is going to over-carbonate the beer since I'm already adding dextrose.

I suppose the best way would be to syphon off a small amount before priming the bulk of the batch.

Any comments or suggestions are very welcome. Thanks.

 

[Kharnynb]

if you prime with honey, you wouldn't use dextrose.
so maybe bottle a few bottles straight from the primary, before bottling the rest from a bulkprimed bottling bucket?

dextrose and honey are very near in sugars/gram, so you can just add a similar per bottle amount instead of dextrose.

 

[HTH1975]

Brilliant - thank you so much for that answer. I'll try it and see how it works out :0)

 

[m00ps]

Definitely use a priming calculator. Pound for pound, dextrose will more fermentables than honey. So if you do a simple sub, youll be undercarbed
http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

 

[HTH1975]

thanks for the link - great stuff.

reckon I'll do two bottles primed with honey - just for the craik.

 

[KVANTAN]

Ive primed with honey and it left a nice little flavor but gave me gushers.

 

[OswaldvW]

I often prime with honey and never have a problem with gushers. I make sure the honey is completely dissolved in warm water first, then put in a bottling bucket, then rack beer on top. I give the bottling bucket a gentle but firm stir, then simple bottle.

This is the calculator that I use:
http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

 

[ibanezgfx]

ive used honey on 3 1 gallon batches, all over-carbed.

 

[HTH1975]

I did a single bottle with honey in the end, just for the sport of it. I'd hoped for a slight honey 'note' to the beer, but the consensus was that priming with honey gives no flavour. I'll try adding honey in the primary in future to get some flavour.

I've got my first batch all bottled up now and waiting or it to condition. Planning my next brew now - going try BITB this time for my second brew.

 

[myerstyson]

I often prime with honey and never have a problem with gushers. I make sure the honey is completely dissolved in warm water first, then put in a bottling bucket, then rack beer on top. I give the bottling bucket a gentle but firm stir, then simple bottle.

This is the calculator that I use:
http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

Like you, I've had no problem with gushers. I love honey as a priming agent.

 

[HTH1975]

Just as an update, I primed one bottle with honey and it worked fine. Slightly more carbonated than the rest of the batch that was racked onto dextrose then bottled.

I also noted that the two bottles that I did before adding finings ended up just as clear as the ones that I did the following day after adding the finings. The extra sediment on the bottom was manageable and I doubt I'd bother with finings next time.