Adding honey?

[tangovictor82]

I am about to brew some caribou slobber from northern brewing. I am thinking about adding honey at high krausen.. Just wondering if anyone had experience adding honey to a 5 gal batch, when they added it, and how it turned out. I appreciate the time.

 

[Shuldawg]

Well depends what your going for... I have done it once or twice before and have added it to the boil or just after during a steeping period. The honey this way (a) gave more of a dry subtle honey note and (b) boosted the alcohol % a bit. After all it is sugar. If you are looking for a sweeter honey note, then you may want to look into a secondary fermentation with it, but you may want to do a little research online or at your local Homebrew supply. You will probably need to boil at this point due to bacteria and organic matter in the honey. Maybe you can use it as a priming sugar during bottling, but you may want to ask a pro on that one. Hope that helped you out some.

 

[tangovictor82]

Well depends what your going for... I have done it once or twice before and have added it to the boil or just after during a steeping period. The honey this way (a) gave more of a dry subtle honey note and (b) boosted the alcohol % a bit. After all it is sugar. If you are looking for a sweeter honey note, then you may want to look into a secondary fermentation with it, but you may want to do a little research online or at your local Homebrew supply. You will probably need to boil at this point due to bacteria and organic matter in the honey. Maybe you can use it as a priming sugar during bottling, but you may want to ask a pro on that one. Hope that helped you out some.

I appreciate it, thanks, maybe I'll add it to the wort.

 

[Dhinds10583]

Yes add it to the wort. It normally seems to dry the beer out a little and add a few points to the ABV. I've never tried adding it to a secondary.

 

[Oceantendency]

I almost always add a heaping teaspoon of Raw Organic Honey to every boil, post adding my DME, usually kicks up the ABV a lil bit.

 

[Mozart]

+1 on the above. It will add ABV and some dryness, but likely won't add any sweetness if that's what you're going for.

This is because the sugar in honey is 100% fermentable, and the yeasties will munch on it until it's all gone, leaving none of those sugars behind to sweeten your brew.

 

[Klutz]

I add it to the last 10 minutes of the boil to my wheat.
Turn off the flame, take out the hops bag, stir honey in, restart the boil, put hops back in, then finish the last 10 mins. as normal.
Tastes great!