Brewing with Honey

[mew]

I'm going to be making a honey ale, but I don't know how much honey and DME to put in because I've never done it before. Does honey take the place of DME, or should it be added in addition to the regular amount of DME? Any other thoughts?

 

[javedian]

I have used 1-2 lbs as a kicker in many batches, most were 7-8lb LME base, plus specialty grains.

 

[Rporter]

For the few recipes I have brewed with honey it has been added in addition to the regular amount of extract.

 

[Grimsawyer]

one thing to keep in mind when brewing with honey is it is 99% fermentable. That said, if you go with a few lbs of it you need to kick up the unfermentables to keep it from being so dry. I know this from personal experience. Also, if you boil the honey you will lose all of the delicate fragrences. I take it up to 150 degrees F keep it there for 20 min and cool back down to 70 degrees F with the lid on the whole time. This keeps just a hint of a honey flavor to the beer, that is unless you have a buttload of hops. That might cover up the flavor. Just my $0.02! I have also primed with honey. 5.5 oz for a 5 gallon batch. Did the same thing as before with the honey. Heated it up, kept it at 150 and cooled all with the lid on. Hope this helps!!!:rockin:

 

[mbreen01]

How about a little Honey Malt? Maybe a 1/4 - 1/2 lb Honey Malt with 1-2 lbs Honey added at flameout.

Marc.

 

[mew]

If honey is 99 % fermentable, where's does the flavor in mead come from? Thanks for the replies, I think I'll just use it as a "kicker" as described above.

 

[david_42]

The flavor in mead comes from the amount of honey you use (2.5 - 4 lbs per gallon) and the long fermentation & aging. Honey's sugars are typically 85% simple sugars and 15% complex sugars.

If you want honey flavors in ale, honey malt does a much better job.

 

[mew]

What is the difference between honey and honey malt?

 

[Grimsawyer]

woah.... where do you get honey malt? Is it a specality grain or is it dme/lme? :rockin:

 

[Dude]

woah.... where do you get honey malt? Is it a specality grain or is it dme/lme? :rockin:

It is a specialty malt that is from Gambrinus in Canada. I feel like I have a good handle on honey malt--I've experimented with it quite a bit. I'd use about 2 lbs. of honey and about a .25 lbs of honey malt in a 5 gallon batch. You can really get the honey flavor to come out using the honey malt, but don't use too much.

You can even use a little bit of honey malt in something like a brown ale for a bit of a nutty character.

I love the stuff.

 

[mew]

Is honey better than invert sugar for kicking up the ABV?

 

[mathieu]

i just bottled a holiday brew with about a pound of honey, and you should also know that it slows down the fermentation process by two-three weeks. i thought i was going to go insane watching bubbles come through the airlock at 2-minute intervals after 3 weeks. for me fermentation ceased after about 3.5 weeks.

 

[ultraplop]

I just brewed a batch with honey for the woman. I had about 6lb of LME and 2lb Honey. I boiled the Honey for 15 minutes and it definitely has a stronger honey flavor than I would like, thats okay I'm sure the woman will like it.

 

[disaffected]

Someone had a honey thread over in the AG section. This was my comment from over there, and since there's a lot more discussion in this thread, I thought some of you who are interested in brewing with honey might like the two PDF resources I listed from the National Honey Board.

Honey is chock-full of living critters including wild yeasts and bacteria. Boiling it drives off a lot of the volatile flavors and aromas, but not boiling it risks infection. You could pasteurize it, or you might just dump it in to your wort for the last few minutes of the boil, but you shouldn't put raw unpasteurized honey in your cooled wort.

Check out this Honey in Beer PDF document that you can download from The National Honey Board.

There's also a PDF document they provide that explains How to make Mead.

Adding a bunch of honey to beer just ruins it, in my opinion. But that is clearly a matter of taste. Lots of people like it.

 

[t-dogg]

i have never noticed an incresed ferment time using honey but have never used a ton of it usually only 1 or 1.5lb