Honey question...

[burnsie]

I have a wheat that has been through primary fermentation and I want to add rasberry and honey to 2 out of the 5 gallons.

I know the rasberry extract can be added to the secondary, and that honey is usually added during the boil...
But is it ok to add honey to the secondary? Do I have to boil the honey to sanatize it or anything like that?

Thanks!

 

[Tetonmtnbiker]

Adding honey during the boil adds sugars that will ferment in the primary. Adding sugar (honey) in the secondary will start the batch fermenting again. I suppose you could add it as bottling sugar, but it might be dangerous if you overcarbonate.

Also, honey would very likely carry yeasts or other nasties that you do not want. The boil would have killed them.

I'm pretty new to brewing so someone may correct me, but I wouldn't add the honey at all.

 

[homebrewer_99]

You need to boil the honey for 15 minutes and skim the proteins off the top to keep those nasties out of the brew.

 

[Janx]

Boiling honey destroys a lot of the desirable floral elements. If you add it to the kettle, I'd add it at the very end after you have removed the kettle from heat.

You could probably add it to the secondary with no problems because honey has natural preservative properties (ever see a beehive fermenting?). It's a very stable sugar media with natural antibacterial properties and a low moisture level. Those same properties make it difficult for yeast to ferment. However, in beer, the nutrients the yeast need are present and the honey should ferment fine.

Remember, honey in your beer won't contribute a sweet honey flavor to the beer...nor will raspberries contribute a sweet raspberry flavor. Honey has a pretty distinct fermented flavor that some like and others don't. Raspberries add mostly acidity and are fairly low sugar.

If you want a honeylike flavor try honey or crystal malt.

Cheers

 

[burnsie]

I understand what you're saying about rasberries not adding rasberry flavor, but I'm adding rasberry flavor extract that is made for beer and wine flavoring. That SHOULD add rasberry taste right?

Basically the reason I'm doing this is because I like regular wheat and my girlfriend loves honey-raz wheat. I just added the raz flavor about 10 minutes ago - are you saying that adding the honey at this stage will not add a real honey flavor?

 

[Janx]

It'll have raspberry flavor...just not sugars. Unless the extract has some sort of unfermentable sweetness.

Adding honey now will give you a fermented honey flavor. But it won't taste like honey in the finished beer if you take my meaning. In other words, it will contribute a flavor of fermented honey, but not like the sweet unfermented honey.

If you've ever had mead, that's what I mean. It tastes very little like honey unless the fermentation is arrested somehow to keep it sweet. But it does have a distinct flavor unique to fermented honey.

 

[burnsie]

So, does fermented honey taste resemble regular honey taste very much at all, as is tasted in a Raz-honey wheat?

 

[Janx]

Well...not really.

But what raspberry honey wheat beer are you talking about? It's not exactly a classic style and each version will be different.

To reiterate...if you want sweetness, honey isn't going to give it to you.

 

[Surfrider]

While there is much debate about what temp (if any) is best to pasteurize your honey at, most mazers do not boil their honey. Why? Two main reasons.

1. Heat inarguably alters the character of honey. Many of the more delicate, subtle notes in a honey are harmed by even the "low" heat of pasteurization. I do believe believe there is a (nearly) general consensus amongst mazers that the high heat of boiling will leave you with little more than "sweet" in your flavor profile.

2. Honey is, for the most part, a bacteriostatic environment. It's unlikely that a honey will introduce enough nasties into your brew to start an infection.

Remember; no-heat mazing is a very widespread practice, and as long as proper sterile technique is used when preparing the required equipment, infection is a rarity.

For more information, go to the Got Mead? forums. Specifically, search for related posts by Oskar and Ancient Joe (ie, Joe Mattoli), two no-heat mazing gurus.

Good luck.

-Surfrider

 

[autoferret]

So the honey should be added at the end of end of the boil after you take it off the heat so it disovles but doesn't boil.

I'm getting ready for a Orange Blossom Ale so trying to read up as much as posible. Going to post the recipe later.