Need Help with My Sweet Thang!

[KYBrew]

I am fairly new to home brew so bare with me. I have made 5-6 different kits from Brewers Best. Recently I bought a English Brown Ale. I was wanting to add honey to acheive a sweeter taste. Does anyone have any help on how much to add, when to add, and are there concerns with honey being unpasteurized? thanks in advance.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Contrary to what you might think, honey will not add appreciable flavor or sweetness to your homebrew. It will add alcohol content and a dryness due to the high fermentability of the sugars in it. If you want honey flavor, try steeping some honey malt with your specialty grains.

Welcome to the forum, and happy brewing!

 

[McKBrew]

If you are looking for a little more sweetness try an unfermentable sugar like lactose. An ounce per gallon will add some sweetness. You could use more.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Contrary to what you might think, honey will not add appreciable flavor or sweetness to your homebrew.

I agree with everything Yuri said except that hiney won't add flavor. It'll add alcohol, for sure. It will dry it out a little, for sure. But in a lighter style of beer with appreciable maltiness (a trick in and of itself, no doubt), there WILL be noticeable honey flavors. You definitely have to keep the bitterness low for the honey flavors to come through. Walter Payton's roundhouse has a filtered honey-wheat that is very much a "honey" beer. It can be done, it's not easy though.

 

[KYBrew]

Thanks for everyone's help. I think I'm going to try the honey malt and some honey. Wish me luck!!:rockin:

 

[the_bird]

Honey malt should be mashed. Do some reading on partial mashing; it's not hard, but if you only steep, you won't get nearly as much of the flavor from the honey malt, and will be adding unconverted starches.