Any Tips On Using Honey

My second brew, gonna try a honey amber ale.recipe kit has 2 pounds of honey seems like alot, Is it?

i used .80 lbs in a tripel that is fermenting now. originally its very sweet but i have been told it will ferment off. 2 lbs does seem like a lot but go for it!! if its in a kit those recipes are usually tried and tested so it will probably turn out great.

Honey ferments very dry, but it sometimes seems to take a bit more time to ferment. Also, the darker the honey the more flavor will be imparted into the brew. The source of flower be it clover, wildflower, goldenrod etc... will impart different flavors to the honey.

In my house IIPA recipe I use 1 lb of orange clover honey (because I think it pairs nicely with the citrusy hops) but after about 5 or 6 brew sessions I'm thinking all it really may do is boost the ABV. Either way I'm gonna continue to add it.

Yea my first brew was a kit two. and it turned out great. I just dont want a brew that is to sweet. I guess im just nervous, new at this.my directions say for a more mild honey taste add honey later in the boil 30 min at the most 10 at the least.I guess il shoot for the middle.

I recently used 1.5 lbs. in a pilsner. It ended up being a rather dry brew as planned. Honey is mostly sugar so it will ferment out almost completely so don't expect to get much flavor from it, mainly some dryness and increased alcohol.

I have been told that the later in the boil you add the honey, the more potential honey flavor in the finished beer. This shouldn't effect sweetness, just flavor.

My only experience with honey is with the NB Honey Brown now one week in secondary. The recipe called for 1 pound of honey at flame-out. Boy, did it smell good.....


I'm assuming that the longer the honey is boiled, more of the honey aroma components are lost????
Pez.

As far as adding it in, I'd do it at flameout. You get so little flavor from honey as it is. Boiling, like you said will decrease the aroma and even flavor.

You really won't get much from the honey. Ever had mead? Thats more along the lines of the flavor it will impart. Like other said, honey is pretty much all sugar, so it will act like any other sugar by thinning the body, boosting alcohol and drying out the beer.

+1 adding at the end/near the end of the boil.

When making my first batch with honey, I assumed it was just like an extract and added early. The result was ok, but the honey flavor and aroma were lost. With the next batch, I added late and could definitely taste/smell the honey in the result. A much better beer.

Don't use it, if you want a beer that actually has a honey flavor.

When you add honey you are actually doing more to boost the ABV and dry the beer out, than to actually get any honey flavor.

That's the thing with people adding honey to beer, they really AREN'T getting much honey flavor in their beer, because it is fermenting away to alcohol, like making mead.

Which unless you kill fermentation and back sweeten with honey that won't ferment, really doesn't have that much of a sweet honey flavor.

To get a real honey flavor, use the darkest you can find, with the most concentration of flavor, or even better, use Gambrinus honey malt ProBrewer Interactive - View Single Post - Honey Malt

So if you put a lot of honey in, it will have the same basic affect as adding table sugar to it...it's going to dry out and thin the beer.

If people want a real honey taste then ad some honey malt to your grainbill you will be surprised...it will taste like most people want honey beers to taste.

In bottling the same thing is going to happen....only a little bit of "honey flavor" is going to come through, because most of it will ferment out. And it is really hard to control how much flavor is going to be left over. One thing to consider would be to use the darkest honey possible, so there is unfermentable left behind.

(Like bottling with brown sugar or even mollasses.)

I did an amazing Belgian Dark Strong with a couple pounds of Honey malt, and it was like what a honey beer SHOULD taste like.

I set out to make a stout a little while back and during the brew process I was drinking Honey Porter...some how this made its way into my brew...go figure. I ended up throwing in just 4 oz. at flame out based only on a guess as I'd never used honey prior to that. To my surprise, it actually does show up in the flavor of the beer (at bottling). Not much of a stout but it's my best brew so far (I say this based on the flavor, look and aroma at bottling) and I can't wait to give it my 1st week taste test.

I forgot to take the Final Gravity reading though. !!!!!!!!!

IF you use int use it at flame out.

I've used Honey Malt in a Scottish which gave me a nice honey flavor as Revvy says.

Don't boil the honey at all. Don't put it in at flame out either. Keep an eye on the temp as you're chilling the wort, add the honey once you get down to 150F -- you will get honey flavor that way, not just dryness from highly fermentable sugar.

Mutilated1 said:

Don't boil the honey at all. Don't put it in at flame out either. Keep an eye on the temp as you're chilling the wort, add the honey once you get down to 150F -- you will get honey flavor that way, not just dryness from highly fermentable sugar.

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ooooh that's exciting to hear!

Revvy said:

ooooh that's exciting to hear!

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well its not anything new really -- someone else passed that info along to me here in one of these topics a long time ago, it really does work though

What about cold crashing or killing off the yeast entirely so they can't ferment the honey then take out a couple pints, pasteurize the honey in it (or just pasteurize the honey in water) and then add that back to the secondary or keg? That should give some bright fresh honey flavor shouldn't it?