Adding Honey After Cooling Wort & Before Fermentation

[NothingRhymesWithCurtiss]

I read through the forums and couldn't find anything specific to what I am thinking.

Short version:

1. Brew a basic blonde ale 75% 2 Row & 25% White Wheat; 20 IBUs from EKG
2. Chill wort to pitching temp
3. Add 15% of grain weight in honey to fermenter
4. Mix chilled wort and honey
5. Pitch yeast

Does anyone have experience with this? I don't really have the ability to add it to the fermenter during active fermentation (long story), so this is my solution.

Any and all feedback/thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[jekeane]

That seems like a lot of honey to add to cool wort from a mixing standpoint. I would consider mixing that honey in while the wort is still warm in the kettle to help it incorporate into soloution. I add honey anywhere below 180°. If you have a drill mixer you could likely do it fine the way you are suggesting but just hand stirring that might be slow going to get it all dissolved.

 

[NothingRhymesWithCurtiss]

That seems like a lot of honey to add to cool wort from a mixing standpoint. I would consider mixing that honey in while the wort is still warm in the kettle to help it incorporate into soloution.

Good call. I failed to take into consideration the temp of wort vs the honey. Thanks!

 

[Remos112]

I think you would be fine even without the mixing, I have no doubt the yeast will find the highly fermentable honey in whatever form.

 

[leonardoreges]

Contamination wise, I think you dumped that honey the worst time you could.
Honey is far from being a sterile solution and at the time you dumped you didn’t boiled it to sterilize neither dumped at a time when there’s already fermentation going with a high yeast population to compete with honey provided bacteria and alcohol that may kill some of them.

 

[Lefou]

Store-bought pasteurized clover honey directly from the bottle shouldn't be a problem as long as the container is freshly opened. I typically add honey as a gravity booster and drying adjunct for beers by putting it into a solution of hot water then adding to the wort just before direct heat is removed.
Much easier to mix that way. Honey tends to sink or stratify when added directly to a cooler solution of lesser gravity.

 

[NothingRhymesWithCurtiss]

Contamination wise, I think you dumped that honey the worst time you could.

I haven't used it yet. Brewing tomorrow. It's a 12 lb jug direct from the farm, and I'm next to positive they do their best to sanitize, as it's their livelihood. That said, good call on giving it a little heat to knock out any nasties.

 

[jalc6927]

All the honey sugars will ferment out leaving little to no honey taste, but you’ll get a nice color and aroma, plus added ABV

There is no real way to get honey flavor in beer unless you add at packaging and still not sure that will work

 

[theseeker4]

I haven't used it yet. Brewing tomorrow. It's a 12 lb jug direct from the farm, and I'm next to positive they do their best to sanitize, as it's their livelihood. That said, good call on giving it a little heat to knock out any nasties.

They will certainly keep things sanitary, but direct from farm honey is likely unpasteurized these days. This means that while safe to eat, it certainly can add undesirable bacteria to the beer. Heating the honey or adding to boil is how you would eliminate that, or add after initial fermentation is well underway as mentioned above.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Easiest imo would be to add pasteurized honey direct to the ferment just prior to high kreusen. Perhaps with farm honey or any honey for that matter one could warm it up in the microwave to pasteurize then it would also pour more easily.

The thicker honey will eventually mix fine and the yeast will find it without mixing it in.

 

[jekeane]

Honey has antimicrobial and anti bacteriological properties it has very low moisture content which makes life difficult for bugs. There is no need in my experience to heat honey and it will only do detriment to it's aroma and flavor. My only caveat would be if your honey is dirty and unfiltered with visible debris.

Honey flavor is most certainly attainable in beer by adding it anytime in the process and the flavor afforded is primarily relative to the % of the grain bill and other factors such as variety and grain bill composition.

With large amounts like yours I would add to the kettle below 180° and above 160° if you want to pasteurize. Personally I would go into the 140° or lower range to keep as much aroma in the wort as possible while still making that amount easy to dissolve.

If I'm adding 1# or less it goes in the fermenter heated in a water bath to get it to pour smooth just past high krausen so day 3ish. I enjoy using honey in beer and mead making and have never had issue with infection. I know 2 professional mead makers that also do not pasteurize.

Either way with 15% in a blonde you will get character so do what is the most comfortable for you. Whatever you do don't boil it though... you may as well add table sugar at that point.

 

[SanPancho]

Either way with 15% in a blonde you will get character so do what is the most comfortable for you. Whatever you do don't boil it though... you may as well add table sugar at that point.

Ive contemplated adding honey to my brown lager with maris, 20% brown and golden naked oats. What sort of ratio would you suggest to get some honey notes in there?

 

[EMH5]

I add honey to my DIPAs now. About 10 oz a day or two into fermentation. It really rounds out the citrus/stone fruit flavor well and ups the ABV to above 8% easily and I've had great success so far.

I've added Maple syrup at that same time to imperial stouts as well. Adding a day or two into fermentation has been my trick.

 

[SanPancho]

I add honey to my DIPAs now. About 10 oz a day or two into fermentation. It really rounds out the citrus/stone fruit flavor well and ups the ABV to above 8% easily and I've had great success so far.

I've added Maple syrup at that same time to imperial stouts as well. Adding a day or two into fermentation has been my trick.

I do small batches so 10oz isnt too informative. Any idea what the % would be?

 

[EMH5]

about 4%

 

[jekeane]

Ive contemplated adding honey to my brown lager with maris, 20% brown and golden naked oats. What sort of ratio would you suggest to get some honey notes in there?

I have a 1.070 amber holiday type beer that uses 9% honey add to the kettle as im chilling at around 140° and it has a noticeable honey note that is accentuated by the alcohol sweetness a bit.

In a Brown I think you are looking at that 9 - 10 % range. I would consider Honey malt in darker beers and replace 3-5% of a crystal malt if I'm using it. Then add 5-10% honey to the fermenter. I havent ventured to far into darker beers with honey personally. 9-10% is usually my base line for the beers I do unless I am making a alternative fermentables category type honey beer then im closer to 15%.

This article is pretty informative: https://byo.com/article/brewing-with-honey/

"The National Honey Board has done research into the effects of honey on beer. Their recommendations for amounts of honey added to a batch of beer (as a percent of total fermentables) are: 3 to 10 percent honey produces a subtle, floral flavor and delicate aroma; 11 to 30 percent produces a robust honey flavor that should be balanced by strong hop flavors, spices, or darker specialty malts; above 30 percent produces beer dominated by honey flavor, which verges on being what medieval brewers called “braggot.”