adding honey
- Thread starter hubba
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Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
1. Leave it in primary... Just one week is far too little a time on the yeast... Give it a minimum of 2-3 weeks before even thinking about it.
2. Just add the honey in primary, in about another .5-1 week.
3. Leave it in primary for another 1-2 weeks from when you put the honey in.
4. DO NOT HEAT THE HONEY ABOVE 100F!!!
5. Mix the honey with a few ounces of warmed water to help it go into solution in the wort. Put it in when below ~80F.
6. Taste the brew before you decide to: a) Add more honey; b) rack to the bottling bucket and bottle it up.
7. Consider also priming with honey. I know some people will say it makes no difference in flavor, but what harm can it do? Answer: no harm at all. If you get even a little more of the flavors YOU want, then do it... Just remember to use 1.25x the sugar weight you would have primed with, in honey... Volume is meaningless with honey, go by weight.
2. Just add the honey in primary, in about another .5-1 week.
3. Leave it in primary for another 1-2 weeks from when you put the honey in.
4. DO NOT HEAT THE HONEY ABOVE 100F!!!
5. Mix the honey with a few ounces of warmed water to help it go into solution in the wort. Put it in when below ~80F.
6. Taste the brew before you decide to: a) Add more honey; b) rack to the bottling bucket and bottle it up.
7. Consider also priming with honey. I know some people will say it makes no difference in flavor, but what harm can it do? Answer: no harm at all. If you get even a little more of the flavors YOU want, then do it... Just remember to use 1.25x the sugar weight you would have primed with, in honey... Volume is meaningless with honey, go by weight.
It shouldn't thin the beer out from where it's at now, but it will add alcohol without any extra body or mouthfeel. A brown ale already has a good amount of flavor going on, in most cases, and I'd expect the honey will not add a significant amount of honey flavor or aroma (depending, of course, upon how much you add). The effect would be subtle, unless you get over 3-4lbs, I'd want to say. That would add a good amount of fermentables to your wort, though. The best thing to do might be to find a fresh honey with as big a flavor and aroma as you can find (some real strong variety, or maybe a blend), and use a smaller amount of that, like 2lbs or so. You can always add more, but you can't take out what you've put in.
mrk305
Beer Dude in the Sunset
If you want honey flavor you should brew with honey malt. Adding real honey just jacks up the ABV as all the sugar just ferments and adds very little flavor. I am not saying that is a bad thing. I use honey a lot, but if you want honey flavor use honey malt. I would try between a quarter pound to a half @ 5 gallon batch.
I posted some detailed info about using honey, here;
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/al...d-away-how-can-i-add-some-207447/#post2422295
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/al...d-away-how-can-i-add-some-207447/#post2422295
this is a 2.5 gallon batch and my OG was a tad low the honey might kick that up. i was shooting for about 3.8 avb but going to get about 3.1. so adding to honey would bring my AVB up. i have 12 oz of clover honey here.
Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
I would add 8 ounces first... See how it is in 1-2 weeks and then add the rest if you want. Better to add a little less each time, than all at once (as with most additions)...
