All honey flavor fermented away. How can I add some?

[agurkas]

So I added 1lb of honey to my 4gal batch of porter and two weeks into fermentation I can no longer detect any honey flavor.

I supposedly have to wait another week to two weeks in the primary before bottling. Would I kill the beer, if I added like a 0.5lb of honey to my batch now?
How do you get the honey flavor to stay?

It is supposed to be a honey porter after all.

 

[jkreuze]

Use honey malt next brew, it is supposed to add more honey flavor than anything you can cover using honey.

It's a wild, wild world.

 

[Revvy]

How do you get the honey flavor to stay?

Don't use it, if you want a beer that actually has a honey flavor. Or use just a little, and follow my suggestions.

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. And I used NO HONEY at all!

BUT if you insist on using actual honey, then you need to find the darkest, and strongest honey you can find. Don't use your basic pale yellow honey, that is nearly completely fermentable. But the darker the honey the more UNFERMENTABLES to lend the honey flavor.

I was lucky enough to lay my hands on a jar of 50 year old honey for my 50th birthday Barleywine mentioned in my sig line.

Another option would be to further carmallezie your honey, just like we make caramel or dark candy syrup. Just boil it down for awile in a saucepan, then when you get it the color you want hit it with cold water (warning it will splash) to stop the reaction and add THAT to your beer.

There is a 15th century burnt honey mead called a brochet where that is the basic process. We also did that on my brew day.

This was not even as dark as we did the brochet, it went even darker. This WAS your basic cheap grocery store pale honey, but llok how dark it looks there, it turned some amazing colors.

This is how dark the mead finished out.

The flavor is really intense. Like what it is, honey caramel. And there will be flavor after it ferments.

Hope this helps.

 

[waldoar15]

A little bit of honey malt goes a long way in a beer too. You can easily overdo it.

 

[LaurieGator]

Revvy, which yeast did you use in your Bochet? I tried D-47 but it hasn't been fermenting very well... I am about to pitch some EC-1118 if the SG reading hasn't moved very much when I re-check in the morning.

I used Go-Ferm during yeast hydration and added Fermaid-K and DAP into the mix.

 

[ENS]

I took a brewing class on Saturday and the teacher, Mr. Steve of Mr. Steve's in York, PA said that you need three pounds of honey before it will start to impart flavors. Any less is to increase the alchohol.

 

[Revvy]

Revvy, which yeast did you use in your Bochet? I tried D-47 but it hasn't been fermenting very well... I am about to pitch some EC-1118 if the SG reading hasn't moved very much when I re-check in the morning.

I used Go-Ferm during yeast hydration and added Fermaid-K and DAP into the mix.

I can't remember what was used, I didn't pitch it. I'll have to ask my buddy but I think he used EC-1118. 4 meads were made that day, and I can't recall which yeast went for which.

 

[agurkas]

Thank you Revvy! I guess I will modify my next recipe with help of the forum. Maybe my next hefeweize will have some honey malt in it.

 

[Revvy]

Looks like Sam Caligone had the same issue with his ******* Brew recipe, the honey fermented out way too much in their pilot batch. I thought about this while watching Brew Masters on the discovery channel.

 

[Justibone]

Looks like Sam Caligone had the same issue with his ******* Brew recipe, the honey fermented out way too much in their pilot batch. I thought about this while watching Brew Masters on the discovery channel.

Dang it, Revvy! I DVR'ed that, and now you spoiled it. Guess I'll just delete it now...

I'm excited about a beer show on DSC. My wife's BFF called to make sure I knew about it, lol.

 

[wcarter1227]

Looks like Sam Caligone had the same issue with his ******* Brew recipe, the honey fermented out way too much in their pilot batch. I thought about this while watching Brew Masters on the discovery channel.

Funny you mention that as well cause I was watching that this morning on the dvr and the whole time I was thinking, Why not just throw in some Honey malt?

 

[Revvy]

FYI, I just posted this in another thread. More info on Honey Malt.

http://www.specialtymalts.com/gambrinus/

Honey malt: Honey malt is the company's best description for the unique European malt known as brumalt. Its intense malt sweetness makes it perfect for any specialty beer. It has a color profile of 20-30 °L and is devoid of astringent roast flavors.

From Pro-brewer.

Malt sweetness and honey like flavour and aroma make it perfect for any specialty beer. The closest comparison is a light caramel, but Honey Malt has a flavour of its own: sweet and a little bit nutty. Made by restricting the oxygen flow during the sprouting process, Honey Malt is essentially self-stewed. When the oxygen is cut off, the grain bed heats up, developing sugars and rich malt flavours. The malt is lightly kilned for a color color profile of 25 SRM and is devoid of astringent roast flavors. Honey malt has a diastatic power of 50, and can convert itself but not additional adjuncts. It is best mashed with a base malt. Use up to 25% in specialty beers for a unique flavour."

4. BRUMALT Honey (Gambrinus—Can.), aka brumalt; 18°L

* intense, sweet honeyish aroma & flavour
* superb for improving/increasing aroma and colour of darker beers without introducing astringent roast flavours
* good for giving low-alcohol beers flavour & aroma that they might otherwise lack
* enough diastatic power that, if carefully mashed, will self-convert (but amounts of no more than 50% recommended, given its intensity)
* mashing produces fermentables, but extract brewers can steep for flavour & aroma

Interesting, it can convert itself. Imagine a 50% Honey Malt beer.