Brewing With Honey (Poll)

[NigeltheBold]

I've heard so many different things about brewing with honey, but I wanted to take a poll to see what people on the forum are doing the most.

I'm looking for a fairly noticeable honey flavor in my beer. I know it's not easy to do because honey ferments almost 100%. But I've heard there are some methods to bring out the honey flavor a bit more. I'm also using honey malt, so please don't tell me to use honey malt instead of honey. I'm basically just trying to figure out when I should add the honey to the beer in order to get the most honey flavor in the final product. Answer the poll if you've had experience brewing with honey.

 

[MalFet]

I use honey fairly frequently to dry out a beer, but it never tastes like honey. If you want that, and are dead set on using real honey to get it, pasteurize and add it late in primary fermentation. If you add it at the end of boil, the CO2 will scrub out most of the aromatics.

 

[jaycount]

Honey is going to ferment out no matter when you add it (sans yeast cessation techniques).

If you want a honey flavor, try adding honey malt to your add.

 

[Seven]

I know what you mean about there being a lot of differing opinions about using honey. In my experience adding honey late in the boil (10-mins remaining) did give a noticeable honey flavor to the finished beer. Your results may vary depending on the recipe, type and amount of honey used, etc.

 

[TopherM]

I've used several types of honey, and the only one that actually leaves a honey flavor after going through the standard process (i.e., no cold crashing, pastuerizing, etc.) is WILDFLOWER HONEY. You can find this stuff online or at your local whole foods store. It contains wildflower nectors that leave a nice sweetness and won't ferment out like most honeys.

Like someone else said, using about 5% of the total grain bill in Honey Malt will do a better job of leaving honey flavor than anything else.

 

[Pilgarlic]

Unfortunately, "wildflower honey" is a catch-all applied to honey produced by bees that have multiple and often unidentified nectar sources so it's difficult to predict what it will taste like over various locations and seasons.

 

[dest149]

What about using honey as a priming sugar? has anyone tried this? It would carbonate the beer, while still directly giving off the flavor to the final product. less yeast in the bottle so it will give the honey time to meld into the flavor?

 

[dest149]

Another think to try is to see if you can get your hands on some actual honey combs. I imagine the protein in the honeycombs will not ferment all the way out, and add to the taste? But perhaps it will be a little bit too risky (bacteria etc)

 

[Dale_3rd]

I've always heard that honey has natural anti-bacterial properties; might be okay to use post boil without much risk.

 

[MalFet]

I've always heard that honey has natural anti-bacterial properties; might be okay to use post boil without much risk.

Speaking from experience, nope.

 

[Coog_Brew]

I used honey with 5 mins left in boil for a hefeweizen and got a bit of honey flavor, but nothing too noticeable. One tip I can provide is to use good honey. I used some Costco honey and that was a big mistake. The hefeweizen turned out decent but had a weird rainwater like aftertaste that I instantly knew was the same smell as the Costco honey. Brew and learn.

 

[Gridlocked]

I've added it late in the boil and into a secondary and I'm pretty sure it's fermented out completely. Honey malt is a good way to get some honey flavors into the finished product.

 

[Pilgarlic]

Honey has a couple of antimicrobial properties, foremost of which is its sugar density which causes it to (by osmosis) suck the moisture from and kill microbes it comes into contact with. Once diluted in wort, of course, it loses this property.

 

[passedpawn]

I use honey fairly frequently to dry out a beer, but it never tastes like honey. If you want that, and are dead set on using real honey to get it, pasteurize and add it late in primary fermentation. If you add it at the end of boil, the CO2 will scrub out most of the aromatics.

I don't doubt your experience, but mine was the opposite.

For the honey wheat beer, honey went in at flameout, I had a normal ferment / atten., and was left with a fairly pleasing and discernible honey flavor.

Also, the meads I've made (which I hated) had a clear honey flavor.

 

[MalFet]

I don't doubt your experience, but mine was the opposite.

For the honey wheat beer, honey went in at flameout, I had a normal ferment / atten., and was left with a fairly pleasing and discernible honey flavor.

Also, the meads I've made (which I hated) had a clear honey flavor.

Absolutely, and what we should really do is ask the OP what he means by "honey flavor". I quite like meads, and the ones I've made have a dry, aromatic quality to them that is a definitely quality of the honey. When I've used honey at flameout in beers, I get the same thing (though, again, I get more of it if I add it late to primary). It's a nice characteristic, and likewise I definitely advocate using good quality honey in recipes.

But, to my taste buds at least, neither meads nor honey beers "taste like honey" in a conventional sense, perhaps just because they lack that distinctive kind of sweetness. So, if the OP wants a honey characteristic in the way that meads have them, definitely...add at flameout or later. If he wants beer that tastes like it has been blended with some raw honey (a la Honey Brown, etc.), my experiences at least suggest that simply adding honey won't be the way to get that.

 

[cincybrewer]

Speaking from experience, nope.

Are you positive it was from the honey? I've added honey post fermentation straight out of the jar without any negative effects. Everything I've ever read about honey is that it will not cause an infection. Add that to the fact that honey will last forever and that tells me bacteria does not like honey....just my opinion.

 

[NigeltheBold]

Absolutely, and what we should really do is ask the OP what he means by "honey flavor". I quite like meads, and the ones I've made have a dry, aromatic quality to them that is a definitely quality of the honey. When I've used honey at flameout in beers, I get the same thing (though, again, I get more of it if I add it late to primary). It's a nice characteristic, and likewise I definitely advocate using good quality honey in recipes.

But, to my taste buds at least, neither meads nor honey beers "taste like honey" in a conventional sense, perhaps just because they lack that distinctive kind of sweetness. So, if the OP wants a honey characteristic in the way that meads have them, definitely...add at flameout or later. If he wants beer that tastes like it has been blended with some raw honey (a la Honey Brown, etc.), my experiences at least suggest that simply adding honey won't be the way to get that.

I was going for an actual honey flavor in the finished beer. I'm using a combination of honey malt and actual honey (still debating on when to use it) to get the flavor I want. Hopefully people will drink it and say, "I can taste honey" and not say "it tastes like mead". I'm also debating how much honey malt I should use. Right now the recipe has about 12% honey malt. I've heard you shouldn't use any more than 20%. It looks like most people add the real honey at flameout, but some have great results adding in secondary.

 

[MalFet]

Are you positive it was from the honey? I've added honey post fermentation straight out of the jar without any negative effects. Everything I've ever read about honey is that it will not cause an infection. Add that to the fact that honey will last forever and that tells me bacteria does not like honey....just my opinion.

No, I could never be sure, but as others have mentioned the antimicrobial properties of honey come from its high sugar concentration. If you dilute it, perhaps anything living in there as spores get a chance to go hog wild. That's part of the justification for not giving honey to infants. But, of course, who knows?

 

[NigeltheBold]

Bump...