Hey gang, just received my first brew kit for Christmas and made up a batch of honey wheat from Adventures in Homebrewing. Had a blast doing so but am fearful I might have screwed up the boiling process. Looking at the instructions it stated for me to add the honey at the start of the boil along with my LME, which I did. Now, looking at info today I am reading on the net I should've really add honey when there is only 5 minutes left because a long boil can kill off much of the honey flavors. So, that being said, does anyone know if that will totally throw off my brew or is there hopes for it still?
Brewing with honey question
- Thread starter SublimeBW
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk:
freisste
Well-Known Member
It will be fine. I like the guys at AIH ad they probably knew what they were doing when they wrote the recipe.
I've personally never added honey to a beer, but I have heard that it leaves little honey flavor whether added at the beginning or end of the boil (or during fermentation, for that matter).
If it doesn't have enough honey flavor for you, rebrew in the future and add honey malt to your mash (or steep it if you are extract brewing). You will get more honey flavor from it.
I've personally never added honey to a beer, but I have heard that it leaves little honey flavor whether added at the beginning or end of the boil (or during fermentation, for that matter).
If it doesn't have enough honey flavor for you, rebrew in the future and add honey malt to your mash (or steep it if you are extract brewing). You will get more honey flavor from it.
I did something similar with my first extract batch ( a honey Kolsch ). I wouldn't worry too much about it. You will lose some of the aroma of the honey but that's not a big deal. As long as you were sanitary your beer should turn out just fine.
Good, I will breathe easier now. I figured they knew what they were talking about, they all seemed pretty knowledgeable when we went into the store. And the mash actually had honey malt in it, so hopefully that will help (heard that gives more honey flavor than honey does).
IvanTheTerribrew
Well-Known Member
Well while people say you can't really add honey flavor I tend to disagree because I bought 16oz of local honey just to keep for a recipe one day, then I made a brewers best cream ale, and while it was in primary i thought "hey, I'll make it a honey cream ale by adding honey in secondary".
What I did is I heated up about 2 cups of water to about 160* and stirred in the honey and held it there for about 10 minutes. Then I added it to a carboy and then racked the beer ontop of it. It had A LOT of honey flavor in it. The yeast did ferment most of the sugar the honey added but the flavor definitely stayed and it became the favorite when I did a 5 beer sampler party.
So just thought I'd chime in because adding honey worked well for me when I secondaried it.
What I did is I heated up about 2 cups of water to about 160* and stirred in the honey and held it there for about 10 minutes. Then I added it to a carboy and then racked the beer ontop of it. It had A LOT of honey flavor in it. The yeast did ferment most of the sugar the honey added but the flavor definitely stayed and it became the favorite when I did a 5 beer sampler party.
So just thought I'd chime in because adding honey worked well for me when I secondaried it.
Yea, I've never been able to get a honey flavor when adding honey to the boil or any time pre-primary fermentation. The later you add it the better chance you'll have at getting some sort of honey flavor out of it. I know that in some beer cases when you add honey to the secondary like ismedeiros88 above, the yeast can already be tired and the abv % can be on the higher range for the yeast so the yeast just doesnt ferment the honey all the way out like it would if you just added it to the boil.
I've had a Blue Moon Honey Wheat and really enjoyed the taste, which to me was as though it had a shot of honey in the can. I've attempted to replicate that strong honey flavor, and have followed all of the advice given to no avail. But I recently created a recipe to make an ale version of a lager, but increased the volume without enough rice DME to thin it out so I added 1 lb of honey at flameout in a 5.5 gal batch and it was quite pronounced. It seems the volume of honey and the time added all matter tremendously.
It still wasn't as pronounced as Blue Moon's beer, but it was the most forward I've had yet, and I've tried honey malts, honey, and both. I've used honey near the end of the boil, at flameout, and a week after fermentation began. I've used a little and I've used too much.
Next time I'll try 1.5 lbs of honey at flameout. But I've always heard the boil kills the flavor.
It still wasn't as pronounced as Blue Moon's beer, but it was the most forward I've had yet, and I've tried honey malts, honey, and both. I've used honey near the end of the boil, at flameout, and a week after fermentation began. I've used a little and I've used too much.
Next time I'll try 1.5 lbs of honey at flameout. But I've always heard the boil kills the flavor.
Honey is my 'go to' whenever the recipe calls for adding sugar.(I can get local honey pretty cheaply). I also keep some around to add if my OG is less than predicted. So, I've used honey quite abit. And get practically no honey flavor from it, unless I add it a couple days after fermentation starts. Honey malt- now that does add flavor.
It seems to me in my experiences with it that it depends on how much you use. I've used a little and not perceived much of anything from it, and I've used too much and made it thin and weird. But that 1 lb in 5.5 gals at flameout really brought it out stronger than I would have thought. Like you, I used it in place of sugar or rice DME.
Similar threads
