Brewing with honey

[ChuckCollins]

Looking to add 3# of honey to a Blonde Ale kit,any tips on this,like to have
thoughts on this:rockin:

 

[hoppymonkey]

3 lbs is a lot. What is your recipe? I brew with honey pretty frequently and here is what I have learned.

1. Get ready for a very dry beer.( l like dry beer)
2. get ready for a longer primary.
3. If the percentage of honey versus malt is too high it will start to taste like wine/mead.

I love using it in general. Good way to dry a beer out and add some ABV.

 

[ChuckCollins]

It's a AHS texas Blonde-Extract kit useing WLP029

 

[ChuckCollins]

Plus a extra OZ of Hops

 

[ChuckCollins]

1. Get ready for a very dry beer ?how to smooth it out ?
2. get ready for a longer primary? How long I want to avoid it blowing up in the Bottle?
#. what is a good temp to ferment it?

 

[hoppymonkey]

1. Get ready for a very dry beer ?how to smooth it out ?
2. get ready for a longer primary? How long I want to avoid it blowing up in the Bottle?
#. what is a good temp to ferment it?

Do everything as you normally would and expect to primary at least 3 weeks. Bottle when the krausen drops and you have the same hydrometer reading 3 days in a row.

 

[ChuckCollins]

I want to have the honey feel to it any help on that

 

[hoppymonkey]

I want to have the honey feel to it any help on that

?? Do you mean you want honey flavor? If that is the case add some gambrinus honey malt. Honey( especially filtered, clover, or orange blossom) doesn't really add any flavor in my experience. Some wild flower honey added right at the end of boil can add some floral notes to the beer.

 

[marubozo]

What is a "honey feel?" Are you talking about flavor, or something about how a beer feels kind of silky in your mouth? Those are two completely different things, both of which may or may not have anything to do with actual honey.

 

[ChuckCollins]

It is raw honey

 

[hoppymonkey]

honey is near 100 percent fermentable. It will actually "thin" your beer.

 

[Gregscsu]

Is this an extract or all-grain kit.

If it is all grain you can mash at a higher temp to combat the "drying" effect of the honey.

 

[stocktires]

x2 on the honey malt

 

[RKW]

If you want the honey flavor and would like to avoid the "drying" effect my sugestion is to add somewhere between 1 and 2 pounds (for a 5 gallon batch) to secondary fermentation. This means that you must pasteurize the honey yourself which isn't hard at all. The reason for adding to the secondary is that the heavy CO2 production of the primary has a "scubbing" effect on the honey flavors.

put your honey in an non reactive container (I use a mason jar) and pre heat your oven to
145F. "bake" the honey at 145F for at least 30 minutes, I usually go 45, and you've killed all the baddies with out burning or boiling the honey.

Then when you rack to secondary add the honey at the same time. It will be nice and thin from the heat so it will mix easilly.

With this method the type of honey makes no difference, just pick the honey that you think goes best with the rest of the flavor.Now if you are looking for some other honey effect don't use this method, but I've found that this is the best for getting honey flavor into your final product.