help! i need info on honey for priming!!

[mac25663]

I insist on using honey to prime for bottling but i need to talk about this so i dont ruin my first batch which i think is coming along nicely.

 

[BarleyWater]

Since it is your first batch, I think you should reconsider. It is very hard to tell how much sugar you are going to get from honey do to the varying water contents of different honey from different sources. This combined with the fact that you have no experience bottling, you should use a tried and true method, so that if something goes wrong, it will be easier for you, or us if you ask, to figure out what happened.

 

[wild]

What questions did you have about using honey?

 

[EvilTOJ]

I wouldn't use honey to bottle. Honey usually ferments out pretty completely since it's almost pure sugar, and you won't be able to taste it at all. It will also take at *least* five weeks for it to carb the bottles enough for you to drink it. I was impatient enough for my first batch to carb, it will be pure torture waiting for these to get fizzy.

If you don't want to use corn sugar to bottle, you can also use DME. That takes a little longer to carb, but it does taste slightly better in the bottle. That said, if you insist on using honey for carbing, I would use one cup per 5 gallons.

 

[TheOceaneer]

My recollection is that John Palmer's book recommends diluting the honey with water and taking a gravity reading to determine the sugar content. This will allow you to hit fairy close to your target carbonation.