Honey Beer
- Thread starter taelmore
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Well, I've reached my limit.
Threads on honey are everywhere. Take a simple recipe, brew it, add honey to fermenter...enjoy.
Threads on honey are everywhere. Take a simple recipe, brew it, add honey to fermenter...enjoy.
The only stupid question is a question that is not asked. All Coastarine was saying was that a ton of the information is out in this forum, and can be found by using the search feature.
The honey can affect your fermentation time, but as long as you measure with a hydrometer everything should be fine. Even with your bottling.
The honey can affect your fermentation time, but as long as you measure with a hydrometer everything should be fine. Even with your bottling.
Honey will boost your gravity, but as long as you allow the honey to ferment out bottling should go as usual. Honey ferments a little slower, but not much. I just brewed an irish red on friday, got a very fast start out of my yeast, added a pound of honey on saturday, and today (monday) the airlock has slowed to a bubble every 30 seconds or so. I haven't taken a gravity, but I'd bet that the gravity is pretty stable. It would seem that the honey didn't add any time at all.
Sorry, I forget that some people might not actually know how to search. It's at the top of the page in the center.
Here is a list of threads with honey in the title. As you can see they come up quite often:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/search.php?searchid=2067554
Sorry, I forget that some people might not actually know how to search. It's at the top of the page in the center.
Here is a list of threads with honey in the title. As you can see they come up quite often:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/search.php?searchid=2067554
rod
beer -just brew it
I will try to find the search feature :"quote"
the one that says search in the header
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the one that says search in the header
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The same people read this forum that read the other one. No need for multiple threads for one question.
By my heightened powers of deduction, I suspect that you are interested in honey...
By my heightened powers of deduction, I suspect that you are interested in honey...
10% of fermentables for a subtle flavor/aroma, 20-30% for a bold flavor, and anything more is pretty much a braggot.
Coastarine got it
extract.
That's all pretty technical, and great info, but for now, Put a pound of honey in your fermentor, see how it goes.
That's all pretty technical, and great info, but for now, Put a pound of honey in your fermentor, see how it goes.
Fear not! For you beer will benefit!
This honey idea sounds kind of intriguing. I might try this myself in the near future.
I'm way late on this but I want to add my .02 cents.
Adding honey to the wort is an excellent way to lighten your beer. It also boosts the alcohol because it is very fermentable. I make a honey ale for summer and it is excellent on a hot day. I like it ice cold. I have never gotten honey flavor from it. Just a lighter bodied beer with more alcohol. I say start off with one pound and go as high as 2 pounds and you can't go wrong.
Adding honey to the wort is an excellent way to lighten your beer. It also boosts the alcohol because it is very fermentable. I make a honey ale for summer and it is excellent on a hot day. I like it ice cold. I have never gotten honey flavor from it. Just a lighter bodied beer with more alcohol. I say start off with one pound and go as high as 2 pounds and you can't go wrong.
ballbuster
Well-Known Member
Just curious here. You would go with 2 pounds of honey instead of corn sugar in the extract boil?
Kauai_Kahuna
Well-Known Member
ballbuster - I would rather put in two pounds of honey than two pounds of sugar.
1 lb for a light beer, 2 lb for a medium beer makes it just a little lighter in taste, but does not overpower the beer.
I use honey a lot when I'm making "house" beers, but don't use it if I'm trying a new recipe. For a new brewer I would say follow the recipe, see what the creator wanted, then if you feel the need add honey.
When it comes to canned kits that most new brewers use, and I have used many times I add honey.
You can take a standard coopers can, add four pounds of honey, maybe half an ounce of flavor / aroma hops if needed and make a braggot that is just fantastic using late extract additions.
With malt base, honey will still ferment out rather quickly, at the most it adds a day or two depending on the yeast. Three lbs per gal of honey by itself is a little hard on the yeast so it can take a long time. I over sparge a pale all grain batch and use the last two gallons as a base for my meads. After a year you will never know there was any malt in the mead, but it ferments so much faster and then it's just conditioning.
Sorry for such a long post, but I feel the need to defend using honey, try it and see if you like it.
1 lb for a light beer, 2 lb for a medium beer makes it just a little lighter in taste, but does not overpower the beer.
I use honey a lot when I'm making "house" beers, but don't use it if I'm trying a new recipe. For a new brewer I would say follow the recipe, see what the creator wanted, then if you feel the need add honey.
When it comes to canned kits that most new brewers use, and I have used many times I add honey.
You can take a standard coopers can, add four pounds of honey, maybe half an ounce of flavor / aroma hops if needed and make a braggot that is just fantastic using late extract additions.
With malt base, honey will still ferment out rather quickly, at the most it adds a day or two depending on the yeast. Three lbs per gal of honey by itself is a little hard on the yeast so it can take a long time. I over sparge a pale all grain batch and use the last two gallons as a base for my meads. After a year you will never know there was any malt in the mead, but it ferments so much faster and then it's just conditioning.
Sorry for such a long post, but I feel the need to defend using honey, try it and see if you like it.
Mutilated1
Beer Drenched Executioner
Thats been pretty much my experience as well. I make a honey beer with 3.6# light or amber LME and 2#s of honey shooting for gravity around .040. Whatever hops I have available and feel like using to get to 15-20 IBU. Works really well as an Ale or as a Lager.
I have never noticed a flavor that I could identify as tasting like honey though. Perhaps that is because I've been doing it wrong by adding the honey into the boil though ?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/why-not-boil-honey-76634/
I ordered a few extract kits from MWS including the "Honey Bee Ale" and "Honey Amber Ale". I'm curious about the Honey Bee Ale as it seems to have a higher amount (3#) of honey than what you guys are suggesting as a limit. Anyone have experience with this kit? I guess I'm gonna find out first hand as my order is arriving today. With a little luck I'll get to brew tonight
stedtale
Well-Known Member
indeedproceed
Well-Known Member
I'm making the Northern Brewer Irish Red on Friday. I too shall add honey on Saturday.
stedtale
Well-Known Member
How'd it go?
indeedproceed
Well-Known Member
It went really well. The recipe called for a 2.5 gal boil, but using the awesome sauce brew kettle insulation blanket I was able to for the first time get a full 5 gallon boil. I figured it would be a little more bitter though because of the increased hop utilization, so I added 1 lb of honey at the flameout, and 1 lb of honey on sunday when I saw the fermentation really begin to slow down.
As far as I can tell it's going to be awesome.
