Honey for secondary ferm
- Thread starter Mart1986
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk:
Brew_Meister_General
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2015
- Messages
- 256
- Reaction score
- 14
The thing about honey is thats its hard to predict how much of it will ferment and how much won't which means you'll get varied results from batch to batch.
I personally haven't used it but that's something I read from John Palmer. As far as I know, honey flavours can only be replicated in small ways using ingredients such as Crystal 10 or Tettnang hops which are simply described as honey-like so like all things you'll simply have to experiment!
I use honey fairly often in my brews. Mostly instead of using table sugar. (old hippy sensibilities)Here's what I've found:
1. 1-2 lbs. during the boil= increase in ABV, No honey flavor in final product.
2. 1-2 lbs. added late in fermentation= slight flavor retained.
3. 1-2 lbs. in secondary= basically the same as adding late in primary. After all, adding the honey just kicks in fermentation, so it's similar.
4. Using honey as primer to bottle condition. More likely to retain some honey flavor, but be careful. As Brewmeister says above, the fermentation potential of honey is variable. So sometimes you might be undercarbed, sometimes over.
5. If you want a consistent honey flavor, use Honey Malt (Brumalt) in the mash. Doesn't take much. 6-8oz. in a typical mash for a 1.050 5G batch is enough for me.
1. 1-2 lbs. during the boil= increase in ABV, No honey flavor in final product.
2. 1-2 lbs. added late in fermentation= slight flavor retained.
3. 1-2 lbs. in secondary= basically the same as adding late in primary. After all, adding the honey just kicks in fermentation, so it's similar.
4. Using honey as primer to bottle condition. More likely to retain some honey flavor, but be careful. As Brewmeister says above, the fermentation potential of honey is variable. So sometimes you might be undercarbed, sometimes over.
5. If you want a consistent honey flavor, use Honey Malt (Brumalt) in the mash. Doesn't take much. 6-8oz. in a typical mash for a 1.050 5G batch is enough for me.
surgical_ass
Well-Known Member
+1 for honey malt!
