Honey ipa

[jxsweeney]

Hi guys making a honey(agava)ipa and just want to no when I should ad the honey to the boil to get the flavor

 

[Edcculus]

There has been a lot of discussion around here about honey. A lot of people add honey hoping to get a good honey flavor. The fact is that honey is almost all fermentable sugar. Have you ever had mead? It is reminiscent of honey, but completely different. Honey will completely ferment out, helping to dry out the beer and thin it out. To me, honey has a very specific flavor, but most of all, its sweet. The sweet component of honey disappears when you ferment it. I've never done it, but people have said using honey malt will give better honey flavor than honey itself. If you want any hope of retaining any honey flavor from the honey, add it once you have chilled to 180F or below. The aromas and flavors in honey are very delicate. Pitching when the wort is cooler will help retain those flavors.

 

[DavidSteel]

Yeah, I'd put it in at flame-out or sometime between flameout and the chill (though, I wouldn't recommend the second one). I want to add honey to an IIPA of mine to thin it out and add a small undertone of flavor, but I'm still 'in the woods' about the whole thing. I'm thinking about adding 1lb of honey to a 8-9% (at 65-75% efficiency) to bump up the % to 9 and to dry it out. A lot of IIPA's add dextrose corn sugar to dry it out, but I'm thinking honey will add a small bit of flavor and work the same as corn sugar.

Consider making a IIPA if you want an emphasis on honey. You could probably put in 2.5-3lbs that way, if you really wanted to.. I'd probably suggest mashing at a higher temp though.

 

[jxsweeney]

How about making a small patch of honey wort and then adding it to the secondary ferm.

 

[gunnyg]

How bout boiling honey (or maple syrup) in order to caramelize it and prevent it from going to alcohol?

Will that retain the sweetness?

Also, does adding honey cause carbonation problems, exploding bottles, etc.?

 

[DavidSteel]

If it were me, I wouldn't boil it because it would lose all its "honey" flavor. I'd put it in a separate sanitized container filled with boiled (and cooled until warm) water, shake it like crazy until all the honey is dissolved into the water, and then pitch it into my primary when I put the wort in. That way, it'll leave more "honey" flavor.

 

[Morbo]

Just use a dark honey and add it out flame out. My house IIPA uses 1# of honey that way and it turns out great. Just barely detectable but since it ferments out dry it leaves little to no residual sweetness. The darker the honey the more flavor will be left.

EDIT: Never used agave so no input on it.

 

[WIP]

He mentioned Agave. Agave has a lot less sugar in it than honey. I am wondering if it will ferment as well as honey. I would think that it would leave some of that flavor. That is just my thought though.

 

[mbtech]

What about using honey at bottling time for carbonation?

 

[SeamusMac]

If your LHBS has honey malt (aka brumalt in some cases) give it a try! I've tried using honey twice, with zero indications that there was ever honey added to it by the time it finishes fermenting.

I'm going to steep .25 lbs of honey malt when brewing my second attempt at an American Honey Wheat this spring break, hopefully that's enough...

 

[Edcculus]

He mentioned Agave. Agave has a lot less sugar in it than honey. I am wondering if it will ferment as well as honey. I would think that it would leave some of that flavor. That is just my thought though.

I've tasted a beer with Agave. It left no Agave flavor and merely dried out the beer, much like honey does.

 

[sdhucks7]

I just brewed a 10gal batch of i guess you would call Honey Beer. I added 2lbs of honey malt to the mash. The hydro samples taste great but it will sit in primary for another week to make around 2 to 2 1/2 weeks. Mine was more of an APA. Opps just saw this was in extract brewing. sorry.


SD

 

[jjp36]

Yeah, I'd put it in at flame-out or sometime between flameout and the chill (though, I wouldn't recommend the second one). I want to add honey to an IIPA of mine to thin it out and add a small undertone of flavor, but I'm still 'in the woods' about the whole thing. I'm thinking about adding 1lb of honey to a 8-9% (at 65-75% efficiency) to bump up the % to 9 and to dry it out. A lot of IIPA's add dextrose corn sugar to dry it out, but I'm thinking honey will add a small bit of flavor and work the same as corn sugar.

Consider making a IIPA if you want an emphasis on honey. You could probably put in 2.5-3lbs that way, if you really wanted to.. I'd probably suggest mashing at a higher temp though.

I just did this. Made a 9.5% IIPA with 3lbs of honey added at flame out. I could have saved myself 20 bucks and just used corn sugar. There is absolutely no honey flavor or aroma that i can detect. And if there is a subtle one, it is masked by the hop aromas. It did however help to dry out the beer, which is the main reason i used it.

I think if you want honey flavor, you need to go with a relatively neutral base beer that doesn't have alot of hops or specialty grains. But that's just my opinion.

 

[nepatsfan1]

Add the honey at 140 degrees it will still pasturize the honey but retain the flavors. One of the local guys at my LHBS had some honey ale and it was a very pronounced flavor. Plus most braggots state to add it at this temp if I recall.

 

[Fat Guy Brewing]

Adding honey to the brew pot is like ripping up a $5 bill. Do a search for honey on this site and you will find many threads on it. I think the expert consensus was to add honey to the primary 2-3 days after fermentation starts.