Honey Porter - Honey Addition Options

[beerspitnight]

Ladies & Gents,
We are all set to brew up a porter this weekend. This is our second batch in a week since being back in Beijing.
I am able to get my hands on organic Chinese honey and I would like to do a honey porter. From what I have read, adding honey at FO is a good option to help retain some of the honey flavor, which is what I want to do since this is going to be a honey porter
I normally don't rack beer to a secondary, but I was wondering about racking the beer on top of a couple of pounds of honey in secondary (to avoid aerating the beer.)
What kind of flavors would I retain by racking onto the honey?
What would the be the difference in flavor profile by racking onto it in secondary rather than adding it at FO?
Hopefully Rev (you're still alive and kicking I hope:rockin or Yooper (just brewed your PA) or Poobah (saw your recent post on honey) or any other grand master can fill me in.
Thanks in advance.

 

[UncleJoshua]

Hi.

I have never done honey porter but, I brew a honey beer using 11.9oz of honey in the FV after around 4 days. I heat the honey with some of the beer to around 80c then readd it for three more days. I then leave it in secondary for a week. I add about half as much honey done the same way to prime it just before it goes in the bottle.

Not sure it would be 100% the same for a porter but it can't be far wrong?

 

[beerspitnight]

UncleJ-
Thanks. What kind of flavor profile to you get? Is there a pronounced honey flavor?
Cheers

 

[UncleJoshua]

I'd call it more of a nice hint of honey. Next time around I'm going to try find some local honey but stick to the same amounts.

 

[beerspitnight]

Sounds good. Thanks for the info!

 

[ajm163]

it is hard to get more than a hint of honey flavor from actual honey because it is almost 100% fermentable. honey will for the most part dry out the beer and boost your ABV. if you are looking for a honey flavor I have heard good things about using honey malt for honey flavor

 

[beerspitnight]

AJM - I read the same thing about honey malt, but being in China our grain options are limited.
I was trying to reduce the amount of honey that is fermented by adding it to secondary.
Thanks.

 

[johns]

AJM - I read the same thing about honey malt, but being in China our grain options are limited.
I was trying to reduce the amount of honey that is fermented by adding it to secondary.
Thanks.

That will for sure bring more of the honey flavor out, but it will also make appearance more cloudy and will eventually and slowly ferment out, depending on when you plan to drink it.

I would also make sure that it is 100 percent dissolved by mixing it with a bit of water. The more water and honey you add, thus diluting the wort. If it is undissolved completely then you will be drinking honey that tastes like beer. I assume your going to keg it.

My experience has been to add it to the primary and have it all ferment out. It does add a hint of honey to the batch. If you want a strong honey flavor, think about adding more honey to the primary.

I think you will be using clover or wildflower. I hear that meadowfoam makes a good addition in beer, but is seasonal.

If you ever want to see what fermented honey taste like by a bottle or mead and that will give you some idea of what to expect.

 

[beerspitnight]

That will for sure bring more of the honey flavor out, but it will also make appearance more cloudy and will eventually and slowly ferment out, depending on when you plan to drink it.

I would also make sure that it is 100 percent dissolved by mixing it with a bit of water. The more water and honey you add, thus diluting the wort. If it is undissolved completely then you will be drinking honey that tastes like beer. I assume your going to keg it.

My experience has been to add it to the primary and have it all ferment out. It does add a hint of honey to the batch. If you want a strong honey flavor, think about adding more honey to the primary.

I think you will be using clover or wildflower. I hear that meadowfoam makes a good addition in beer, but is seasonal.

If you ever want to see what fermented honey taste like by a bottle or mead and that will give you some idea of what to expect.

Thanks, Johns. Perhaps I will play around and put 1/2 liter (they sell it in liters over here...I'll have to weigh it out to see how much that works out to) in at FO and another 1/2l into the secondary. Note taken on adding water to the honey to dissolve it. And yes, we are kegging it.

 

[beerspitnight]

We brewed this beer on Saturday. All went well.

10 gallon batch - mashed at 155 for 60 minutes.

Our grain bill was as follows:
7.5kg Pale
3.4kg - Munich
600g -C40
600g - Chocolate
400g - Black Patent

2 additions of Willamette 1 @ 60 and 1 @ 30 - both 2oz.

After FO we added in 1kg of "motherload" honey (from Yunan province)

Post-boil gravity was 18p/1.074

Fermenting at 18c/64f with S-05

We had activity 24hrs after pitching.

The only other question I have is do I add in another 500g (1#) at some point, either after krausen has fallen, or in secondary (I would rather not rack into secondary).
Thoughts?

 

[Calichusetts]

Two things:

Certain types of honey really don't give you a strong flavor in the final product. I find clover honey useless in getting any real flavor/aroma. Mess around with different types (maybe split up the brew into a few different secondaries)

Finally, try bottling with honey. It works for me but I'm not after a strong flavor profile. Its enough.