Honey

[BSBrewer83]

When is the best time to add honey to the brewing process? I just got a ton of honey and would like to experiment with it.

I imagine I will get some extra alcohol if I do it pre-ferment. Can I add it after the beer finishes fermenting to get more flavor?


Let me know what you guys think!

 

[Oldsock]

Unless you kill the yeast, even adding it post-fermentation, the sugars in honey will be fermented. This is a good thing, it doesn't take much simple sugar to make a beer taste like cotton candy (dextrins, and even lactose aren't sweet at all compared to glucose/fructose).

I like adding honey after most of the fermentation is complete, the less heat and CO2 scrubbing the honey is exposed to the more of the floral/waxy character will carry through into the finished beer.

 

[Old_Brewer]

I have added honey to my extract brews. I added it after the temperature was below about 140 F. There is probably a bunch of discussion about raw vs pasteurized. I have never had problems when adding honey to extract brews. I would use about the same amount of honey as extract. Here are a few links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey Search for exzymes in the link.
Also: http://www.ehow.com/how_5112176_pasteurize-honey.html This is if you want to pasteurize the honey, which I and others feel is unnecessary. Good luck and enjoy!

 

[BSBrewer83]

Thanks for the responses. I am doing a 10g batch this week and I think I might try doing honey in one 5g batch and no honey in the other. So I think I might add it to the fermenter after a few days of ferment.

 

[3 Dog Brew]

When is the best time to add honey to the brewing process? I just got a ton of honey and would like to experiment with it.

I imagine I will get some extra alcohol if I do it pre-ferment. Can I add it after the beer finishes fermenting to get more flavor?


Let me know what you guys think!

Dude this is such a great question and your observations are correct. If I had a ton of honey to experiment with I would do "all of the above" and add honey to every stage of the beer making process (use the same recipe if you want to perform some comparative analysis)

Add it to the mash? (don't know if there's any value in this)
Add it to the boil to increase the gravity
Add it at the end of boil
Add it in the fermenter before fermenting
Add it in the fermenter after 2/3 of fermentation
Add it in the fermenter after fermentation (before racking/or dry hopping)
Add it to the beer after racking
Add it at bottling/kegging
Add it tot he glass at serving

Honey has been used in fermenting beverages by people all over the planet and using a variety of methods. This sounds like a fun experiement that you can learn quit a bit frmo if you care to.

:rockin:

 

[unionrdr]

It might be fun to steep some honey malt & use a few pounds of honey at the right time. I was thinking adding some honey maybe half way through fermentation might leave more honey aroma/flavor behind as the yeast reaches it's alcohol tolerance threshold.

 

[Pivovar_Koucky]

I think if you want a noticable amount of honey flavor add a pound or two after chilling the wort. Be careful though, a pound of honey will add about 1% alcohol to your finished product and will significantly lighten the body of your beer.

 

[BSBrewer83]

Dude this is such a great question and your observations are correct. If I had a ton of honey to experiment with I would do "all of the above" and add honey to every stage of the beer making process (use the same recipe if you want to perform some comparative analysis)

Add it to the mash? (don't know if there's any value in this)
Add it to the boil to increase the gravity
Add it at the end of boil
Add it in the fermenter before fermenting
Add it in the fermenter after 2/3 of fermentation
Add it in the fermenter after fermentation (before racking/or dry hopping)
Add it to the beer after racking
Add it at bottling/kegging
Add it tot he glass at serving

Honey has been used in fermenting beverages by people all over the planet and using a variety of methods. This sounds like a fun experiement that you can learn quit a bit frmo if you care to.

:rockin:

Well I dont have a "ton" of honey but I have enough for a couple of brews. I will try to post my findings here in a few weeks when I see what I get out of it.

 

[Irishpenguin13]

End of the boil at flame out. Stir. Continue. Smile

 

[beerspitnight]

I have some unpasteurized/raw honey from a bee keeper in souther China that we want to use in a honey wit that we are looking to brew this weekend. I like the idea of putting a pound in with 10min left in the boil (10 gal batch) and then adding 1 pound 2/3 of the way through fermentation, along with some oranges steeped in vodka. What about sanitation though? Will there be enough alcohol in the beer to ward off infection by that point? Should I add some water to the honey and boil for a bit to get it fluid enough and kill any buggers that might be in it? Add some vodka to it along with the oranges? Suggestions welcome.

 

[Irishpenguin13]

Thats pretty much why I do it at flame out. You still get the honey flavor and aroma with no worries of any infectionous bug issues