how does one sanitize honey?

[brewd00d]

i wanted to up the ABV a tad in my wheat beer im making. i heard through the forums that i should sanitize the honey before adding it into the secondary. how do you sanitize the honey? boil the honey directly or put the honey into something and that gets put into boiling water?

help me out fellas!

thanks.

 

[gallagherman]

i would dilute it in some water and boil lightly for 15 min or so. I don't think much can live in honey though...

 

[brewd00d]

i should obviously wait till the honey cools down before i pour it into the secondary right?

and theres nothing else i should need to do as far as putting the honey into the secondary, should i mix it around or just pour it in and that it? if i stir it around ill churn up the trub at the bottom of the carboy.

 

[Demfer]

boil some water and add the honey right at flameout. Mix and add once cooled.

 

[frazier]

i should obviously wait till the honey cools down before i pour it into the secondary right?

and theres nothing else i should need to do as far as putting the honey into the secondary, should i mix it around or just pour it in and that it? if i stir it around ill churn up the trub at the bottom of the carboy.

I wouldn't pour it in boiling, but it doesn't need to be completely cool - the beer will cool it down quickly enough. Go ahead and stir it in - You need to rouse the yeast a bit anyway, and the fermentation will kick up again. Everything will settle out in good time.

 

[passedpawn]

Put open honey container into a pan of water and heat to 160. Keep it there for 30 minutes (might need to add more heat to maintain this).

If it's only a # or so, just add it to secondary without cooling.

BTW, honey is an expensive way to raise the ABV. Honey might leave a honey flavor and aroma that you might now want. Honey ferments out almost completely, so it will make the beer thinner.

For the reasons above, you might consider adding wheat extract instead. Or ordinary table sugar.

 

[fineexampl]

Put open honey container into a pan of water and heat to 160. Keep it there for 30 minutes (might need to add more heat to maintain this).

If it's only a # or so, just add it to secondary without cooling.

BTW, honey is an expensive way to raise the ABV. Honey might leave a honey flavor and aroma that you might now want. Honey ferments out almost completely, so it will make the beer thinner.

For the reasons above, you might consider adding wheat extract instead. Or ordinary table sugar.

i tend to agree with this about the extract vs. honey. unless a honey vibe is what you want, i'd vote for some malt extract instead of honey. it's also cheaper than honey.

 

[dcp27]

I'm almost positive honey is already pastuerized and doesn't need to be sanitized before adding. I've done it a couple times with no problems. With that said, I'd go with extract as well

 

[Pilgarlic]

Some honey is pasteurized and some isn't. The better honey isn't. Honey is antiseptic. It is so rich and thick in sugar that it kills organisms through osmosis. The thick, rich, honey literally sucks the fluid out of the cells out of contaminating microorganisms, killing them. That's why honey has an essentially infinite shelf life. Once diluted with water, though, the story has changed and contamination or fermentation will be an issue.

 

[dogtailale]

Honey never molds. Doesn't that mean its sanitized already?

 

[birvine]

I'm not sure if it changes anything, but the question seems to be about adding the honey into the secondary - so it has already been boiled and now the honey is being added. I suppose it would work but you'll certainly want to boil any added water to make sure to minimize any O2 getting into your precious brew.

 

[brewd00d]

i could go with ordinary table sugar. it doesnt really matter, im just trying to experiment with different sugar based things. i just choose honey cause i thought it might add some extra taste once i put the raspberries in before i keg it up.

so one pound of sugar should do it?

 

[brewd00d]

i do actually have a few 5oz bags of priming sugar that im not going to use. i could use those. should i mix it up in some hot water or just those dump it in and mix?

 

[mc_eric]

if you're going to use sugar, I'd just boil it for a few minutes. Just like you do when you bottle.

Have you brewed this already? I was thinking you already had brewed it, but if you haven't yet you could just add the sugar into the boil.

 

[brewd00d]

now since this restarts the yeast, this will effect the FG and should make it lower right?

how long should i expect the yeast to continue consuming the sugar and would i just use the hydrometer like usual to check the gravity?

 

[passedpawn]

table sugar. Save your packets (in fact, use table sugar for bottling, too).

 

[jkreuze]

Honey has antiseptic properties

http://www.worldwidewounds.com/2001/november/Molan/honey-as-topical-agent.html

Not to say that you shouldn't pasteurize your honey

but I'm not saying that you should, either.

I have added 3 lbs of honey to apfelwein without doing anything towards sanitizing the honey and it came out fine (if by "fine" you mean that it tasted like heaven and got you really %^$@ed up)

 

[5L1mm]

Honey has antiseptic properties

i would worry about the antiseptic enzymes in honey. they might hurt my little yeasties, id sanitize if it were me.

 

[brewd00d]

just for the h3ll of it i put honey, brown sugar and priming sugar mixed with a little bit of water and boiled it for a couple minutes. cooled it down then poured it in the carboy (i dont use the priming sugar because i keg my beer).

i hope that it turns out ok. and i think it should. i think a light honey taste with a hint of brown sugar with raspberries at the end should go good together.

if this doesnt work out then i know what NOT to do next time.

thanks for all the help guys.

 

[dvdanny]

i would worry about the antiseptic enzymes in honey. they might hurt my little yeasties, id sanitize if it were me.

No, it wouldn't. mead wouldn't exist if it did.

Check out the mead section of this forum, some people do no heating when they add honey to water, they use a blender as not to heat and lose any aroma of the honey itself.

 

[Scallywag]

I have made several award winning meads and cysers and I never sanitize or heat the honey or the must in any way.

 

[MaynardX]

The only thing i would worry about adding honey straight to the fermenter is it sinking to the bottom and not dissolving properly in solution. To avoid this and any worries of bacterial infection, I would add it to some boiling water for 15-20 minutes, chill and then add to the fermenter. As far as a gravity reading, I would assume that one pound of honey = approx 1% extra abv, due to its almost complete fermentablity. Please correct me if im wrong about this.

 

[birvine]

I have brewed with honey in the past few batches. In my reading beforehand it was stated that it took quite a while for honey to ferment out and would be almost completely fermentable - ie very little honey flavour left. To this point I cannot say that I perceive 'honey' but I do perceive warmth (alcohol) and joy (beer) as I drink it.

B

 

[brewd00d]

thanks for the help guys. ill let you know how it turns out.

 

[BobTheAverage]

I have heard a few people say that nothing can live in honey. This isn't strictly true. Nothing can GROW in honey. Yeast has a fancy cell wall that can keep out much of that sugar, and wild yeast spores have evolved to be resistant to being killed.

Long story short, the yeast in the honey is dormant until you dilute the honey. It can't spoil the honey but it can screw with your beer.

Also honey has a very strong smell. Almost by definition, smells are chemicals that evaporate at room temperature. If something evaporates at room temperature, you can be sure it will be long gone by the time your honey has even thought about boiling. The trick with holding the container of honey at 150 for 30 minutes works. You can also

never sanitize or heat the honey or the must in any way.

and just hope that your yeast kick the crap out of the wild yeast. Which is a pretty good bet.