How to get honey flavor in beer?

[Ali01]

I've searched among topics but I can't find any good method for people like me who don't own a keg and employ the traditional bottle conditioning method. I think I can just bottle condition beer, then make a thin mixture of honey and water to help dissolve it better, then uncap the bottles, add it,recap, pasteurizate, am I going to cause too much oxidation? Is there a better way? I can also use loads of caramel crystal 10L malt in the mash

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Use Honey malt in the mash and honey in the boil for the last 10 minutes.

 

[Ali01]

Use Honey malt in the mash and honey in the boil for the last 10 minutes.

I don't have access to honey malt in my country

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Honey then at 10 minutes remaining.

 

[AlexKay]

I've searched among topics but I can't find any good method for people like me who don't own a keg and employ the traditional bottle conditioning method. I think I can just bottle condition beer, then make a thin mixture of honey and water to help dissolve it better, then uncap the bottles, add it,recap, pasteurizate, am I going to cause too much oxidation? Is there a better way? I can also use loads of caramel crystal 10L malt in the mash

I think the method you’re describing will give you very oxidized, cooked beer.

When I add honey pre-fermentation, I use a lot and I put it in post-boil after cooling to ~160 F. A honey stand, if you will. But even this doesn’t get all that much honey flavor into the finished beer.

Honey malt is ideal, but I think the thing that’s going to get you closest to what you want is whatever light caramel/crystal malt you can find.

Some hops have honey notes — Pilgrim and Sonnet come to mind. I am guessing these will not be any easier to source, though.

So yeah, use more honey than you think you’ll need, in a 160 F stand, and load up on the light caramel.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Use honey as your priming sugar. Did this in a Belgian honey ale that came out fantastic.

 

[balrog]

+1 to @bailey mountain brewer

 

[leedspointbrew]

Use honey as your priming sugar. Did this in a Belgian honey ale that came out fantastic.

Fantastic generally, or fantastic in terms of lots-of-honey-flavor? And how much honey did you use? I recently brewed a slightly-better-than-average porter that I think could have been really good with a little honey flavor.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

I do 15 gallon batches but I just followed a calculator for the amount of honey needed for the volume of co2 I was looking for.. dont have my brew notes in front of me and dont want to guess because you could end up over or under carbonated... as for the beer it was both fantastic in general and had a fantastic honey flavor haha. I have used honey in the past with little honey flavor until I started using it as my priming sugar, that's where I got the best honey flavor.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I do 15 gallon batches but I just followed a calculator for the amount of honey needed for the volume of co2 I was looking for.. dont have my brew notes in front of me and dont want to guess because you could end up over or under carbonated... as for the beer it was both fantastic in general and had a fantastic honey flavor haha. I have used honey in the past with little honey flavor until I started using it as my priming sugar, that's where I got the best honey flavor.

For bottling, are your using 'regular' honey or a specialty/varietal (like orange blossom)?

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

This particular one was a Belgian beer that I used orange blossom honey for, it went great with the belgain golden stong flavors.

 

[rhys333]

I don't have access to honey malt in my country

If you have access to jaggery, this can impart a honey-like quality.