Liquid honey in boil?

[SAMBUCA]

I have a 750mm jar of honey that I`ll never eat so I thought I might just pour it in my brown ale at boil? Is this a bad idea?
THANKS

 

[mooshimanx]

I have a 750mm jar of honey that I`ll never eat so I thought I might just pour it in my brown ale at boil? Is this a bad idea?
THANKS

Sure, but its not going to make the beer taste like honey. Honey is extremely fermentable; the end result is very similar to just adding sugar.

 

[chuckstout]

Not a bad idea, but maybe try adding it at flameout or around 180ish and make sure it gets dissolved then rest there for about 10 minutes or so

It might dry your brown ale out a touch more so if that bothers you maybe mash a degree or so higher if your doing all-grain

 

[hercher]

It's fine to add the honey. As chuckstout suggested, you should add it at the end of the boil. You want to immediately cover your pot. I have found the the aroma of honey is very easily lost.

Secondly, if you wish to retain some of the honey flavor, you will want to monitor your fermentation closely. When I brew with honey, I usually like to cold crash my beer before it is completely done fermenting. For example, if I'm anticipating a FG of 1.008, I might cold crash when I get down to 1.010. This will retain some of the residual sweetness of your honey.

Otherwise, all you are really doing is thinning your beer out a little and boosting the alcohol. If you want to avoid thinning the beer, I'd suggest mashing a bit warmer, or using some extra crystal malt.

 

[beergolf]

I usually like to cold crash my beer before it is completely done fermenting. For example, if I'm anticipating a FG of 1.008, I might cold crash when I get down to 1.010. This will retain some of the residual sweetness of your honey.

Not a good idea if you bottle. You cannot stop the yeast where you want. When you bottle the yeast will start up again and you risk bottle bombs, or gushers.

 

[Calder]

750 ml is a lot of honey. Maybe 2 lbs.

If you want honey flavor, you should add it late in the fermentation stage, so the aroma is not pushed out during active fermentation. Or add it at bottling, but 750 ml is too much for a single batch.

It is just simple sugar, so like most have said it will dry out the beer, so make sure your recipe accounts for it.

 

[Tekn0ph1sh]

I would secondary with it. Or maybe even use it as priming sugar at bottling. Honey is pretty sterile as well. For mead you only add hot wither to help dissolve it. If it is unprocessed raw honey that is. If it's store bought there's no telling what it really is. Honey flavored HFCS most likely.

 

[hilts]

I have a 750mm jar of honey that I`ll never eat so I thought I might just pour it in my brown ale at boil? Is this a bad idea? THANKS

I have added a couple pounds or honey to the primary after a week of fermentation. I brought it to 165 to pasteurize, and stirred it in. Doesn't add much honey flavor, but I used it to boost a RIS which had a lot of body already.

As some have said, you can also sub honey for priming sugar.

 

[tweake]

i would dissolve a bit of the honey in a glass of warm water and taste it first. if its tastes bad don't use it, cause thats what the beer will taste like.
a lot of the honey flavor comes from its sweetness which you loose when its diluted and fermented.
also if its fermented on the warm side it can throw some fairly hot tastes.

 

[cclloyd]

If you are just wanting to use up the honey then as has been said add it in toward the end of the boil or after flame out. If you want honey flavor use up to a half pound of honey malt for a five gallon batch and it will be part of the flavor profile. You'll need to experiment with the amount to find your sweet spot (so to speak) as this malt is very flavorful and a little goes a long way.

 

[Bee_Serious]

With braggots, I take all the elaborate sanitation steps that beer brewers are familiar with for the grain part of the sugars. Once the wort is cooled, I just dump in raw unpasteurized honey into the wort/must and stir like hell. It is a bit cavalier, but honey is pretty sanitary by itself. YMMV.

Honey is delicate - hives don't get above 95 degrees typically...

 

[butterpants]

Raw honey is far from sterile.... it has TONS of baddies in it. They just happen to not grow due to the super low moisture content... but the spores are still in there.

 

[marvaden]

Word of caution: don't do it at boil unless you pour slow enough that you don't burn it on the bottom (just like LME).

I used raw honey in my Rhubarb Honey Pale Ale. It was spectacular. I highly recommend it.