Priming with honey

[sieglere]

What's the proper amount of honey to use as a primer for a 5 gallon batch?

 

[nukebrewer]

It's less fermentable than corn sugar, so you need to use a little more to get the same vols of co2. I used something like 5.5 oz for a batch of honey red I did a few weeks ago. Came out carbbed up pretty good. Hope that helps.

 

[sieglere]

I see...this explains a lot...my LHBS suggested 1 cup (12 oz)...I had a very bad sleep last night because I kept getting woken up by popping bottles. I didnt want to move them for fear of one exploding in my hand and in the morning 10 of 12 had popped.

I prefer the mess and the minor scratches to that of a bottle bomb in my hand

 

[nukebrewer]

1 cup? That's like at least 10 or 12 oz by weight. I'm surprised they all didn't blow. I'd go to your LHBS, politely explain what happened based on advice they gave and see if they'll give you some store credit. If they're completely unwilling to work with you, I wouldn't give them my business anymore.

 

[Revvy]

I give detailed info on priming with alternative primers including fruit juice (including a link to a podcast on that subject,) maple syrup honey, and other sugars in my bottling stickey- Scroll to the lower half of this post.

 

[sieglere]

I give detailed info on priming with alternative primers including fruit juice (including a link to a podcast on that subject,) maple syrup honey, and other sugars in my bottling stickey- Scroll to the lower half of this post.

Life saver. Thanks

 

[Calichusetts]

You will want to use around 7.5 ozs for a 5 gallon batch. I use 1.5 for my one gallons and after 60+ batches, I still have no issues. A tablespoon is 1/2 an ounce if that helps

 

[gwdraper4]

This depends on the Carbonation level you are looking for as well as the exact volume and temperature of your beer. If we assume a carbonation level of 2.65 Volumes of CO2 (pretty standard for American Style Ales, but on the high side for stouts and porters) and the conditioning temperature is 72 deg F then you will want to use about 173 grams/6.1 oz/0.5 cups.

 

[CCHForever]

I primed my last batch with 1/2 cup of honey for a 5 gallon batch and they carbed perfectly.

 

[biochemedic]

There is a priming calculator at the Northern Brewer website that gives calculations for a variety of "alternative" priming sugars, including honey. The issue with honey is that there is no constant for exactly how many PPPG honey contributes...it can vary from 1.035-1.042 (but is generally 1.036-1.038) depending on the floral source, etc. As a result, you may not get the exact vol CO2 with one honey that you do with another. I have no idea exactly what the NB calculator assumes, but it's probably somewhere in the middle of the range, and I doubt you'd get bottle bombs or severely undercarbed bottles if you had honey at one extreme or the the other.

1 cup? That's like at least 10 or 12 oz by weight. I'm surprised they all didn't blow. I'd go to your LHBS, politely explain what happened based on advice they gave and see if they'll give you some store credit. If they're completely unwilling to work with you, I wouldn't give them my business anymore.

It is 12 oz by weight...generally speaking, honey is 12 lbs to the gallon, and if you do the math, 1 cup is 0.75 lbs. For reference, the NB calculator calls for 4.75 oz (less than 1/2 a cup) for the "standard" 2.2 vol CO2 (assuming 5 gal, and temp at 75*F).

By adding 1 cup, you gave yourself somewhere around 4.5 vol CO2!!!

 

[Irrenarzt]

I like priming with honey as I can deliver a precise volume into each bottle. This eliminates the need to bulk prime which can lead to issues such as incomplete solubilization of the priming solution in the bulk uncarbonated beer (especially bad with honey as it takes forever to dissolve) and additional oxidation from stirring the bulk liquid too vigorously. That said, you never know the exact ppg but you can use the Northern Brewer priming sugar calculator to get a good approximation of how much to add. I've had good luck so far with the numbers generated by that calculator. I usually take the value generated and divide by 1.4 (assumed density of honey in g/mL) and use a syringe to deliver the exact dosage per bottle. I don't have a good enough balance to determine the density of honey myself so I'm possibly introducing additional error but so far it's worked well. I always use the same brand of honey but I'm sure that varies somewhat from batch to batch. I tried getting the density from the manufacturer but they were about as useful as a **** on a man when I called asking for the density in g/mL.

It's bottle conditioning, not rocket science, so I wouldn't worry about it unless you are way the hell off like the ~4.5 volumes you generated in this example.

 

[Wynne-R]

Here are some simple basic rules for Priming :
Using Corn Sugar (Sucrose) - 2/3 cup for bottling and 1/3 cup for Kegging.
Using Cane Sugar (Sucrose)- 2/3 cup for bottling and 1/3 cup for Kegging.
Using Brown Sugar (Sucrose)- 2/3 cup for bott! ling and 1/3 cup for Kegging.
Using Maple Syrup - 1¼ cup for bottling and 5/8 cup for Kegging.
Using Molasses - 1 cup for bottling and ½ cup for Kegging.
Using Honey - 1 cup for bottling and ½ cup for Kegging.
- Arizona Dave

It looks like this part of Revvy’s sticky is wrong. To be fair he was quoting a post on an old thread, but wrong is wrong. He’s got some fixin’ to do. In my experience 2/3 cup of corn sugar is about right. BTW that’s dextrose, not sucrose. Cane sugar should be more like ½ cup. Based on the experience of this thread ½ cup is right on the honey. Using a full cup is the bad advice that started this thread. This is all supported by the Northern Brewer calculator.

Arizona Dave got it wrong again farther down about volumes.

5 Gallons will give you...
54 x 12 oz Bottles
40 x 16 oz Bottles
32 x 22 oz Bottles

The correct numbers are 53, 40, and 29. Simple arithmetic.

I think Revvy ought to link to the Northern Brewer calculator and pitch Arizona Dave to the curb. It’s a great primer, but the errors need to go.