Unpasteurized honey?

[dennyluan]

Just wondering if anyone has ever used honey at flame out, secondary, or bottling, and had a batch turn sour.

I'm considering adding a little teensy bit of honey at bottling, or at secondary, and just adding it straight. If no one here yells at me to stop and boil it for 5 minutes, then I will just go ahead and do it. I'd rather risk it for a better flavor, but I wanted to see if spoiling a batch has even happened to anyone or would be likely.

 

[BeerEagle]

Did I once hear that honey had antiseptic qualities? If so then no problem from the point of view of infection, but would it kill the yeast and prevent gassing? Or am I just talking out of my rear?

 

[spagyric]

I've been wondering about this too. Raw honey does have antiseptic qualities, but it also has wild yeasts and other organisms in it, so everything I've read about it says to boil it. I really want to try using it raw sometime, but would love to know what others have experienced doing this. I imagine the potential for an infection would be a lot higher if you added it at flame out as opposed to during secondary or at bottling considering the higher nutrient content of fresh wort. It seems to me if you dilute the antiseptic properties of the honey but provide whatever wild microbes it contains with a bunch of nutrients that they may propagate, maybe the product would be awesome though. I'd definitely love to know what happens if you try this.

 

[Dome555]

Sounds like a small test batch is in order. Maybe even wait 4-5 days after boiling to pitch yeast in order to see if there's any yeasts in the honey that'll do work. Might want to ask in the mead forum too, seems they would know things about honeys.

 

[corwin3083]

I make a rosemary ale with 1.25# of honey added at flameout. Never had any infection problems.

Afaik, you don't want to boil honey, as that will drive off all the aroma and flavoring pretty quickly.

 

[twigboy2000]

Common mead making theory these days is to not boil it. In fact some argue that you lose aromatics if you bring it above 140F or so. I have added raw honey both at flameout and late in primary with no trouble.

-chuck

 

[SethMasterFlex]

I make mead without any heating as it kills honey aroma and flavor. I have also added it to my beer in secondary with no problem.

Something to note that is if you're using store bought honey it is heated during processing. To get a truer honey and aroma flavor order some raw honey online. Those do potentially have wild yeast, but your yeast population plus alcohol at that point should readily supress them. This is what I use for my meads and have never had an issue.

If you're adding more than a pound of honey I'd suggest stirring the honey in a little spring water first in a sanitized container and then adding it this way. I've done this with raw honey for a braggot where it was 50% of the fermentables.

Hope this helps.

 

[ArcaneXor]

I always use honey that is unheated. The odds of getting an infection that way are probably comparable to dry hopping, i.e. very rare.

 

[Bombo80]

I have members of our homebrew club that do meads the same way as sethmasterflex. We recently had a club honey purchase. I have a 100# bucket of honey and I'm getting ready to do a few batches of mead very soon.

 

[VegasBrew]

If I remember correctly, Honey is the only food that does not spoil or mold. The chances of getting an infection from fresh honey is probably next to impossible. I don`t think anything could live INSIDE the honey, maybe on top. Probably overkill but if you are worried about that poor a little starsan on top of your container and that will kill anything on the surface. I may be wrong......never made mead before. What do you guys think?

VB

 

[dennyluan]

gah, stupid thing ate my response, retying it now.

I was asking particularly about unpasteurized honey, like organic or specialty. I know that organic and unprocessed honey is murkier, and it's because there's all kinds of dirt, bee legs and wings, and random stuff that gets clogged in it, but the honey itself prevents bacterial growth because of the lack of oxygen. However, I'm assuming if I use processed and filtered honey, like the generic stuff from a grocery store, then there would be even less of a chance of spoilage.

I've got a California Common recipe in the back of my head, and I'm going to use some honey malt, but I'd really like to add some actual honey for the aroma (tupelo, blueberry, orange) and maybe just a teensy bit of sweetness. So ideally I'd like to add it as late as possible. I'll probably just go ahead and add it midway through my secondary to see what happens.

thanks for the responses!

also just read sethmasterflex's advice, sounds like raw honey is the way to go. yummm

 

[Pilgarlic]

Here is a really good resource, provided by the Honey Board, for those who would use honey in brewing:

http://www.honey.com/nhb/technical/brewing-information/

 

[lincoln]

I am also a beekeeper. the way honey is antiseptic is that there is very low moisture content in ripened honey. so when the bugs (bacteria)touch it they literally explode due to osmotic pressure. simply put, no worries. add away.

link

 

[Pilgarlic]

They deydrate due to the passage of their moisture into the honey, and they're not killed, but their growth is inhibited. I know, you'll find all kinds of sites that say the honey kills bacteria, but generally speaking, that's shorthand. Fortunately, halting microbial growth is enough to prevent infection. When diluted, hydrogen peroxide in honey is activated, furthering it's antimicrobial effects.

 

[Pivovar_Koucky]

I never had a mead sour noticably. My first honey beer is maturing right now......

 

[lumpher]

i've made honeybee ale several times, and mead a few times, with fresh honey, and never had problems with it

 

[Zamial]

Honey. Raw unscrewed with honey. I use it in almost all my beers. Honey scorches really easy. I have always added my honey at flameout, stirring it in (not pouring it down the middle.) as the other poster mentioned there is no need to heat the honey, I find it melts in the wort the best at flameout.

IMO 1# of honey is about right for a 5-6 gallon batch, any less than that and you probably will not be able to taste it.

I have successfully subbed in honey for priming sugar but it did not add any noticeable flavor.

There is a few side effects from adding honey, The 1st is it "thins" the beer's body. This is why I would not suggest more than 1# per 5 gallons.

The other side effect is if you use local honey you may actually be helping people with seasonal allergies from pollen and such. My SWMBO has wicked allergies to pollen but she has given up her meds because my beers are better and seem to work great. YMMV and I do not advocate tossing out inhalers for beer...

If you want a nice honey flavor, use a pound of honey malt in addition to the honey added. The honey malt seems to give more honey flavor than honey...