Using Honey

[NinjaBear]

When using honey for a liquid fermentable, the recipes I see all call for adding at the end of the boil. (5 minutes or so.)

But specialty honeys are expensive. And I would like to experiment with them.

Would work just the same to boil 5 gallons of wort, pitch the yeast, add 5 types of honey to five 1-gallon jugs, split the batch, cap with airlocks and proceed with primary/secondary fermentation?

 

[dkevinb]

I don't see why not. I add honey to the apple juice at room temperature in the fermenter when making cider (just did some today). It's already sanitized in it's original container, plus honey is antibacterial in its own right. Many people argue against boiling honey. It's generally not necessary and drives off volatiles. YMMV.

I would recommend:

1. Half-fill the 1-gallon fermenter with chilled wort
2. Warm the honey container in hot water to make it easier to pour
3. Add honey to the fermenter
4. Shake the bejeezus out of the fermenter to mix. It's not all that easy to get it to dissolve.
5. Top off with wort and shake to mix again
6. Add yeast

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if you didn't taste too much difference between the varieties. Honey is almost totally fermentable. The differences will be subtle and may be overwhelmed by the malt and hops. Also, a little bit goes a LONG way. It will dry out your beer and boost your ABV considerably.

 

[Calder]

It's twice as sweet as table sugar, and will dry out your beer and boost your ABV accordingly.

Not sure what you mean by this. For the same weight, plain table sugar is more fermentable and will result in a drier beer than using the same weight of honey.

 

[dkevinb]

Not sure what you mean by this. For the same weight, plain table sugar is more fermentable and will result in a drier beer than using the same weight of honey.

Good point. I wasn't comparing apples to apples. Sugar is much lighter than honey. Volume-wise honey is sweeter, which is why you should weigh things instead of measuring them. Consider me chastised and the post edited.

In any case, they're both extremely fermentable. My meads and ciders-with-honey always finish a bit below 1.000, as do my ciders-with-sugar. The only limit on how dry they finish is the OG vs. yeast. Honey/sugar won't have that extreme an effect on beer, but they do have an effect.

 

[NinjaBear]

What if I chilled the wort, pitched the yeast, divide in 5 1-gallon fermenters (so all five are identical at this point) then add 8oz specialty honey to different ones?

 

[NinjaBear]

Also, would it be less "dry" more flavor if I used the specialty honey for bottle conditioning?

 

[CountryBrewster89]

Also, would it be less "dry" more flavor if I used the specialty honey for bottle conditioning?

Check out Palmer's how to brew (I believe it's available online) He includes a table for using honey as your primer. Having some experience with mead I think if you want to go for the delicate flavors of varietal honeys, a pale ale primed for bottles with your honey is the way to go. A lot of those delicate flavors can not only be lost in boiling but can get blown right out your airlock with a vigorous fermentation. I'd be interested in how this turns out.
Cheers,
Adam

 

[Melana]

What about putting slightly warm wort into five containers and adding honey to them? The warmer wort would dissolve the honey and if you keep it about 100 degrees the volitile compounds won't be driven off? Then let the containers cool down before pitching?