What is the point of adding honey during the boil? What flavour it will bring?

[Tobor_8thMan]

I just poured myself a glass to report on the honey in the Columbus Pale Ale. Slight orange blossom honey aroma and slight orange blossom honey flavor. This, to me, is prefect as I didn't want a Honey Pale Ale.

Actually, easy to forget about the honey in the pale ale. Last weekend I thought I was tasting something strange/unexpected (a flaw?) in the pale ale. Puzzled, I checked my brew day notes. Nothing out of the ordinary. Conditioning was standard. Fining and kegging were standard. Checking the recipe I remembered the orange blossom honey and realized this was the flavor/taste that was puzzling me

 

[HVCBrewing]

IMO 1-2 lbs of honey will add ABV with no residual sugar and no perceivable flavor. Honey will likely ferment to completion. In contrast, grains will add ABV and residual sugar + grain flavors (depending on the grains). The honey flavor addition will be very subtle at that ratio. Depending upon the primary flavor aspects of the beer (flavor grains + hops), honey flavor will be extremely difficult to perceive. At that ratio, I wouldn’t expect to find honey flavor. You will get a bump in ABV with no residual sugar.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

IMO 1-2 lbs of honey will add ABV with no residual sugar and no perceivable flavor. Honey will likely ferment to completion. In contrast, grains will add ABV and residual sugar + grain flavors (depending on the grains). The honey flavor addition will be very subtle at that ratio. Depending upon the primary flavor aspects of the beer (flavor grains + hops), honey flavor will be extremely difficult to perceive. At that ratio, I wouldn’t expect to find honey flavor. You will get a bump in ABV with no residual sugar.

Yes, honey will ferment, but I do believe it depends on the type of honey for aroma. In this case the orange blossem honey aroma is slight and, in this case, welcome.

 

[VikeMan]

IMO 1-2 lbs of honey will add ABV with no residual sugar and no perceivable flavor.

I believe honey will leave some residual sugars/dextrins, but not a lot. I did an attenuation experiment this past summer with some orange blossom honey solution. Some details:

Yeast Strain: US-05 (plus Fermaid-K)
Measured OG: 1.036
Measured FG: 0.997
Computed Apparent Attenuation: 108.3% (~88.8% Real Attenuation)

I strongly suspected I'd get something less than 100% Real Attenuation, but was surprised that it was as low as ~88.8%. Just a single data point.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

It's hard to say much about crystal malts without taking about the specific product (20L vs 120L) and maltster (e.g. Briess vs Weyermann).

It's hard to say much about hops without mentioning when it's added (start of boil vs dry hop), the variety (Fuggles vs Citra), and often where it's grown (WA vs MI).

And the same is true of honey.

Specalty honey providers are pretty easy to find online. Honey sampler packs tend to be offered as potential holiday gifts. Construct a "honey sampler" recipe (maybe blonde ale base @ 4.5%-ish, 20 IBUs) and experiment with flavors and timings. Mastering Homebrew has additional information these experimental brews might want to confirm or refute.

 

[VikeMan]

The keys (IMO) to retaining honey aroma/flavor:

- Use a flavorful honey variety
- The Raw-er the better
- Add it as late as possible
- Use a lot

One thing about using a lot of honey...this can really thin the beer, as compared to a beer of the same total effective OG that does not have any honey. When designing honey recipes, I like to add back body with maltodextrin. I did an article for BYO many years ago about this. I just looked it up and found it, but it's behind a paywall. I kind of wanted to read it again.

 

[SFC Rudy]

Honey will be fermented out and you'll be left with what the bees used to make the honey. I made a Honey Amber Ale with orange blossom honey I got off of Amazon; two poiunds in a five gallon batch. I could definitely taste the orange blossoms in my beer, but two pounds was too much. Next I'll use just one pound.

 

[JAReeves]

I recently made a Honey-Ginger IPA. There was about 1 1/2# of honey added at flameout/whirlpool, and then I primed the keg with honey as well for carbonation/spunding. It is a very subtle flavor, but it is present. It boosted the ABV, as expected, but did not leave any residual sweetness behind.

 

[Dr_Jeff]

I brewed a honey triple several years ago, it was a ten gallon batch. I added about a half gallon of honey near the end of the boil and the other half gallon about 3 days into fermentation. It was strong, bottled half of it to give to the fellow that provided the honey, during bottling we drank the "spillage", we were tore up at the end of bottling. The honey was overpowering, but the fellow that provided the honey loved it. I put three bottles away. A couple of years later, I opened them up. The residual honey fermented and provided that tingley sensation characteristic of Belgian beer and was fantastic. Honey was a background taste not up front, totally spot on.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

The keys (IMO) to retaining honey aroma/flavor:

- Use a flavorful honey variety
- The Raw-er the better
- Add it as late as possible
- Use a lot

One thing about using a lot of honey...this can really thin the beer, as compared to a beer of the same total effective OG that does not have any honey. When designing honey recipes, I like to add back body with maltodextrin. I did an article for BYO many years ago about this. I just looked it up and found it, but it's behind a paywall. I kind of wanted to read it again.

VikeMan, what BYO issue? I have all of them.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

I had some of my Columbus Pale Ale on Friday evening and the honey aroma and slight honey taste are definitely there. Unfortunately, this brew is disappearing too quickly as I will not have fresh backyard hops again until at least September 2021.