When Should I add Honey?

[Arpeggiator]

Hi everyone,

I'm about to make an Abbey Ale (extract) from a recipe I got from my LHBS, I want to put my own twist on the recipe with a few additions like honey and Candi sugar. The recipe doesn't include honey and when I enter it into Beersmith it tells me to add it to the fermenter with the yeast. Is this correct or should I put it in the boil with the rest of the sugars? Thanks.

 

[Tonedef131]

Yes that is correct, add it right to the primary after cooling and mix in well.

 

[Windigstadt]

Is your honey already pasteurized? I'm planning on pasteurizing some local wildflower honey I bought over the weekend per these instructions from BYO, though I don't plan on diluting it to the gravity of the wort. Anybody have reason to think you NEED to dilute the honey before adding it to the fermenter?

 

[Arpeggiator]

Not sure if it is pasteurized. It says 100% raw pure natural uncooked, unblended, unfiltered, undiluted. says nothing about pasteurization. Should I be concearned about wild yeasts in the honey if I add it after the wort has cooled?

 

[Tonedef131]

Honey does not need to be pasteurized, the glucose oxidase creates hydrogen peroxide to preserve the honey and does not allow anything to live or grow in it. Don't heat your honey, you have nothing to worry about.