honey in beer

[acceptmj]

For a 5 gallon batch of beer does anyone know how much honey to use near the end of the boil to get all of the aromatic qualities of the honey instead of it just turning into a fermentable. im thinking of doing a cream ale of some sort. thank you

 

[Pratzie]

Yeasties love honey, they will eat thru that no matter what. I usually put it in at flameout but u could also try it with bottling, i know some people here have inquired about that and done it.

 

[LexusChris]

To maximize aromatics, you want to put the honey in after the wort has cooled down. I usually add mine once the chiller has it below 120-F. You can also add it to the primary fermenter directly.

One my 5-gallon batches, I usually use 1-2 lbs of honey to get some honey character. Light colored beers need less than darker beers to notice it.. YMMV..

Good luck!
--LexusChris

 

[DerCribben]

When I was working on my last recipe which has 5lbs of honey added to it I was reading a lot about honey additions to the wort. The main consensus was added to the boil it will just be a fermentable, added after the boil and the flavor remains. Honey will also ferment completely since its a simple sugar and also if you're going to put a lot in (like I did with 5lbs of it) you can stress the yeast a lot more if you pitch right into raw wort with all that extra simple sugar. Instead people were suggesting to wait until a few days of fermentation pass, then toss in the honey. This will allow them to be fully awake, in high enough numbers, and actively fermenting already. That way all that simple sugar won't stress them but instead will re-energize and help them not only more fully ferment all the more complex sugars but also mop up any esters and bad flavors. Win-win-win if you're also looking for as much honey flavor as possible too.

 

[Jay1]

What about adding it in the secondary. Let the yeast finish and get them out, then drop the honey in?

 

[IslandLizard]

Although late honey additions to the primary make sense, I've found honey malt (from Gambrinus) to give me more residual honey flavor than honey by itself.

 

[DerCribben]

As far as I've ever known secondary "fermentation" doesn't really have much if anything to do with fermentation. It's just for clarification purposes and dry hopping usually. I feel like making such a large deposit of sugars into a beer where the yeast has mainly gone dormant again would just stress out the yeast and kick it into another fermentation explosion with its own krausen and trub formation which would just require a "tertiary" fermentation for clarification and dry hopping.

Somebody with more experience than me could definitely chime in and tell you whether I'm missing something here though.

 

[catdaddy66]

Just bottled my first American honey pale ale and it tasted awesome! I had a kit (extract) and used 1.5#'s of wild flower honey. I am honestly more excited to drink this beer than any I've made this year!

I added the honey in last 5-10 minutes of the boil and I could smell it in the beer during bottling last night.