How to add honey to the brew?

[Maegnar]

Hi, folks

I've made a quick (not a thorough one ) search on the forums and didn't find an answer to my specific honey question.
Now then. HOW exactly do you add honey to a fermenting beer? I've figured that if I simply pour it into the fermenter - it will just sit there on the bottom, w/o actually mixing in with the beer. Is that OK? Or should I try to dissolve the honey in ~1 liter of boiled water, just to make the honey more liquid-y?

Thanks for help

PS
Please keep the answers strictly to the topic - there are enough discussions about whether or not should the honey be pasteurized or sanitized before addition

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

The way I've done it is mix honey in enough water to dissolve it. Heat to about 160 and hold it there for 10 minutes covered. Then just gently pour it into your vessel. I would personally add it at secondary but you could add it to primary. And yeah I would gently mix it in by either a sanitized spoon or carefully swirling the vessel. That worked great for my honey cream ale. Hope this helps.

 

[shamfein]

I have added it to the fermenter directly, however i have only made kit beers so i do add hot water which dissolves the honey and i mix it through the brew,

 

[aiptasia]

Honey itself actually thins out a beer and doesn't impart a whole lot of flavor. It's nearly 100% fermentable so any beer with a honey addition is going to be dried out a bit by that addition. Yeasts actually prefer the simple glucoses in honey to maltose and will preferentially feed on it first. When you add honey to your beer, if you add it during the boil, you can keep it sanitized but you run the risk of boiling off whatever aromatics and flavors it had in the first place. This might not be an issue with say, a strong wildflower honey with a heck of a lot of flavor, but would completely neutralize a soft gentle orange blossom or tupelo honey. Also, it does stress the yeast to have to switch from consuming honey to consuming maltose, so some unwanted stress can potentially cause more off flavors in your beer.

If you want that honey flavor in your beer, there's two approaches that work. Add the honey AFTER the primary fermentation is done (after the krausen has fallen and bubbling has slowed in your airlock/blowoff) or just skipping honey altogether and using honey malt. Professional brewers prefer to use honey malt, which is a type of malt roasted at just the right temperature to produce a very honey-like flavor in the malt. Usually at about a 5-10% addition to the grain bill.

By adding the honey addition after the primary fermentation is over, the yeast will have consumed all of the maltose first and will have an easier time eating the glucoses in the honey (less stress). You'll also run less risk of losing the aromatics and residual flavor of the honey that a boil addition can drive out. BTW, pouring in the honey is fine. The yeast will consume it madly.

 

[bobeer]

I've used honey quite a few times in my beer. I just add it directly to the fermentor 3-4 days after initial fermentation has started.

 

[Maegnar]

So did I get this right:
Yeasties will munch on the honey even if that honey is sitting on the bottom of fermenter, not dissolved in the water?

 

[Oginme]

When adding honey to the fermenter, I follow something similar to what ismederios does above. I put the honey in a canning jar with an equal volume of water. I seal and heat this to 160F for 15 minutes then allow to cool to room temperature.

Once the wort has reached high krausen and the yeast activity is starting to decrease (usually 2 to 4 days after start of fermentation), I spray sanitize the opening of the carboy, unseal the honey/water mixture, spray sanitize the opening of the jar, and then dump it in. If I am trying for some type of honey aroma, I choose a more aromatic type of honey (vs. standard clover honey). By nature of the differing densities of the fluids, there may be some segregation of the honey/water on the bottom, but (a) it's small enough versus what disperses in as it settles and (b) it will ferment anyway and be blended in with the rest of the brew both during fermentation and later during decanting for bottling.

 

[Math0]

I used honey a couple of times and I had good results pouring the amount of honey needed 5 minutes after I finished my boil. Basically when I start to cool it. The heat still in the mix does the job to sanitize, no boiling time to risk of losing the aromas. And you can still stir a lot to get the honey mixed. I put around 10g/L for a nice flavor if that helps.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

So did I get this right:
Yeasties will munch on the honey even if that honey is sitting on the bottom of fermenter, not dissolved in the water?

In an active fermentation, the yeast will handle all of the dissolving for you. It may initially go to the bottom, but it won't stay there.

 

[petrolSpice]

Not to hijack your thread, but I am fermenting an american honey pale ale right now. The directions said to add 1.5lb of honey with 10 mins left in the boil, but I instead added it all at flameout hoping for more honey flavor. But as I understand it, this will not produce much of any honey flavor anyways. I still have 0.5lb honey left. Would it be worth a shot to add it to the fermentor or secondary? It's about 36 hours into fermentation now and happily bubbling away.

 

[Maegnar]

@petrolSpice
Thou it is safe to say that you totally can add honey to the fermenter or secondary for more honey flavor, keep in mind, that too much honey will lead to more prominent alcohol scent in your beer, which is usually undesirable. Honey flavor may not be enough to balance that out.

 

[Talonracer67]

Hmm the Mad Elf clone recipe on here tells you to add 2lb of honey at flameout. According to some of these posts that won't do anything for the flavor??

 

[Calichusetts]

Hmm the Mad Elf clone recipe on here tells you to add 2lb of honey at flameout. According to some of these posts that won't do anything for the flavor??

It will...the more you use the more it comes through...2 lbs certainly will.

 

[Oginme]

To enhance the honey flavor, you can also use honey malt at around 10%. this not only adds a honey type flavor, but the body it imparts counteracts some of the dryness from the honey addition.

 

[SmCranf]

I used honey a couple of times and I had good results pouring the amount of honey needed 5 minutes after I finished my boil. Basically when I start to cool it. The heat still in the mix does the job to sanitize, no boiling time to risk of losing the aromas. And you can still stir a lot to get the honey mixed. I put around 10g/L for a nice flavor if that helps.

I second this, worked for me