Honey

[Donald Poineau]

i am going to be starting a new brew. It’s going to be a Belgian ale and I would like to add some of my friends local honey to it. Is there anything I need to do. Get extra hops or special kind of yeast. Etc. any help will be greatly appreciated thx. Donny

 

[BrewInspector]

No, nothing special.
Honey adds fermentable sugars.
There is a honey character left behind but it is not sweet or honey like.

 

[Donald Poineau]

Thank u much

 

[archthered]

If it's raw you should heat it a bit and skim off the chunky bits. If you add honey to the secondary you may keep more flavor and aroma from it than if you put it in the boil but even then don't expect much. I have had good luck getting honey flavor with Gambrinus Honey malt, though I usually use a bit of honey too just for good measure.

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

There is a honey character left behind but it is not sweet or honey like.

I have a beer on tap now that begs to differ loads of honey flavor in my English mild, but overall yes 90% of honey beer is lacking a distinct honey presence. The type of honey can have a great influence on the flavor of the beer for example orange blossom will leave more behind than wild flower and buckwheat is totally different in it's own regards they all have their own characteristics. Yeast will also play a roll in what is left behind your going to want to use a lower attenuating strain as honey takes longer to ferment you will leave more of it in your beer when your yeast drops out. I like to add my honey at flameout.

 

[Donald Poineau]

Thanks guys!! Appreciate the input. So I guess it’s best to put after the boil. But how much. For 5 gal?

 

[501irishred]

I typically add honey at flame out or sometime before it cools past 180deg. In my mind at least it can help kill off any wild stuff in the honey, and for sure it’s easier to add when you have some hot wort available to add to the partially empty jar.
I think about 1.5 lbs is the most I’ve added to a 5gal batch, but not sure what the outer edge would be. Keep in mind your FG will likely finish drier.

 

[Soulshine2]

i am going to be starting a new brew. It’s going to be a Belgian ale and I would like to add some of my friends local honey to it. Is there anything I need to do. Get extra hops or special kind of yeast. Etc. any help will be greatly appreciated thx. Donny

add it at the last 10 minutes to flame out of your boil. If you are adding it at bottling you'll probably need to heat it up with a little water before stirring into the bottling bucket.
Keep in mind that honey requires slightly more for priming than normal priming sugar at bottling.
I've added 1/2 lb to 5 gallons in the end of the boil. Ive also added 1/2 the priming volume at bottling.

 

[Dgallo]

I have a beer on tap now that begs to differ loads of honey flavor in my English mild, but overall yes 90% of honey beer is lacking a distinct honey presence. The type of honey can have a great influence on the flavor of the beer for example orange blossom will leave more behind than wild flower and buckwheat is totally different in it's own regards they all have their own characteristics. Yeast will also play a roll in what is left behind your going to want to use a lower attenuating strain as honey takes longer to ferment you will leave more of it in your beer when your yeast drops out. I like to add my honey at flameout.

I saw this post and literally clicked on it so I could tag you in it since I know you were really pumped about your new honey beer. Oh and btw, you could totally send me some to try.... lol

 

[Lefou]

Honey will add gravity points, increase the ABV, and dry out your beer.
The only real thing you need to worry about besides adding just after the boil is making sure your hopping gets properly adjusted for your taste. I'm one of those weirdos who likes his bitterness-to-gravity levels around .3 to .5 for most session beers...and then there are the hop fans.
If you're doing a lower gravity beer pay a bit closer attention to your hop's AAU level and boil times because a drier, lighter beer can give a higher perception of hops.

 

[madscientist451]

I have a beer on tap now that begs to differ loads of honey flavor in my English mild....
The type of honey can have a great influence on the flavor of the beer ...

So....what variety of honey and how much did you use in your English mild to get loads of honey flavor? Also what yeast did you use?
Thanks in advance....

 

[Lefou]

Here we go ...
I was always under the impression raw and pasteurized honey is highly fermentable and would stay that way in the presence of live yeast. One way to retain sweetness of the honey would be to heat process it exactly as you would golden syrup, but I would assume much of the aromatics would dissipate.
Someone tell me I'm wrong here... or not.

 

[shetc]

Here we go ...
I was always under the impression raw and pasteurized honey is highly fermentable and would stay that way in the presence of live yeast. One way to retain sweetness of the honey would be to heat process it exactly as you would golden syrup, but I would assume much of the aromatics would dissipate.
Someone tell me I'm wrong here... or not.

Not sure about heating honey but Golden Syrup is invert sugar, which makes is easier for yeast to consume than uninverted sugars. It will also help dry out beer, which honey will do as well.

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

So....what variety of honey and how much did you use in your English mild to get loads of honey flavor? Also what yeast did you use?
Thanks in advance....

2lbs Gunters Orange Blossom Honey at flame out (5.5 gallons)
Safale US-04 @65 degrees for 7 days dropped to 55 after that for 7 more let rise back to 65 for another 2 weeks then kegged and chilled to 41 degrees for serving carbed 38 psi 24 hrs


I don't recall the base malts off hand I have it written down at home if you want mostly marris otter some English brown malt it was pretty basic

No missing the honey everyone who tries it loves it and this is the second time I have made this beer with these results

Here we go ...
I was always under the impression raw and pasteurized honey is highly fermentable and would stay that way in the presence of live yeast. One way to retain sweetness of the honey would be to heat process it exactly as you would golden syrup, but I would assume much of the aromatics would dissipate.
Someone tell me I'm wrong here... or not.

Honey is fermentable yes your correct however it is not as fermentable the sugars your grains leave behind so the yeast eat those up fist and the idea here is to get them to start dropping out before they devour all your honey that's why I use us-04 and drop the temp if I used us-05 the results would not be remotely the same, also that's why its a mild grain bill lightly hopped with mild yeast, so the honey is not fighting to stand out. I have duplicated my results so I know this works.

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

 

[Lefou]

So, in other words, the solution for more honey flavor is to use a less attenuative yeast with lower alcohol tolerance and chill the yeast before a complete fermentation takes place. It's something I won't try with bottles.

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

So, in other words, the solution for more honey flavor is to use a less attenuative yeast with lower alcohol tolerance and chill the yeast before a complete fermentation takes place. It's something I won't try with bottles.

In essence yes, I keg so I never think about bottling

 

[TGFV]

Honey is near fully fermentable. The best way to preserve the flavour is either to use it as a late addition, cool and slow ferment, or to use it in conjunction with some Honey malt which gives it some sweetness (though be careful since a little goes along way).

The longer you age the beer the more the honey character will come back as well.