# Honey In Secondary?



## mje1980 (25/3/06)

Anybody brew with honey??, im thinking of soon doing a honey blonde, and am wondering when to add the honey. The secondary seems like a good idea as no flavours or aromas would be boiled off, but i am only guessing. Anyone consistently use honey and can help me out??


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## mika (25/3/06)

mje1980 said:


> Anybody brew with honey??, im thinking of soon doing a honey blonde, and am wondering when to add the honey. The secondary seems like a good idea as no flavours or aromas would be boiled off, but i am only guessing. Anyone consistently use honey and can help me out??
> [post="116386"][/post]​



Don't think I've consistently used anything in brewing except the fermenter  

Was about to use Honey in one of my wheat beers (an attempt at soemthing like a beez neez). Have heard of people using it in the primary (K&K stuff though), but the secondary is meant to be the better way, there sounded to be a good reason at the time, but too much beer gone south to remember what it was.
I'll be adding the Honey in the secondary anyway... not that there's a reason, but it sometimes helpd to know you're not the only one :beer:


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## normell (25/3/06)

Done a ESB fresh wort Lager with 1Kg of orange blossom in secondary, very drinkable & different


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## barfridge (25/3/06)

Golden rule: never use any honey that has eucalyptus in it. Last weekend when I was giving a mash demo I was transported back to kit land for tastings. One beer was made with 1kg of home brand honey, and it tasted foul because of the eucalypt flavours coming through.

Frankly, I don't think I've tasted a beer that has been better off because of the addition of honey. Most people try it, not many people try it often, and for good reason.


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## peas_and_corn (26/3/06)

barfridge- yeah, having unprocessed honey can do all sorts of weird stuff

when to add- don't worry about boiling it. I boil the honey as I add it to the primary. One of my most recent ones (finished now) I added the honey (a bit after I thought it was bad) at the beginning- 60 mins in the boil. However, the honey flavour came through quite strong still (I used BiLo honey, 1kg like I normally do. Same strength honey flavour as if it wasn't boiled).

Plus, boiling (even for 10 mins) helps sanitation- there might still be pollens/yeasts etc still in there


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## yardy (26/3/06)

done a couple of partials with a local honey made from a mix of Sunflower and Ironbark.

i throw it in the last 10min of the boil, this one was a ripper imho.

no off eucalypt flavours, nice colour and taste.

http://holygrailbeerblog.blogspot.com/2006...ed-tasting.html 

500ml btw.

cheers


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## Andyd (26/3/06)

As I understand it, there's no need to worry too much about pasteurizing honey because it's nature doesn't support bacterial growth. I've also heard that boiling the honey breaks it down and you loose the flavour.

As for experience, I've got a wheat fermenting at the moment with honey in it. 
So far it's interesting. Starts with a smooth honey flavour, but has a very sharp, almost acidic finish. not sure what has led to that one.

Andy


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## barls (26/3/06)

the sharp finish is normal and should mellow with time. as for honeys i have used yellow box which had the eucalypt flavour which deminished with time but it took over 8 months. one honey that i can recomend is strawberry clover honey. ive never had to boil honey as it destroys the aroma but instead ive sat it in hot water to pasturise and always added it right at the end of mixing


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## Boozy the clown (26/3/06)

Apparently honey is antiseptic in nature, no need to boil it. Honey has been used to treat burns (as it is anti-bacterial), seems to do a good job.

Another useless fact... they found honey in some tombs in Egypt, it hadnt 'gone off', only the top of it had crytallised.


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## mika (26/3/06)

So we're thinking the secondary is not the place for Honey, instead throw it in early ??


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## barls (26/3/06)

thats what i do and had some nice results with it.


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## barls (26/3/06)

here are a few threads on it
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...c=9199&hl=honey
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/Honey_Types-t7716.html
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/Hone...able-t6502.html
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/Hone...Beer-t4569.html
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/Ferm...neyl-t4032.html
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/Honey_Honey-t1424.html


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## yardy (26/3/06)

Boozy the clown said:


> Apparently honey is antiseptic in nature,
> 
> 
> [post="116490"][/post]​




a good mate of mine does a lot of feral pig chasing, when his dogs get stabbed or ripped by the tuskers, he wipes honey in the wounds.
they always heal, reccommended to him by a Vet btw.

not really Beer related, useless trivia, but there you go.....


cheers


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## normell (26/3/06)

Mmmmmmmmmmm
Honey glazed pork, sounds good :beer:


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## Piste (27/3/06)

If we are getting into pigs and dogs, I saw a recipe years ago suggesting adding a roast chook to the primary.
Well, it was a pommy recipe.
Don't think I would like the idea, what next KFC breweries
Just found the recipe, anyone care to try it???
Procedure:
"Take 10 gallons of ale and a large cock, the older the better; parboil the cock, flay him, and stamp him in a stone mortar until his bones are broken (you must gut him when you flaw him). Then, put the cock into two quarts of sack, and put to it five pounds of raisins of the sun - stoned; some blades of mace, and a few cloves. Put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find the ale has been working, put the bag and ale together in vessel. 
In a week or nine days bottle it up, fill the bottle just above the neck and give it the same time to ripen as other ale." 

Alternate recipe:
Brutal, eh? I was also given a modern recipe written by some guy named C.J.J. Berry.... Here goes this one... 
"Take a few pieces of _cooked_ chicken and a few chicken bones (approx one tenth of the edible portion of the bird) well crushed or minced. 

Also take half of pound of raisins, a very little mace, and one or maybe two cloves. Add all these ingrediants to half a bottle of string country white wine. Soak for 24 hrs. Then make on gallon of beer as follows:

1 lb Malt extract
1 Oz Hops
1/2 lb demerarra sugar
1 gallon water
Yeast and nutrient


Add the whole of the chicken mixture to the beer at the end of the second day. Fermentation will last six or seven days longer than usual and the ale should be matured at least one month in the bottle. This cock ale is of the barley wine type.


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## Duff (27/3/06)

:blink:


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## Screwtop (27/3/06)

Have used honey twice, once in a wheat YUK! Then success with a QLD bitter kit. Get my honey from a mate (bee keeper, he says hives get bugs moulds and diseases so he would boil honey). Used it in the bitter as bottling sugar (1.25 times sugar weight), boiled the honey with a little water then added this to the bottom of my bottling fermenter before adding the wort for bulk fermentation. After about 8 weeks this beer changed into a beautiful bitter beer, with just a hint of honey on the nose as you tip the glass, no sweetness. A real good quaffer.


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## Andyd (27/3/06)

mika_lika,

As far as I can tell, the secondary is exactly the place to do it. This way, most of your fermentation has taken place with the sugars derived from your wort, rather than the honey.

The honey in the secondary will certainly ferment (indeed mine currently is bubbling away nicely in the keg, negating the use of the gas line to get the beer out for samples), but not nearly as actively and should leave more flavour and aroma from the honey itself.

That's my theory - nothing empirical behind it yet. Hopefully someone with more experience with Honey can comment.


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## delboy (27/3/06)

dude i have herd of old speckled hen but old beaten cock . :blink: 

must be a sort of clone yeh! :lol: 

delboy


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## mika (27/3/06)

Seem to be alot of views on this. Barls threw up some nice links... don't know how I didn't come across those before, musta been asleep at the keyboard 
I'm committed to putting the Honey in the secondary for this brew, as it was already underway by the time I found this post. But still interesting to see what other people have done/recommend.
Might have to try adding it to the primary next time round.

*Spelling... forgive me it's my B'Day and I've had a couple :chug: *


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