# Honey Lager



## barls (7/4/05)

ok after all my questions and talk of how i wanted to do a honey beer, ive made one now just put it together from a coopers lager extract, 500g of body brew and 500g of yellowbox honey. it ended up with a gravity of 1040 after it was mixed up. i was going to use orange blossum honey but had problems finding some so i went with what i had. ill let you all now how it turns out.


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## Gulf Brewery (7/4/05)

barls

What flavours does the yellowbox honey give? An orange tasting honey would be nice in a belgian wit - NRB, you willing to give it a go?

Cheers
Pedro


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## barls (7/4/05)

its not a strong honey but its not quite mild ether ether way its ether going to be great or average. only time will tell


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## NRB (7/4/05)

Maybe one day Pedro... I'll see how my "standard" Wit comes out first.

The only thing I know is to avoid with honeys from bees that come in contact with eucalypts.


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## Jovial_Monk (7/4/05)

Rubbish! A batch of beer does not hang around long enough to get a strong eucalyptus aroma or flavor.

If you use fresh bulk honey I doubt even a mead would.

Jovial Monk


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## normell (7/4/05)

Jovial_Monk said:


> Rubbish! A batch of beer does not hang around long enough to get a strong eucalyptus aroma or flavor.
> 
> If you use fresh bulk honey I doubt even a mead would.
> 
> ...



So JM buy that statement I'd say you haven't tried a eucy honey beer then

Normell


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## Weizguy (7/4/05)

My tastebuds agree. I could taste cheap eucy honey under a load of Cascade in an American IPA. I think I still have some that were not consumed. It hasn't mellowed much after about 3 years.

Seth


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## kman (8/4/05)

i have a honey lager on the go at the moment as well. Ill see how it turns out, the last one i did was very nice, but also very sweet too, so you couldnt drink too many in a row


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## barls (8/4/05)

what honey did you use kman


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## Sunday Brewer (8/4/05)

Did a Coopers blonde with 375g honey and 375 g raspberry jam. Remember me Jovial Monk from about 7 weeks ago ? Used some of your Brew enhancer too. The honey on the nose is quite evident after 3 weeks in the bottle. Can't taste the jam. Bitter without being over bitter on the palate. All in all a very succesful first brew. Did a Gold Rush Pale Rider Wheat beer - same honey no jam - honey on the nose with nice bitterness on the palate. Have a feeling the honey will fade as bottles mature ?


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## RichLum (8/4/05)

Barls,

not sure where in Sydney you are but the big health food store on Glebe Point Rd in Glebe has Orange Blossum Honey. I think its a GNC now...

They have about 8 or 10 different types of honey all in big drums that they just tap off how much you want

From memory I think it's about $13 per kilo (that was beginning of this year)

Rich


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## barls (8/4/05)

thanks for that mate im over near crows nest. cool thats not too far a drive so i might have a look


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## Jovial_Monk (8/4/05)

Yes I have used eucalyptus honey, blue gum, in both beer and mead.

No eucalyptus. Buy bulk honey from healthfood shop or wholefoods store

Jam has a lot of sugar compared to the fruit, check the labels!

JM


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## normell (8/4/05)

Plan on putting 500g of Orange Blossom honey in a ESB fresh lager this weekend, good idea or not

Give me your thoughts

Thanks Guys & Girls

Normell


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## stormkloud (8/4/05)

Yes Normell you are spot on mate. Try 500 this batch, then if you want go more next batch, beware of the hangovers.


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## barls (8/4/05)

do it mate it should come out nice i think


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## Duff (8/4/05)

I obviously stuffed my honey thoughts up, tapped the keg for my AG honey wheat this afternoon and was shocking. The keg is now hopefully providing some nutrients for the microbes in my lawn after I tipped it out  

If using honey again, I think after diluting to the wort OG I might just add to secondary to try and flavour somehow. I added to the boil with 10min to go and fermentation was very sluggish (4 weeks - even with WLP300 :huh: ) so add some yeast nutrient. It ended up fermenting out to leave the beer at 7.5% but I would have been munching through the Nurofen at breakfast after a couple of those.

Good luck.


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## normell (9/4/05)

So Guys, do I put the honey in primary, or wait till I rack to secondary

Normell


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## Jovial_Monk (9/4/05)

Orange blossom meads rawk!

JM


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## Duff (9/4/05)

Normell,

Try this link to HBD.


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## Airgead (11/4/05)

normell said:


> So Guys, do I put the honey in primary, or wait till I rack to secondary
> 
> Normell
> [post="53549"][/post]​



Hi Guys

I found this forum yesterday and as it so happens I've just brewed a couple of honey beers with great success.

The trick to getting a good honey character is to use a dark, strongly flavoured honey (I used white box and ironbark ) and add it to the kettle in the last minute of the boil - just enough to pasturise it but not enough to cook out the flavour. If you don't care about pasturisation you can add it to the primary. The honey character can be a bit unbalanced (either almost absent or quite harsh depending on the honey used and the whim of the gods at the time) when the beer is new but after 5 or so weeks in the bottle it will age in nicely.

My last Braggot (half malt, half honey) is about 6 weeks old now and is tasting very nice indeed.


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## barls (20/4/05)

still in the secondary will put it in the cube on saturday then cc it for about a month
nice taste as well should mellow out the harshness over time


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## barls (23/4/05)

now in the cube in my little fridge last reading i took was 1008. its pretty clear as well


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## kitchenbitch (26/4/05)

kman said:


> i have a honey lager on the go at the moment as well. Ill see how it turns out, the last one i did was very nice, but also very sweet too, so you couldnt drink too many in a row
> [post="53379"][/post]​




Hi Kman 
Tell me, that sweet beer you made what recipe did you use?. I'm keen to make something sweet as I was up in mildura in January and the "Brewery" there makes a lovely honey wheat beer which you can't buy anywhere else. It was quite sweet and I haven't found anything similar.


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## barls (22/5/05)

bottled it today after a month its got a nice taste with a slight harshness to it that should disappear in time ill let you all know how it is after a month or so


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## barls (22/6/05)

just opened the first bottle and its nice the harshness is mellowing and will be really nice by summer


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