# Adding Honey To Kit?



## joshlangmaid (17/5/09)

Hey everyone,

I hate to make a new thread knowing full well there would already be several hundred on here but the search engine always brings up things that have possibly the words i'm after but would take me ages to sort them out to find what i was looking for.

So my question is, which kit would anyone suggest i could add honey to? I've got a mate in the honey industry and has just given me 8Kg of meadow and leatherwood tubs. And plenty more where that came from. I like a honey taste to beer after paying $3 a bottle at a local cheese farm (ashgrove) which make this honey ale. 

So any suggestions to which kit i should do would be excellent. 

Thanks.


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## rclemmett (17/5/09)

I'd go a "blonde" or a wheat with 1kg of honey and s-23.


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## flattop (17/5/09)

Consider making mead or braggot - plenty of that around here...
You could pasteurize some and add it to a lighter style like a Cerveza or Hefe in small quantities.
I tried golden syrup in a Cerveza but it was pretty rugged, i suspect that the honey would be fine though.

But seriously if i had shiploads of honey coming in i would be making mead...


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## joshlangmaid (18/5/09)

Thanks guys. I'll see what i can find in the way of those. 

Cheers.


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## Verbyla (7/6/09)

If you were going to add honey to a wheat beer would there be any hops people would suggest that could go well with or improve the quality of the honey wheat beer?


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## Sir Cursealot (8/6/09)

Hey Josh, 

I was looking through some old posts and found thins one from about 2007 I think. Might want to give it a try. The full post is in the topic "Honey Wheat Kit"

_INGREDIENTS: Tin: Morgans golden sheaf wheat beer x 1 (1.7kg)

Sugars: 350g dextrose,250g LDM,500g muttons dried wheat malt.

Hops: Saaz and Green Bullet 
Hop schedule: 10g Saaz @15 mins
5g Saaz @5 mins
5g Saaz @flameout or 1 min
5g Green Bullet @ flameout or 1 min

Additional Ingredients: 2 teaspoons coriander, 40 g orange peel.
Additional Ingredients Schedule: 1 tsp coriander @15 mins
20 g orange peel @15 mins
1 tsp coriander @5 mins
20 g orange peel @5 mins

Yeast: Safale yeast 11.5g (18/c)_


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## krusty_oz (13/6/09)

If your after a honey wheatbeer don't bother with using the Blackrock Whispering Wheat kit as a base as it comes out more like a honey blonde (unless you want a honey blonde of course). 
I did one can with supplied yeast, 500g dry wheat malt and 1.2kg honey (comes out at ~6.1%, I named it Bee Sting). 
You'll enjoy if you make it expecting a honey blonde compared to expecting a honey wheat.


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## megs80 (13/6/09)

You may know this already. 
You wont be able to make a honey beer like the ones you can buy if you are bottle conditioning your beer. 
To get a sweet honey taste, you have to first kill the yeast then add honey and carbonation. If you just add honey to your wort, you will end up with a beer with the woody/flowery character of the honey not the sweetness as the sugars will have fermented out.
Not to say that thats a bad thing. But if your expecting a sweet honey beer, you'll probably be disappointed.


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## Clownfish (17/6/09)

I made a Coopers Real Ale with 500g honey and 200g dextrose. Tried it a week ago and it is great. Not one person who has tried it has not loved it.


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## AussieJosh (17/6/09)

Hi Josh!

This is a copy and paste from the coopers web site

Strawberry Blonde - 23 Litres
Honey has been an ingredient of many great beers through history. Honey is highly fermentable and contributes subtly to the flavour of the brew. We suggest Strawberry Clover Honey for this recipe but any light flavoured honey may be used.

Ingredients 

1.7kg can Coopers Canadian Blonde 
1kg Coopers Brew Enhancer 1 
325 grams Strawberry Clover Honey 
Method

Dissolve Coopers Canadian Blonde, Brew Enhancer 1 and Honey in 3 litres of hot water. 
Fill fermenter with cool water to the 23 litre mark and stir. 
Sprinkle supplied yeast over the wort surface. 
Ferment temperature should be in the range 21C-27C. 
Bottle when specific gravity has reached 1.010 (or two readings the same over 24 hours). 




Paul from coopers recomends........."If you want more honey flavour - increase the honey and halve the Brew Enhancer 1"


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## henderjo (17/6/09)

Hey Josh,

I think I understand what you are chasing... had a really nice beer at "The Belvedere" North of Brisbane on the weekend. It was called "Sunshine Coast Summer Ale" - dark red in colour with an amazing honey aroma and taste - would be a great one to replicate.

Interesting comment in this thread re adding the honey at carbonation. I use kegs, but think you'd have to add the honey warm to give it any chance of mixing with the beer (to avoid it just settling at the bottom of the keg - waiting to shoot into your dip tube as pure honey!).

I've been thinking of trying one myself - would love to hear about anymore comments, recipes or things to avoid...


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## bowdy (19/6/09)

while we are talking about honey as an addition i have in my new keg setup a wander draught which i mixed in with one of those 1kg coopers no 1 boxes and 400g of redgum honey- not too shabby only been in the keg for around a week and its already half gone, a little too sweet and malty for my tastes though. So this afternnoon i substituted coopers real ale for that previous combination and this time am only fermenting 21 litres instead of 23 (couldn't see the point of bottling three long necks) but to my surprise the SG is 1068 this time - with the Wander kit and another 2 litres of h20 the SG was only 1046- does anyone know why this would be so where has the extra punch come from? pretty sure i havent read it wrong... seems like it will be a potent brew..


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## JaffaMan (20/6/09)

Is it okay to use regular supermarket honey? 

Has anyone got prefferences of honey they've used before in an extract brew?

I'm thinking of using honey with some weat malt, and a coopers canadian blonde kit.


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## henderjo (24/6/09)

When I finish my current, brewing ESB Bald Hills Bitter (which somehow turns out to be very close to a Toohey's New)... I have plans to put down an "Irish Red", I'm going with Munton's Yorkshire Bitter with 1/2kg Dark Dry Malt (not sure what the TLA is for that one <_< ), about 750g of dex to get her going. Been fiddling with hops, so I'll also run 12g of goldings for 40mins and 12g of Fuggels to finnish over 5 and 10mins. Now I've been wanting to try the honey thing and have been asking around... From my chats so far I'm being urged to use a HIGH grade honey ("you won't even taste the cheap stuff - might smell flowers though") or something based on ironbark flowers, which you can still get at most supermarkets. Heaps of different ideas about the timing of when to add the honey - I'm going to boil it for a min 20 mins.

Plan to run the malt, honey and say 2L or 4L of water for the boil, do the hop thing and tie it all together in the fermenter. OH - using Safale S-04. I'm in Brisbane so it should maintain a temp around the lower range 15-18C.

No idea about the OG or FG - haven't used a hydro, so far so good.

Probably the most complex thing I've done so far in my short brewing tenure... I'll run it through a 1 micron filter straight out of the fermenter to a keg (as per norm for me) - so I'll post my findings after a few weeks... Hope to taste some honey :icon_cheers:


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## JaffaMan (24/6/09)

I think im going to try a health food stall to get organic honey.


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## Barley Belly (24/6/09)

Do yourself a favour

Skip the honey

It'll only end in tears


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## JaffaMan (24/6/09)

^ explain? How else can you get a beer to taste honey-ish?


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## Barley Belly (24/6/09)

JaffaMan said:


> ^ explain? How else can you get a beer to taste honey-ish?



Buy it retail

Just my 2 cents :icon_cheers:


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## manticle (25/6/09)

Um....would you suggest that for all beer?

How's the creamy soda going?


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## mwd (25/6/09)

Cannot taste any honey in Beez Neez IMO.

If you boil the honey it drives off all the aroma and most likely some of the taste.

Some say it is a natural antiseptic so needs nothing doing to it other forums recommend pasteurization at 65C for 30 mins.

I am with Finners its probably more trouble that its worth for an expensive sugar.

I also think you would need a strong flavoured honey to make an impact on beer as lots of the flavour is stripped out in the fermentation process.

I have some Macadamia honey here but it is way too expensive to be putting in beer nice in tea and on toast though.


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## Wisey (25/6/09)

Tropical_Brews said:


> Cannot taste any honey in Beez Neez IMO.
> 
> If you boil the honey it drives off all the aroma and most likely some of the taste.
> 
> ...



Beez Neez honey taste is after you have taken a swig and breath out through your nose you get that lovely soft honey taste. Its not a flavour that hits you on the way down.

My grandfather is a bee man, he gives us free honey from whatever is flowering in NW NSW. So im keen to try it in a clean wheat beer.

Cheers
Wisey


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## Barley Belly (25/6/09)

manticle said:


> Um....would you suggest that for all beer?
> 
> How's the creamy soda going?



Nah, just honey, in my rather limited experience
Maybe I shoulda said to try someone elses honey effort before you make the investment & effort

Project Creamy Soda is still in the planning stage while I wait for a free fermenter


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## Interloper (25/6/09)

finners said:


> Project Creamy Soda is still in the planning stage while I wait for a free fermenter



I took this challenge, because I have 3 fermenters full of beer on the go and spare one sitting idle. Plus I had a heap of misc bits and pieces to use up so I went for :

500gms LDME
1kg of Brewiser Liquid Sugar (get off my back it was on special for like $2 in Coles and I couldn't help myself  )
9L of water
A Coopers Wheat Beer Kit yeast (again, left overs so what the hell)

I had some of that vanilla bean paste that's been in the fridge for ages and some of the same "Black Label Xtra Strong Vanilla Extract" from the same company (here on the web http://www.queenessences.com.au/products/s...hp?categoryid=1)

So I threw them in to the fermenter.

When it finishes fermenting I'll rack to secondary and splurge on some vanilla pods and some more of the pure vanilla extract and let that sit for another week. 

The excercise won't be cheap but I figure I'm committed now so bring on the creamy soda.


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## Supra-Jim (25/6/09)

Very interesting Interloper, good work. Keep us posted with the results.

What was your OG for?

Cheers SJ


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## Interloper (25/6/09)

Supra-Jim said:


> Very interesting Interloper, good work. Keep us posted with the results.
> 
> What was your OG for?
> 
> Cheers SJ



1068 I think...It wasn't as high as I thought it would be. 

I'll check my log tonight and post.


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## henderjo (27/6/09)

Josh Langmaid said:


> Hey everyone,
> 
> I hate to make a new thread knowing full well there would already be several hundred on here but the search engine always brings up things that have possibly the words i'm after but would take me ages to sort them out to find what i was looking for.
> 
> ...




Well Josh not sure if you are still following or if you have had a go your self by now?... My brew is down - house smells great :icon_cheers: ... brew was great until I added the honey - Australian rainforest honey, was the best I could get - the aroma changed significantly for about two minutes while on the boil... then seemed to fade, though honey was still detectable it was back to normal, the lovely aromas of malt, caramel, and all the niceties of brewing beer. The brew seemed a lot darker than what I was after - though it still looks reasonable - might need some aging - I'll post again once it's filtered/racked and/or kegged.

Keg 1 - Coopers Canadian Blonde w amerillo - all but dry
Keg 2 - ESB new
Keg 3 - CO2

Fermenting - Something resembling an "Irish Red" dipped in Australian honey

Plans - find a utopic larger and sort out my carb and pour pressure issues - never thought I'd be one to complain about getting head.,, and maybe another fermenter to sort out my issue with Keg - 3.


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## henderjo (12/7/09)

Racked it on the weekend - very dark! I was hoping for something a little lighter - red maybe - but this is black. Took two weeks to ferment out. Can't really taste any honey in it - though whilst I was rinsing my kegs with boiling water for filtering there was a very pungent honey smell that came out of the keg that had just had that brew in it. I've put it under the house for a couple of months - should be a pretty nice drop


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## Dave70 (13/7/09)

When the wife and I were in Poland I poped into shop that specialized in spirits and liqueurs where I bought some Honey Vodka. It was delicious, sweet and lethal.
Next day I returned and grabbed some to take home with me. 

I said to the old bloke behind the counter 'That stuff's great, do you know how they make it?'

He gave me a deadpan stare and replied:

'They make it vodka, then the put honey in'

Clue maby?

Just say'n..


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## flattop (13/7/09)

I have an AG Amarillo Honey on it's 2nd week now from the recipe database.
It reminds me a bit of Dr Smurto's with honey.
The Krausen has gone Nuclear, i expect most of the honey will ferment out.
I may sample a bit today to see what the ferment is tracking like.
I pasturised for only 15 mins hedging my bets on keeping some nose without the bugs....
If it's infected i will wear it.
But i hope it's great

Yup just tasted it, all amarillo no honey... but a faint back taste... and the Krausen is still high


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