# Adding Honey To Beer Kits?



## benny_bjc (3/2/08)

Hi,

Was wondering what would it be like to add honey to a beer kit? Anyone who has tried it... what do you think and how much honey do you add? Also if anyone knows of any recipes which add honey please post.

Thanks heaps.


----------



## InCider (3/2/08)

beer007 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Was wondering what would it be like to add honey to a beer kit? Anyone who has tried it... what do you think and how much honey do you add? Also if anyone knows of any recipes which add honey please post.
> 
> Thanks heaps.



Hey B007,

I have done it a couple of times - easy. 200mls, 600mls and in between. The honey taste fades quite quickly, and honey is all (nearly all) sugar so you will have to let it ferment right out.

If honey was dirt cheap i'd probably do more...

Cheers,

InCider.


----------



## wambesi (3/2/08)

I've used honey a few times in various styles.
Most recently was the second honey wheat I did, but sadly it did not turn out, not sure whether it was the honey or something else but it was the first time I used the coles brand honey over better brands.

Also some people pasturise it by adding it in the last 5-10mins of the boil but I have not, I have just put it in at the end - maybe thats where I did wrong and lucked out the first few times!

But as already stated the honey taste does fade quickly, experiment time I think!


----------



## mika (3/2/08)

Start reading


----------



## darrell.wallace (3/2/08)

one of the early kit beers i did was a honey wheat.

I boiled 600ml of honey in about the same water and used that as my hot water on the extract and malt. 

not all sugars in honey are fermentable and that means that these will be a part of the beer when bottled (if you bottle) and if you then add your normal amount of priming sugar to the bottles you end up with bottle bombs. this is the reason that i boiled the honey. 

This has been one of my favourite beers and have had many of my family members enjoy this as well.


----------



## Bionikal (4/2/08)

Not sure how much of a good idea this was but it tasted good.

I added honey to the bottle in place of sugar when priming. I cant for the life of me remember the measurements but it was a fair bit.
It seemed to taste quite nice, noticable honey aroma and slight honey after taste.


----------



## Boozums (5/2/08)

beer007 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Was wondering what would it be like to add honey to a beer kit? Anyone who has tried it... what do you think and how much honey do you add? Also if anyone knows of any recipes which add honey please post.
> 
> Thanks heaps.



Last November I brewed a Lion Lager with 700g Chelsea sugar and 300g of Manuka Honey. Normally, Manuka honey costs an arm or patch of soft inner thigh due to its power to raise the dead or something but the wife haggled a 1.5kg container from a local beekeeping zombie for 12 dollar, bigboy.

I hadn't considered partypooping wild yeasts when I biffed the 300g into the fermenter, (by `biffed' I mean dislocated a shoulder and broke 3 ribs getting the goo from the spoon), but I'm dubious about literal adherence to the brewing gospel according to anyone who says otherwise. 

There are charts and graphs you can read, and while sober should, but ear to the ground and 3 sheets to the wind I advise drunken whimsy and a belief in numerology to get you through to the other side.

The uptick of those tortuous sentences? A goodly, saintly drop of golden liquid that makes one pause for breath, reclaim lost equilibrium and mumble `someone bring me a Nun'

YMMV
Boozums


----------



## therufus (18/2/08)

Last brew I did was a Cascade Chocolate Mahogany Porter. I brewed that with 1kg honey and some extra hops. The taste was incredible.

The secret to brewing with honey is that you have to get the honey that comes straight from the bee. All these 'varieties' of honey (letterbox and the like) screw with the product and end up giving you unpredictable results in brewing. Pure honey is the best.


----------



## Leigh (19/2/08)

I brewed a Beez Kneez clone kit...that used 250g of honey...lovely sweet aftertaste


----------



## PostModern (19/2/08)

Rufus said:


> Last brew I did was a Cascade Chocolate Mahogany Porter. I brewed that with 1kg honey and some extra hops. The taste was incredible.
> 
> The secret to brewing with honey is that you have to get the honey that comes straight from the bee. All these 'varieties' of honey (letterbox and the like) screw with the product and end up giving you unpredictable results in brewing. Pure honey is the best.



My understanding is the opposite, ie that the varietal honeys ~will~ give you a predictable result. The variety of blossom listed is what was in bloom at the time the honey was harvested. Generic honey is either a blend or honey from unknown blooms.


----------



## benny_bjc (15/3/08)

When deciding how much honey I should use, should I look firstly at how much brewing sugar the kit says to use then use only half, then look at the honey label and work out how much sugar is in the honey and make it up to the equivalent half?

or is there a better way?

Also has anyone else primed there bottles with honey... and if so how much honey??? (I am using Plastic PET bottles... (so bottle bombs probably isn't such a big problem... but i don't know?)

thanks


----------



## benny_bjc (15/3/08)

Just a thought.... if I have a hydrometer, can't I just do a sensible approximate of honey and sugar mix and use the hydrometer to find out when fermentation has finished to prevent bottle bombs? or is there other reasons for more accurate measurements of honey in the fermenter?


----------



## KGB (17/3/08)

beer007 said:


> When deciding how much honey I should use, should I look firstly at how much brewing sugar the kit says to use then use only half, then look at the honey label and work out how much sugar is in the honey and make it up to the equivalent half?
> 
> or is there a better way?
> 
> ...



Yep, work out how much sugar there is in the honey and then use appropriate amounts to the amount of sugar you would normally use.
Try to avoid preservatives - IIRC the will prevent it from fermenting and you'll end up with very sweet beer.
Half/half with brewing sugar and honey (by % sugar) sounds like a good place to start by me.

If you want to prime with honey, I'd strongly suggest bulk priming - accurately measuring small amounts of honey is very difficult.


----------



## Tim F (17/3/08)

http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Methods/...mpleGuide.shtml


----------



## peas_and_corn (18/3/08)

If you're using honey with a kit make sure that you use it with a kit with a low profile so that the flavour doesn't get hidden behind the maltiness- wheat beers tend to be the one people go for for exactly this reason. For a standard 22L batch I use 1kg of honey, which makes it stand out enough to be noticeable. In regards to cutting back on adjuncts- well, I just went for a normal wheat beer and added the honey with nothing less in it- that's mainly because I don't aim for a target %, just a target flavour (of course that means that I get a lot of 7% beers, but that's how it turns out). I add the honey near the end of the boil, but it really doesn't need any ore than around 5 minutes- boil for too long and your flavour will evaporate.


----------



## masculator002 (18/3/08)

as a reccomendation use the lightest coloured honey you can find for brewing and try to avoid the eucalypt honeys. use it at pretty much equal to how you would sugar or better still dont use sugar at all and use malt extract. You can buy saunders malt extract quite cheaply near the honey at coles and woolies and as many brews I have brewed will attest it is quite good for brewing. beats using sugar any way


----------



## capitalfinancial (18/3/08)

Year I know most local honey in WA is derived from eucylptus, and wescobee is a blend. I was also told to go for the light in colour. I tried the recipe on the coopers website for canadian blonde a few years ago, I included 500ml honey from freo markets and it was okay from memory.

I would like to try lavender honey in beer one day. Would it suit? mabey only a little depending on the strength


----------



## benny_bjc (18/3/08)

masculator002 said:


> as a reccomendation use the lightest coloured honey you can find for brewing and try to avoid the eucalypt honeys.



Thanks... out of interest why do you suggest avoiding eucalyptus honeys?


----------



## Tyred (18/3/08)

Eucalyptus honeys have a flavour of eucalyptus. This isn't particularly nice in beer or mead.


----------



## barls (18/3/08)

it does age out but takes a long time though


----------



## capitalfinancial (20/3/08)

Might taste a bit more like alcoholic herb tea


----------



## bconnery (20/3/08)

I made a brown ale with leatherwood honey a few years back. 500g of honey mostly added inside the last 5 minutes. 
It dried the beer out quite a bit, it finished fairly low for a brown ale. 
You had to like leatherwood honey though. 
I loved the beer because I do but others thought it tasted like medicine


----------



## benny_bjc (20/3/08)

So I should boil the honey on the stove in water before adding it to my kit concentrate?


----------



## barls (21/3/08)

do not boil it you will loose the aromatics out of it. if you feel the need to sterilize it use ether potassium metabisulfate or sodium metabisulfate to do it. mix it in as if you were sterilizing fruit to add it


----------



## benny_bjc (13/4/08)

Is it best to add the honey during secondary fermentation only? Will this allow for more honey flavour?

or is it better just to add it all in the primary?


Also would honey go well with a coopers real ale kit?
Colour - 230EBC, Bitterness - 560IBU

or should I choose something like a blonde or pale ale?


----------



## new2brew (13/4/08)

beer007 said:


> Is it best to add the honey during secondary fermentation only? Will this allow for more honey flavour?
> 
> or is it better just to add it all in the primary?
> 
> ...



It would depend if you want to taste the honey in the beer or not? If you want to taste the honey flavour, I would add it during fermentation so it has more time to influence the other ingeredients


----------



## benny_bjc (13/4/08)

new2brew said:


> It would depend if you wantr to taste the honey in the beer or not? If you want to taste the honey flavour, I would add it during fermentation so it has more time to influence the other ingeredients



I have just started brewing up some coopers real ale so I thought I would let that ferment for about 2 weeks than split the batch and put 9 Litres into the secondary and add maybe 500g honey??? Then the left over real ale I will bottle. 
Does that sound reasonable? How long would I leave the 9L in the secondary?


As for taste... I want a noticeable honey aroma and flavour but not over the top. Still want it to taste like beer!


----------



## new2brew (13/4/08)

bconnery said:


> I made a brown ale with leatherwood honey a few years back. *500g of honey mostly added inside the last 5 minutes.*
> It dried the beer out quite a bit, it finished fairly low for a brown ale.
> You had to like leatherwood honey though.
> I loved the beer because I do but others thought it tasted like medicine


beer007, when the guys talk about something beeing added "in the last 5 minutes" or whatever, they are talking about the pre fermentation boil. This is the point of the brew where the flavours and the fermentables are combined with the boiling of the hops to get the flavour of the beer the brewer wants.

the honey would have been added 5 minutes before the boil part of the brew was completed to add the honey flavour to the brew


----------



## Blackfish (26/9/08)

Has anyone tried using Manuka honey in a wheat beer or perhaps had a commercial beer that uses it?

Never used it before but I've been handed a Kilo of it by SWMBO who doesn't like the 'medicinal' taste. Its pretty distinctive if you've ever tried it, but I hear that honey flavours tend to be more rounded in a finished beer.

I'm thinking of something like:
22L Batch
2kg BB Pils
2Kg BB Wheat Malt
1kg Manuka Honey (added at 15 mins)
Bittered with something spicy to about 23 IBU
CPA cultured yeast. (18degs for a mild Banana ester)

Adjust the above for an FG of about 1.008 or 4% ABV for easy drinking on hot days.


Thoughts?


----------



## DKS (27/9/08)

Ive been looking at doing a wheat with honey so I had a look in the pantry and found "Creamed Honey" Capilano brand Says "Creamed honey is 100% Pure Australian honey. The cosistency is obtained by using a blend of superfine candied honey ( Sugars naturally occurring in honey. 82.5g per 100g)" I havent seen any posts on creamed honey or candied honey.
Anyone clued up on using creamed or candied honey as alternative? I want the flavour to go with the wheat but not a syrup like result. :icon_cheers: 
Daz


----------



## rclemmett (27/9/08)

fhgwgads said:


> Has anyone tried using Manuka honey in a wheat beer or perhaps had a commercial beer that uses it?
> 
> Never used it before but I've been handed a Kilo of it by SWMBO who doesn't like the 'medicinal' taste. Its pretty distinctive if you've ever tried it, but I hear that honey flavours tend to be more rounded in a finished beer.
> 
> ...



I did one very similar to this about 8 weeks ago and it has turned out nicely. I used 1kg pale, 1.5kg wheat, 1.25kg honey, 250g LDM, Super Alpha, Tettnanger and cascade. I threw the honey in at flameout for 10 min before cooloing and fermented with s-23.


----------



## quantocks (16/10/08)

Walking through Chatswood Mall I seen a guy with a tiny stand selling Clayridge Honey, its the Stringy Bark variety and 100% natural, no preservatives, etc etc. 

I got 500gm for $6, it smells absolutely beautiful. Would I be able to do a k&k using only 500gm and get a real honey flavour out of it or is that not enough honey? I'll be kegging it and doing an 18L batch only.


----------

