Adding Honey To Beer Kits?

[benny_bjc]

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]

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]

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]

Start reading

 

[darrell.wallace]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[PostModern]

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]

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]

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]

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

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]

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

 

[peas_and_corn]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[barls]

it does age out but takes a long time though