Honey Beer And Buying Bulk Sugar

[Verbyla]

I'm still new to brewing and have only done half a dozen brews so far. I'm still using the standard brew kits that you can buy from safeway or coles at the moment until i get a little more confident with what i'm doing.
I've always wanted to make a nice honey malt beer that actually has a taste of honey as i've never been satisfied with bee sting beer or beez neez. Firstly what type of beer would a honey malt beer be classified as, larger, ale, pilsner ect? If i was going to use a premade brew kit such as a coopers brand kit which type would be the best to buy if i was going to add honey to it and how would i go about making it?
Lastly, does anyone know of anywhere in the eastern suburbs of Victoria that sells sugar(dextrose) in bulk?
Thanks for any help!
Cheers

 

[pdilley]

Adding honey will increase the aging time and increase the time to clear at least a month or two . For clearing bentonite "heated" clay is best if forcing a clear.

 

[Bribie G]

I have recently made a Braggott, which is an old style ale made from malt and honey, where the honey predominates. it was about one third malt, from a mini-mash not a kit, and six jars of ALDI honey. It was about a month in the fermenter but has actually cleared out nicely over a week. I won't even dare to taste it until it's about a month in the bottle, the first taste on bottling had a twang of trough lollies and talcum powder, probably from the flowers in the original honey, hopefully will mellow out.

For a honey beer which is more malt and less honey you couldn't go past just a plain old Coopers Lager IMHO. Chuck the kit yeast and get a good ale yeast like Nottingham or US-05, and instead of the kilo of sugar or dex recommended on the Coopers tin, go for two or three 500g jars of honey. Only three bucks a jar at ALDI and a nice light honey, but no doubt guys on the forum here could recommend more suitable specialty honeys, ironbark whatever.

Happy brewing

 

[mash head]

Hi verb
The rule of thumb that I have been able too find is that in place of sugar honey should be added at a rate of 1.25 eg 1kg of = 1.25 kg of sugar due to the moisture content around 18% and certain amount of unfermentables. Generally non eycaliptus varieties of honey are recomended for beer brewing because of the tannins which could contribute to haze so clover lucern canola or orange blossom honey would be well suited. Avoid cheep bulk packaged honey because they are sometimes packaged with glucose syrup to spread them out a bit, or worse imported honey which can contain chemical residues used by overseas beekeepers to control bee disease (not allowed to be used in Australia) This was as issue a couple of years ago but hopefully its been sorted because these imported honeys compete directly with localy produced product they dont follow our rules and put peoples health at risk. So if you can find a beekeeper or a producers market that is where I would source my honey if I were you since my father in law has about three hundred hives some thing I dont need to worry about. John Palmer suggests that to retain the most honey flavour honey should be added after primary fermentation something I havent done I just add at pitching when using kits (after pasturization) or with all grain brewing I add in the last 10 minutes of boil. Thats my oppinion any way
Cheers Greg

 

[Supra-Jim]

I've used Orange blossom a few times with success. easily picked up at farmers markets here in Melbourne.

:icon_cheers: SJ

 

[staggalee]

Used Macadamia honey here a few times, $5 kg, that was acouple of years ago tho, haven`t seen any for a while.
Of the 3 or 4 honey varieties I brewed with, I was hard pressed to note much diff. in taste, including the Macadamia.

stagga.

 

[Supra-Jim]

One point to remember is that the longer you boil it, the more aroma & flavour you lose from the honey. I would throw it in in the last 5 mins or even at flame out.

:icon_cheers: SJ

 

[brettprevans]

read a nit moer on brewing and some recipes for honey flavoiured beers and youll get the info your after. you dont need to boil honey. just heat it to say 70C for 15 min will do. bscteria cant really live in honey. any mead book wil concur. but do what your comfortable with.

re ulk buy dex. i notice you asked the same question in a sidderant thread.. ill answer anyway. any LHBS or online retgialer will sell it to you in bulk. heres a tip. dont buy dex in bulk. hipefully youll develop your brewing skills quickly and move past using dex so you wont need a bulk order or it. if you want just buy a few kg at a time. beware the prices some LHBS charge as i suspect thats why you want to buy in bulk. look at some of the online supporters and see what they charge. thats a reasonable price.

 

[Supra-Jim]

read a nit moer on brewing and some recipes for honey flavoiured beers and youll get the info your after. you dont need to boil honey. just heat it to say 70C for 15 min will do. bscteria cant really live in honey. any mead book wil concur. but do what your comfortable with.

Ahhh true, my flu addled brain is working slowly today. I recall that in the Jamil episode on Mead (an excellent listen if you want to brew with honey) the special guest/mead expert actually recommended the no-heat method for creating the mead must. Simply add honey and water then beat with an electric mixer. no heat to sterilize at all.

Going by this, you could just use the heat of your wort to dissolve the honey.

:icon_cheers: SJ

 

[brettprevans]

yeah i mean that most will agree that you d\ont need to boil it.

you can get awaqy wih sort of pasturising it at 70C if you really want but its not neccesary. its now recommended that you dont boil honey as it drives of flavour and aroma.

 

[drsmurto]

The OP is a kit brewer so can just dump the honey in with all the goop and sugar into the fermenter and add boiling water....

If you want to taste honey in the beer my limited experience is to add twice as much as you first think......

But then i cant stand honey beers... :lol:

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

The OP is a kit brewer so can just dump the honey in with all the goop and sugar into the fermenter and add boiling water....

If you want to taste honey in the beer my limited experience is to add twice as much as you first think......

But then i cant stand honey beers... :lol:

Unless they are brewed with Ligurian honey. Isn't that right Dr S !

C&B
TDA

 

[drsmurto]

:lol:

Damn near choked on my coffee ya *******!

 

[Murcluf]

Unless they are brewed with Ligurian honey. Isn't that right Dr S !

C&B
TDA

I think you have to Kangaroo Island to get fresh Ligurian honey in Australia, Dr S is an expert on all things KI I hear. Might even bee able to point in the right direction to score a good beer while your over there.

Last I heard I he was pointing firmly towards the mainland

 

[mash head]

Ligurian Honey is all I know but I dont think the strain off bee can change the honey properties. Only bees we have though so it has to do :lol: Greg

 

[drsmurto]

Ligurian Honey is all I know but I dont think the strain off bee can change the honey properties. Only bees we have though so it has to do :lol: Greg

But it depends on what plants the bees are visiting Greg.

Honey produced by the ligurian bee comes in several 'flavours'. I brought back 4 different jars. The honey from KI rocks! Blue gum is my favourite.

 

[mash head]

But it depends on what plants the bees are visiting Greg.

Honey produced by the ligurian bee comes in several 'flavours'. I brought back 4 different jars. The honey from KI rocks! Blue gum is my favourite.

I know I am bias but I hope you bought it from Cliffords honey farm not that Kingscote one. Hahaha ps I some times work there so I should be biased.

 

[drsmurto]

I know I am bias but I hope you bought it from Cliffords honey farm not that Kingscote one. Hahaha ps I some times work there so I should be biased.

Yes, was cliffords.

I should have bought more for meads...

When i made the raspberry cyser using barls recipe i just dissolved the honey in a small amount of boiling apple juice and then dumped in the rest of the apple juice.

The honey flavour didnt come thru but that could be the apple juice or the 500g of raspberries.....

Damn. all this talk of honey has me thinking about making another cyser.

 

[mash head]

Yes, was cliffords.

I should have bought more for meads...

When i made the raspberry cyser using barls recipe i just dissolved the honey in a small amount of boiling apple juice and then dumped in the rest of the apple juice.

The honey flavour didnt come thru but that could be the apple juice or the 500g of raspberries.....

Damn. all this talk of honey has me thinking about making another cyser.

Sounds good Dr I am sure that we could arange some more honey to get to you some how cliffords now has a website and my wife works there alot and does arange mail orders. happy brewing Greg

 

[himzol]

If you really want to taste Honey in the beer then try Tasmanian Leatherwood honey. 250grams in 20 litre batch of a "bog standard" ale, heaps of honey flavour and aroma if put into primary.