adding honey to the boil

[sam,rn]

Hi, I'm going to be doing a boundry water wheat extract kit from Midwest tonight, and I was toying with the idea of adding a pound of honey at the beginning of the boil to boost the ABV a bit, and hopefully not add a lot of actual honey flavor to it. I was wondering if anyone else had any experience doing this, and if so, does it do that much for the ABV, and is it going to affect the flavor much? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Sam

[BrewHound]

Couple of things from what I have read and my understand.

If you want to gain flavor from adjuncts you add them to the beginning of the boil so for most of them the sooner you add it the more flavor you will get out of it as the total volume boils down this concentrates the flavors of the adjuncts. So if you are just looking for ABV boost add to the end of the boil.

Yes, honey and other sugars do quite a bit for the ABV, as they are for the most part pure sugar and yeast will eat almost all of it. So in comparision to grain you will get somewhere like 3x the ABV out of sugars as you will out of a compariable quatity of grain.

Do you have brewing software, just put your recipe in to the software and then add a pound of honey to it, that will show you the gravity points boost that you will get off a pound of honey. If you don't have software post here and I am sure someone will chime in and provide the point gain for a pound of honey.

[brownbeard]

Honey flavor is hard to get from honey, as it is a purely fermentable sugar. So, it really doesn't matter when you add. In the past to get honey flavor, I have resorted to honey malt. I think it's from wyerman's. It's a Canadian maltster.

[BrewHound]

Honey flavor is hard to get from honey, as it is a purely fermentable sugar. So, it really doesn't matter when you add. In the past to get honey flavor, I have resorted to honey malt. I think it's from wyerman's. It's a Canadian maltster.

Agreed in that it is hard to get flavor from the honey, not because it is ferementable, but because honey does not have much flavor ni its own, it is not the flavor that ferments but the sugars. If you add molasses it is almost entirely ferementable also, however, that you can use and adds unique flavor to your beer and is quite pronounced.

Honey malt is by Gambrinus malting company out of Canada.

[brownbeard]

I just don't think you can get honey flavor in beer from honey. Everything I have read suggests it all ferments out. That has been my experience as well.

[sam,rn]

Well, according to the instructions that came with the kit, the SG should have been 1.040-1.044; after adding a pound of honey during the boil, the hydrometer reading I got was 1.052. I figured this wasn't too bad considering I started the boil with 5.5 gallons of water (extra 1/2 gallon of water to compensaste for evaporation during the boil) and I don't think I lost a 1/2 gallon to evaporation. All in all, a good brew day (my third). Thanks for all of the advice!
-Sam

[BrewHound]

Well, according to the instructions that came with the kit, the SG should have been 1.040-1.044; after adding a pound of honey during the boil, the hydrometer reading I got was 1.052. I figured this wasn't too bad considering I started the boil with 5.5 gallons of water (extra 1/2 gallon of water to compensaste for evaporation during the boil) and I don't think I lost a 1/2 gallon to evaporation. All in all, a good brew day (my third). Thanks for all of the advice!
-Sam

Glad everything went well and hope to have the chance to try some soon.

[BrewHound]

I just don't think you can get honey flavor in beer from honey. Everything I have read suggests it all ferments out. That has been my experience as well.

As I stated I agree with you to a point, however you must define the beer better when stating weather you can can get honey flavor into it or not. I know it is not beer, but when making mead you can run the same recipe with too different types of honey and they will taste very much different. So if you are talking about beers that are rich with a lot of flavor such as stouts or hoppy beers, yes I agree that it is next to impossible to get a honey flavor into them without using a light sweet malt to try to simulate that flavor due to how delcate and light honey is in flavor. However, if you are talking about something very light and delicate, say a very light wheat beer or a lager then I say it is quite possible to get a honey flavor from actual honey. I think it is more a question of framing the problem in a light that makes sense versus an absolute about it.

[Mr T]

I play with honey quite a bit, I personally prefer to ad the honey at flame out as I like to be very nice to it and hopefully when I drink it, it will be very nice to me.

Keep in mind, the more honey you use, it might take a little longer to fully ferment.


From: sam,rn [mailto:brew-recipes@crbeernuts.org]
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 9:13 PM
To: brew-recipes@crbeernuts.org
Subject: Re: adding honey to the boil


Well, according to the instructions that came with the kit, the SG should have been 1.040-1.044; after adding a pound of honey during the boil, the hydrometer reading I got was 1.052. I figured this wasn't too bad considering I started the boil with 5.5 gallons of water (extra 1/2 gallon of water to compensaste for evaporation during the boil) and I don't think I lost a 1/2 gallon to evaporation. All in all, a good brew day (my third). Thanks for all of the advice!
-Sam

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[Matt F]

I haven't brewed this myself but is a popular kit from More Beer. Sounds like with enough honey, they get the flavor through and it is only 4.7% ABV.

Jim Rossi's Honey Pale Ale - Extract Beer Kit
KIT710
(Makes 5 gallons) We would not have put 3lbs of honey with 4.5 lbs of malt extract in a pale ale, but Jim had no fear and did just that. The result - a really nice mix of malt and honey flavors. There is enough honey to make it through into the flavor. Just a little Cascade hops in the beginning and finish keep the flavor emphasis on the honey. He suggests WLP002 because it is less attenuative and leaves more malt behind.

Estimated Original Gravity:1.047-52
SRM (Color Range: 5
IBU's: 13-17 Estimated Alcohol Percentage: 4.7%

http://morebeer.com/view_product/18417/ ... t_Beer_Kit

[tompb]

My experience has been that you just get a higher gravity. The only way I could get any honey flavor was to use honey malt. I always added the honey to the fermenter and mixed the cooled beer on top of it. This was done on 3 wheat beers and 1 braggot.

[carrisr]

I've got a pale ale fermenting right now (Terepin Rye Pale Ale) that uses a bit of honey malt in it. It might be fun to compare the two.