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Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Messages
16
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Location
Leeds, Yorkshire
I travel over to Belgium every year - my wife smokes and her tobacco is cheaper - she thinks that I am great for taking her over but I can fill the car with beer (for a lot less than she spends on her 'hobby')

I like the honey beers and decided to give it a go myself - I have just started with a Brewferm Triple and am going to add the honey at bottling.
I have made mistakes - I used table sugar so not so sure how that will effect things? (I started the brew before I found the Forum)
I can still buy the Belgian beers if I am unsuccessful (probably still buy it even if I make a good job of it)

I have seen the helpful comments from the community on this Forum and have joined up so that I can add my "twopenn'orth" (if I ever have anything useful to add).

Thank you for all the useful information I have gathered so far - there is a lot to read!
 
Welcome to the forum

Don't worry about mistakes we all make them and there is always a learning curve and areas you can improve on

Don't be afraid to ask questions
 
Welcome to the Forum. You will only be able to add enough honey to give you the right carbonation if you add it at bottling time so might not get as much honey flavour as you would like, otherwise you'll overcarbonate and possibly end up with bottle bombs!

In hindsight you should have added it at primary, but beware that honey can sometimes contain wild yeast. I do all grain brewing and the only time I've used honey I've added it at the end of the boil.
 
I travel over to Belgium every year - my wife smokes and her tobacco is cheaper - she thinks that I am great for taking her over but I can fill the car with beer (for a lot less than she spends on her 'hobby')

I like the honey beers and decided to give it a go myself - I have just started with a Brewferm Triple and am going to add the honey at bottling.
I have made mistakes - I used table sugar so not so sure how that will effect things? (I started the brew before I found the Forum)
I can still buy the Belgian beers if I am unsuccessful (probably still buy it even if I make a good job of it)

I have seen the helpful comments from the community on this Forum and have joined up so that I can add my "twopenn'orth" (if I ever have anything useful to add).

Thank you for all the useful information I have gathered so far - there is a lot to read!

Welcome to the Forum.

Brewfferms take a good few months to come right. six months plus and my abdij kept improving way past the year old mark - then it went plummy, then back on track :-)

Build up a stock! As soon as a batch is bottled get the next brew on :thumb:

As for Belgium which area do you visit? I often stock up with Belgians on the way home (No - I'm not a people smuggler!) - if you like triple's look out for the lupulus. With a bit of practice you can knock out beers every bit as good as Belgian ales. Maybe not all there are a few styles i'll never get the hang of, but a good chunk of them.
 
Usually, when visiting Belgium, I am somewhere between Oostende and Ieper - there are a lot of very good beer supermarkets (and I have bought supplies in most of them) If I want something specific they will keep it for me, they are all very helpful.
Later this year I have to go to Maastricht and will be able to visit the brewery of my favourite beer - Bieken. This is the beer I am trying to get close to. (It is slightly off route but I can always blame the sat-nav)
I have been very fortunate to buy Westvleteren from the Abbey a couple of times - I have tried every year for 15 years and only ever managed to get through twice, it would be nice to brew something akin to their no. 8 - I find the 10 and 12 a little on the strong side.
 
Welcome to the forum and good luck with the Honey Beer. Mistakes? You can learn a lot but its learning from the mistakes that really sink in.
 
south of ieper is

Brasserie Vanuxeem sa in Ploegsteert :whistle: is only a 20 min drive and theres a tabac plus xl and au caprice on the same road :whistle:

so chocs, booze and ciggies plus there's a frituur across the road from vanuxeem :thumb:
 
thank you for the Ploegsteert suggestion - I found all three last August, driving down to Northern France, definitely recommend the frituur.

MickDundee says that I would have been better adding my honey at the primary (I can try that next time) what about a compromise and adding it at secondary fermentation? Although some on the Forum suggest skipping secondary and just go straight to bottles - when the time is right of course.
 
I made even more mistakes when bottling!
With regards to the honey I read (somewhere) 63 grams per gallon
So I counted up my bottles - set aside for honey - and had 4.5 litres worth, a mixture of 330ml and 1 litre bottles.
So I put 100 grams of local honey - the bees even use my flowers for their honey! (100 grams because it isn't as sweet as others)
Bottled it all up and realised that my 1 litre bottles were actually 500ml, so I only had 3 litres :oops:
Anyway, I opened the first bottle today - to check for fizziness - and that was very good, it came slightly over the top of the bottle. Poured it out, and what a delicious surprise. I can't believe that I have brewed something so good at the first attempt - it is all downhill from here.

1st honey beer.jpg
 
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