Adding honey

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

donny_1972

Active Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2009
Messages
91
Reaction score
0
I want too add honey to my next wherry kit to give it a bit more flavour and strength. Can anyone reccomend how much i should add to my brew?
 
Ah, hmmm. Werry is a two can kit (very good thing too) so your adding fermentable sugers on top of a full load. Hmm, disolve one bottle (350ml) good honey in 500 - 1000 ml water and hold it at 80°C for 30 minutes to kill any bacteria. Add this to the brew after fermentation has finished (say into the secondary).
 
Thanks mate but I would prefer to add it at the start of my brew to get the strength up a a bit as my previous wherry kits only came out at 3.7%
 
Really not a good idea. Why?

In simple terms if you give yeast the option of complex sugars (as in wort) and simple sugars (as in honey) they will go simple all the time. They do weird things and by the end of it the flavours are not great and you wont get a fully fermented batch of beer. Also so linked reasons the honey taste disapears somewhat.

If you add the honey in the secondary fermenter then the yeast will have eaten all the complex sugar and gone to sleep, only to be woken up by new tasty simple sugars. They will get to work eating the honey and producing more alcohol.

Your end brew will have a higher gravity than if you didn't add the honey, only you will get a more complete fermentation at the end of it all and a better flavour.

This works right up to the point where your yeast is swimming in too much of their own alcohol and die. But as your using Wherry I doubt you will get that. The best bet is to get some good quality yeast (liquid if possible). I have a jar of slurry from my last brew which is London Ale, if you live near Loughborough drop in and I will give you half a jar full to get going.
 
Used honey a couple of times on coopers kits, no problems experienced, did the strawberry blonde recipe on their website, it turned out great
 
I've used honey on many, many occasions (in beers and meads), but it only really comes into its own in high alcohol brews (when you are approaching or exceeding the limit of the yeasties). Otherwise, it's just an expensive way of increasing the alcohol content and dryness of your beer.

Do not boil it - do not even bother mixing it with water and holding it at an elevated temperature. You will kill much of the flavour and aroma. The chances of introducing any sort of infection from honey is just about nil, seeing as honey has been used as an antibacterial wound dressing.

Do put it in during the start of secondary fermentation process because you will maximise your chances of retaining some of the volatiles which impart some of the flavours and aromas associated with honey. I've found the best way (i.e. it works for me) is to mix the honey with about half its volume of boiled, cooled water just to lower the viscosity, pour into your FV then rack your beer onto it. Gently stir to mix when you've got 3 or 4 litres of beer in there, then continue with the siphoning.

Remember that this is now a genuine secondary fermentation and not just a 'settling/clearing period' - so airlocks on etc. Also remember that honey isn't all simple sugars, but it is pretty well 100% fermentable. You could be looking at 3-4 weeks in secondary.
 
Actually, honey in the primary fermentation adds rather an interesting dry finish to a beer. You're left with whatever there is in honey other than sugar, and in the right beer (one you want to be fresh tasting) it's delicious. It doesn't prevent the beer fermenting out properly, in my experience.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top