Adding Honey!?

[brentt03]

We have a Honey Amber Ale that we will be debuting in August. When we have tested this brew before we added honey straight to the keg, now that we are using Sankey kegs, I was wondering what your all's thoughts were on when to add the honey??

We had thought bout adding post boil but if you do that the sugars and much of the flavor will go away during fermentation. What about adding to the brite after the cold crash?

Thanks

[Elevation_Beer]

We add honey to one of our beers about 1/3rd of the way through fermentation. For us, there was more than enough honey character left in the beer, though it is not a honey beer per se. I like this approach because you get some of the honey flavor and aroma, but the majority of the sweetness is gone.

Christian Koch
Head Brewer
Elevation Beer Co
Poncha Springs, CO

[einhorn]

The best way to get the honey character in the beer would be through honey malt.

[nateo]

I agree with Einhorn. I make a lot of braggot, and unless it's a very assertive type of honey, the flavor is pretty easily overwhelmed by malt if you use less than, say 50/50 honey/wort.

[gcbeer]

formula approval

You won't need formula approval if you use Honey Malt, otherwise you will approval.

[brentt03]

We add honey to one of our beers about 1/3rd of the way through fermentation. For us, there was more than enough honey character left in the beer, though it is not a honey beer per se. I like this approach because you get some of the honey flavor and aroma, but the majority of the sweetness is gone.

Christian Koch
Head Brewer
Elevation Beer Co
Poncha Springs, CO

How much do you use??


Also we thought about using honey malt, but wanted to use locally raised honey :/

[Elevation_Beer]

We use 50 pounds in a 15 barrels batch, about 4%. We also liked the idea of using locally sourced honey.

christian

[Ted Briggs]

I suggest adding it after primary fermentation,4-5 days, to the fv. I add water to thin it out, boil it up, then transfer to a keg and blow it in w/ co2. You will still have honey character. Baird's honey malt is good too- I used 1/2 a bag and 60lbs of honey in a honey double maibock and its very nice. (7bbl batch) SO my answer is both. I do the same for my honey brown.

[Tash]

Unless you're heating your honey you are inviting issues...

If you are using locally sourced honey that hasn't been heavily processed (ie: pasteurized) you could be introducing wild yeast and other micro into your beer. There is a lot of bee guts and other stuff in the real deal.

I add honey at the end of boil as I am getting some flavor and aroma. I want the sugar fraction to ferment. (sucrose, fructose, maltose and on down the line)

Honey Malt IMHO is great stuff but in my experience it has little to no honey flavor. Just deep Munich malt character. I use it all the time for Melanoidins.


Tash