BeerSmith Software
Download BeerSmith
Features
Book
Forum
Podcast
Free Newsletter
Honey, the main ingredient in mead, has become a popular addition for many beer brewers. Brewing with honey provides a rich array of aromas and flavors that add complexity and character to your beer. This week we’ll take a look at some of the ways to incorporate honey into your home brewed beer.
I started brewing with honey some 24 years ago, in one of my very first batches of beer. To be fair, my knowledge level was low at that time, so I dumped the honey directly into the boil, then rapidly fermented and bottled it. This caused significant problems, as boiling the honey effectively boiled off much of the flavor and aroma, and the honey was not fully fermented resulting in significant instability and gushing bottles.
Honey is a very complex ingredient. It contains a range of sugars, many simple and some complex as well as a chicken soup of living organisms including yeast, enzymes, and bacteria. It also has a very rich flavor profile with exotic, but fragile aromas. Unfortunately, boiling honey effectively boils off the delicate aromas and also deactivates many of the enzymes needed to break down and ferment the honey. Approximately 90-95% of the sugars in honey are fermentable.
This leaves a dilemma for the brewer, as you need to sterilize the honey to eliminate the bacteria without boiling off the aroma oils and destroying the enzymes. The proper way to use honey with your beer is to pasteurize it without boiling it:
- If possible, mix the honey with water to dilute it to approximately the same gravity as the wort you are planning to add it to.
- Heat the honey to approximately 176 F (80 C) and hold it for 60-90 minutes. Ideally you would like to keep the honey under a CO2 blanket if you have a CO2 tank, but if not at least cover the pot.
- After cooling the honey, add it directly to the beer while it is fermenting. Ideally it should be added at high kraeusen (when fermentation is at its maximum activity). (Ref: Daniels)
- Allow additional time to ferment before bottling. Honey takes a notoriously long time to fully ferment. At a minimum I would allow 3-8 weeks more for full fermentation, though many meads are fermented for a year or more.
The variety of honey to use depends on your desired flavor profile. Often the types used with mead are best, depending on the style of beer you are brewing and desired character.
The percentage of honey to use should be between approximately 2-10%. Adding too much honey will not only increase the needed fermentation time, but also give the beer a decidedly mead-like character. Personally I recommend somewhere between 5-10% to give the beer a notable honey flavor and aroma without being overbearing.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s article from the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. Have a great brewing week and don’t hesitate to subscribe for regular deliver.
Don't make another bad batch of beer! Give BeerSmith a try - you'll brew your best beer ever.
Download a free 21 day trial of BeerSmith now
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent post.
I don’t have enough time to brew honey beer before the weekend but I’ll definitely pick some up at Whole Foods tomorrow afternoon.
given the correct level of nutrients and nitrogen you can complete a primary fermentation of mead in as little as 3 weeks.
i would recommend adding low levels of nutrients in stages every few days during the primary fermentation as well as keeping the wort properly aerated before going to the secondary fermenter.
after that another week or so extra on the secondary should do the trick. taking frequent hydrometer readings also helps.
I have not brewed a braggot yet, but I am looking forward to it. Mead with hops sounds… interesting.
Thanks
Im new to home brewing and so far I belive its gonna be a really fun hobbie. I was curious on which kind of beer would be best to make with honey????
Probably the easiest to make is “honey ale” which would be any good ale base recipe with a pound or so of honey in it. Keep in mind the honey does not add a huge amount of sweetness though.
I’ve brewed with honey many times and had my beers come out perfect every time.
I’ve had experience with brewing honey kolshes twice now and have seen that adding at 10 min left in the boil seems to preserve a majority of the floral, ‘meadowy’ (as i like to call it) smells and tastes associated with the honey, as far as the long fermentation, i do believe that conditioning for longer periods before bottling is essential. good post, will definitely try this technique to see what happens.
A friend of mine brewed a batch of honey wheat ale and it has been my favorite hands down. I liked the slightly sweet (but not cloying) taste.
I find that it is unnecessary to heat honey to get rid of any nasty bacteria. One simple reason. Honey has antibiotic properties within it. You can store honey indefinitely. It is the only “food” which will not spoil (as long as it’s stored in a sealed container).
Heating honey over 37 deg Centigrade or 98 deg Fahrenheit (body temperature) will start to degrade the honey and rob it of it’s antibacterial properties as well as the aromas and flavors. You should heat it enough just to make it easier to work with.
I’ve used honey for mead as well as beer and have never had the need to heat the honey beyond what was stated and never had any bad experiences in the process.
Quick question… Recommended 2%-10% of what?
When I first read this, due to the fact that we are adding during fermentation, I took it as volume, so I added 2Cups diluted with 1Cup of water at high kraeusen. I added another 2Cups diluted with 1Cup of water two weeks later when I moved it to secondary (5 gallon batch).
Now I’m reading this and I’m thinking what if it is supposed to be weight, ie. max 1lbs. honey with 10lbs. grain…
Somebody? Anybody?
I would recommend 2-10% of the overall grain bill by weight.
Brad
Is it possible to simply add a bit of honey to the secondary? Attempting a Cream Ale, well a Honey Ceam Ale. Also I’m kegging, not bottling.
Help! Thanks.
You can add honey to the secondary, but the method outlined here (essentially pasteurizing it) is less prone to infection.
Cheers,
Brad
I have added 1 cup of honey into a 23 litre brew at the start of fermentation. Fermentation at 25C was about one day longer than usual. Then put 1 ml if 50% honey and water into the 750ml bottles, in addition to the usual pre charge. Excellent mild taste and very good head retention. However you have to be careful pouring it.
The wife loves it…
Cheers
{ 5 trackbacks }