Comments on: Brewing Beer with Honey

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:03:49 +0000

A friend and I just recently brewed a Honey Pale Ale and added 2lbs. of honey just after the boil before adding to the primary. This resulted in a high abv and a dry taste to the finish of the beer. All together it was a great beer though, but I would reccomend adding the honey a few day after the primary fermentation has begun. It will allow for more of the hoeny flavor to come out in the beer and should not affect the gravity or abv nearly as much.

By: Brewologist

Brewologist — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:15:52 +0000

A friend and I brewed a “honey brown” for my first home brew about 12 years ago. He was teaching me how to brew, and decided we should add some honey and do an experiment. We added about 4-5 lbs of honey, along with the standard amount of malt extract, which was about 7lbs or so. Well, the fermentation was extremely active and I even had hops glog the airlock and blow the lid off of my plastic fermentation bucket. That was a crash course in blow-off, literally. : ) The ale turned out okay after all, but it was incredibly strong, probably close to 10%. For flavor, the honey extract is your best bet thought, I didn’t notice much flavor from the honey in my brew, but did notice a dryness, as Rob mentioned. It was a killer brew though.

By: John

John — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:29:15 +0000

Thanks Rob. I think your comment and Mike’s answer are pushing me towards using honey malt as my “honey” ingredient.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:50:51 +0000

I love using honey - but adding it prior to fermentation just increases your OG and adds some dryness. Try using Honey Malt if yo uare looking for sweetness, but not more than 20% or so of the grain bill (depending on the strength you want). I’ve used both method and am a huge fan of honey malt. After primary is also good and you can even add it to the keg or bottle if you like.