I’m brewing a Gleneagles’ Honey Brown Ale today and I am planning to add one lb of honey (5 gal batch). My question is when do you add honey? I am planning to add it at flame out but am curious about what other’s do.
That works. You can also add it in secondary as honey is resistant to yeast and bacteria.
Funny you should ask. I was researching this this morning for what I’m brewing now. The results are all over the place.
[quote]Owing to its low water content, honey is very stable. Its microorganisms are dormant until they access an appropriate medium, such as your wort, where they have the potential to spoil your beer. Honey also contains various enyzmes that, if not denatured by heat, could go to work in your fermenting wort, resulting in a beer that’s drier than you might have intended.
[/quote]
I add it to the primary when fermentation slows down.
I have always added at flame out.
I guess it depends on what you’re trying to achieve. Honey is a subtle thing. Added in the kettle, it will ferment and a lot of the “honey-Ness” may not come across. Meaning, what folks think when they think of honey. Added after crashing can work out assuming you force carb.
Does it dissolve all the way if the beer is cold?
You’ll have to dissolve it in HL then let it cool. Add it to the vessal, purge, then rack on top of it. Obviously, there are all sorts of pitfalls doing this–just like adding anything after the heat x.
You’ll have to dissolve it in HL then let it cool. Add it to the vessal, purge, then rack on top of it. Obviously, there are all sorts of pitfalls doing this–just like adding anything after the heat x.
If you mean cold vs. room temp, yes honey will dissolve if the beer is cold. Heat the honey jar in a warm water bath, which will make the honey soft and runny, and it’ll dissolve into the beer/wort in a jiffy.
I add it and most other sugars at high Krause or just past that. I figure that the yeast are well on their way to metabolizing the main meal and give them some dessert. Seriously, I think the complex sugars get a full working over, so by high krausen, I’m less likely to cause a stall in the fermentation rate if introduced earlier. It could be overkill or unproven but FWIW it’s what I do.
Thought I would look into it a bit and it turns out that there is some science supporting adding sugars at the cold side:
Better shelf life with not heating the simple sugars, if you trust that study.