Brewing Beer with Honey

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Honey, the primary ingredient in mead, has become a favored addition for many craft beer enthusiasts. Brewing with honey introduces a wealth of aromas and flavors, adding complexity and character to your beer. This article explores some effective ways to incorporate honey into your homebrew.

My Initial Brewing Experience with Honey

My journey with honey brewing began 24 years ago, in one of my earliest brewing attempts. With limited knowledge, I added the honey directly into the boil, then quickly fermented and bottled the beer. This approach led to significant issues, as boiling honey evaporated much of the flavor and aroma. Additionally, the honey was not fully fermented, resulting in unstable and gushing bottles.

The Complexity of Honey

Honey is a multifaceted ingredient. It comprises various sugars, both simple and complex, along with a mix of living organisms like yeast, enzymes, and bacteria. Honey also offers a rich and exotic flavor profile with delicate, yet fragile, aromas. Unfortunately, boiling honey can destroy its intricate aromas and deactivate essential enzymes. Approximately 90-95% of the sugars in honey are fermentable.

Pasteurization: A Non-Boiling Option

Steps to Pasteurize Honey

• Mix the honey with water to dilute it to roughly the same gravity as the wort you plan to add it to.
• Heat the honey to about 176°F (80°C) and maintain this temperature for 60-90 minutes. Ideally, keep the honey under a CO2 blanket if available; otherwise, cover the pot well.
• Once cooled, add the honey directly to the beer during fermentation, preferably at high kraeusen (when fermentation activity is at its peak).
• Allow additional time for fermentation before bottling. Honey requires a long fermentation period, typically 3-8 weeks at minimum, though some meads ferment for a year or more.

Adding Honey in the Fermenter

Another approach is to add honey directly to the fermenter after the boil. Despite its high sugar content, honey possesses antibiotic properties that allow for long-term storage without pasteurization, making it a choice for many brewers.

Choosing the Right Honey

The variety of honey you use can significantly impact your beer's flavor profile. Typically, the types of honey used for mead work best, depending on the beer style and desired characteristics.

Recommended Honey Percentage

It is advisable to use between 2-10% honey in your brew. Using too much honey can extend fermentation time and give the beer a mead-like flavor. A range of 5-10% usually provides a distinct honey flavor and aroma without being overpowering.

I hope this week's article from the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog helps you in your brewing endeavors. Have a great brewing week and consider subscribing for regular updates.

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Historically, honeybees could be credited with contributing to the development of fermented beverages, thanks to their sweet nectar. While yeast has existed longer, the honeybee’s passion for creating honey has a profound connection to the beverages derived from their labor. Although yeast cells continually multiply, honeybees invest more effort and emotion into producing that sweet nectar. It was a honey beer that converted me into a regular beer enthusiast, particularly a honey and wheat combination from Wisconsin. This encouraged me to keep brewing after an initially unsuccessful batch. The sweet side of honey greatly influenced my preferences.

Incorporating Honey into Homebrewing

Cheap, Easy & Simulated Methods

For a simple solution, consider using Honey Malt from Gambrinus Malting. This malt imparts a distinct sweetness to both extract and all-grain recipes, making it a popular choice. Adding 2-4 oz. to session strength recipes provides a subtle sweetness, while all-grain brewers can use larger amounts for a dextrin-rich backbone in more hoppy styles, ensuring not to exceed 8% of total fermentables to avoid excessive sweetness.

Real Honey in the Boil?

Conventional wisdom suggests boiling any additions to beer for sanitation purposes. Thankfully, honey's natural sugars largely repel infectious organisms.

While adding honey during the entire boil imparts a gravity boost similar to any sugar, it eliminates most varietal flavors. Instead, adding 10-15% honey by fermentable volume in the last 15 minutes of the boil enhances the beer's gravity and flavor. Adding honey at flameout functions like an aromatic hop addition, imparting varietal nuances and leaving the sweetness dependent on yeast attenuation. Check out our selection for best results!

Reviving Fermentation with Honey

In ancient times, wild yeast must have thrived on honey’s sugars. The yeast and honey will compete for dominance in the beer’s flavor profile. To achieve a pronounced honey flavor, using a neutral American yeast like Wyeast 1056 or White Labs 001 is ideal, with the dry option being US-05. Maintaining temperatures of 64-68°F will minimize ester production and highlight the honey's flavor.

For stronger honey flavors, divide a three-pound jug of honey, adding half during the boil and the other half during secondary fermentation. Incorporating honey during peak krausen enhances aromatics and provides additional fermentable sugars to reinvigorate the yeast. Combining these techniques will result in a beer with captivating flavors.

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