Guest Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 Hello fellow brewers (& mixers). [tongue] I recently experimented with the additions of regular liquid honey as a replacement for dextrose in TWO brews I put down. The honey was added into my FV as I would a Liquid Malt Extract (or kit tin). It was stirred vigorously at a limp temperature mid fill of approx. 40-50\xb0C. I never actually took an exact reading. I've begun drinking both of those brews 6 weeks on after both going through an ale ferment. I have poured each of these into a glass for tasting/drinking purposes to gauge the influence of the honey vs using brewing sugars. I have had mixed feelings about the results, none negative. What I found was that by adding the honey into the brew at the temperature(s) I did, it seemed to not disperse the residual honey flavour throughout the entire 23L brew evenly. I had portions of those brews that the hop additives out-shon the honey flavour, & equal portions that blended the honey flavour beautifully as I had hoped giving a residual undertone to the overall flavours of the beer. In the beers that seemed to lack the flavour of honey when drinking it, it seemed to have "bottom settled" & when drinking, the wanted flavour was towards the last 50-100mls of the beer. Should I add my quantity of honey as part of a cook to guarantee a residual spread of its flavour through my beer style, or is there something fundamentally wrong with the way I am viewing my application of honey into my beer brews? I loves ya's all (Jeff Fenech said I could use that), & I can't wait to read what you ALL have to say! [biggrin] Beer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 I am loving youse all... em eh... every one of singles youse... and em eh.. I won't be letting youse down. (Billy Birmingham said I could use that)[lol] I'm afraid I can't really offer any advice about honey, as I've never used it myself, but I'm sure someone will be able to help. [happy] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 7, 2012 Author Share Posted November 7, 2012 Sorry to dig up one of my old threads, but I thought some of my more recently acquired information on the subject might help one of our new forum members (Adz) with some direction(s) he may be looking towards with his brewing using honey. What I would say straight off the bat, is if you want a nice undertone of honey flavour, you will need to add approx 375gms of it into your 23 litre brew. Primarily, use it as a substitute for your raw sugar/dextrose additions into your brew at a percentage rate of 1.25:1 in place of the dextrose/sugar amount of the recipe. The second of the recipes I did with honey was the following... Coopers Australian Pale Ale Kit 1.7kgs 7mg Kit Yeast sachet 500gms Dried Light Malt Powder Honey 375gms, 250gms Maltodextrin Pride of Ringwood hops 25gms for 40mins Cascade hops 15gms for 15mins I did the P.O.R hop boil "raw" on a base of purely boiling water. & the Cascade hop was steeped separately from memory. I have learned a lot through the forum since that time & would certainly go about this procedure very differently today. That said, the P.O.R. hops seemed a little harsh on early tasting of the bottled beer (due to the raw boil), but after 2 months it has settled well into the overall taste of the beer. I tasted one (I had put away) tonight for the benefit of this post, & I must admit, the honey flavour was quite lovely, & the P.O.R had toned down nicely in a bittering capacity of the beer. At the time off bottling some 2 months ago I made a note that I did not add enough flavour & aroma hops into the brew, & this has been proven by the Cascade 15gm addition now being very, very subdued 2 months on into tasting. In conclusion, I would say that the 375gm addition of honey is a nice amount to add & gives true honey flavour to a home brewed beer. The best way to apply it, I still wish to investigate further. I have other brews I wish to do for the next few months, so early next year I will hopefully find time to experiment with using honey potentially as part of a hop boil, instead of throwing it into the FV mix as I did with the 2 experimental brews I did a few months ago. I hope the information is helpful. [joyful] Beer. (Anthony) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lotm Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 After my IPA, a strawberry blonde is next. So I will stay posted. [joyful] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 I have heard that for initial brews...It's best to add Adjuncts such as honey or Brown sugar, to lighter "top level beers" which have less intrusive flavours. Allowing on to better judge how they blend. I plan to do the same with honey/brown sugar, with the Lager kit and go from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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