Brewing with honey.

[Asahikun]

I've made 2 batches which included some honey. The first was a pilsener which was made up of 1 tin of extract, 500g sugar and 250g pure honey. What I noticed was that some bottles were really good and some were a bit off. When I drank the vary last bottle, which had been left for months, it was delicious.
The 2nd batch included 1 tin of East India Pale ale, 500g sugar and just 100g pure honey. The same thing seems to be true for this batch - some bottles are good but some are a little strange. Also, the bottles are refusing to clear.

My questions are:
(1) Has anyone else experienced this variability in brews which contain honey? Any ideas as to what causes it?
(2) Should a brew which includes honey be left longer before being drunk? ie. Is there some reason why the inclusion of honey means more time is needed to get a good flavour?
(3) Could it be I've been using a kind of honey that isn't good for brewing?

Any insights?

[ray m]

I have made a couple batches which each contained 2.5 lbs. of honey. I boiled the honey for 1 hour---the same as the extract. One was a Belgian Strong Dark Ale that I made over a year ago. It is really smoothing out and the honey flavor is coming through nicely. I have had trouble getting a good honey flavor out of my brews. I think I will probably try to only boil it for 15 to 20 min. next time. I am beginning to think the keys may be a) shorter boil time for the honey (@ 15 or 20 min.?) and b) letting the brew bottle condition for a few months. I used pure honey straight from the hive from a bee dude know. Brewmonkey, any insight?

[Asahikun]

2.5lbs - wow, that's a lot of honey. How big was the batch?
Yeah, so you seem to be confirming one of my suspicions - that if any amount of honey is used, a longer time in the bottle will improve the flavour.
If I might make a suggestion. I am by no means an expert but how about trying a smaller amount of honey. The batch I'm drinking right now was 18L and I only added 100g (4oz) but the honey taste is definitely noticeable.
To be honest, the honey flavour seemed to complement the pilsener better than the IPA. I wouldnt' recommend adding honey when brewing an IPA - I just did it for the hell of it.
Why the variability though? Ahhhhhh, if, as we both seem to be noticing, that a longer time in the bottle leads to a better taste, then perhaps this is causing it.......no 2 bottles are maturing at exactly the same rate and, therfore, some aren't ready when they're opened whereas others are. Just an idea.

[b3s]

of my brews with honey the one that turned out best i added the honey for the last 20 minutes (taking a page from the mead people). i chose 20 minutes so i didn't get honey all over my wort chiller. i've been thinking about skimming the hops and adding the honey AFTER the boil and letting it sit for 15 minutes, then chilling the wort as (once again, from the mead people) boiling honey kills the flavor profile. this current honey wheat i've got going i added the honey with 20 minutes left to go again and the beer after racking tasted awesome.

[brewmonkey]

Honey is a great thing to brew with. If you are going for the flavor and aroma it might add to the beer I would caution boiling it as someone has pointed out it will kill the profile.

All the honey I use in the brewery is straight from the farm and unfiltered. You might have to pick out some bug/bee parts but there is not usually a lot of them. If you get it unfiltered, just run it through a clean cheesecloth or a pait of nylon pantyhose (beekeepers use this method) and you will get out the large bits.

Something brewed with honey should be ready to o based on the OG of the product. If you brew something higher alcohol (with or without honey) it will need some conditioning time.

The variables with the taste of each beer may very well be the type of honey used and the time of the year it was harvested. Basically there are hundreds if not thousands of honey varieties. It all depends on the foliage in the area around the hives. I like to use local wild honey (usually clover) but that is me.

All honey is good for brewing, if you like the flavor of the flower it came from. I have seen some honeys made from mesquite, not sure I want that in my beer unless I am making a Rauch. But I have used blueberry before and loved in the honey wheat.

Honey if stored correctly NEVER goes bad. If it crystallizes you can mix it to get it all back into solution.

Anyway, honey is a natural sugar and is good.

There is a style called a Braggot (look unders meads). I make one every now and then and the majority of the fermentables comes from honey. I prefer to use a mead yeast for this though. I usually pitch White labs sweet mead yeast as I like the residual sweetness it leaves behind. A very bright honey flavor and just a touch of hops in this one.

[Tweek]

My expereince with brewing with honey has been that th honey always ferments completely out adn I am left with no Honey flavor at all. Is this just the type of honey that I am using or do I need to get it in the range of higher alcohol and overwhelm the yeast? I also heard that there is a honey malt out there that in small amounts can contribute a nice honey flavor, any experience with that?

[brewmonkey]

There is a malt called honey malt and it will impart a slight honey flavor IMHO.

I have too experienced my honey fermenting all the way out and in some cases when making meads I have dropped down to .995. But there has always been a hint of the honey. My guess would be that it is the variety of honey that you are using. What variety was it, maybe trying something bolder would help? Orange Blossom honey is VERY nice and goes quite well in some of the "lighter" flavored beers such as the wheat family.

[Tweek]

I believe it was clover honey that I was using, and my recipe was a light lager, after the honey fermenteed all teh way out it came out like a coors or something, wery disappointing. Ill try some orange blossom. Thx

[ray m]

Asahikun, it was a standard 5 gal. batch...I am really willing to try anything different to get a good honey flavor. b3s seems to have a good idea with merely pasteurizing the honey after the boil for 15 min. or so. Brewmonkey, the honey that I got from the bee dude I know was termed "fall honey", whatever the hell that means. He said it is a more robust in flavor than regular clover honey. That is the one I will be trying in my next brew---it's gonna be a honey-cherry concoction. I can't wait to brew it!