Honey beer

Nathan · Post by **Nathan** » Tuesday Nov 09, 2004 8:12 pm

Hi guys, I'm just about to attempt a honey wheat beer (inspired by Beez Neez of Matilda Breweries) and need some help. I'm going to use a Coopers Bavarian with Coopers brew blend #2 and throw in some honey. I've bought some organic honey from the supermarket and was going to throw that in as well. The guy at the homebrew shop told me to put in about 300g of honey and boil it dissolved in water for 30 minutes. My questions are:
1. Is this the best way to prepare the honey to ensure no contamination?
2. Is that enough honey? (The guy at the homebrew shop didn't like honey beers, so he may have been a bit light on with the honey.)
3. Is this organic honey OK?
Thanks for your help.

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Wednesday Nov 10, 2004 3:45 am

Nathan

I use about 500 ml to 750 ml Honey in a batch and I add a little bit more hops (0.25 oz) to the boil. I then use the remaining 0.75 oz as a dry hop, (I addit to the primary when I dump in the boil and then cool down when I add the remaining cool water.

Dogger

db · Post by db » Wednesday Nov 10, 2004 10:37 am

i've done a few brews with honey & it really depends what type of honey your using. the last one i did i used 1kg of orange blossom honey & i can barely taste it.. the one before this i used 500g of beechworth honey & found the results to be much better. it really depends on the taste of the honey - with darker, stronger tasting honeys the flavour seems to stand out alot better than milder, lighter honeys..

as far as i know there really isnt any need to boil honey (altho i do a quick 10min boil anyways)

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Wednesday Nov 10, 2004 10:50 am

Actually,

and not to be a dick, you should boil the honey to release the albumin (yeh, that white stuff) at our levels it is not huge but if you ever get into mead...... MMMMMM nectar of the gods

The other part is to kill all that crap that is sitting on the bees arse to that happens to bobbing around your boil too.

Crap, am I ever paranoid, what ever happened to the dump and go days LOL

Dogger

Oats · Post by **Oats** » Wednesday Nov 10, 2004 12:36 pm

I recently did a Bavarian Lager and added 400ml of common Honey.
Will let you know how it tastes (will bottle in the next day or so).

The aroma is subtle but noticable....but i wasnt looking for the Honey to overpower everything else...so should turn out ok!!

Cheers

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wednesday Nov 10, 2004 3:16 pm

interesting dogger.. never heard of albumin. i think i'll have to do some reading up on this

havent actually tried mead.. keen to tho.

re sanitization, honey is a natural antibiotic.. not 100% sure but check this:
http://www.honey.com/pressrm/IFT/2003/s ... ality.html
& this:
Honey's Antimicrobial Properties and Benefits to Wound Healing

The use of honey as a wound dressing goes back to ancient times and has now been "rediscovered" by modern medicine, according to Dr. Peter Molan of the University of Waikato, New Zealand. "It is a common observation in the many reports in medical journals that numerous benefits result from using honey to dress wounds," says Dr. Molan. The antibacterial properties of honey may help clear infection in wounds, and the anti-inflammatory action of honey may reduce pain and may improve circulation which hastens the healing process. According to Dr. Molan, "Honey stimulates the re-growth of tissue involved in healing, making healing faster and reducing scarring."
from: http://www.honey.com/pressrm/research/nutri.html

if it helps clear infections in wounds i dunno how much i'd be worrying about the crap from bees arses

Matty · Post by **Matty** » Wednesday Nov 10, 2004 9:58 pm

Honey also has it's own enzymes and things which can apparently mess with the yeast from what I've read, and boiling is supposed to make it more yeast friendly

db · Post by db » Thursday Nov 11, 2004 10:03 am

Matty,

had a bit more of a look around honey.com last night and it seems dogger is right..

http://www.honey.com/recipes/beer/

this ones also an interesting read:

http://www.nhb.org/download/factsht/beer.pdf

Matty · Post by **Matty** » Thursday Nov 11, 2004 8:41 pm

I agree with Dogger, definately gotta boil the honey...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thursday Nov 11, 2004 10:50 pm

Just as an aside, many of the honey manufacturers are using antibiotics on the bees. I really don't see the issue but I am not sure if anyone else has concerns.

It doesn't seem to affect the fermentation and definately not the taste. The only thing I see is a very small grain size floculation of yeast which has an electrostatic charge (clings to the side of the fermentor)

Dogger

Beer Krout · Post by **Beer Krout** » Tuesday Jan 04, 2005 3:34 pm

Hi guys

I'm about to start on a honey beer this week. Getting together the ingredients and the info.

Saw Doggers comments about boiling the honey but then
Looked at DB's url
http://www.honey.com/recipes/beer/
and found that it suggests not boiling the honey.

Boiling the wort effectively destroys these enzymes along with any yeasts or bacteria that may have survived to this stage. If honey were added to the boiling wort, there is little doubt that it would be rendered sterile and enzymatically deactivated. Unfortunately, it would also likely be rendered without much positive contribution of flavor to the beer

Hmmmm ... confusion.

Does boiling reduce the flavour?

BK

Beer Krout · Post by **Beer Krout** » Tuesday Jan 04, 2005 3:36 pm

How did your Bavarian Honey beers turn out Nathan and Oats?

BK

Dory · Post by **Dory** » Tuesday Jan 04, 2005 5:29 pm

I made a Coopers Canadia Blonde with honey as per the recipe on the Coopers site. I couldn't find the exact honey they used so I used an organic light honey. It is quite sweet and not much to my liking but my girlfriend and all her friends love it. I have tried Beez Neez and that is a pretty good drop. If anyone has a recipe that is close to that it would be good if they could post it.

Cheers Dory

longlux · Post by **longlux** » Tuesday Jan 04, 2005 5:43 pm

1 x Coopers Bitter
1 kg Dextrose
500gm Malt
500gm Honey
750ml 100% Orange Juice
3 tbs Cinnamon Powder

throw it all in your fermenter add 2ltrs boiling water & stir top up to 22ltrs

use a fermenter with some room at the top as this really froths up during fementation

also takes a while to settle the sediment

i posted this in the beer u buy section

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Tuesday Jan 04, 2005 10:20 pm

Will try the OJ. Sound idea

Dogger

nexrex · Post by **nexrex** » Thursday Jan 13, 2005 11:05 am

Hey all,

On reccomendations from my HBS I have brewed up a Blackrock IPA, to which I added 300 grams of Leatherwood honey. As you know this is a Tasmania honey, and suprisingly enough I have what I consider to be a very good Grolsch clone. I would definately reccomend it to anyone.

Cracked a few bottles at New Years, and couldn't stop my mates drinking the stuff.

Contents:

-1 Can Blackrock East India Pale Ale
-300 grams Leatherwood honey (from health food shop)
-600 grams sugar (you can sub with Dex or brew Coopers Brew Enhancer)
-Top up fermenter to 18 litres

Came up beutiful, with that spicy coriander Grolsch taste, with a really great golden color.

Cheers.

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Thursday Jan 13, 2005 12:40 pm

Cheers

Dogger

longlux · Post by **longlux** » Sunday Jan 16, 2005 1:59 am

After reading this spotted some beez neez at the local bottle shop/supermarket

nice drop will try to brew some myself now