Honey addition: B-SIDES ��

[Crystal_Ball]

This weekend im going to brew from the Brewdog recipe PDF - B-SIDES ORANGE BLOSSOM.

There is an addition 1KG of honey to get this orange blossom flavour. It says “If possible use the orange blossom honey addition at the end of fermentation to carbonate the beer, this will keep the delicate blossom honey aroma from escaping.”

I really wanted this to go in my cornie keg so don’t want to use the honey to carbonate it and produce whatever it will do in the bottom of my keg. What are people’s thoughts on just adding it to the FV at the beginning of fermentation?

Will I lose that much flavour in comparison to Brewdogs suggestion?

I will be adding 810g of sugar so what is the alcohol percentage likely to increase by?

 

[MyQul]

That much honey will add 10 gravity points (according to brewmate). Chunking it in the FV is the only way I can think you could add it if you want to add flavour. Rather than in the boil. How much flavour you lose, I dont know

 

[Crystal_Ball]

That much honey will add 10 gravity points (according to brewmate). Chunking it in the FV is the only way I can think you could add it if you want to add flavour. Rather than in the boil. How much flavour you lose, I dont know

Sorry my next question is how much ABV will 10 points add? With the grain bill coming out with 3.8% ABV I don't want it becoming too alcoholic.

 

[MyQul]

Again according to brewmate it will add 1.32%AA

 

[MrRook]

Add the honey once you're sure that primary fermentation is done.

 

[simon12]

Just a warning if its not pasteurised honey it will contain loads of wild yeasts, I have found even when it is it can make the FG lower than it would be without it.

 

[Crystal_Ball]

A week into fermentation and reading is 1.015 from 1.057
Nice sweet taste but not sickly. Hopefully won't drop too low and be too dry.

Add the honey once you're sure that primary fermentation is done.

Saw this after my brew day. I put the honey in at the start of fermentation after I had dissolved it in a little warm water.

Just a warning if its not pasteurised honey it will contain loads of wild yeasts, I have found even when it is it can make the FG lower than it would be without it.

It didn't say either way if it was pasteurised.

 

[Zephyr259]

I've made 2 meads using tesco's orange blossom honey, it ferments out nicely leaving a decent orange blossom flavour but that's using 1 kg per 5 L and nothing else in the drink. I pasteurised the honey the first time but didn't bother the 2nd time and it's really tasty. The second batch did get stabilised before going dry so maybe if there was a "funky" yeast in there it got stopped before having an impact.

Looks a tasty recipe, my braggot was much heavier on the honey using 2 kg which made it 50% of the fermentables. Hope it turns out well, let us know how it goes when it's done.

 

[simon12]

My braggot also had honey as 50% of the fermentables but tasted awful, it finished very dry FG 1.002 (lower that it should without the honey) and with no sweetness the honey just tasted medicinal or something. It was drinkable when mixed with a bit of sprite but not something I would try again.

 

[Zephyr259]

I was looking up your recipe Simon, it's weird how it fermented so low. What kind of honey did you use?

My braggot was 20L at 1.062 and finished at 1.014, grain bill was 1.5 kg maris otter, 500 g vienna, 400g Victory mashed at 68C as I knew the honey would dry it out. 6 jars of honey was a little over 2 kg and it was a forest honey so caramelly and malty with no floral character so it's blended so well into the malt that you don't drink it and think of honey, which is a shame. The thing that's made mine interesting is that it's only got 8 IBUs from fuggles and I used safbrew T-58 yeast, so it's got no bitterness and is very like a belgian blonde.

It was originally going to get 1.5L of grape concentrate from a 1 gal wine kit but a few mishaps in the brew made me rethink that.

As for when to add the honey, I did it at flameout but I have read about it going in at the end of primary fermentation, not sure there's a lot of benefit to that though. With fruit additions in secondary there isn't a lot of sugar added so fermentation stays low, adding a bunch of honey is going to kick fermentation back into high gear so you don't gain anything by waiting. I guess this is relevant if you're adding 30 pts like I did, 1 kg in 23 L might not create that much activity. Hard to know for sure.

Sorry for the waffle, hope some of this is helpful. :-)

 

[Crystal_Ball]

I've made 2 meads using tesco's orange blossom honey, it ferments out nicely leaving a decent orange blossom flavour but that's using 1 kg per 5 L and nothing else in the drink. I pasteurised the honey the first time but didn't bother the 2nd time and it's really tasty. The second batch did get stabilised before going dry so maybe if there was a "funky" yeast in there it got stopped before having an impact.

Looks a tasty recipe, my braggot was much heavier on the honey using 2 kg which made it 50% of the fermentables. Hope it turns out well, let us know how it goes when it's done.

It's down to 1.009 and has been for three days. I'm very pleased with the orange taste from the trial jar and it still has the honey sweetness. It still has what look likes a foamy krausen in the FV which I'm surprised after 12 days and a steady reading.

 

[Zephyr259]

Nice, sounding done. I just noticed that Brewdog's recipe says it finishes at 1.000 but the abv they state would be 1.010 which is right where you are even though you started a fair bit higher than the recipe. I'm glad you get the flavour of the honey through, I think my problem was using a honey with is very distinctive on it's own (my wife really didn't like it) but with a flavour too similar to the malt. Your experience gives me hope to try again. Thanks.

 

[Crystal_Ball]

Next decision is how much sugar do I use when bottling?! Don't want any bottle bombs!

 

[Zephyr259]

I used a standard priming calculator to give 2.5 vol CO2 since I wanted it with decent carbonation. I tend to used the table in Greg Hughes' Book which says 6.5 g/L but I'm finding that this might be a bit high or assumes a temperature higher than mine.

 

[simon12]

I can't remember now exactly what honey it was but it wasn't a cheap one or a hugely expensive one either. Full 23L recipe was
2.1Kg marris Otter
400g Crystal 150EBC
Mashed at 68C
25g Northdown 1st wort
27g Wai-iti 10 mins
25g northdowm 5 mins
2.5Kg honey flameout
1 pack Nottingham yeast
If I typed the correct info into beer smith (can't remember if I did but I think so) SG was 1.057, FG I did record correctly 1.002.

 

[simon12]

Sorry didn't notice second page the above was sort of a reply to Zephyr259 on the last page.