Honey instead of sugar.

[Edison]

Can someone do a

Well it would wouldn't it?
Surprised it wasn't Manuka honey.
Most likely zero added value in terms of taste, but makes your Brewdog beer kit a bit more socially acceptable if you are into that sort of thing.

I obviously haven’t seen the kit you’re referring to but it’s unlikely as the original Punk recipes don’t contain honey. Very free BD beers do.

 

[Edison]

The two Punk IPA recipes from DIY Dog...

[edit] Must find a better ways of attaching files...!

 

[marshbrewer]

You don't have bigger versions of those, by any chance @Edison ? They are too blurry or me to read when I zoom in and would be interested in the recipe

 

[strange-steve]

Gordon Strong actually suggests adding honey to IPAs and APAs, from 200g to 900g of orange blossom honey specifically, depending on how much flavour you want. I've never tried it so can't comment.

 

[GerritT]

Yes I have, and it's a bit of a waste of good honey.

 

[Edison]

You don't have bigger versions of those, by any chance @Edison ? They are too blurry or me to read when I zoom in and would be interested in the recipe

I haven’t worked out how to post better quality images/documents on this forum, my bad!

All Brewdog recipes are downloadable here:

https://www.brewdog.com/uk/community/diy-dog
Hope that’s useful!

 

[marshbrewer]

Hope that’s useful!

It is, thanks mate!

 

[Edison]

I’ll try again anyway..!

 

[marshbrewer]

That's much clearer, thanks.

 

[Edison]

That's much clearer, thanks.

You’re welcome. I delved into the forum help section and discovered postimage.org. Who knew!

 

[User 38108]

Do a basic beer, and add the honey to it that should give you a "waggle dance" style beer

 

[Edison]

Unfortunately not in my limited experience with honey. 600g in a 22l batch was barely perceivable. Aromatic malt, that can give you honey flavours.

[edit] Apologies, seems I was thinking of Melanoidin malt!

 

[alice-edmund]

I agree ref taste - I used some honey washings off my hive frames - which accidentally started to ferment - but it does not seem to make the beer taste much different. Decent honey is too good to waste in this way. Have a good loaf, butter, honey - and a pint - and you can savour all.

 

[GerritT]

I agree ref taste - I used some honey washings off my hive frames - which accidentally started to ferment - but it does not seem to make the beer taste much different. Decent honey is too good to waste in this way. Have a good loaf, butter, honey - and a pint - and you can savour all.

A distinctive honey could fare well in a show mead! Still should have a sweet rosemary honey mead somewhere back below in the shed, if it hasn't spoiled.

 

[Arnhambrew]

I keep bees so use honey for conditioning . 60g for 23l in a pressure barrel. Agree that it adds little to flavour, unless the bees have been foraging in strong scented flowers and imparted this to the honey. However I believe honey takes the edge off bitterness & makes a smoother taste. I may be biased though!!

However it’s important to bear in mind that a high percentage of honey bought in shops is adulterated with sugar syrup. Used to be high fructose corn syrup.However this is now more detectable so rice syrup is now the adulterant of choice. Flavourings are also used. Thus it’s not surprising that honey, particularly the low priced “value” type you find in supermarkets will have very little real flavour.

 

[Turbine-Tel]

Hi has anyone ever used honey instead of sugar for the secondary fermentation in the bottle. I usually put half a teaspoon of sugar per bottle to produce the gas/head on the beer. Thinking of trying honey. How much honey would you use on a 40pt gold/blonde style beer.

Hi Ray, I've done 5 kit brews so far on my return to brewing.
The first one I used normal sugar, it tasted poor just like the brews I made in the early eighties.
Since that one I have used, honey/normal sugar mixed / light malt extract and dark malt extract, also primed with honey. I have been amazed at how good they've turned out, particularly bubbly and tasted like normal beer with no homebrew odour. It is a clat priming bottles though, I syringed it in then added a small amount of beer and swirled it about. The last one went in a keg so was easy but I will batch prime next time like MyQul said. I did email a supermarket honey producer and the chap said the best figures he could find were 1kg sugar = 0.63kg honey, 1:0.63.
Tel

 

[Arnhambrew]

Honey is about 70% fructose & glucose. White sugar is 99.9% sucrose (fructose & glucose bonded together). Honey does not need to be broken down into simpler sugars for yeast to metabolise it, unlike white sugar. Thus my experience is that carbonatation is quicker & more effective with honey. I find I need less than on a simple weight for weight basis. If I use more than 60g of honey on a 23l batch - the beer gets very lively & pouring the initial few pints gets a bit too exciting & frothy!!

 

[alice-edmund]

That's interesting. I'm assuming you're talking about priming here; I usually go for about 120g of white sugar batch mixed into 23l or so - and one of the reasons for my other, recent post is that I think I should move away from plain white sugar to 'better' products to improve my beer taste, better head retention etc

 

[terrym]

That's interesting. I'm assuming you're talking about priming here; I usually go for about 120g of white sugar batch mixed into 23l or so - and one of the reasons for my other, recent post is that I think I should move away from plain white sugar to 'better' products to improve my beer taste, better head retention etc

If you are using table sugar as a significant adjunct in your beers you will certainly improve things if you substitute some or all of it with malty stuff. But the difference in using anything other than table sugar for priming will hardly be noticeable, so its not worth using anything else since table sugar is cheap, predictable and readily available.