Is there any point using honey in this recipe?

[Monkhouse]

As title says, the recipe is in thumbnail below, calls for 567g wildflower honey, bloody rip off stuff! Anyway I wondered if it would impact the recipe at all if I just used Candi sugar instead? Wouldnt the honey just totally ferment out!?
Cheers
Dave

 

[jof]

All I can tell you is that when I tried adding a couple of jars of honey, I couldn't really tell the difference, so I haven't since then.

Maybe you could detect it if you have a super refined palette.

Or you could substitute in a discount supermarket honey for a first try & see if it would be worth using the more expensive one next time.

 

[MashBag]

Tbh it will actually show the fermentation. Honey has antimicrobial components that will argue with the yeast.

I agree. Don't bother.

 

[Cwrw666]

I quite like honey ales, but with that quantity of ginger in it it'll be pointless. Just bung in white sugar.

 

[foxy]

As title says, the recipe is in thumbnail below, calls for 567g wildflower honey, bloody rip off stuff! Anyway I wondered if it would impact the recipe at all if I just used Candi sugar instead? Wouldnt the honey just totally ferment out!?
Cheers
Dave

First you have to get your hands on real honey not the fake honey. A honey with a strong taste like 'Stringybark' is an ideal honey it does ferment out but leaves that distinctive taste behind.

 

[Clint]

Get some honey malt into it. Got "Gambrinus" as a supplier/variety in my head but look it up..I'm too tired to!

 

[MashBag]

What about this...

https://matersandco.com/products/pu...m=smart_campaign&gad=1&variant=44695707091190

 

[Stu's Brews]

The answer really depends on how faithfully you want to recreate that beer.

The honey is obviously in there for a reason and not using it will therefore have some impact on the final product either in terms of flavour (provided that as @foxy says, you are using the right stuff) or fermentation characteristics (and therefore the final gravity/residual sugar profile).

Obviously, if you aren't too worried about how close you get to that particular beer but just want a good ginger pale ale, then you can definitely leave it out and replace with something else to get the missing sugar content. That could either be an alternative sugar-based adjunct (such as candi syrup) or by using more malt.

 

[JockyBrewer]

First you have to get your hands on real honey not the fake honey. A honey with a strong taste like 'Stringybark' is an ideal honey it does ferment out but leaves that distinctive taste behind.

I agree with this. You need exceptionally strong tasting honey for it to come through after any fermentation.

With 1kg of ginger in the kettle I'd be surprised if you can taste anything other than ginger when all is done.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Forget supermarket honey it's all water and other s---y stuff real pure honey costs an arm and a leg

 

[Agentgonzo]

Forget supermarket honey it's all water and other s---y stuff real pure honey costs an arm and a leg

Rule of thumb:
Costs ~£2 per jar: It's probably never seen a bee
Costs over £5 per jar: It's probably honey

 

[JockyBrewer]

Rule of thumb:
Costs ~£2 per jar: It's probably never seen a bee
Costs over £5 per jar: It's probably honey

Anything sold in the UK and EU as 'honey' should be 100% honey, where honey is entirely derived from bee collected nectar.

BUT I believe that some producers leave out sugar water to help 'feed' the bees. This is fine when there's no nectar around as it stops the bees starving, but when there is nectar available the bees gather it and store it in the hive, diluting the real honey. It increases the yield from a piece of land as you can keep more bees than would otherwise be possible, but it dilutes the real honey with flavourless sugar.

As a result cheap honey doesn't taste of much at all. These days £4.20+ for a 340g jar seems to be the price to get something with actual honey flavour.

 

[YeastFace]

Anything sold in the UK and EU as 'honey' should be 100% honey, where honey is entirely derived from bee collected nectar.

I wouldn't be so sure of that All UK honey tested in EU fraud investigation fails authenticity test

 

[foxy]

Anything sold in the UK and EU as 'honey' should be 100% honey, where honey is entirely derived from bee collected nectar.

BUT I believe that some producers leave out sugar water to help 'feed' the bees. This is fine when there's no nectar around as it stops the bees starving, but when there is nectar available the bees gather it and store it in the hive, diluting the real honey. It increases the yield from a piece of land as you can keep more bees than would otherwise be possible, but it dilutes the real honey with flavourless sugar.

As a result cheap honey doesn't taste of much at all. These days £4.20+ for a 340g jar seems to be the price to get something with actual honey flavour.

There is a lot of fake honey derived from corn coming out of China and India. Even a well known brand of Manuka honey was found to be fake.

 

[JockyBrewer]

I wouldn't be so sure of that All UK honey tested in EU fraud investigation fails authenticity test

Legally it should be 100% honey derived from nectar, but yes, like horse DNA appearing in beef products, where there's profit to be made...

 

[Clint]

A lot of cheaper honey is made from blends of different sources.

 

[Keruso]

As title says, the recipe is in thumbnail below, calls for 567g wildflower honey, bloody rip off stuff! Anyway I wondered if it would impact the recipe at all if I just used Candi sugar instead? Wouldnt the honey just totally ferment out!?
Cheers
Dave

I’ve used clover honey, I couldn’t detect any honey flavor in the beer I think it’s 100% fermentable sugar

 

[starseeker]

The best place to get honey is when you see a sign at the side of the road advertising it, a local bee keeper with some jars to spare.

 

[Monkhouse]

Thanks so much for all the replies!
I spoke via messenger at length with Jim Brewster about this recipe some months back and he actually did a small batch of it- not exactly like the stated recipe but he did say it was one of his best beers he’s brewed in a long time so I’m keen to try it.
I’ll be brewing to 27 litres and using 1kg of ginger (1kg AFTER peeling that is). The recipe stated is only to 19 litres so I will be using slightly less ginger. I’ll do what Stu’s Brews had recommended by just increasing the malt instead of using honey. I’ll be using Nottingham dry yeast but other than that everything else will be the same.

 

[Brewed_Force]

It is only bee vomit, after all.....