Kettle sugars have a long history of use in British, American, and Belgian brewing. While some brewers feel that nothing but barley, hops, water, and yeast have any business being in beer (can you say German purity laws?), they have been used in many countries with fantastic results. One such sugar, not employed often commercially due to its expense, is honey.
Honey in brewing serves to increase alcohol by providing the yeast with additional sugars to ferment. It also lightens the body as it lacks the unfermentable dextrin sugars produced during mashing barley. All-grain brewers may increase their mash temperatures a few degrees to produce more dextrines and extract brewers may add Maltodextrin extract to counteract this effect if undesirable. Depending on the variety, honey may also contribute unique flavors and aromas all its own. A summer beer benefits from the use of clover, blueberry, or other lighter-colored honeys while dark beers generally call for buckwheat or other dark, rich varieties. Most recipes call for 1 to 2 pounds of honey per 5 gallons, although 3 pounds per 5 gallons is not unreasonable for a light summer quaffer.
Honey is a natural sugar made by bees, and as such it has enzymes and bacterial that could potentially alter or ruin a batch of wort, so some care must be taken to use it. The most flavorful and aromatic honeys are "raw", meaning they have not been pasteurized, and can often be bought at local farms or produce markets. Mass-produced honeys often found in grocery stores may have been pasteurized through harsh industrial means, and thus lost much of their flavor and character, and their use should be avoided in favor of raw honey. Pasteurization of the raw honey is still necessary to kill off the wild organisms, and the addition method for the honey dictates what is required.
Depending on who you ask in the brewing community, you will get different answers on how to employ honey in one of your brews.
This being said, I typically favor the latter two methods, my choice usually dictated by how quickly fermentation occurs and my ability to catch fermentation at high-kraeusen. It necessitates a time-consuming pasteurization step, but the flavor and aroma benefits to my brews is well worth the extra effort. I follow the National Honey Board’s recommendations for home pasteurization, that being holding the honey at 176 F for 2 ˝ hours. Since I do not have an oven that can control to 176 F, I instead employ a water-bath method.
The equipment I use to perform the pasteurization are simply my stove, a corn-cooking stainless steel pot (although nearly any will probably serve), and a digital thermometer. I place the honey in a water bath and heat the water quickly to 165 F, then on low for several minutes until the temperature reaches 178 F. I then turn the burner off and let the temperature fall to 170. Reignite the burner, turn the flame to low, and heat up to 178… you get the idea. Generally this whole dance takes 10 or 12 cycles to complete. Once 2 ˝ hours have elapsed, I just let the honey cool down to near room temperature as time permits. Once pasteurized, I try to make my addition to the fermenter within 24 hours.
Pot used for water-bath pasteurization
digital thermometer showing current temperature
Water filled nearly to the top to insure all the honey is pasteurized
To add to the fermenter, I boil 2 cups of water per pounds of honey for 5-10 minutes, cool the water to 80-85 F, and gently stir in the pasteurized honey into the cooled water. I typically use a sanitized funnel and pour the honey/water solution directly into the fermenter, not really worrying too much about oxygen – At that point the fermenter has a layer of CO2 on top of the wort, so it should be relatively protected.
I encourage you to experiment with the various addition methods listed above, and hope you enjoy your next honey brew as much as I like mine.
