How many Honey Wiess or Sleemans Honey Brown have I had? A few. I started adding honey to some of my homebrews because it seemed like a good idea at the time. (Isn’t that how most good ideas come about?)

I’ve found that adding honey to a recipe adds some complex flavor to light beers and not so subtle kick to heavier beers. If there is a recipe that has been brewed a time or two and seems like its lacking, try adding a pound of honey to the last five minutes of the boil. By fermenting it completely there is very little residual sweetness from it and it doesn’t add the cloying mouthfeel that might be expected from honey.

Right now I have a Honey Brown Ale on tap, though not like a Sleeman as it rings in around 6.5%ABV. In another two months it should mellow out to a great drinking ale. I don’t know if it will last two months though. Here’s hoping my other two batches finish soon.

A few tips for using honey in your beers: Go with good honey, and make sure its pure honey, if you want high fructose corn syrup in your wort thats your business, but I don’t want it in mine. Expect to leave the beer in primary for at least two weeks, then in secondary for at least a month. From all reports honey ferments slower then malt sugars so give it time. As per standard advice, check gravities three days in a row to make sure its stable, then I’d give it another three days just to be sure.

Don’t stop at honey wheat or honey brown. Think about honey porter, oatmeal honey stout, honey red and for sure add some to the Belgian line up! Honey Tripel a year later will knock you down with a smile on your face after one pint. With the candy sugar, honey adds power of gravity without much color or residual sugars. Man, I’ll have to unearth my last Tripel recipe and try that again!

Honey, give it a go and see what happens, just remember it takes a bit longer to ferment so try and be patient.

Cheers!