Honey in DIPA?

[simbnine]

I'm moving across the country at the beginning of August and am planning to brew a Double IPAesque brew next week using a lot of left over ingredients that I have. I am wondering if anyone out there has any opinions, tips, suggestions on using honey as an adjunct in DIPAs. I know that many of the DIPAs and IIPAs out there regularly use a percentage of corn sugar or table sugar to boost gravity and create a drier finish, but I haven't found much on using honey. I believe honey contains both fructose and glucose as well as water, proteins, and various vitamins and minerals and I'm wondering what sort of effect those may have on fermentation and flavor. I have not used honey as an adjunct before, but was planning on boiling it for the final 10-15 min before flame out. I am not necessarily going for a big honey flavor, but rather just looking for an alternative way to get fermentables into my wort. Here's how my recipe has shaped up so far:

Target OG: 1.075
Bitterness: 63 IBUs
Mash @ 153F

Pale Malt: 82%
Honey: 13%
Amber DME:3%
Crystal 80: 3%

Hop schedule:
FWH (90 min): .72oz Tettnang @ 4.5% AA (15 IBU)
60 min: . 6oz German N. Brewer @ 6%AA (15 IBU)
25 min: .65oz N. Brewer (10 IBU)
15 min: .4oz N. Brewer (5 IBU)
. 5oz Kent Golding @ 5%AA (5 IBU)
5 min: . 75oz Chinook @ 12.2%AA (7 IBU)
1oz Fuggle @ 4%AA (3 IBU)
0 min: .5oz Kent Golding (0 IBU)
1oz Cascade (0 IBU)
Dry Hop 1oz Chinook

[mbird]

I use honey at flame out for flavor and fermentables but never just for the fermentables. I don't see a good reason for using honey in this way. Are you using it because you want to "use it up" as noted in your post?
One other note, N.brewer and k.goldings compliment each other nicely but I'm not sure if that chinook will conflick with those hops in this beer. Just my 2cents.
mark
www.backyardbrewer.blogspot.com
www.thebackyardbrewer.com

[Evan B]

Honey's expensive. If you're just looking for some honey flavor and some fermentables, I'd add corn sugar and some honey malt. Save the honey for some mead

[Phil]

I made a northern brewer kit that had 3 lbs of honey and it turned out great. At that level you're pushing the boundaries of what is considered "beer" but i like it a lot.

You don't need to heat honey at all, it's nearly sterile. I would add it at high krausen. I'd guess anything less than 1/2 lb in 5 gallons will be barely noticeable. 3 lbs gets you lots of honey aroma and flavor, and also a significant bump on your gravity.

[simbnine]

Yeah, I'm basically just using up whatever I have around the house, and it just happens that I have an excess of honey. My dad has a friend who has honey bees and he has given us a TON of Tennessee Wildflower honey. So I thought, why not try it. I'm definitely not opposed to any honey flavor, I think it could add an interesting sweetness especially since I'm only using 1/2lbs crystal 80 out of 14 1/2lbs total grain.

I'm interested in this idea of adding some at high krausen. Do you need to dilute the honey in water first? The stuff I have is pretty thick, but dissolves easily. Maybe I'll try adding half at flame out and the rest at high krausen. This way there won't be an excessive amount of simple sugars in the wort at the start of fermentation, so the yeast won't crap out before getting to all the maltose.

Thanks for the tips

[Fat Guy Brew]

Hopslam from Bell's uses honey. Hopslam is a double ipa. I also use 10 oz. of honey in both my regular and double IPA. I would add at flame out. The honey doesn't really add much flavor. It is 100% fermentable. It is a good way to boost your gravity, I would try it.

[Evan B]

ah, well if you were just given the honey, dump that shit in! i agree with the no-heat method. makes a huge difference. throwing it in the boil will just drive off the aromatics you're looking for

[straight cash homey]

i might try and dissolve it somehow or at least thin it out (without boiling it) if you're gonna add it at high kreaseseean because you don't want it piling up at the bottom of the fermenter and never getting into solution for the yeasts to eat. This is what happens when you dump a bottle of the belgian candi syrup into the carboy. Boil up a quart or two of water and let it cool to room temp and stir in the honey to thin it, then dump into the carboy.