Priming with Honey

I tried priming with honey once. I used about 1 tsp per liter. and I am afraid it tasted no different than sugar. Michael

I've tried primimg with honey...there's absolutely no advantage to it. I'd suggest you stick with corn or table sugar. Cheap and reliable.

------------->Denny

My limited experience priming with Honey, any variety that pleases, is a superb fine champagne-like carbonation which excelled. Experiment with the amount used, which I added directly to the bottle before filling; about a half teaspoon per 24oz. champagne bottle of Ale, plastic stoppered. Three-quarters of a teaspoon proved a bit too much and spewed out upon careful opening -- finishing secondary fermentation is important to avoid this! Otherwise, for Rheinheidtgebot beers, I would just use DME or other malt extract by krausening -- and avoid other additives like conditioning salts & yeast nutrients, which flavours seem to detract from the brew. If you use honey, use the hydrometer and keep notes as to exact type of honey used (thus, it being necessary actually to add it to your beer before bottling (I would dissolve in a little boiling water), taking readings before & after honey addition and adjusting where necessary -- using stoppered rather than capped bottles till you are sure of the result). I am just beginning to experiment again myself. Notice that many are adding a couple of lbs honey to ESBs and other British ales today with highly pleasing results. GOD Bless!

Veneta, Oreg>>

Veneta, huh? I live just outside Noti, so we're practically neighbors! Brooks, with all due respect< I suspect you might be fooling yourself about the honey providing finer carbonation. I've doone side by side blindtastings with beers primes with sugar, honey, DME, and force carbonation. No one at the tastings (including BJCP Certified judges like myself) was able to distingiush one method from another and there was no preference for any one beer. The issue is that since DME and honey take longer to ferment out than sugar, there's more time for the CO2 to go into solution in the beer, which is what p[roduces the "finer" carbonation. 2 months down the road, when they've all had adequate time to go into solution, there is no discernable difference. And you use so little of any one of them to prime, they have no effect on taste. I urge you to try this experiment for yourself.

-------------->Denny

Denny,

Don't you think, in addition to everything else you said, that honey would also take a longer time to create carbonation due to the fact that it is slightly harder for the yeast to breakdown?

Sorry Denny, I see you already mentioned that.