Wouldn't the yeast just eat it all?

Honey is about 95% fermentable and also contains impurities that impart flavors and aromatics.

 

I think the fact that honey itself is not pure white (like refined table sugar) indicates that there are in fact other things in it. Couple this with the fact that honey from different flowers is different colors and tastes different and I believe you will see that it is not 100% sugar. Wikipedia has a pretty good breakdown of honey here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey#Nutrition

While honey is highly fermentable, I would suggest you try a mead and you will see that although the unfermentable portions of honey are small they can contribute significantly to the final flavor.

 

The sugar in honey is 100% fermentable, but there are compounds in honey other than sugar, hence why honey tastes more different and more complex than table sugar.

 

It's too bad that meads and braggots are more overlooked in the United States. Both are really enjoyable and unique due to the flavor that honey imparts. Not a summer session brew by any means, but should be given a chance by any BA if they haven't already. They may discover either to be a style that they will enjoy.

 

Everyone else has covered it, so I will add just one more thought...if honey were 100% sugar, it would be called sugar...not honey.
;-) cheers!

 

Mead and cider are the new "in" thing now. Maybe it's taking a while to catch on in other places.

 

Try a braggot if you want to know what fermented honey tastes like. It's quite distinct.

 

Speaking of honey, I have a collection of bottle caps. Why, I don't know, since I have no idea what to do with them. My son got me started when he gave some to me from a trip to Europe.

At any rate, when I open the quart jars they are in, I get an unmistakable odor of honey. Anyone have an idea of why that would be?

 

When I brew with honey, I'll put it in the last 5 or so minutes of the boil to sanitize it, but not kill all of the flavors. While my beers don't have a HUGE honey flavor to them after fermentation, there is certainly a honey smoothness to the beers that have it that my other beers don't.

 

Probably just residual beer on the underside of the caps.

 

dumb question, never got into the whole brewing processes and chemistry behind it so forgive me, but cant the yeast also become "too full" before eating up all the honey. and therefore some of the honey is just left there as honey?

 

Honey will definitely ferment out with the right yeast, but it does leave flavors behind. My cyser fermented from 1.112 to 0.996 and has interesting flavors that are reminiscent of sherry.

 

what happens during fermentation is the yeast cells reproduce. the individual cells can get "full" when they can't find more fermentables in their immediate area, but any brewer who knows what they're doing will pitch enough yeast cells to make sure that there are enough to finish fermentation.

 

To add to this, there are a few other things to keep in mind such as starting a fermentation with a lot of highly fermentable sugars (such as honey, dextrose, candi sugar, ect.) can "shock" the yeast and cause it to flocculate too quickly and fall out of suspension before fermentation is complete. Also, brewer's yeast is alcohol tolerant only up to a certain ABV and will die once it reaches that point, leaving residual unfermented sugars. Both of these can be mitigated to some degree with yeast nutrient and staggered additions of highly fermentable sugars.

 

OH OOOOOHHHH. ok i get it now. i remember from watching that DFH show on discovery that one of their beers had yeast that wasnt working. And if i remember correctly they tried to repitch it but it wasnt up to snuff still. I just figured that the yeast was "full" and went dormant.

thanks for the info though. I would like to try homebrewing one day but it is a lot to learn and time and space are limited right now.

 

Probably because its so damn expensive! There really aren't any gateway meads. I keep passing up on B. Nektar meads because the beer aisle right across from them is just so pretty and shiny.

 

that was their 120 minute ipa, and the reason why it went dormant was because that beer was at 18% abv, which is unusual, to say the least. but do start homebrewing as soon as you get the chance. it's really pretty simple getting started (some of us on these boards drive ourselves nuts with specifics but you don't have to worry about that in the beginning to make really good beer) and it's very rewarding.

 

Kevin has the right answer. Here is a question you should ask yourself - If honey does not add anything, why would a brewery add the most expensive source of sugar they can find to the beer?