Bottling w/ honey

First batch? My advice is to use corn sugar or table sugar. You don't know the sugar level in your honey and it's likely nobody can tell you for sure.

 

I presume that the honey flavor is a reason for your choice for this priming sugar, but honey typically does not leave much residual flavor. Given the difficulty of calculating how much to use, the chance of creating bottle bombs for no appreciable flavor toward your desired profile, I'd do as VikeMan says and use a sugar that is more predictable.

 

I also wouldn't use growlers to bottle! Ive heard they could explode too!

 

I would recommend sticking with corn sugar because it's predictable. I'm also pretty sure growlers are not recommended for bottle conditioning.

 

Growlers bottle conditioned with honey? What could possibly go wrong?

 

It's possible you are calling this 32oz bottle a growler?



http://www.morebeer.com/products/ez-cap-bottles-32-oz-amber-swing-top-qty-12.html

You can bottle carb in those. They are very sturdy. Vessels marketed as growlers aren't typically suited for bottle carbing.

Show us your growler.

 

No way you'll fill 4 - 32 oz containers of any type.

The fermentor is one gallon.
There should be ~20% reserved for head space and another few percent for trub.

Max volume at bottling time: 128 oz - (128 oz * 23%) ==> ~98 ounces = 3 - 32 oz packages (each with ~2 oz head space; 3 * 30 oz.) + 8 ounces (enough for a pony bottle or après bottling sampling session).

 

Interesting question being asked. I would have probably asked the same thing. I am mid-way through my first batch EVER. It is currently fermenting for one more week. I also wanted to use an organic based honey as I don't like refined sugars. To be more direct, what is the actual issue with using honey? In my kit it offers the opportunity to use honey in addition to the corn sugar and raw sugar. So, I guess another question I could ask is how different would it be to use another form of sugar, like beet sugar, coconut sugar, torbinado sugar, organic raw sugar or just sugar in the raw?

 

Any source of simple sugars (glucose, fructose, and/or sucrose), or even maltose, will work. But the problem with bottle priming with something like honey is that you don't know what the amount of sugar is. You can guess, but bottle carbonating is not really the time for guessing. Or you could sacrifice a sample of the honey to making a dilute solution and measuring the gravity.

But how different would it be? Not very different, given the relatively small amount of sugar needed, thus the relatively small flavor contribution of various sugar sources.

 

Honey is more variable than sugar in terms of sugar content. You can use this calculator for bottling with honey:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

If you really want to bottle with honey, my advice would be to err on the side of caution and select 2.0-2.2vols of CO2.

 

@Brew_Betty thanks for that link... Definitely bookmarking it. @VikeMan thanks for the info as well.

 

I've used all the sugars you mentioned in the boil except for coconut sugar. Basically, white table sugar will provide no flavor, but will increase the abv of the beer and make it less malty sweet. The other sugars will do the same thing, but some of the darker sugars will add a little flavor.

My favorite in the boil is "sugar in the raw".

 

I would use organic table sugar, since you're worried about it. I'm guessing it will be the closest equivalent to Domino.

 

When I first started, I tried priming with DME, which was problematic. Some of the lessons learned apply to different sugars. First, DME is not 100% fermentable, so you need to make an adjustment based on something you may not fully understand. This is relevant but probably less important for sugars - there will be varying degrees of impurity (darker sugars are less refined). Second, the stuff is pretty hygroscopic, so over time, my stash of DME would gain moisture, making it difficult to consistently measure the same amount from batch to batch. If you store brown sugar for baking, you'll recognize that the consistency changes over time, depending on humidity. It will clump, harden, etc. It's moisture content changes. Depending on your sugars, this might be a problem. I have found ordinary table sugar to be both inexpensive and reliably repeatable. When I bottle, I use a priming calculator (first I used this, then switched to the one in BeerSmith).

 

If it's the same bottle, you're in luck. It's pressure tested to 100psi.

If you use the calculator posted earlier in the thread, it will tell you how much honey to use. Add the honey to 8oz of water. Boil it. Mix it with a sanitized spoon. Let it cool with a lid on. Pitch the honey water in your beer which should be in a bottling bucket. Mix it well, but do it slowly.

Do you have a bottling wand?

 

Using anything besides a refined sugar risks getting the carbonation wrong and possibly creating a bomb, as noted numerous times above. If you are determined to use honey (or whatever) you need to quantitatively dilute a small amount and take the gravity to roughly determine the amount of sugar present. It will take some trial and error due to unknown fermentability. Consider the first batch or two a learning experience. If you always get your honey from the same place (and season) you will eventually dial things in and carbonate reliably. I understand your loathing of processed stuff (we eat about 95% organic, or at least from a trusted source like a neighbor) but a tiny amount of refined sugar is really the way to go, at least until you have more experience. Here in VT a lot of brewers also make maple syrup and a few use it to carbonate, especially for carbing a few bottles in a mostly kegged batch - 2ml per 12oz bottle, dispensed from a syringe, should give ~2.5 volumes, assuming proper sugarmaking (appropriate sugar content is determined by taking S.G. readings during the boil. Real pros can do it by eyeballing). Given the small amount needed for carbonation, the choice of sugar won't really affect flavor unless someone figures out how to make ghost pepper syrup.

Flip top growlers should be fine for bottle conditioning. Just don't use the standard half gallon jug.

 

Warning: would not recommend for a beginner....but...

I recommend not boiling the honey because, while it will kill any potential bacteria or wild yeast present in the honey, it will also drive off any of the subtle honey aroma and flavor. The way I see it, if I'm going to use a more expensive sugar that has a different flavor profile, I want it to stay and not become the cheaper sugar that I could have used.

Again, I wouldn't recommend you doing this for your first beer @Hodges but the next time I use honey I'll probably do that since it was disappointing even though I added it straight into the carboy prior to fermentation.