Stonewall & Honey Experiement

[daveyk]

Hi all,

This experiment started off following this thread viewtopic.php?t=9731&highlight=walk

I brewed the Stonewall bitter nearly as per the instructions with only the small tweak realting to technique rather than anything else. I forgot to make a note of the starting gravity but I seem to recall 1030... does this sound right?

On day eight of the fermentation process, the head had died down and the gravity was reading 1014... this is where my experiement started.

I drew off 10 liters of the brew into another FV. Due to circumstance I'm now on day 15... The original batch is now reading 1013 (target is 1012) constantly over the last few days.... i plan to bottle this tomorrow.... it is looking fairly clear, should I rouse the yeast slightly to aid secondary priming??

the 10 liters I drew off, had some honey added. i added 230g of honey which was boiled in just enough water to make a solution for about 5 mins.... as i said this was done on day 8 and took the gravity reading from 1014 upto 1021. i've not seen any activity through the airlock but I'm not too worried about this as the bung in the top is perhaps not airtight. I'm now on day 15 and since adding the honey, the gravity has dropped to 1016.... and has been so over the last few days.

My question is.... "is this safe to bottle". I thought it was a little high but it's not dropping... i know the honey will raise the target a little.

There has been no head in this brew since adding the honey.... the top of the surface looks like this.....


The thing i'm finding really strange is that the brew with honey in has a slight fizz.... i thought this was only supposed to happen in a pressured environment.

So anyway I'll stop the drivel now.... but what is everyones opinion.... should this be bottled? or do I wait? or is there some further action I should take?

Dave.[/img]

[daveyk]

1040 would be more like it.

Yes 1040 does rind a bell.

Thanks for the advice Daab... we can always count on you .... looks like I'm busy bottling tomorrow night then.

I'm planning to prime half of each batch with sugar... and half with honey.... this will give me 4 different beers from one kit.... I'll let you all know how they turn out.

Can anybody answer, should the amount of honey be a direct replacement for the amount of sugar??

Dave.

[daveyk]

Thanks Daab, I'll give it a go.

[daveyk]

Wow.... I've never particularly minded the botteling phase of the process but that session last night was a mamoth one.

A little faffy to get the 4 derivatives..... (and more importantly not mix them up), but I now have 4 variations of stonewall bitter conditioning.....

I'll keep you posted how they get on.

Dave

[Martin the fish]

I've only used it once and it gave the beer a great taste but me a great hangover

[daveyk]

Well it's two weeks since I bottle the beer. Just had my first try of one that was fermented as per instructions and primed with honey.... was VERY impressed. I think the flavours will still come a bit more rounded though... watch this space for a full comparison.

Will definately be after another stonewall kit

Dave

[daveyk]

Just to confirm, you split the batch and added honey to one half then primed half of each of the batches with honey ? ie one batch was standard, one was standard and primed with honey, one batch had added honey and primed with sugar and one had added honey and also primed with honey, is that right?

Yes thats exactly right. Thought it was a good way to try differnt flavours and keep the cost, (and risk of wasting lots of beer) down.

In actual fact, i drew off 10 litres of beer, added some honey then primed as you described. I ended up with about 8 bottles of each of the varients and then the majority fermented as standard and primed with sugar.

Dave

[daveyk]

Hi Yall,

SORRY for leaving this update so long.... the reason being it has taken me all the time of drinking the different batches to reach the verdict.

Well what i can say is that in all 4 cases, the results were GREAT... and my best brew yet to date.

1) Standard ferment primed with sugar... a nice drink, as I hoped for with the stonewall kit.

2) Standard ferment primed with Honey... I think my favourite of all the batches. the honey just sweetend the brew slightly. REALLY good, hope to do the whole batch this way again.

3) Honey added to the fermenter and primed with honey. in taste very similar to no 2. With both of the brews that had honey added, the beer is very active and difficult to pour without a huge head... wnoder if it was not completely fermented out.

4) Honey added to the fermenter AND primed with honey. Still very drinkable but just a tad overdone. quite sweet, more a beer for desert rather than WITH the steak. HUGE head!

Well that was my findings.... interesting experiment. the honey flavours have deffinately mellowed during conditioning so don't rush it if you intered to try.

I did have a bottle of waggle dance the other day... might try a lighter ale with some honey and see how that turns out.

STONEWALL was great no matter how you brew it.... very pleased and WILL do again.

Dave.