[colinhayes]

You know what's an incredibly difficult style to research? Biere de Miel!

You know a style that you can't find a single recipe online for? Biere de Miel!

You know what beer I kinda feel like brewing after a... uh... 7-8 month hiatus? Biere de Miel!

Anybody got any advice on this style? I was thinking of doing a regular saison with 10-15% honey added at flameout, but I seriously can't find much of anything on the style at all, it's not even defined in the BJCP. Any advice on the type of honey to use would be appreciated too, I've never used any in my years of brewing.

[reverseapachemaster]

It's not really a style by itself as much as it is just saison or a similar beer with honey.

10-20% is a good amount. Honey ferments out dry so you want to find the right balance between flavor and not drying the beer out excessively. You might like higher but in my experience you're not getting a lot out of less than 10%.

Any honey works but I'd opt for something that will add an interesting flavor to the beer. You might be able to find local honey that is raw with more flavor than the generic squeeze bottle honey. Orange blossom honey is a fairly popular brewing variety but no reason why you can't try others.

[colinhayes]

Thanks, I think I'm going to shoot for 20%. Someone recommended adding the honey after high krausen, which seems like a good idea to help not drive off the aroma molecules.

[dmtaylor]

I never heard of the style until now.  Sounds almost like a braggot but maybe not quite.  Regardless, I do make other honey beers and find that a lot is needed if you want to taste it.  So I'd definitely go high on the percentage of honey, like 20% or even 30%, if you want to guarantee that you'll be able to taste it.

Wildflower honey is probably best for the most robust flavor, however the character of wildflower honeys varies broadly because "wildflower" can of course mean anything and depends on the flower sources where it is made.  The most wonderful honey anywhere is tupelo, but it is expensive, and might get lost under the 70-80% beer ingredients.  It wouldn't be wrong to just use plain clover honey either, but it has a very mild flavor that again could get lost under the beer.  So something with more robust flavors like "wildflower" is indeed probably best, as well as being the most traditional probably anyway.

I would add mine at flameout, just because that's so easy to do.  However, you can also add near the end of primary, or even might want to consider making a mead on the side, then blending to taste after both the beer and mead halves are fully fermented.  This latter option might even be the best way to go, if you want the most control over the finished product.  Then once they are blended, don't bottle or keg right away but give the blend a chance to mellow and complete fermentation if it wants to.

[Stevie]

I have a sour beer on the schedule that I was only brewing five gallons. I think I might double up and hit half with a ton of honey. Thanks for the ideas

[Nathan]

I have a sour beer on the schedule that I was only brewing five gallons. I think I might double up and hit half with a ton of honey. Thanks for the ideas

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[Nathan]

I’ve had good luck adding honey to many styles I’ve used it instead of candy sugar in a Dubbel, in fruit beers including a dark ale made with lots of apples and honey added to secondary 20 % is a good goal   One caution is IME honey is slow and unreliable for priming bottle


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