I made the extract Rebel Rye and have had sitting in primary for 1.5 months. Soaked the oak chips in a generous amount of Honey Jack Daniels. I poured about 20oz and the oak chips in and it smelled much more like hard liquor than expected, plus very earthy. on a whim i poured in 1lb of local honey to, in my mind, take the bite off the alcohol. I’m wondering what this will do in terms of fermentation. I’m assuming it will reactivate the yeast and kick up the abv a little bit. Anyone know if the honey flavor will be dissipated after consumed by yeast? I plan to leave it in secondary for about another month.
It will dry the beer out a bit (although the amount of rye already does that). In a lighter beer, I’d expect to get a good amount of honey flavor but I’m not sure how much it will come through with such strong flavors in this beer. I’d say the biggest affect it will have is make it an even stronger beer.
Ya, it’s gonna be a strong beer for sure. I am still hoping for the honey flavor up front. I may consider adding a little more honey right before kegging. I will keep it in the kegerator cold, so the honey doesn’t ferment out. Hope that will take a little of the bite off.
What kind of honey was it?
i used a local honey. very light in color and not over the top sweet.
I’d be very interested to see how that turns out. The JD honey is certainly not a rye whiskey. I used JD rye, but now I wish I had tried your idea for half the batch.
Well, I just kegged it today…SUPER DRY with just a hint of honey! Also, the Jack Daniels smell is coming through along with the earthiness of the hops. Would definitely recommend this to all who are planning on making this kit!
