Timing the honey addition

[peas_and_corn]

I'm thinking of making a honey wheat beer, and am considering when the best time to add the honey is. Traditionally it's during the boil, but you lose a lot of aromatics that way. I could add the honey a couple of minutes before flameout but that will only really reduce this problem. There is also the fermentation difficulties that can arise when yeast is in an environment with a lot of simple sugars. So has anyone tried adding the honey at high krausen? I was thinking about a day into the ferment of taking off a couple of litres of wort (50L batch), simmering it on the stove and dissolving the honey. After cooling the wort/honey mixture I will add it to the fermenting wort to reduce the aromatic loss (as CO2 scrubbing will still be an issue) and to essentially add simple sugars once the yeast has chewed through some of the maltose already.

Thoughts?

[j1m1]

When you finish the boil or just as you start chilling if you are using an immersion chiller. Maintains most of the aromatics while sanitising the honey.
At least that's what I do for my honey mild.....

[Ozwald]

FYI, you don't need to sanitize honey. I would suggest doing multiple small batches & seeing what you like best. You could split a batch into a few 1 gallon jugs & add the honey at pitching, partway through the ferment, small additions through the ferment, etc. You could also do a small batch with a flame out addition. You could also try using honey malt & no actual honey. There's plenty of 'right' ways to do it & personal preference plays a big part as well. Trying several methods out also is a great excuse to brew more & an even better learning experience.

[Effingbeer]

+1 on the honey malt. Love that stuff. With real honey, I usually go with adding to primary when it starts to slow down. Diluted with some boiled and cooled water so you can pour it in and mix it up easily. Just enough water to make it runny.
Back in the day when I bottled, I used honey instead of corn sugar for bottle carbing. Seems to keep the honey flavor in there pretty good with the cap on.