Investigating formulation of honey beverages (honey beer and liqueur)

Beverages containing alcohol are fermented from the sugars in fruits, berries, grains, and such other ingredients as plant saps, tubers, honey, and milk and may be distilled to reduce the original watery liquid to a liquid of much greater alcoholic strength. Fermented honey drinks may have been the earliest alcoholic beverages known to man. The aim of this work was to contribute to filling the gap of low brewing technology knowledge and scientific knowledge for an innovative application of honey in the beer and liquors industry. In this study honey beverages were formulated using different amount of honey with spices, yeast, hop, fruit, alcohol with different alcohol contents, herbs like cinnamon, clove, ginger, vanilla, fruits and maize and finger millet grain ingredients. Quality assessment of the products were assessed concerning physicochemical analysis, microbiological analysis, sensory evaluation of the formulations, estimation of shelf-life and cost and yield of the products to characterize the honey beverages three different liquors and nine beer beverages produced from honey and other different ingredients. The pH, total acidity, total soluble solid and ethyl acohol contents of the formulated honey beverages were range from 3.8±0.03 to 6.1±0.010, 1.63±0.06 to 21.0±1.63, 21.30±0.56 to 36.87±0.50 and 4.81±0.17 % to 44.10±0.50 %, respectively. Liquors and beers can be formulated from honey and other ingredients to involve unemployed young as entrepreneurs to increase their income. Keywords: Honey Beverages; Honey Beer; Honey Liquor; Sensory; Physicochemical; Microbiological properties