sahuaro

Recipes 

I played around with 4 different Cream ale recipes and came up with this:

2lb8oz Am. 6-row
2lb8oz DME x-lite
1lb flaked maize
8oz honey malt
1lb cane sugar
.5oz n.brewer@60
.25oz goldings@35
.25oz. cascade@15
3 sliced habenero's@30
1tsp Irish Moss

I'm pretty happy with the overall recipe, except the cane sugar. I'm thinking should I use turbinado, honey, belgian candy, or just plain old table.

Any and all thoughts will be appreciated not just on the sugar, but the recipe as a whole. I'm thinking of calling it my "Creamated Ale".

Oldsock

Recipes 

It depends on what you want. If you wanted to brew a "classic" cream ale either sucrose (table sugar or clear belgian candi sugar) or glucose (corn sugar) would be the right choice, they lighten the beer without adding any flavor of their own. In this case though I could see an unrefined sugar or honey complimenting the peppers.

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Check out The Mad Fermentationist for my adventures in fermentation (cheese, bread, ginger beer plant, and of course plenty of funky beer).

thebeerbeat

Recipes 

Honey and habaneros? Do you have a name for this beer? Definitely sounds interesting.

DanielClouser

Recipes 

I would add the peppers at the end of the boil. The fire-y capsaicin will survive the boil, but the subtle fruit that really distinguishes the habanero's flavor from that of its chile brethren is more delicate.

+1 on the honey, though. Which you would also need to add at the end of the boil.

Freezeblade

Recipes 

I'll have to disagree with adding the honey to the boil, as any amount of time in water over 170 or so will kill your delicate honey aromas. Instead, add the honey in at high krausen, about 2-3rd day of fermentation.

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Primary:Russian River Redemption clone, Kelly's Melomel, Graham's English Cider 22-23
Clearing:Apple Wine
Aging:Public House Dry Stout, Procrastination Porter, Mr. Brown Ale, Westvleteren 12 Clone, Mead, Duvel Clone, Graham's English Cider 6-21, Belgian Draak Strong Ale, Fig Melomel, Acerglyn, Restorative Tonic Metheglyn

sahuaro

Recipes 

I love the idea of being able to add the honey at 2-3rd day of fermetation as Freeze suggests, which will allow better retention of honey aromas. But from everything I've read you need to add honey during boil in order to kill any wayward bacteria that may still exist in the honey.

Any ideas on how to do this and still sterilize the honey. I'm using orange blossom honey from local honey farm?

SpaceInvadingMonkeys

Recipes 

Grade A honey doesn't need sterilization. Moisture content in grade A and B honey is too low for anything to actually grow in there. Look in the honey, see any crystals? No, it is fine. :-D
Do you think us mead-makers sterilize our honey? The most I do is heat up water to like ~160F or so adn then add the honey; but I most do it because it makes it so much easier to handle...
Adding honey at the end of your boil or when the wort has cooled down some won't kill off too much honey aroma I think...

Freezeblade

Recipes 

As the previous poster mentioned, nothing can really grow in honey. I make all my meads without heating the honey, and have added honey on the 2nd or 3rd day of fermentation plenty of times without a single ill effect yet. I've even done it with raw, unpasteurized honey, never had any issues.

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Primary:Russian River Redemption clone, Kelly's Melomel, Graham's English Cider 22-23
Clearing:Apple Wine
Aging:Public House Dry Stout, Procrastination Porter, Mr. Brown Ale, Westvleteren 12 Clone, Mead, Duvel Clone, Graham's English Cider 6-21, Belgian Draak Strong Ale, Fig Melomel, Acerglyn, Restorative Tonic Metheglyn

Oldsock

Recipes 

While nothing can grow in honey that certainly does not mean that there isn’t anything alive in it (which is why you are never supposed to feed raw honey to a baby). Raw honey in mead is generally safe because of the extremely high alcohol. I think there is some risk of introducing spoilage microbes when adding raw honey to a beer, that said (much like dry hopping) it is rarely if ever enough to cause a problem.

__________________
Check out The Mad Fermentationist for my adventures in fermentation (cheese, bread, ginger beer plant, and of course plenty of funky beer).

Edcculus

Recipes 

WEll, you could pasteurize. You probably want to dissolve it in water anyway, or it will just sink to the bottom of the fermenter.