Gambrinus honey malt?

BrewSwag 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
J

jamesdawsey

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2012
Messages
45
Reaction score
5
Location
Atlanta
So I'm interested in the usefulness of Gambrinus honey malt. Is this kind of like chocolate malt, where you only need 1%-5% for a significant flavor contribution? I'm not concerned about the color, and honey itself is expensive.

Does this stuff actually taste like honey?

Would it be a fair substitute for actual honey in an IPA or a porter?


Sidenote: I just brewed a light pale ale, and without knowing how to use the stuff I threw in 2 oz. in a 9lb. 2 oz. malt bill for the hell of it. 1/3 oz. nelson sauvin every 30 min. of a 60 min. boil. I don't think this is a fair test for honey malt though, and I can't find any truly helpful advice on the interweb so far. Any suggestions?

Much appreciated!:D
 
Honey malt actually lends a honey flavor to a beer, whereas honey nearly completely ferments out resulting in a drier beer while leaving behind just trace flavor notes. I've only used it once in an American Pale Ale where the hops hid the flavors, but the beer tasted great.
 
jamesdawsey said:
So I'm interested in the usefulness of Gambrinus honey malt. Is this kind of like chocolate malt, where you only need 1%-5% for a significant flavor contribution? I'm not concerned about the color, and honey itself is expensive.

Does this stuff actually taste like honey?

Would it be a fair substitute for actual honey in an IPA or a porter?


Sidenote: I just brewed a light pale ale, and without knowing how to use the stuff I threw in 2 oz. in a 9lb. 2 oz. malt bill for the hell of it. 1/3 oz. nelson sauvin every 30 min. of a 60 min. boil. I don't think this is a fair test for honey malt though, and I can't find any truly helpful advice on the interweb so far. Any suggestions?

Much appreciated!:D
Click to expand...

uh, let's see- Yes. Yes. Maybe.

:D

It has a distinct honey flavor, but it's not overpowering at least in smaller amounts.

Honey itself ferments out, and leaves only a dry flavor with a hint of honey behind, so for IPAs I like actual honey (since I don't like sweet IPAs) but for all other beers that I want a honey flavor in I use a little bit of honey malt.

I hope that helps!
 
I've never been impressed with honey malt...I got a little over a pound left that I doubt I will ever use. I prefer to bottle with honey...I only want a light hint of the flavor/aroma and that works fine for me
 
Like others have said, honey itself ferments out and leaves a touch of honey flavor behind.

I love honey malt and find it adds a very nice honey sweetness and complexity to a brew. I limit my addition to .5lb/5 gallon batch, unless the goal is something maltier where I want sweetness over hops.

Have Calichusetts send his/hers to you. Doesn't sound like it will be used there. ;)
 
Brewed up B3's American Brown Ale kit not too long ago that used some, can't remember the amount now, but it came through in the beer and although I normally don't like sweet beers, it really worked in this kit. Easily one of my favorite extract brews ever. The honey malt had a lot to do with it I think.
 
I did a honey ale (pale ale) with 12.5% honey malt in the recipe. It's not over-powering by any stretch, but you do have a nice residual sweetness in the recipe. OG was 1.062, FG 1.015 (estimated was 1.014). My IBU/SG ratio was .357, so balanced where I wanted it. I also hop burst the batch, which made it even better. The recipe hasn't been posted yet, but I might toss it up.
 
I always wondered if it would work well in a bier de garde since most of the top ones indigineously do have this distinct honey sweetness to them, especially Jenlain ambree and printemps . . .gooooooood stuff!
 
drkaeppel said:
I used a full pound of Honey Malt in an Outer Limits IPA

One of the best IPAs i have brewed and the Honey Malt was very pleasant.
Click to expand...

@drkaeppel: how large was the whole grain bill that this went in? My honey pale ale finally completed and 2 oz. in a 9 lb. bill ended up with a rich honey flavor and aroma. It's delicious, but I wonder if 10% honey malt might be a bit much. What do you think?
 
My entire grain bill was 14.75lb, so 1lb = 6.7% honey malt.

I've never tried a recipe with 10% honey malt. I imagine it would be a pretty dominant flavor, but with enough hops to balance it out, it may actually turn out nicely.
 
My honey ale was made with the hop burst method (all hops from 15 minutes from the end, forward). With a total of 5.50oz of hops, the flavors balance out very well. It probably would have been very different if I did a more traditional hop additions, but I wanted more hop flavor/aroma in the batch without it being overly bitter too.
 
If you are going for a honey pale ale add a few pounds of it to your grain bill. I agree that it tastes more like honey than actual additive of honey. Add 7.5 pounds of 2 ROW 1-2 pounds of honey malt and .5lbs of cara-pils and 1-1.5 oz of cluster ...maybe some maize and oats and you got a fantastic summer ale !!!! try and keep the OG under 1.045 or else it gets a little boozy
 
My honey ale is over 15% honey malt to the grist. Otherwise it's just UK 2 row malt. Hop bursting method for that part (20 minutes from the end forward). Batch coming up uses 7oz of hops, due to lower AA% levels on the main hop used.

I won't add maize to my brews. Have yet to find any that would actually benefit from such an addition. IF/when I brew a stout, I'll probably add flaked barely to it.

BTW, the majority of my brews are over 6% ABV. My 8.8% mocha porter has a little after-effect on it. But they're all smooth and clean.
 
I've used Gambrinus Honey malt in an Ale (1lbs) in a 12 lbs recipe and have had exactly the results I wanted. Its a good beer malt and added what I was trying to achieve plus 1.5 pounds of Raw Honey
 

Similar threads

tderanleau
Modelo especial clone
Replies
4
Views
2K
tderanleau
tderanleau
G
Kolsch recipe - need help
Replies
31
Views
2K
superiorsat
S
Dovage
AI Recipe
Replies
5
Views
799
Brooothru
Brooothru
W
English Bitter - Partial Mash - finally got back into brewing
Replies
1
Views
508
mbauer013
M
parks1031
Brown Ale Recipe Scaled Down
Replies
17
Views
1K
IslandLizard
IslandLizard

Latest posts

Back
Top