Adjunct to my recipe

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.

DanS

Member
Joined
Apr 9, 2007
Messages
24
Reaction score
0
Location
Pennsylvania
I just purchased an american cream ale kit from the local brewshop and I thought either honey or maple syrup would be delicious with this style of beer. I was wondering if this is a good idea with this style, and if so, how much of one or the other should I put in, when does it go in during the brew process. The batch is 5 gallons, with a two gallon boil, no grains just dry malt extract, liquid malt extract, and hallertau hops (i bought an extra bag to make it more hoppy) any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks
 
Honey or maple will work, however real maple is a little pricier. Don't expect too much because honey and maple are over 90% fermentable. There will be a hint of flavor in the beer, but I'm sure it will taste good.
 
4-8 oz of maple syrup added when you rack from the primary will work quite well in 5 gallons, though it's quite out of style in a cream ale, and I'm not convinced that it will help the brew, especially if you're overhopping it.

Pure honey rarely adds more than just a hint of flavor, as it ferments out very completely. A pound or less is fine in a 5 gallon batch, but the beer will likely be quite dry without much real honey flavor. For that, you need honey malt, and that's a different discussion.
 
I added two pounds of honey to the beer I am drinking now, and it is not that good. I experiment a lot. The same beer made a few months ago was better with only one pound of honey.
 
I posted that real quick, cuz my sister-in-law wanted to use the 'puter.

Anyway, it was just a basic recipe.... 6 pounds liqht LME, a pound of crystal and some cascade hops. The first batch I made, I added a pound of honey. I had never had a dry beer before! It was real good!

Okay, if one pound was real good what would two pounds taste like? I think alcholol derived from grains tastes a lot better than what I made with two pounds of honey. This has a real high ABV but it doesn't taste that good.
 
Let it sit, if it's still young the honey flavors will be kind of harsh. The same way you have to let a mead age you'll have to let a honey beer age. I made a recipe with 3 lbs dme and 3 lbs honey a little while ago, and when I was racking it tasted like ass, but when a few more weeks had passed it developed into a very nice beer. Extreamly dry, but it was the hit of the party.

mike
 
Alright, so what you guys are saying is add the honey when i put my beer into the secondary? And if honey/maple will only give it a hint of flavor any ideas on fruits or anything else to give it flavor, the problem is I want my girlfriend to drink beer but she for some reason thinks "regular" beer is gross :( . I want to make a beer that she will drink in hopes that it will lead her to drinking the good stuff. Maybe vanilla, strawberry????
 
I can't believe I'm saying this, but...fruit the beer.

Maple and, in particular, honey don't add a whole lot of flavor to beer, regardless of when you add them. Some of the delicate maple flavor will be preserved if you avoid boiling it. The honey will almost never add much flavor, no matter how you try and include it.

Add a pound or two of frozen and thawed rasperries, strawberries, peaches, blueberries, cherries, etc, etc, etc to the secondary. Fruit usually adds chick-appeal.
 
I wouldn't fruit the beer if you're intent on over-hopping it. The hops will bury whatever else you put into it - maple, honey, fruit, whatever. If you just want the honey because it makes the beer dry, add 10% or so corn sugar to the recipe. That's not enough to cause the dreaded "cidery" off-flavors, but enough to make it a bit drier without costing nearly as much as honey would.

If you really want dry and hoppy, look into IPA kits/recipes.
 
Ok, I'm going to throw out some generalizations. These are certainly not 100% true, and there are exceptions (no offense Yooper).

Hops are like chick deflectors. The hoppier the beer, the more most chicks will say, ew!

Dry beer is also not chick-friendly.

If you want hop flavor and bitterness, use plenty of hops. Skip the other adjuncts - the strong hops will cover up anything subtle.

On the contrary, if you want adjunct flavor, go easy on the hops. A single bittering addition and maybe a slight finishing addition will be plenty.

If you want sweet beer, don't add more sugar (i.e., honey, maple syrup, corn sugar, corn syrup, molasses, etc, etc).
 
I missed the part about the chick-appeal.

You could go the chocolate route. Start with a sweet brown ale, or maybe a porter, add some chocolate and some lactose to sweeten it up.

Or, look for Cheesefood's Caramel Cream Ale recipe. It's not a real cream ale (a real cream ale is designed mostly as an alternative to a light lager), but it's the kind of recipe that is, shall we say, lady-friendly....
 
Okay, I think for this beer, I'll tone down slightly on the hops, and add frozen fruit to the secondary like advised, how much should I add to a five gallon batch?? and wont the fruit go bad/rotten inside the secondary if it sits there for a few weeks?
 
I've never made a fruit beer, so I don't have any good advice for the amount. I recommend searching out some recipes that look good to you. I do know that freezing and thawing the fruit will burst many of the cells, making it easier to get the goodness from the fruit to the beer. The fruit won't rot in the beer - the hops, alcohol, and yeast will stave off anything nasty.
 
If you do put fruit in it, use a blow off hose. I have seen pic's of blown lids and fruit everywhere!
 
If you use maple syrup, dont waste your money on fancy. Nice thick Grade B dark pancake syrup works good. It has more maple taste than a fancy syrup. Also, priming with maple syrup helps add some flavor.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top