Honey Noble

Well, like I said in another thread I have a TON of hops since I was given a bunch of Saaz and Hallertau from a friend. I also have a mismatch of fermentables laying around since I bought for a batch and then decided to make Graff (which is coming along nicely I might add).

So, here is my kitchen sink IPA I am brewing right now. I'll call it the "Honey Noble".

This recipe is for a 5 gallon batch, 3 gallon boil:
6lb Brown Rice Syrup @ 60
1lb D-45 Candi Syrup @ 60
2lb caramelized honey @ flameout (I used the instructions from post #7 here. I think I could have gone quite a bit longer than 2 minutes. I didn't get much caramelization.)
2.5lbs of Sorghum @ flameout

Here's the hop schedule:
1oz Centennial @ 60 (I know, not noble. However, it is a high AA style, and I'm just using it for bittering)
1oz Hallertau @ 20
1oz Saaz @ 20
1oz Hallertau @ 7
1oz Saaz @ 7
1oz Saaz @ 5
1oz Saaz @ 1
1oz Saaz dry hopped

Also, the usual yeast nutrient, irish moss, 4oz maltodextrin and a packet of S-04 yeast.

OG 1.072 and with the S-04 it calculates out to 7.5% ABV. IBU's are 80. The calculated SRM is 5, but I'm guessing it will be darker.

I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Here is a link to the calculator where you can get the beer.xml file if you like: http://brewology101.com/AleAbacus/5639/Honey-Noble#

Racking to secondary now. FG 1.012.

What a hoppy mess! There were 2 to 3 inches of whole hops covering the top of the bucket, lol.

w00t!

I bottled this last night after two weeks of dry hopping with Saaz and it was so good that I was more than happy to drink it warm and flat.

I thought of igliashon's post about GF beer marketing when doing so. All of my sorghum beers have had a residual sweetness that I was not a big fan of, but it works in this one if only because of the label "Honey Noble" I put on it. I am fairly certain the sweetness is from the sorghum because I got very little caramelization from the honey and used S-04 yeast which usually attenuates pretty high (FG was 1.012), but with honey in mind the sweetness is almost expected.

Anyway, I can't wait to try this one cold and carbed. I am fairly sure I'll be brewing it again. However, I will not be doing it again with whole leaf hops. What a PAIN they are to work with and that's on top of the reduced yield and low utilization.

Trust me dude, it's the honey giving the sweetness. I didn't realize what honey contributed to my brews until I left it out of a few recipes and they came out super-dry. At 2 lbs in a 5-gallon recipe, that's a significant amount; in my 3-gallon recipes I don't usually use more than 8 to 12 oz unless I want the sweetness to be more pronounced, or if I'm brewing a low-gravity beer. Honey will ferment out dry in a lower-gravity beer, but with an OG of 1.072 it's almost definite that the residual sweetness comes from the honey, especially with the S-04 (which, IIRC, is not known for its high alcohol tolerance).

Ahhh, the grasshopper sees well.

I had not considered the ability of S-04 to handle higher gravities.

Well, awesome then! My beer is sweet BECAUSE of the honey!

Thanks for your feedback igliashon.

How bitter is this at 80ibu? Does it have significant enough body to balance the ibu? My wife is not a big fan of the hoppy beers, but i kind of want to find her one that has plenty of hop smell/flavor but isnt too bitter...

Well, I guess I can't really say until I let it carb up, but I thought it balanced nicely but was certainly on the hoppy side. Which I enjoy, others might not.

I think you could go to the low end of the IPA range for this beer and be happy too.

Update time!



We have success! This beer has a nice, subtle sweetness that allows the honey to come through perfectly.

The bitterness is no where near 80 IBU's, and I am glad for that. I attribute the lower IBU's to lower utilization due to using whole hops and that the hops were kind of old. They were also organic hops so that could have contributed to lower utilization as well.

I would put the IBU's more around 60 which I think is about perfect for this beer. More importantly, my wife (a hop hater) actually likes it. What that confirms for me is that the hop profile is balanced.

I dry hopped this one too, and it does have a nice aroma. I actually dry hopped it a little too long (2.5 weeks) and between that and the sheer MASS of whole hops I used there is a hint of grassiness as the beer warms in the glass. MENTAL NOTE: Either drink faster or let this age a while longer. Guess which one I'll choose? :cross:

The only critical critique I can make is that it's still a little light on body, but that is the way of GF beers.

I WILL brew this again, but next time I will:

#1. Use pellets.
#2. Use some specialty grains to hopefully add some body and some more complexity to the flavor.

In the end, this is the best GF beer I have made to date which is funny because it was just a "kitchen sink" ale made from some stuff I had laying around.

P.S. I just looked over my grain bill for this and when I do brew this recipe again (and I will) I think I will just leave out the candi syrup and use a whole 3.3lb jar of sorghum syrup.

What do you guys think about specialty grains for this? I am eager to play around with roasting some oats.