Real honey vs honey malt

Would imagine that honey malt would be much easier to use in my heheweizen than real honey, but will I get the same flavor?

Yes...honey malt is easier. Real honey is difficult to have come through in certain situations and will many styles

Just use the honey malt sparingly. It is ultra sweet and not fermentable, it can be overpowering. I use it in a blonde ale and a half pound is plenty in a 5 gallon batch in my recipe. But give it a shot and see if you like it.

I have not used the honey malt but it is difficult to get the flavor from the real honey as it is highly fermentable and the aroma is fairly volatile. Check around the site for various methods to achieve the desired results.

I agree. If you want honey flavor, use Honey malt, usually 1/2 lb per 5G batch. 1 lb absolute max, and only if you really like a sweet honey flavor. Honey malt is usually mashed with a base malt, although you can steep it and get some of the honey flavor out.
'Real honey' ferments almost completely, drying out your batch similar to an equivalent amount of table sugar. 1lb. usually adds 8 points to the OG in a 5G batch. If you want honey flavor from 'real honey', you need to add it late in fermentation, or even at bottling time.

I've used honey malt twice recently. The first was in an amber ale; used half a pound of honey malt plus I added a pound of raw honey at flame out. The beer had a sweet finish but not overpowering. The other was in a honey porter. I used a pound of honey malt and primed the keg with 4.5 oz of real honey and there is hardly any honey sweetness to it at all. However, I think part of the problem was that I thought I was using EKG hops at 5% but it was actually 7.2%. The hop bitterness was a little more than I had planned for. Since I'm rambling on…the local brew pub (Dragonmead) makes a honey porter that has a very pronounced honey finish. They say they add their honey at 10 minutes left in the boil. They didn't say how much they use though. I hope this helps.

McAle said:

I've used honey malt twice recently. The first was in an amber ale; used half a pound of honey malt plus I added a pound of raw honey at flame out. The beer had a sweet finish but not overpowering. The other was in a honey porter. I used a pound of honey malt and primed the keg with 4.5 oz of real honey and there is hardly any honey sweetness to it at all. However, I think part of the problem was that I thought I was using EKG hops at 5% but it was actually 7.2%. The hop bitterness was a little more than I had planned for. Since I'm rambling on…the local brew pub (Dragonmead) makes a honey porter that has a very pronounced honey finish. They say they add their honey at 10 minutes left in the boil. They didn't say how much they use though. I hope this helps.

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Priming with honey only really comes through in very light beers, like a pale wheat. A porter will cover it up everytime. At least this is what I have found.

I have a brew budddy that also uses honey. Says the honey flavor will often come up after prolonged aging. Nort sure if the honey flavor is developing, or the hops are fading.

Thanks for the feedback!!

william_shakes_beer said:

I have a brew budddy that also uses honey. Says the honey flavor will often come up after prolonged aging. Nort sure if the honey flavor is developing, or the hops are fading.

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This is why I'm reluctant to try something like the White House Honey Porter. All it does is lighten the body of the beer, and with honey being so expensive, why not just use a cheap white sugar.

I've never been able to recreate it, but I get honey flavors from some German lagers that are "pure" and I've heard that is a character of all German malts. I'm not an expert, so don't quote me on it, maybe just look into that.

I brewed my fist Pils (and first true lager) a month ago, and I'm excited to see if honey comes through at all. wont be for a few months though

Calichusetts said:

Priming with honey only really comes through in very light beers, like a pale wheat. A porter will cover it up everytime. At least this is what I have found.

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I meant to quote you on that last post

I make a honey Kolsch that has a distinct honey flavor and a little sweetness. I use 2 pounds per 5 gallon though. The honey i use is not pasteurized. I add all of my honey at flameout and i would think that adding honey to secondary would be even better.

I have done some experimentation with honey and honey malt. I made a lightly hopped (IBU 20) base wort with 2-row 85%, 10% white wheat and 5% carahell (SG 1.052). I split the batch into 4x4 gal. Then I did the following additions:
Carboy 1 : Control - No addition
Carboy 2 : 0.5 gal, 1.050 SG, wild flower honey
Carboy 3 : 0.5 gal, 1.050 SG, orange blossom honey
Carboy 4 : 0.5 gal, 1.050 SG, honey malt

Compared to carboy 1
Carboy 2 - Earthy and complex notes. More dry and a little thinner than control that finished with a subtle earthy honey flavor.
Carboy 3 - Orange zest/citrus notes. More dry and a little thinner than control that finished with a subtle orange flavor.
Carboy 4 - No difference in smell. Sweeter but the body was the same.

All in all I prefer addition of honey. Both beers with real honey were much better than the honey malt addition.

skydvr74 said:

I have done some experimentation with honey and honey malt. I made a lightly hopped (IBU 20) base wort with 2-row 85%, 10% white wheat and 5% carahell (SG 1.052). I split the batch into 4x4 gal. Then I did the following additions:
Carboy 1 : Control - No addition
Carboy 2 : 0.5 gal, 1.050 SG, wild flower honey
Carboy 3 : 0.5 gal, 1.050 SG, orange blossom honey
Carboy 4 : 0.5 gal, 1.050 SG, honey malt

Compared to carboy 1
Carboy 2 - Earthy and complex notes. More dry and a little thinner than control that finished with a subtle earthy honey flavor.
Carboy 3 - Orange zest/citrus notes. More dry and a little thinner than control that finished with a subtle orange flavor.
Carboy 4 - No difference in smell. Sweeter but the body was the same.

All in all I prefer addition of honey. Both beers with real honey were much better than the honey malt addition.

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How did you add the honey malt in your experiment? Did you put honey malt directly into the carboy? I've never heard of doing that, I've always mashed honey malt.

The honey flavor is subtle when using 100% honey (mead)...so it takes a pretty mellow beer for it to come through when using 10-20%.

Honey malt doesn't taste much like honey to me, more like a grainy sweetness. You'll notice 4oz in a lighter beer for sure.

I did a mini-mash with honey malt and a little 6-row. Mashed at 154 until conversion was done by iodine test and then diluted with water until I got 0.5 gal with a SG of 1.050.

I've never used real honey in a beer yet, but I have made many gallons of mead. I can say for sure that in the mead, the honey flavor is almost non existent for a bit of time. After a bit of time, depending on variables, the honey flavor comes back quite pronounced.

Calichusetts said:

Priming with honey only really comes through in very light beers, like a pale wheat. A porter will cover it up everytime. At least this is what I have found.

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First time I ever primed with honey. Just wanted to try it. You're though. No honey flavor but it carbonated nicely.

I just kegged a honey amber I've made a few times. I use a lb of honey malt and 2 lbs of honey. The first 5 gallons doesn't have much of a honey flavor, but after a few months the honey flavor really comes out. One of my favorite beers to brew and it usually disappears quickly.

emprbasist said:

Just use the honey malt sparingly. It is ultra sweet and not fermentable, it can be overpowering. I use it in a blonde ale and a half pound is plenty in a 5 gallon batch in my recipe. But give it a shot and see if you like it.

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It IS fermentable and even contains enzymes though not many. IMHO is dies not impart honey flavor. More like a strange concentrated munich (on crack) flavor. Perhaps if it was mashed at a high temp like 158 it might as the raw grains do have a slight honey flavor to them. I use honey malt a lot and I hate honey in beers. I recently did an experimental beer with just under a third honey malt and no one has noticed a honey taste. I also use 250 grams in a 40 liter batch of pilsner.

Another point to note is that honey ferments hard, a lot like corn sugar. In this quick fermentation a lot of unintended compound will be produced that will take longer for the yeast to cycle back out. I have used both and honey malt is a much better tool to produce honey flavor.

I've been experimenting with the malt. First batch I was unable to detect 4oz(1.5%) in an otherwise SMaSH IPA w/ american 2 row.

Next brew I upped to 2.6%, but it's in a black IPA that is in the early stages carbonating as I type this. That one will be too heavy and complex for it to shine through, I'm thinking. We'll see, I threw it in because I had it .. not too concerned about the results for this one.

I want to try to layer it with crystal 40 in my next brew (APA), but I think I'll wait since I'm brewing this APA three consecutive times.

First batch is 5% C40, 2nd can be 3.5/1.5 C40 and honey malt(respectively). Perhaps the lower gravity and bitterness in the APA will allow it to shine through? We'll see!

I'll figure how much I like eventually, fun stuff. Can't even say I'm disappointed that I have to mess with this, because every beer has been pretty great otherwise (I'm new to this).