Honey Lager

Hi there,

I am keen to make a honey lager (23 litres).

I was thinking of using just a standard lager kit, 1kg of pasturised clove honey and also maltodextrin and lactose (maybe 150g of each?) instead of the standard 1kg of dextrose.

Any suggestions/tips?

Also, should I do a secondary fermentation?

Cheers

Are you able to mash grains? I've found that using 1-2# honey malt will lend more honey flavor to the finished beer. Using honey in the boil tends to cause a lot of the volatile compounds to evaporate, loosing much of the honey flavor. If you're deadset on using honey, make sure to add it at the very end of your boil to minimize your flavor loss.

No unfortunately my homebrewing skills are not yet that well developed. I'm just going to buy a standard kit from my local brewing store - the non boiling kind

Oh, well then by all means go ahead and use the honey. Making a kit into your own recipe can be very rewarding. You might want to give a little extra time in your fermentor, as honey can sometimes take the yeasties a little bit longer to fully chew up than regular sugar

You could still use honey malt and just steep the grains. All you have to do is heat a gallon of the water to 155 degrees F, put the grain in one of the bags and let it sit in the hot water for 30 minutes.

The honey malt can (somewhat) self-convert. Regardless, you'd get some of the goodness out of it anyway. I agree with NyPD; honey malt will do more of a sweet honey flavor than the actual honey.

If you're really set on the actual honey, warm about 1/2 gallon of water to ~ 180 degrees F, add the honey and allow it to sit for about 30 minutes. That'll pasteurize the honey without boiling it and give you the most honey flavor.

Ok sweet, might give it a try.

So once i've boiled the grains, just chuck the mixture into my fermenter and brew as normal? And would you recommend using lactose and/or maltodextrin and maybe even a bit of honey as a substitute for some of the dextrose? I've heard you can get a sweeter flavour by using them?

You don't want to boil the grains, you just want to steep them then remove them from the water. This will impart color and flavor. Steep the grains in a grain bag for 30 minutes in your brewing water. Then bring your water to a boil, then add your extract, then continue boiling adding your hops as you desire, then chill, then put in fermenter and top up with boiled and cooled water, then take your OG reading, then pitch yeast, then wait 4 weeks, then lager for a few weeks or months, then bottle, then send me a sixer.

Haha yeah if you want to pay for international shipping!!

I'm all the way down in NZ

NZ doesn't mean "New Zyork"? Damn.