a little help on a honey porter

Hey everyone,

At the last meeting someone from the brew group asked me about what I would do for a honey porter (especially, how much honey). I told him it is more or less not a very feasible beer as the amount on honey you would have to add to get any honey flavor would be at least 5lbs.

Would you guys agree? If not, how much honey do you think would be able to get a reasonable honey flavor out of a lets say generic porter recipe?

Don't agree at all...

For one thing, are they talking about using honey for flavor, or more for fermenting sugars, and a bit of flavor? If just sugars, a single pound will make it a honey porter. If you add honey post primary fermentation, you'll get more character from it in the end product. Just be sure to pick a honey that has some character/depth to it. Clover honey wouldn't be my choice, but wildflower has enough flavor to come through.

I used about 3# in my first honey porter batch. Enough came through in the final product. I'm talking about a 5 gallon batch size too. Of course, I also primed with honey.

If you want more honey flavor, and are brewing at least partial mash, you could just add some honey malt to augment the honey character of the brew. I would still use a strong flavored honey in the batch, but you could do that after primary and in the priming solution...

I have a few batches that are in process where I used honey malt instead of honey. I want to see, for myself, what you get from that. From what I understand, it will be more generic honey flavors/characteristics. To get honey type specific flavors, you'll need to use the actual honey in the brew.

Personally, I would have told the member to start with 1#, and taste the batch when primary fermentation has ended. If he wants more, at that point, add another pound, or two. Keep adding honey until it has enough flavor to get what he was looking for. There are too many variables to have a blanket amount for where you'll get the desired flavor amount from honey. I think it's more unique to the honey harvest, brew it's going into, and the tastes of the brewer. What I consider good, you might consider either too little, or too much.

gotcha. I was just thinking that honey would have a very difficult time standing up to the dark grains of a porter. I did forget about honey malt when we were discussing the idea. I will get back in touch with him and let him know.

When you did your first batch with 3lbs, was that into the boil or post primary?

I didn't know any better at the time, so I put 2# in the boil, plus one once primary fermentation had slowed down. Next time I brew the batch, I plan on using 5-10% honey malt, and also using actual honey once primary has slowed.

I do think that you need to be careful of what grains you select in the batch too.

BTW, the honey porter was my very first home brew batch. The things I've learned since then is amazing.

I do plan on brewing an all grain honey porter in late summer, so that it's ready before too far into fall.

Gotcha. I will pass along your wisdom Thanks