Honey Pale Ale

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mloster

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Ok. So here's my lastest GF, and sorghum free, beer. This is for a 2.5 gallon batch.
Grains/ Fermentables
4 lbs Brown Rice LME
2 lbs Quinoa, Roasted 40 Lovibond
2 lbs Buckwheat
13.5 oz Raw Buckwheat Honey (added at flameout)
Hops
.5 oz Northern Brewer @ 60 min
.4 oz Cascade @ 10 min
.5 oz Kent Goldings @ 10 min
.6 Cascade @ flameout
Yeast
1 packet S-04
Other
1 Whirlfloc Tablet @ 10 min

The OG was 1.060, and the FG dropped further than i thought to 1.010, making it 6.8% ABV. The original wort sample was overpoweringly bitter. The hop schedule was a bit random and mostly composed of what I had laying around. After carbonating, chilling, and tasting, I can say that much buckwheat honey in a 2.5 gallon batch is WAAAAAY overpowering. It doesn't taste all that alcoholic or hoppy for the matter. It's basically a buckwheat honey beer, but not it a bad way. I cut the honey in half if I was to do the recipe again.

P1000187.jpg
 
After carbonating, chilling, and tasting, I can say that much buckwheat honey in a 2.5 gallon batch is WAAAAAY overpowering. It doesn't taste all that alcoholic or hoppy for the matter. It's basically a buckwheat honey beer, but not it a bad way. I cut the honey in half if I was to do the recipe again.

That's been my experience as well. Honey can be really overpowering, especially if it's added right at the end of the boil. It really boggles my mind how that works; some recipes I used honey as around 1/6th of the "grain bill", and it came out being the only thing I could taste, even with aggressive quantities of herbs and spices. I reckon beer yeast just isn't so good at fermenting honey; as sugary as it is, it seems to rarely ferment out completely. I've resolved to pretty much only use it in IPAs, or else very minute quantities in light herbal beers.
 

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