Honey Malt in place of crystal?

most recipes i've seen have crystal in the grain bill and I was thinking of using some honey malt ~ 1/2 lb in place of any crystal at all - this is for a partial mash IPA that will be hop bursted with centennial, columbus and citra

will 1/2lb provide enough residual sweetness?

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.070 SG
Estimated Color: 9.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 78.9 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes


6 lbs Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 51.06 %
2 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 17.02 %
2 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 17.02 %
8.0 oz Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.26 %
4.0 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 2.13 %
1 lbs Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 8.51 %

0.50 oz Centennial [9.20 %] (60 min) Hops 12.9 IBU
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.40 %] (60 min) Hops 20.3 IBU
0.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.40 %] (20 min) Hops 6.1 IBU
0.25 oz Centennial [9.20 %] (20 min) Hops 3.9 IBU
0.25 oz Citra [11.00 %] (20 min) Hops 4.7 IBU
0.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.40 %] (15 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
0.25 oz Citra [11.00 %] (15 min) Hops 3.8 IBU
0.25 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (15 min) Hops 3.5 IBU
0.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (15 min) Hops 4.9 IBU
0.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.40 %] (10 min) Hops 3.7 IBU
0.25 oz Centennial [9.20 %] (10 min) Hops 2.3 IBU
0.25 oz Citra [11.00 %] (10 min) Hops 2.8 IBU
0.25 oz Centennial [9.20 %] (5 min) Hops 1.3 IBU
0.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.40 %] (5 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
0.25 oz Citra [11.00 %] (5 min) Hops 1.5 IBU
0.25 oz Centennial [9.20 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.25 oz Citra [11.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.25 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.40 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 Hops -
1.00 oz Citra [11.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) Hops -

1 Pkgs Pacman (Rogue) (Wyeast Labs #1764) [StarteYeast-Ale

do you own any hops that don't begin in "c"? lol...

my two favorite beers are IPA and sour red/browns ala flanders/flemish style and i dig honey malt in my IPA... just did one with nothing but 2-row and honey malt... to me it adds the mouthfeel and sweetness of crystal without as much color and no caramel taste. i don't want caramel in my ipa frankly...

its not in bottle yet, but pre-ferm it tasted awesome and you could certainly grab a honey-esque taste out of it.

lol

i just bottled a simcoe/amarillo ipa

about to bottle a Cali common with Northern Brewer

trying to use different hops for now to see what i like - i realize that with 3 hops it will be hard to tell what contributes what but the 3 sound like they would pair well together

thanks for the feedback on the honey malt

I've used honey malt in a lot of my beers. I agree that it imparts sweetness without the caramel character. Because of the sweetness, I tend to treat it like I would any crystal/caramel malt so I use it as a substitute for some (or all) of the crystal malt and not in addition to the crystal malt. So, if I want to limit the percentage of crystal malt in a beer (which I always do), I include honey malt in that calculation.

And just FYI, LME has crystal/caramel malts in it. I haven't used Honey malts, but from what I read, 1/2 to 1 lb is what you want to use for a 5 gal batch.

manortc said:

And just FYI, LME has crystal/caramel malts in it. I haven't used Honey malts, but from what I read, 1/2 to 1 lb is what you want to use for a 5 gal batch.

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in light and extra light LME its only carapils and a small amount.

like everyone else said, just treat the honey malt like any other crystal

8 oz in a 1.070 gravity batch will leave plenty of sweetness.

I used a half lb in an IPA that fermented from 1.075 down to 1.012 and it balanced out the bitterness pretty nicely in my opinion. Of course that's subjective. I submitted that IPA to a competition and a judge commented that I needed to work on my attenuation because there was too much residual sweetness.

I've been wanting to include honey malt in my IPAs, particularly in a summer APA i'm putting together, and I too have been trying to figure out how much is the right amount for me. I know everyone's preference is different, but the consensus I've found seems to be anything over 1/2 lb per 5 gal batch is overpowering. I like a dry beer in general; what I'm looking for is a slight residual honey flavor and only a very small amount of sweetness for balance if I'm putting together a real hop bomb. Maybe start with 4oz and go from there?

I'm wondering if there are any updates to how these beers turned out. I'm looking to make an IPA with honey malt. BTW I am noticing the less I use crystal malts, the more I like the results.

-TH- said:

I'm wondering if there are any updates to how these beers turned out. I'm looking to make an IPA with honey malt. BTW I am noticing the less I use crystal malts, the more I like the results.

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I am with you on the crystal malt - my favorite beers have been the ones where I have used less than 5% crystal malt. I recently brewed an American Amber with 10% crystal malt and, even though this style is supposed to have a nice caramel/crystal malt presence, I felt like it was too much.

I will not be using honey malt again with Chinook hops and prob will avoid it with most american hops particularly in very hop forward beers. I felt the flavor conflicted a bit and in the case of my ESB it was too sweet for me, although a lot of my friends seemed to really enjoy it. At the very least I would scale it way back

this was my recipe

8 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 71.91 %
2 lbs 10.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 23.60 %
8.0 oz Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.49 %

.50 oz Chinook [10.00 %](60 min)
.50 oz Chinook [10.00 %](30 min)
.50 oz Chinook [10.00 %] (5 min)
1.00 oz Chinook [10.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)

terrapinj said:

I will not be using honey malt again with Chinook hops and prob will avoid it with most american hops particularly in very hop forward beers. I felt the flavor conflicted a bit and in the case of my ESB it was too sweet for me, although a lot of my friends seemed to really enjoy it. At the very least I would scale it way back

this was my recipe

8 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 71.91 %
2 lbs 10.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 23.60 %
8.0 oz Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.49 %

.50 oz Chinook [10.00 %](60 min)
.50 oz Chinook [10.00 %](30 min)
.50 oz Chinook [10.00 %] (5 min)
1.00 oz Chinook [10.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days)

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Thanks for the feedback. Have you ever had a Founder's Double Trouble or Bell's Hopslam? That is the flavor I am going for, although I'm not sure if they use honey malt or not quite honestly. But if you had one of those, is the flavor even in the same ballpark?

JLem said:

I am with you on the crystal malt - my favorite beers have been the ones where I have used less than 5% crystal malt. I recently brewed an American Amber with 10% crystal malt and, even though this style is supposed to have a nice caramel/crystal malt presence, I felt like it was too much.

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Looking through some of your recipes I am glad to finally see someone who doesn't put crystal in everything. Do you have any IPA recipes that you like to use? (sans-crystal of course )

i've had hopslam once but don't recall too much honey flavor in it but it was a few months back and buddy shared a bottle that he had sent out from midwest

i really enjoyed the hopslam, it's possible that the massive amounts of hops help mask some of the honey flavor as well - although I recall reading a clone recipe that used honey and not honey malt

I find honey malt to add a very strong honey flavor. I used 4 oz. recently in an APA and it was overwhelming. It was like I added a full pound of honey at flame out. Too strong of a honey flavor for me. I mashed it though so it might be different when steeped. I agree about using less crystal, I think it is overused. There are other options as well such as bisquit which works very well in IPAs and APAs. I have an IPA on tap right now that was 11 lbs. Rahr, .5 lb Munich, .5 lb bisquit, and .5 lb C40. Came out great with only a small amount of crystal.

-TH- said:

Looking through some of your recipes I am glad to finally see someone who doesn't put crystal in everything. Do you have any IPA recipes that you like to use? (sans-crystal of course )

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You should see some of my earliest recipes (not yet posted on the blog...maybe never will be). In some cases I used upwards of 20% crystal malt! Live and learn...or rather Brew and learn.

I have yet to brew an IPA. When I realized this the other day, I added it to my short list of next brews. Though now that we are headed towards glorious Fall weather here in New England, my thoughts are turning more to stouts, browns, and other dark, malty brews.