honey and extract brewing help!!!

about to brew a batch and looking for some advice

ingredients:

3.3 lbs of light malt extract (american classic type)
22 oz of british dry extra light malt extract
1 lbs rice syrup solids
3 lbs clover honey
1/2 oz hallertauer hop pellets (for bitterness)
1/2 oz saaz hop pellets (for flavoring)
1/2 oz saaz hop pellets (for aroma)
kolsch liquid ale yeast

I am looking to use about 3 gallons of water to boil the wort with the rest added to my fermenation bucket; I am looking for a lighter color and have been told to use more water in my wort to get the lighter color...

when should I add the honey to the wort? Should I add it late in the boil? After the honey boils should I skim off the coagulates?

Any advice or help with this recipe will help.... we really do not want to have a cider taste to the beer....what do I need to do to avoid this? I also want the honey to help with the higher alcohol content but want to avoid the extreme bitter flavor that may be associated with the higher content... I am really concerned and want to make sure that I brew it at a balanced flavor (as far as bitterness and alcohol content)

How long should I leave in my carboy (and/or second fermentation to clear) before bottling?

I am looking to brew Saturday afternoon .. so any help will be appreciated thanks!!!

You can add the honey with the LME at the last 15 minutes of the boil. This will help with the lighter color.

Wild

Thanks, should I skim he wort at the end of the boil?

I make a lot of mead and I always skim. Of course, when you add it to beer you're going to get hops and all.

I've recommended just boiling the honey seperately (where you can skim and not remove other materials in your wort) and adding it to the wort in the primary.

The honey and wort will mix there any way.

Should I let age any longer than I would beer?

Why? Just check your gravities to know when it's ready.

After it's wort, sugar is sugar. The only difference is that the honey is more efficient. You're using 3 lbs. That's almost 1/2 your fermentable sugars.

You probalby need to up your bittering hops a bit too. Just re-check it is all I'm saying.

If you bottle at 1.014 the beer will be sweeter than if you bottled at say 1.008 where it'll be drier because of the honey.

It's not really a "beer" with all that honey, is it?

As for making the brew "lighter", I do what's called a "late brew". I add most of the malt in after the 45 mins boil (it only boils for the last 15 minutes). You can do this by boiling the rice and extra light DME for the 45 mins and add the other 3 lbs of extract "later". The color is actually a lot lighter than if you would boil all the malt for an hour. Less carmalization.

Let us know what you decide to do.

Should I cut back on the honey some. Im still looking for a beer taste. I just wanted a hint of honey taste while adding to the alcohol content.

The last beer that i brewed was in the 90s. I just want to get it correct. Kind of rusty. I guess.

That's your decision. I'm not sure what you're trying to make here.

I don't use honey in my beer, but that doesn't mean you can't.

I would think that if you wanted a honey flavor that you would certainly need to use some, but how much is another question only research, plus the opinions/recipes of other guys here, can tell. It might only be 1 lb. With the price of honey 3 lbs would certainly be overkill and an unnecessary waste of good honey.

I pay $18 a gallon for my honey (for meads). It's more economical to brew 2 batches (of mead) with 1 gal versus 1 gal per batch. Sure, the second batch would be highly alcoholic, but is that the intent?

I would rather make 2 very enjoyable meads versus one strong overpowering one.

Anyone else have any recommendations for some honey beers/recipes?

I guess Im trying to make a honey lager but useing ale yeast.

So you're making a honey ale if you're using ale yeast? I would add the honey at flameout or right before flameout. If you don't want a strong honey taste then cut the honey down to 1.5-2 lbs instead. Thats just what i would do.

Also, maybe throw in some wheat extract or flaked wheat?

OK, one of THOSE guys...what are you thinking?

Brewing is really simple if you just follow a bunch of rules/guidelines. These are fairly important:

1) If you want a lager then you have to use a lager yeast and lagering temps.

2) If you want an ale then use an ale yeast and ale fermenting temps.

Im not set up for lagering yet and I ust wanted to get something going that had a little kick to it 5 to 7%

sailman said:

Im not set up for lagering yet and I ust wanted to get something going that had a little kick to it 5 to 7%

Click to expand...

Maybe you can add like a pound of corn sugar to up the ABV. I don't think this will help the taste, but shouldn't hurt it too much.

Corn sugar is ok but want it give the beer a cider taste?

Just add another lb of malt...or rice...

When I put your recipe into ProMash, I got an expexted OG of 1.065 and about 14.5 IBU. If you ferment that down to 1.015 it will have around 6.5% ABV.

If it were me, I would up the malt bill and lower the amount of honey by half a pound to a pound, and throw in a bit more hops to get the IBU in the low 20s range. Stay away from corn sugar in your brew IMHO.

Good luck and let us know how it comes along

- magno

Thanks for all the help guy's. Im going to the brew store and pick up a 6.5 carboy this morning and i will consult with them as well...

also where can i get a copy of promash.. i would like to start formulating my own recipes...

will keep you informed on how it turns out... thanks!

You can get a free trial copy or buy a licensed copy at www.promash.com.

Also check out http://beersmith.com/.

-magno

Thanks, I just got in with my carboy and all the stuff for my next batch thanks to my girlfriend. I forgot to ask about promash while we were at the store. But I found on the web TastyBrew.com (recipe calculation) Has any one used this if so how do you like it ...

just finished brewing and all looks good. The starting gravity turned out near perfection and the color looks great. Now is in the fermentor and now all we have to do is wait it out until we get to taste!!!

Only problem we had were that we forgot to mature that the liquid ale yeast needed to mature for one to two days, but a call to the local brew store fixed that problem. He just told us to go ahead and mix and put it in a place with low heat and it shoud be fine...worked like a charm! He told us that we would be fine by tomorrow and then he also said to watch to see when it was ready....within an hour or so the yeast had swollen and was ready for us to pitch when our boil was done and our wort was chilled...pitched and now only time will tell...

now when this is done will begin the second batch!

well its been 7 days and the fermentor lock has stopped producing any co2 so we are racking into the carboy today.. am looking forward to getting the specific gravity and seeing what it looks like.. ill keep ya updated...

Hey Sailman,
That would be a Braggot:

http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category26.html#style26B


Can't wait to hear how it turned out,
mikey

well i tasted what we pulled off for the specific gravity test..and i was shocked.. omg it was SOO good!! off to the next brew.. i have pics but i gotta figure out how to upload em on this puter!

Mykel Obvious said:

Hey Sailman,
That would be a Braggot:

http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category26.html#style26B


Can't wait to hear how it turned out,
mikey

Click to expand...

Thanks Mykel it taste good, kind of lite on the hops. Now two weeks in the carboy then to the bottles...

sailman said:

Thanks Mykel it taste good, kind of lite on the hops. Now two weeks in the carboy then to the bottles...

Click to expand...

Glad to hear it Sailman... I tend to agree with magno on the hops... 20-25 IBUs on the "low end"... unless you are doing a Lite or Standard American Lager (and why would you do that... Budmilloors has that one down cheaper and faster both) http://www.bjcp.org/styles04/Category1.html/ (I love the BJCP style guide in case ya didn't notice LOL)

Beers to ya!!!


mikey

homebrewer_99 said:

OK, one of THOSE guys...what are you thinking?

Brewing is really simple if you just follow a bunch of rules/guidelines. These are fairly important:

1) If you want a lager then you have to use a lager yeast and lagering temps.

2) If you want an ale then use an ale yeast and ale fermenting temps.

Click to expand...

And let's not forget:

3) if ya want Steam Beer, use lager yeast at ale temps

4) if ya want a Belgian Ale, brew at 80+F with Belgian yeast!



LOL

mikey

so what was the final recipe that tasted so good here?

I've found that beer with honey works very well. As has been monetioned, it looks more like you made a braggot, but I bet it's good. Next time, cut back on the honey for a nice light honey ale.

As for "brewing being simple as long as you follow a bunch of rules"......that's a load of crap. Sure your recipe might have needed some tweaking, but if what you came up with is good, then who cares? If it's not, then tweak it and try it again. It's called learning from experience. Not following a bunch of stupid rules and guidelines and never trying anything new.

Sorry for the rant.

Oh yeah.....adding honey right before or at flameout reigns.