Does Honey Malt Belong in an IPA

[AlexKay]

Bitter (~60 IBU), tropical-fruit-forward hops. I usually add a few percent of 10L Caravienne, but something (maybe it was a post here?) put the idea into my head to try a few percent honey malt in addition.

Great idea, or it’ll ruin the batch?

 

[day_trippr]

Use Honey malt cautiously, while it is a wonderful malt it is surprisingly intense. I would not use more than maybe 3% of the total grain bill. A half pound for a ten gallon 60-point brew would be about right...

Cheers!

 

[3 Dawg Night]

Bitter (~60 IBU), tropical-fruit-forward hops. I usually add a few percent of 10L Caravienne, but something (maybe it was a post here?) put the idea into my head to try a few percent honey malt in addition.

Great idea, or it’ll ruin the batch?

I don't think it will ruin the batch, and it's worth a try. Let us know how it turns out!

 

[DonT]

I use 4oz of Honey malt in my NEIPA's... adds a subtle sweetness that works well

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

Yeah, I use it at about 2%, the lovibond is a little higher then you might expect so it will change your srm some. But I will say I left it out of a couple recipes and I liked them better with it in so it's back in the lineup for the majority of my ipas and neipas.

 

[day_trippr]

Yes, Gambrinus Honey ranges from 15.3 to 26.4° L per their spec sheet - and what I buy always seems to be at the high end of that range. I won't use it in any of my hazies because of that, but fortunately 1318 leaves plenty of residual sweetness I love honey malt in WCIPAs and dark stuff like my chocolate stout...

Cheers!

 

[mrcastellino]

Bitter (~60 IBU), tropical-fruit-forward hops. I usually add a few percent of 10L Caravienne, but something (maybe it was a post here?) put the idea into my head to try a few percent honey malt in addition.

Great idea, or it’ll ruin the batch?

Yes, but as others have commented, use it sparingly. By sparingly, I would target 1%. 2% max depending on how you like to roll with your IPAs.
FWIW, Julian Shrago from Beachwood has mentioned using 1% honey malt in some of his WCIPAs to accentuate tropical forward hops.

 

[troxerX]

As many have said here, I will recommend against using too much honey malt unless you are brewing a brown ale or something along those lines. I use honey malt mainly for color adjustment with additions around 1-1.5%, as honey malt gives me that orange tone I’m always looking in my NEIPAs. This one below is 1% honey malt, 15% flaked wheat and 84% 2-row.

 

[AlexKay]

Brewed this yesterday, a one-ish gallon batch:

1.4 lb. Pale Ale
0.9 lb. Vienna
0.7 lb. flaked oats
0.05 lb. Caravienne 10L
0.05 lb. honey malt

3 g Magnum (15.1% AA) @ 60 min.
14 g HBC 1019 (9.6% AA) @ 10 min.
14 g HBC 1019 (9.6% AA) @ hop stand @ 160 F for 10 min.
Planned 28 g HBC 1019 (9.6% AA) dry hop @ 2 days before packaging

W34/70

OG: 1.050

Never used HBC 1019 before, but it smelled terrific. Looking forward to seeing how this comes out.

 

[AlexKay]

It came out well! HBC 1019 didn't impress me at first, but now that keg hopping is well underway, I like it a lot.

The honey malt works well. It's certainly not overpowering; I have to search for it in the taste profile. I think my next batch will double the honey malt and drop the Caravienne entirely.

 

[Christoff]

I did a Honey Rye ale recently and it was aweme. I think it was upwards of 8-10% (off the top of my head) and it didn't mess it up at all. So far, it's been everyone's favourite too. I used enough hops to hint at an IPA style but I really don't like anything super hoppy. But it gave the impression of an IPA and the beer was super successful.

 

[pvpeacock]

I recently used 1 lb. of Honey Malt in a 10 gallon IPA with a 4.8% ABV. Way too much! While I like the beer, it is not a clean, crisp West Coast IPA. It is much more of a caramel flavored India Pale Ale ala Racer 5.

 

[JoeSpartaNJ]

I use a small amount for color.

4oz max

 

[RyPA]

I personally hate honey malt, I recently bought a # and added 8oz to a NEIPA and hated it and am going to toss the rest., if you want some color go golden promise.