First Honey beer

[sdhucks7]

Ok, this is my first attempt at my own recipe. I am going to try a Honey beer for the SWMBO. I found this recipe online and changed a couple of things and would like anyone's opinion on it. I plan on brewing this one this week, so if anyone has any suggestions on what i should change it would be helpful.

Heres the Recipe

10gal batch

15lbs 2Row
1lb Crystal 40
2lbs Honey Malt
Mash at around 154 i think.

1oz Cascade @ 60min
1oz Cascade @ 45min
1oz Cascade @ 5min

Notingham yeast.

Any thoughts???

Thanks

SD

 

[kanzimonson]

Are you going to use any actual honey in the beer? Only asking because I kinda consider that essential to something being labelled "honey beer."

However, I do like the honey notes that Honey malt adds. It's very rich and I feel like it tricks you into tasting sweetness.

 

[sdhucks7]

Only Honey Malt. From what i read that using actual honey the honey all ferments out and doesnt add much to the taste. although i could be completly wrong on that.

 

[ChshreCat]

If you wanted to include honey, just to be technical and say it's in there, you could prime with it.

 

[kanzimonson]

Well, I've made a couple honey lagers (inspired by and sorta based on Papazian's Rocky Raccoon) and I think my results might help you decide.

My first (5gal) was just 5# pils malt and 2.5# honey. OG was 1.046. IBUs were 33, which was just waaaaaay too bitter. You're right, the honey was nearly unnoticeable, not to mention the FG was down to 1.003.

My second batch (10.5gal) I used:
7# Pils malt
2# honey malt
1# carapils
1# crystal 10
6# honey

I had some problems evenly splitting into two fermenters and they had different OGs, but if averaged out, the OG was 1.051 with IBU of 26. The honey flavor was much more prominent, and the bitterness much better.

So my ultimate advice is to keep the bitterness low. When you give someone your honey beer, they're going to expect not only the taste of honey, but its sweetness. I'm not talking a syrupy sweet beer, but definitely noticeable. The flavors of a typically sweet food (like fruit) are hard to indentify when the sweetness is removed. You're doing a similar hopping schedule to my first honey lager, except with larger additions. I'd recommend cutting back.

 

[Houblon]

From what i read that using actual honey the honey all ferments out and doesnt add much to the taste. although i could be completly wrong on that.

Yes depending on the brand of honey and timing of honey additition , I use only Leighton's Orange Blossom Honey after flameout and ferment cool.


This is my recipe >
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f70/panty-dropper-honey-wheat-151570/

 

[tom777]

I would agree that you should maybe cut back on the hops a bit. I made a honey wheat recently (simply added honey to the Northern Brewer American Wheat kit). This kit comes with 1oz Willamette + 1oz Cascade, but I only used actually used about .6oz of each.
Adding honey after flameout is important. I just sampled my first bottle of a honey nut brown ale -- the honey aroma is very noticeable. Just thinking that using 3oz of hops would "overpower" any honey aromas.

edit: just noticed you're doing a 10 gallon batch. Maybe 3oz of hops isn't quite as bad I was was first thinking

 

[sdhucks7]

What i am looking for is just a hint of honey flavor and aroma. This is a 10gal batch so i didnt think the hops would be to overwelming, but i am open to any suggestions on that.


SD

 

[tom777]

I guess you're probably not too far off on the hops. At 3oz/10 gallons, it's only slightly more than the 1.2oz/5 gallons I used on my recent batch. I don't think cutting the 45 minute hop addition to .5oz would hurt anything though
I'd say add a couple lbs. of honey and go for it! Or, cut back to a 5G batch; then you can tweak it for the next 5G. Good luck!

 

[mordantly]

i put 1/2 gallon + 5# honey in a cream ale. like a mead, you don't want to boil the honey. i added it all to my primary then added a gallon of ~120F wort. dissolved honey. when wort was 60F added to primary. it ferments about 90%. but does add floral notes, and slight honey flavors. but ringwood probably was not the best choice to let the honey flavor shine. id go with 1056 next time. oh and that cream ale was 10%! not to style but damn good.