Honey instead of extract

[cormano]

I was talking to a cousin who homebrews at Christmas and he mentioned doing a honey ale using specialty grains and honey without extract. I didn't get a chance to ask more then and unfortunately don't see him often. I've been thinking about brewing for the Spring and this came back into my head.

I can't find anyone talking about this method. I'm guessing this will make something very light in body and probably dry. I'm thinking some flaked barley to add head and caramel 10 or 20 L with 4 lbs of honey and an ounce of hallertauer for a 2.5 gallon batch. Any yeast suggestions?

Or is this just a bad idea all around?

 

[Chris1272]

What you are proposing is called a Braggot. Its a style of mead. search the mead forums for more info on this style of fermented beverage. The braggots I have tried are very tasty, give the style some research and see if it is for you.

 

[polvofiloso]

I just picked up a honey pale ale kit from MoreBeer for my next batch. It's not quite what you're thinking of, with 3lbs honey to 4 lbs LME and .5 lb DME. But maybe youll find the hops and yeast info useful. I input the recipe to iBrewmaster and here it is from there:

Jim Rossi's Honey Pale Ale

Style: American Pale Ale OG: 1.058
Type: Extract FG: 1.019
Rating: 0.0 ABV: 5.11 %
Calories: 192 IBU's: 9.75
Efficiency: 70 % Boil Size: 5.57 Gal
Color: 8.0 SRM Batch Size: 5.00 Gal
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Fermentation Steps
Name Days / Temp
Primary 7 days @ 68.0°F
Secondary 14 days @ 72.0°F
Bottle/Keg 14 days @ 74.0°F

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
4.00 lbs 50.00 % Munton's Light LME 60 mins 1.037
0.50 lbs 6.25 % Munton's Light DME 60 mins 1.046
0.50 lbs 6.25 % Honey Malt 60 mins 1.037
3.00 lbs 37.50 % Honey 60 mins 1.035

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
0.50 ozs 9.34 Cascade 60 mins 5.50
0.50 ozs 0.40 Cascade 1 mins 5.50

Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1.00 pkg English Ale White Labs 0002

Additions
Amount Name Time Stage
1.00 oz Whirlfloc Tablet 05 mins Boil

Mash Profile
(none)

Carbonation
Amount Type Beer Temp CO2 Vols
4.05 oz Corn Sugar - Bottle Carbonation 74.0°F 2.30

Notes
Steep Honey Malt as water is heating, remove at170 degrees.

 

[cormano]

What you are proposing is called a Braggot. Its a style of mead. search the mead forums for more info on this style of fermented beverage. The braggots I have tried are very tasty, give the style some research and see if it is for you.

I have seen the word braggot and didn't know what it meant. Thanks, I will look into this!

 

[MrOrange]

Braggots are really tasty, just keep in mind that when ageing them they normally take close to the time a mead takes rather than a beer.

 

[cormano]

I've been looking at some braggot threads and it looks like most of the recipes still use a little bit of extract. How does this recipe sound?

3 gallon boil for 2.5 gallon batch
1 lb flaked barley - steeped 30 min
1 lb Breiss Caramel 10L - steeped 30 min
1 oz German Hallertauer @ 60 min
4 lb honey @ flameout
Danstar Windsor Yeast?

I'm not sure what yeast to use, I've never tried Windsor so I'd kind of like to try it. Should I add any of the honey before flameout? It's going to feel funny boiling for an hour with only the one hop addition right at the beginning, heh. How long should I ferment/age it?

 

[MrOrange]

I would add some malt extract to that as well. Normally braggots have close to 50/50 malt and honey, but I would say do what you want since you are the brewer and its your braggot. Keep in mind that when you boil honey you lose alot of the aroma so you might want to consider adding the honey at flame out. Also with my braggots I used wine yeast. For my Hefty Braggot I used D-47 and for my Cranberry Braggot I used red star premier cuvee, This does not mean you can't use ale yeast this is just what I used when I made them. Good luck with everything and let everyone know how it turns out. I made my Hefty Braggot in June 2011 and I still have it aging but it is close to 12-13%. My Cranberry comes in around 9% and I only aged that for about 4-5 months and I think its ready to go.

 

[Absolut_Ninja]

Fermented honey + me = BAD HANGOVER

But don't ever listen to me. In fact, forget I was here.

 

[Calder]

3 gallon boil for 2.5 gallon batch
1 lb flaked barley - steeped 30 min
1 lb Breiss Caramel 10L - steeped 30 min
1 oz German Hallertauer @ 60 min
4 lb honey @ flameout
Danstar Windsor Yeast?
?

The flaked barley will do nothing. It needs to be mashed. The Caramel will add a little sweetness, but not much flavor. Maybe get .004 gravity points per gallon.

Honey will completely ferment out. I would suggest not heating it up, just add it straight to the fermenter to get the most flavor from it.

For 2.5 gallons your OG will be around 1.055. FG will be around 0.998. Giving you a drink of about 7.5% with very little flavor.

Any yeast will do. You will probably get more flavor out of an ale yeast rather than a wine yeast.

 

[cormano]

Wow, it'll ferment out that dry? I figured it wouldn't be too flavorful but I wasn't thinking it would be that dry or high in ABV. Any suggestion to replace the flaked barley that would help the flavor? I'm hoping to keep it really light in color, but that could change.

 

[cormano]

1 lb Caramel 10L
1 lb Honey Malt
1 lb Munton's Wheat DME
1 oz Haullertaur
4 lb honey
Windsor yeast

I went to the home brew shop and picked up the ingredients to do it this way. Sound better?

Side note: holy crap, honey malt smells amazing, I want to put this in everything now.

 

[dnslater]

Wow, it'll ferment out that dry? I figured it wouldn't be too flavorful but I wasn't thinking it would be that dry or high in ABV. Any suggestion to replace the flaked barley that would help the flavor? I'm hoping to keep it really light in color, but that could change.

Honey is a very simple sugar as the bees have already processed it and added enzymes. This makes it ferment almost completely making a dry liquid. Malt in beers have a mix of simple and complex sugars. The complex sugars do not completely ferment leaving more residual sweetness behind. Also honey has a higher calorie count than most other sweeteners.

I just made a Honey weizen kit for the wife. 1 lb of clover honey and 4 lbs of malt extract, along with some steeping grains. Nice dry crisp wheat beer with barely a hint of Honey.

I added the honey at flameout so it would be sterilized. If you boil it too long it breaks down the favors.

 

[cormano]

I racked this to secondary after 18 days. It is down to around 1.02. How long should I leave it in secondary? I'm thinking 6 weeks… maybe 8? What do you think?

 

[cormano]

Oh, and the sample tasted decent. There was a bit of alcohol harshness, which I'm hoping will calm down (though will probably take longer than I'm hoping&#8230 but otherwise, it was kind of nice. I can't really describe after the very small taste, but I'm looking forward to more.