Overwhelming sweet aroma from Honey Pale Ale

[naaate89]

Hi guys I just did my second beer and it was a honey pale ale. My first batch turned out amazing and garnered a lot of compliments from some very experienced brewers. I'm questioning this next batch though because I'm not completely satisfied with the result.

I haven't been using a secondary fermenter but I plan to do so on my next brew. Currently I throw the boiled wort into an ice bath to cool it and then after it reaches 70 degrees I siphon it into a carboy and pitch the yeast and add the airlock.

This batch I purchased some high quality orange blossom honey and I added it in the last 5 minutes of the boil. After about 10 days in the carboy the krausen had disappeared from the carboy and I decided to take a sample. The gravity was spot on so I decided to bottle it.

After about 2 1/2 weeks in bottles now I have been tasting the beer as it ages. Its almost crystal clear, there is very little sediment in the bottles, good carbonation but I'm concerned because it gives off an overwhelming honey aroma which kind of effects the overall flavor that you get out of the beer. It's sweeter than I would like it to be and I'm not sure if thats because of the aroma or if its from residual sugars. It's around 6.5% in abv and you can definitely taste the alcohol and the hop bitterness I just don't feel like its balanced. To anyone that has brewed with honey before; does the flavor mellow out a bit? I'm concerned that I had pulled it too soon and I know racking to secondary definitely has its benefits but from what I understand its for clarity purposes.

I would just like to get an idea as to whether I can expect improvements as the beer ages or if I can just chalk this one up as a bad batch.

 

[OneImpBrewery]

Hey Naaate
I made a honey cream ale from Williams Brewing and had similar results. It did mellow with time though. After about 3 months in the keg it mellowed out for me. Sounds like you did everything right just will take some time for flavors to meld. If you are looking for something different you can always look into honey malt instead of actually honey. The alcohol flavor will fade with time as well.
Put it on the shelf and brew another you will be happy with it in a month or 3

-Imp

 

[naaate89]

Hey imp thank you for the advice! I was drinking some yesterday and its actually a good beer it just tastes very green and unbalanced. I will do as you suggested and give it time. Hopefully time is the remedy to the off flavors.
Cheers!

 

[Happywanderer]

I have used honey with great results. Seems perhaps you bottled a bit early to me. I leave all my batches in primary for 3 weeks. Then I bottle and let sit one month. Course I taste test a few after two weeks

But yes, it should mellow.




Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[OneImpBrewery]

Time will fix a lot of things. I remember my first woah moment with aging was a high fermentable brew I made with all of my left overs. It was mostly DME with a little "booster" from the Mr beer kits. I threw all of it in a carboy and let it work. FG should have calculated out to around 9.6% 2 weeks later bottled, to more it was carbed and I popped the top. It had a taste resembling jet fuel(or so I would imagine) being bummed about my newly created abomination I threw it in the back of my beer fridge. Soon to be forgotten about. About 4 months later I grabbed one by accident popped the top. It was very malty and went down easy. Wasn't sure what it was at the point but I finished it none the less. It didn't dawn on me until I started getting red in the face and numb in the teeth that my abomination had gone threw beer puberty and came out a fine beverage.

Good luck and its only gonna get better from here.

-Imp