Hello! And help

[kidofwmd]

Hi I'm I'm Roanoke VA and started brewing with my dad when I turned 21 this year I'm still a noobie but excited to brew and grow! I wanted to surprise my dad with a recipe but need help all I have right now is that I want it to taste like honeysuckle I looked through the forms and saw tate using the flower will be a little to advanced for right now...so I want to use creamed honey instead. I'm gussied put it in with the mash? Any help would be exceptional!!!

 

[drainbamage]

Welcome, first off!

I've actually never heard of creamed honey, but I will say that plain old honey is usable in beer. Just add it in the boil as you would with malt extract. However, it's almost entirely fermentable, so you won't get much residual sweetness or body out of it.

Another option would be to use honey malt in your mash. It adds a nice honey aroma and flavor, and contributes a little bit of body.

 

[ACbrewer]

OP.
1 you will get differing opinions.
2 you will have to figure it out.


Anyhow. I've used honey about 3 or 4 times. Once I got a nice honey flavor, the other times it failed to show. I've not used honey malt, most have said that is the way to get honey flavor in a beer. I'd personally not boil the honey, and I'd reduce the overall malt - the one time I was successful, it was with a slightly lower malt sugar profile.

To boil or not honey:
Pro's- kills most bacteria in the honey, boiling isn't perfect (ready 100%/all) for sterilization. But general close enough (read 99.9+%)
Con's - as temp goes up, lower temp volatiles boil off, so there goes many of the flavors.

Does it need boiling? depends. Meads with unboiled honey are generally thought to taste better, so the bacteria in the honey doesn't negatively impact them. Beers? I'm not sure anyone has done a comparison. I will say that honey is to dry for bacteria growth, and will only support it when it is diluted in water sufficiently. Of course by then you've put a lot of yeast with it right?

 

[m00ps]

If you want to preserve the delicate aromatics in honey definitely DO NOT add it to the boil or mash. Add it 2-3 days into fermenting and it will also serve to give the yeast a bit more fuel to help along the fermentation.

Honey is mostly sugar anyway, so it tends to ferment out the flavors. To accentuate it best, I'd do the fermentor addition, and a few ounces of honey malt

 

[kidofwmd]

In the fermentation sounds fun m00ps and thank you AC brewer on other insight I'll probably stalk the beginner forms and report my findinga!

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the hobby, and the group, from CO

I would let your fermentation go 1-2 days, then add the honey. Warm it up to make it pourable. Good luck!

 

[ACbrewer]

In the fermentation sounds fun m00ps and thank you AC brewer on other insight I'll probably stalk the beginner forms and report my findinga!

Yeah there is a lot of advice and some of it is pro/con and personal taste (what fermenter type, all grain or extract, etc.). Figure out what works for you and what you like.

 

[kidofwmd]

So update brewed a cream ale for the base and added the creamed honey during the boil. I also added some lyle's golden syrup during the boil made enough for 2 small fermenters one got some wild turkey soaked in oke chips (per my father for letting me use his system) ant the other will get another round of regular honey this weekend. Bottle next week then a matter of waiting to open a bottle

 

[Sammy86]

Welcome from a former Salem resident and proud RC Alum! Congrats on the brew!