Honey Ale

[ickmund]

I'm trying to put together a honey-tasting pale ale, and could use some advice.

Adding too much honey will make it dry out a lot, and I hear it doesn't really contribute that much to taste anyway. Being in Europe, Gambrinus Honey Malt is off the table (if someone has info contrary to this I'd love to hear it!).

So I'm basing my recipe on one of my favorite brews from my early days of brewing, Dr Smurtos Golden Ale. In this first draft I'm basically exchanging Munich for Melanoiden, bitter with Chinook instead of Amarillo and then add a bit of honey.

Batch size 5.5gal
OG 1.050
SG 1.010
IBU 39
EBC 16

Mash at 151F, 70% brew house efficiency

50% Pilsner
16% Munich
16% Wheat malt
6% Caramunich
6% Melanoiden
6% Honey when fermentation slows

Chinook ~20 IBU @60
Amarillo 2oz @20
Amarillo 2oz @flameout

Too much Melanoiden? Not enough honey? Too bitter?

I'm not necessarily looking for a overpowering honey taste, but it should be featured.

edited for typos, switched to % for malts, took m00ps suggestion regarding melanoiden amount and when to add the honey.

 

[m00ps]

I would add honey and honey malt to actually achieve a honey character in the final beer. If you dont have access to honey malt, I would definitely reccomend adding the honey directly to the fermentor at day 2-3 of fermentation. This will retain more of the aromatics youll lose form adding it at high temperatures.

as for the recipe, 2lbs melanoidin would be too much specialty malts for any beer IME. Id try to keep it under 20% for specialty malts to avoid a cloying sweetness. The bitterness shouldnt be out of hand or anything.

edit: i thought you had 1lb of honey, not 1oz. I would definitely up that to at least 1/2lb to get anything remotely tasting of honey. I usually use 12oz (since thats the smallest size container I can easily find) but Ive gone over 1lb before with success for a 5gal batch

 

[ickmund]

edit: i thought you had 1lb of honey, not 1oz. I would definitely up that to at least 1/2lb to get anything remotely tasting of honey. I usually use 12oz (since thats the smallest size container I can easily find) but Ive gone over 1lb before with success for a 5gal batch

That was an unfortunate typo. It should have read 10oz, same with the caramunich, for 6% each.

I would add honey and honey malt to actually achieve a honey character in the final beer. If you dont have access to honey malt, I would definitely reccomend adding the honey directly to the fermentor at day 2-3 of fermentation. This will retain more of the aromatics youll lose form adding it at high temperatures.

Yeah, I reckon you're correct in that, will do that. Do you pasteurize the honey then? Not sure how the risk is to pick up any wild yeasts from honey.

as for the recipe, 2lbs melanoidin would be too much specialty malts for any beer IME. Id try to keep it under 20% for specialty malts to avoid a cloying sweetness. The bitterness shouldnt be out of hand or anything.

Mhmm, will bring it down significantly. Post edited to reflect these changes.

 

[snowveil]

Honey has natural antimicrobial properties so there's no need to pasteurize it. Heating (especially boiling) the honey will drive off flavor and aroma compounds so there's really no benefit to doing it other than making it easier to stir.

The recipe looks good to me. Just keep in mind the fermentation will kick back up when you add the honey so give it time to ferment out before bottling or kegging.

 

[m00ps]

Ive always just added the honey straight into the fermentor without worrying about sanitation. I should note I always use a fresh, newly bought sealed container though

 

[ickmund]

Cheers for the pointers guys. I'll be brewing up this recipe on Saturday and see how it goes.