honey malt vs. sugar

[rexbanner]

I'm planning on making a beer with some palm sugar. I am of the mindset that sugar is sugar for the most part, and I am not expecting palm sugar to add much flavor. I mostly want to use it to fit the theme of this beer, which was described by a member on here whose name I can't remember.

Anyways:

5 lbs pale malt
2 lbs wheat malt
1 lb palm sugar
1/2 lb honey malt

1 oz cascade@ 60, 1 oz dry hop, 3 inch section of lemongrass at flameout. us-05 yeast.

Does that sound good? I want to tell people that it has palm sugar because it sounds cool, but I actually want the beer to have a sweet taste since that's what people will expect (who don't understand fermentation). This beer is inspired by green tea with honey and lemongrass. I've never used honey malt but I'm hoping it will help balance some of the dryness of the sugar and the lemongrass.

 

[Clonefarmer]

Honey malt is mostly an aromatic. It gives a sweet honey aroma to the beer.

 

[malkore]

Mash higher than 154 to leave a sweeter, maltier, higher bodied final beer (to combat the palm sugar that's going to dry it out some.)

 

[remilard]

Honey malt doesn't make beer sweet as well as crystal malt does.

 

[rexbanner]

Honey malt doesn't make beer sweet as well as crystal malt does.

Dang. I still want to try using it though. What if I just used more of it?

 

[Zen_Brew]

You may certainly still use it, but add a bit of crystal malt and raise your mash temp as well. By the way is that all grain or extract? 1lb is a hell of a lot of sugar for such a light grain bill, especially if it is all grain. Normally you would use 1lb of sugar to add dryness to a beer with a much higher starting gravity.

 

[malkore]

with that grainbill I wouldn't up the honey malt further. a little goes a ways.

 

[kanzimonson]

Mashing higher does not leave sweeter sugars, it leaves dextrins which are not perceptible as sweet to the human tongue. I think this is a common misconception.

I think you're on the right track with the honey malt but agree that you should put some crystal malt in there. The honey malt will give you aromas that "trick" the brain into thinking there's something sweet there, and the crystal will actually give you some sweetness.

 

[bendavanza]

1/2 lb of honey malt will give you that honey taste. If you really want sweetness add lactose, which will stay sweet. The sugar you are adding will do the opposite, it will "dry" the beer as it's fully fermentable.

 

[rexbanner]

1/2 lb of honey malt will give you that honey taste. If you really want sweetness add lactose, which will stay sweet. The sugar you are adding will do the opposite, it will "dry" the beer as it's fully fermentable.

Exactly. I want to use the palm sugar but if the average person hears that there is sugar in a beer, they think it should taste sweet, so I want to try to meet that expectation.

I think I'm gonna add a pound of c-20 in. Thanks for the help guys.