Honey Nut Brown Ale recipe work in progress

[TandemTails]

I'm working on my brew schedule for the next few months and would like to have a brown ale on tap for the fall. I was thinking it would be nice to have a nutty brown ale with some honey flavor as well. Here's what I've come up with so far:

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5.5 gallon batch
60 minute boil
OG: 1.048
IBU: 26.3
Color: 16.8 SRM
Est ABV: 4.8%

Grain:
* 7 lb Maris Otter
* 1 lb C-40
* 12 oz honey malt
* 8 oz golden naked oats
* 8 oz victory malt
* 4 oz chocolate malt
* 1/2 lb honey @ high krausen

Hops:
* 1 oz fuggles @ 60
* 1 oz East Kent Goldings @ 20

Yeast: Nottingham

Mash high (156'f) for 60 minutes to counteract the drying factor of the honey

Ferment at 68'F for 2 weeks

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Any thoughts on this recipe?

 

[corax]

It's a lot of specialty malt. In particular, it's a lot (too much, in my opinion) of crystal and honey malts -- and I'm not sure they would play well together. Personally, I would cut the honey malt to 8 oz, and cut the crystal and victory to 4 oz. each (bringing up the base malt to compensate loss of gravity points).

I'd never heard of golden naked oats -- sounds interesting. I wonder if you could go up to a pound with that? [Edit: on second glance, it seems to be a type of crystal malt; definitely wouldn't go over a half pound with it.]

 

[pgibney]

The SRM seems a little light for a brown ale. Maybe switch to a darker crystal?

Why add the honey at high krausen? It'll be much harder for it to blend with the wort when the wort is cool. I tend to add the honey during whirlpool where the hot wort helps it blend. I generally wait a few minutes after flameout so the

 

[stieg000]

One of my most popular recipies with guests is a nut Brown ale.

9ib Marris otter
4oz brown
4oz 120
4oz chocolate
4oz victory
4oz honey malt

Willamette
Wlp001

 

[rhys333]

At a glance, I would say knock your honey malt down to between 2 and 3% of your gran bill. It's powerful stuff and will overwhelm not only your honey but everything else as well. I think you're on track with the high mash temp to counter honeys drying qualities, though I think I would double your honey contribution to 1 lb (and lower your grain bill accordingly to maintain 1.048). Since you're doing a malt-focused brown ale, I would also use a strongly flavored honey like buckwheat (or wildflower, which is a bit lighter tasting). The standard clover honey is all but lost in even the lightest of beers.

 

[TandemTails]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've made some changes to make the recipe a little less cluttered feeling. I also dropped the honey malt since the golden naked oats are pretty similar. Here's the updated grain bill:

* 8 lb Maris Otter
* 8 oz Golden Naked Oats
* 5 oz Brown Malt
* 5 oz C-120
* 5 oz Chocolate
* 4 oz Victory malt
* 3/4 lb honey (a more flavorful honey than traditional clover)

As for adding honey at high krausen, it's to try and retain some of the honey aromatics and flavor. It's basically the same as adding candi syrup during primary fermentation for belgian beers.

 

[jturman35]

I’d like to know how this turns out as I’m doing a similar beer but heavier at 1.064.

 

[Krypton]

Any updates on this? Has it been brewed? Planning a honey-nut belgian to brew next month or so

 

[TandemTails]

I have all the ingredients ready and am just waiting on my fermentation chamber to free up. I don't know if I'll have time to brew this weekend but probably within the next few weeks. looking forward to see how this one turns out.

 

[TandemTails]

I just kegged and bottled this brew today. The sample was great! OG was 1.049 and FG was 1.010 putting it around 5.2% ABV.

I've been in the habit of bottling 2 gallons worth for sharing/parties and kegging the remaining. Hopefully I'll have some real tasting notes from this in a week or so after the keg carbonates.

 

[Miles_1111]

Just wondering if using real honey in the secondary fermentation instead of using honey malt at mashing, what the difference in taste will be like? Do these two methods both contribute to the honey flavour of the beer? Thank you.

 

[TandemTails]

Just wondering if using real honey in the secondary fermentation instead of using honey malt at mashing, what the difference in taste will be like? Do these two methods both contribute to the honey flavour of the beer? Thank you.

As far as cost goes, adding some honey malt would probably be the better option. I just felt like adding some actual honey so that's what I did.

I took a sample from the kegerator and it's still not fully carbed up. Has a really nice flavor though and I'm excited for a real pour soon.

 

[corax]

Just wondering if using real honey in the secondary fermentation instead of using honey malt at mashing, what the difference in taste will be like? Do these two methods both contribute to the honey flavour of the beer?

They are completely different. Actual honey ferments nearly completely, leaving no noticeable sweetness. All you get is some aroma, depending on the type of honey. Adding it late or in the fermenter should help preserve the aroma.

Honey Malt is a strongly-flavored kilned malt, similar to Biscuit Malt, Aromatic Malt, or Melanoidin Malt. It will give a residual sweetness, in addition to strong malt flavor and aroma -- a flavor that may or may not be perceived as honey-like, depending on the taster as much as anything else.

 

[jturman35]

I agree, honey malt from what little experience I have adds some sweetness on the back end. I added 4oz to an Irish Red just to sweeten up a tad. Next time I’m going to try adding 8oz and see. It’s all about dialing in what you like!

I have used local honey on about 6 different beers for extra kick in ABV and I don’t really notice any of the flavor coming through.