Recipe Critique - Honey Ale

[nfellman]

Hey All,

Ive been a long time lurker but haven't really posted much so I figured it was time to start haha! Ive done about 4 homebrews from kits but I want to start building recipes and have a little more fun with it. So me and my buddy want to brew a summer beer and Id like your critique on a recipe I found and tweaked a bit. Thanks!

Fermentables
.5 lbs Honey Malt (steeping 155 for 30 min)
6 lbs Pilsner Liquid Extract
2 lbs Honey

Hops
.75 oz Mt. Hood (60 min)
.75 oz Summit (15 min)
.50 0z Summit (flame out)

Others
.5 tsp Irish Moss (15 min)

Yeast
White Labs #WLP051 Cali Ale V - Not sure on this?

 

[BMWillis]

I think you're in the sweet spot for honey/honey malt usage. I used 2.25 pounds of honey and half a pound of honey malt in my Honey Wheat that just finished fermenting and the sample I pulled today was delicious!


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[nfellman]

Ok good! i was worried that 2 lbs was going to be too sweet!

 

[BMWillis]

The actual honey is almost all fermentable, something like 95%, so most of those sugars turn in to alcohol. It might leave a little residual sweetness, but that's mostly what the malt is for.

That being said, I'd wait for a more veteran brewer to chime in, this is only my second batch haha!


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[timrox1212]

You won't get much flavor from the 2 lbs honey, it'll almost all ferment out. I would just up the honey malt to 1-1.5 lbs and replace the honey with more LME/DME. That's my 2 cents.


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[nfellman]

You won't get much flavor from the 2 lbs honey, it'll almost all ferment out. I would just up the honey malt to 1-1.5 lbs and replace the honey with more LME/DME. That's my 2 cents.

So to get more of the honey flavor you recommend just uping the honey malt and getting rid of the honey all together?

 

[timrox1212]

Yea basically. Actual honey adds no flavor it's just basically expensive sugar. I make a honey ale and use 1.5 lbs honey malt, no actual honey, and it has good honey flavor and color.


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[mgonbrewlab]

So I was doing research on this in preparation for making my own honey ale. An article I found on BYO read like (to me) if you pastuerize your honey but don't boil you will get more honey flavor.

I am not sure how much honey flavor is "more", though.

 

[Brewer_JB]

Many many years ago...12-15, I had the same idea. I used Crystal 60...2lbs I think. Crystal had a lot of non-fermentable sugar so the sweet honey flavor really came out. If I remember right...and this is suspect...light malt extract, 6lb with Cascade, 2oz gave me what I was looking for. I'll be doing this one again in a couple weeks after my Milk Stout is bottled. Just getting back into it after many years off. Things have really changed!

 

[rpayer]

I've got a honey cream ale that's just getting ready for drinking that I used .75lbs of honey malt and 2lbs of honey at flame out. the honey is there for sure but not overpowering at all.

 

[Justbrewit62]

I brewed a honey brown with too much dark roasted grain and I can barely taste honey when finished and I used 4.5 lbs. I could taste honey up to about 1.018 SG. ( I like to taste my beer usually 4 to 6 times through out the entire process. Increases odds of infection but I like to see how the flavor profile changes.

I

 

[RobNitz]

Always use honey malt over honey. The honey malt brings a beautiful honey scent and taste through for the end product! I used honey in one brew and it was VERY VERY subtle and gave me a "dry" taste. Then used honey malt on a second batch and loved the outcome !


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[petrolSpice]

I made a similar recipe with 2lb of raw honey but no honey malt. I added 1lb of the honey at flameout and the other 1lb into the secondary in an attempt to preserve as much honey flavor as possible. It turned out to be a great beer but there was very little if any honey flavor. Next time I will use honey malt and add all of the honey to the secondary, or late in the primary.

 

[nfellman]

Ok so I worked on the recipe a little bit and this is what I am thinking about going with. Let me know what you think

Fermentables
.5 lbs Honey Malt (steeping 155 for 30 min)
.5 lbs Crystal Malt 10L (steeping 155 for 30 min)
6 lbs Extra Light Dry Malt

Hops
1 oz Centennial (60 min)
.75 oz Mt. Hood (15 min)

Others
.5 tsp Irish Moss (15 min)

Yeast
White Labs German Ale/Kolsch WLP029 (with starter)