Substituting Honey for Honey Malt

[williamo123]

Going to make a pilsner this week, went to the brew shop and they were out of honey malt, my recipe called for .5lb honey malt, anyone know how much honey would be a good substitute?

6lb Pils tworow
.5lb Carapils
.5lb Crystal 10L
.5lb Honey Malt
.5lb Biscuit Malt

1oz Sazz 5 min
1oz Sterling 5 min
1oz Sazz 20 min
1oz Sterling 20 min

4 gallon batch

 

[david_42]

Won't work. Honey malt is an aromatic malt that smells and tastes like honey, but isn't fermentable. Honey's sugars ferment out leaving very little aroma or flavor.

 

[Brewkowski]

From what I've read, it's not the same at all. The flavor from using honey will mostly ferment out, the honey malt leaves behind a different flavor. You're probably better off using another malt.

 

[williamo123]

Oh well...I don't think I'm going back to the shop so I guess I can just use honey to replace the sugar lost by the half pound less of malt, is there a rough conversion for the honey malt to honey?

 

[Oldsock]

Oh well...I don't think I'm going back to the shop so I guess I can just use honey to replace the sugar lost by the half pound less of malt, is there a rough conversion for the honey malt to honey?

It would depend on your efficiency, but 6 oz should get you close.

Seems like an odd recipe for a pils, most commercial version are pretty close to 100% pils malt (plus some carapils for body/head in some cases). That small amount of honey shouldn't hurt anything, but it probably won't add much character either.

 

[JJL]

You could throw in some melanoiden or belgian aromatic. Looking at your recipe, it might be a good alternative. It's not the same as honey malt, but it might complement your other malts well.

 

[seanmichaleen]

I used 4oz of honey malt in an IPA recently and it's definitely noticeable. The beer finished with a fairly low gravity of 1.010 but has a notable honey sweetness even though there's not much residual sugar left in the beer. I would want to scale back to 2oz of honey malt in my next batch and I'd guess that 8oz in a pilsner will be very dominant.

 

[kzoobrew]

I brewed a Rye Pale Ale recipe in which I originally planned on using honey malt. My lhbs happened to be out, I substituted CaraHell instead. Now the two malts are completely different but there is really no replacing what honey malt provides. Adding honey will dry out the beer and only leave trace floral/fruit flavors from the honey if any flavor is left at all.

My thought is for a pils you have alot going on for the grain bill. You will definitely miss what the honey malt may provide but simplifying may not be a bad thing. Good luck.

 

[LexusChris]

Going slightly against the grain here .. but IMHO ... while honey malt & real honey contribute different kinds of honey flavors, actual honey can add honey flavor to your beer.

Because honey flavors & aromas easily boil out, do not add the honey to the boil. Instead, add it after flame-out, during cool-down or whirlpool. I usually put mine in @ 130-F and stir well to dissolve completely.

For your recipe, without any honey malt available, I would add 1# honey for a subtle hint, 2# for a noticable flavor or 3# if you really want to taste it in there.

Also, try to find pure unfiltered honey. Some of the cheap store brands use corn syrup and other sweetners. Those are apt to leave very little honey flavor as there is not a lot in there to begin with.

Good luck & let us know how it turns out!
--LexusChris

 

[LexusChris]

** just checked your recipe again, and forgot it was a 4-gal batch with 7.5# of grain, so I would probably stick to 3/4# to 2# of honey range **

btw... Honey can vary some on fermentability by weight, depending upon the bees, the variety, etc. Ray Daniels listed honey with an extract potential of 1.030 - 1.035.. so figure 1.033 on average. And remember that is 100% efficiency.

To compute a 'fermentable equivilant'** amount of real honey, multiply your own brewhouse efficiency by 1.037 (honey malt) and divide that by 1.033 (honey) and then mulitply by the quantity of honey malt you are replacing. e.g. @ 70% efficiency, (1.037 * .70)/1.033 = .785 or 78.5%. 78.5% of 0.5 lbs = .4 lbs.

--LexusChris

** not a taste equivilant .. just OG point equiv....