Using Honey Malt

[unionrdr]

Or how well it was malted. Maybe has to be a light flavored brew to notice it?

 

[frydogbrews]

i made a honey blonde using honey malt and honey. it's carbing now in the keg, but its been a week, so maybe it is decent enough now. i think i used a pound because i tend to do things without thinking them through, it's fun for me. i'll let you know how it tastes.

 

[Judochop]

yeah 3 oz might be about right when the goal is to get some significant honey flavor. I was hoping for just a subtle hint of honey but it is as if I added a full pound or even two of actual honey. it certainly is a cheaper option than buying honey and the flavor is of true honey, not honey like. I had a couple pints last night and the honey flave is starting to mellow a bit. Maybe it will come around. Strange stuff though, how the heck to they do that? I also wonder if there is more than one source for it and if so if there is any variance in potency.

I sampled my Amer. Wheat last night after kegging and the honey malt character is very evident. I don't notice it much in the aroma, or even mid-palate, but it is rather prominent in the finish. It lingers. I'm not sure how much I like it. Of course, this is based on a warm, flat, yeast-clouded sample of the beer at a very young age (2 wks), so...

...I guess I should've just bitten my tongue for another couple weeks and reported back then.

 

[PacificNWBrew]

Hey Judochop, how'd that American Wheat turn out once it aged a bit? I've never used Honey Malt before and I'm trying to get a feel for "reasonable" quantities.

 

[frydogbrews]

the honey blonde that i used a pound of honey malt in turned out awesome. i actually would have preferred more honey flavor. maybe i didn't crush it well or something, but i thought a pound was fine.

 

[cincybrewer]

I used a pound on my honey blond and it was pretty good. A little too sweet for me but everyone else loved it. I'm not sure if it was too sweet because of the honey malt or the fact that my IBU's were so low....I also added a pound of honey after two weeks in the fermenter.

 

[frydogbrews]

did you get any quality honey flavor with the addition in the secondary? mine had 3 pounds of honey in it well after flamout but before pitching.

 

[Irishwrench]

I steeped 4 oz of honey malt and 4oz of caramel malt into a 2.5Gal batch of hard cider. Wife loves it.

 

[cincybrewer]

did you get any quality honey flavor with the addition in the secondary? mine had 3 pounds of honey in it well after flamout but before pitching.

I definitely got aroma but I can't really tell if I got honey flavor from it since I used it in conjunction with honey malt. There is a honey like flavor in the beer and a good amount of sweetness but it's tough (for me) to tell how much came from the malt and how much came from the actual honey.

 

[DustBow]

Actual honey pretty much ferments out almost 100% I think. That's why it's so hard to get honey flavor in brews.

FWIW, I made a honey malt blonde a couple months ago, pretty light grain bill of just 2-row and Vienna, along w/ 6oz honey malt. Personally, I didn't taste all that much sweetness so I think I will bump it up a little next time. I went easy on it the first time around since I had read it was so potent. I want to say the beer was getting better and more "sweetness" was coming thru as it aged, but my wife and neighbors killed the keg too quickly for it to age too long

Steeping some for apefelwein is an interesting idea. I was thinking about throwing some in a hefe too...

 

[Judochop]

Hey Judochop, how'd that American Wheat turn out once it aged a bit? I've never used Honey Malt before and I'm trying to get a feel for "reasonable" quantities.

To be honest, I’m a little baffled by the reports here of brewers using a pound of this stuff and actually liking it. Granted, my beer is (it’s still flowing as we speak) at the lighter end of the size and taste spectrum, being low-gravity and consisting mostly of 2-row, wheat and Munich with nothing else to mask the honey malt… but I only used 3 ounces of the stuff and I thought it was a smidge too intense. Now, the plebian drinkers loved it when I served it on a hot July day, but still just about everybody noted the unusual flavor of the honey malt. (I will go ahead and brag about how fine and clean my ferment was. I am very confident that what was being tasted was indeed the honey malt and not some homebrewy funk.)

If I did it again, I’d probably cut down to 2 oz. I can’t imagine a POUND of it in my particular beer resulting in anything drinkable, much less enjoyable. But maybe it’s a flavor that marries better with darker styles, like a Brown or somethin’. I mean… seriously… go to your LHBS, stick your head in a bucket of low-grade crystal and whiff. Then in a bucket of something more intense like Special B and whiff. Then do the Honey malt. It’s ridiculous, the intensity.

And yes, let's just stop the talk in here about Honey malt and honey having anything to do with each other. The effects of one in beer would be totally different from the other. Closer to opposite than alike, in fact.

 

[richbrew99]

I used a pound in my IPA and it turned out awesome. regular ingredient for my IPA now. I also use a half pound in my wheat beer.

 

[Judochop]

I used a pound in my IPA and it turned out awesome. regular ingredient for my IPA now. I also use a half pound in my wheat beer.

So there you go. Takes all types.

Just to be clear... there's only one Honey Malt out there, right? It's the one made by Gambrinus that folks are talking about here?

'Cause now I'm starting to wonder if it is the Munich 20L in my Wheat that I taste. But jeez... it was only 10-12 ounces of that that I used. Don't know what to think. (I might even be starting to think that the guy at LBHS misread my grainbill and dumped 3 POUNDS of honey malt in my bag.)

 

[cincybrewer]

I wonder if there is much of a difference between mashing the honey malt and steeping it. I'm an extract brewer and steeped 1 lb of it. Maybe if you mash it you get much more sweetness?

 

[frydogbrews]

i steeped mine as well, but i thought that was what you were supposed to do all the time with specialty grains.

 

[unionrdr]

I have read on here that mashing it gives more of that honey sweetness. But I also read not to use more than 8oz of it,or it gets floraly.

 

[passedpawn]

I've used it (AG - mashed) several times. I never thought it was overpowering. I don't think I've exceeded 1/2# per 5g though.

I made a batch of BierMuncher's Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale with it. Came out very nice.

 

[profallout]

Just tried some that I made with 3/4 lbs honey malt in a 5 gallon all grain batch the rest of the grain bill was 2 row. The honey malt was mashed with everything else. I scaled back on my usage because of the experiences on this thread. I was disappointed in the result. No noticeable honey flavors and very very little sweetness. I got it from Austin HBS which I have been happy with so far but... maybe I got plain 2 row. Should there be a noticeable color or aroma from the uncrushed grain? I guess I'll be using the left over couple of pounds next time that I should have used with this last batch and see if it turns out disgustingly sweet.

 

[richbrew99]

So there you go. Takes all types.

Not sure what you mean by "Takes all types". I make my beer for me, if it tastes good I go with it.

 

[Beehemel]

I steeped 4 oz in a honey wheat extract recipe (also using 1 lb of tupelo honey) and it came out very nice. It's all about personal taste. I probably wouldn't use more than a half pound, but there may be a beer some day that I'll try more in.

 

[jfrank85]

I've used it in porters, brown ales, IPAs, and pale ales. I really like it myself.

 

[Judochop]

Not sure what you mean by "Takes all types". I make my beer for me, if it tastes good I go with it.

Maybe I'm misusing the phrase? I meant exactly what you just said; one should brew what one likes to drink. Different brews for different palates.

Sorry if I sounded like a *******.

 

[jfr1111]

My guess is that the malt might not play nice with yeast strains that naturally finish sweet (ie. wy1318) or that have mid to low attenuation properties (ie. basically english yeast). People probably also have varying level of tolerance to the sweetness imparted by crystal type malts: some on HBT will swear that a pound of crystal is overkill in a pale ale while other will happily cram 2 or 3 pounds of the stuff in their brew.

I've used honey malt once in a bitter (4oz I think???), found it gave an unpleasant sweetness to my beer, and gave the rest to the birds outside. They seemed to like it fine.

 

[richbrew99]

Maybe I'm misusing the phrase? I meant exactly what you just said; one should brew what one likes to drink. Different brews for different palates.

Sorry if I sounded like a *******.

I gotcha... no prob.

 

[richbrew99]

My guess is that the malt might not play nice with yeast strains that naturally finish sweet (ie. wy1318) or that have mid to low attenuation properties (ie. basically english yeast). People probably also have varying level of tolerance to the sweetness imparted by crystal type malts: some on HBT will swear that a pound of crystal is overkill in a pale ale while other will happily cram 2 or 3 pounds of the stuff in their brew.

I've used honey malt once in a bitter (4oz I think???), found it gave an unpleasant sweetness to my beer, and gave the rest to the birds outside. They seemed to like it fine.

Interesting about matching it with an appropriate yeast. I have been using Pacman Yeast.

 

[DustBow]

Interesting about matching it with an appropriate yeast. I have been using Pacman Yeast.

And Pacman attenuates really well and produces and pretty clean beer, right? I could definitely see the different yeasts being a factor with the honey malt flavor - I wouldn't think you'd want it "muddled" up with a bunch of residual sugars and/or fruity esters.

 

[terrapinj]

i used 8oz in a 5gal ESB recipe with chinook and wlp007 - 85% atten. down to 1.008 and was still too sweet for me and didn't play well with the chinook IMO

 

[richbrew99]

And Pacman attenuates really well and produces and pretty clean beer, right? I could definitely see the different yeasts being a factor with the honey malt flavor - I wouldn't think you'd want it "muddled" up with a bunch of residual sugars and/or fruity esters.

yes it does, I need to do a side by side with another yeast. Soon as I get a 15 gal pot.

 

[mobilecabinworks]

I've been working on putting a extract barley wine together and was thinking about adding 1# of honey malt. Based on what I'm reading here it would probably be right at home steeped in a huge heavy barley wine.

 

[Gwitz]

Id imagine honey malt would be decent in a barely wine. I think a problem is, people think it's a crystal malt and its not. It has diastic power and should be at least partially mashed.

And on a side note, i have a theory that i probably wont ever be able to prove definitively. I've noticed malts like munich and honey become more pungent as they age. Case in point, i just finished off a sack of munich that was over a year old and its aroma was way stronger than the fresh sack i just got. Just a theory but it would explain why my experience with honey malt is that you need .5 to a 1lb to get any effect, and 2lbs isnt at all unpleasant. Gambrinus is an hour away from me, so the honey malt i get is as fresh as its ever gonna get.