Wanting my honey ale to taste like honey!

[Gnarbacon]

Tomorrow I will be brewing the very popular White House honey ale. I realize that the honey added in this brew is nothing more than just a sugar for the fermentation, producing little to no honey flavor from using it. I've decided I want to try and give this beer a sweet/honey kick to it. The recipe calls for adding the honey 5 mins before flameout but I'm thinking of adding it after flameout or maybe even during fermentation. Has anyone tampered with this recipe to try and create a honey flavor? Or any beer for that matter? Any tips would be greatly appreciated! :rockin:

 

[Chadwick]

I'm not familiar with that recipe, however, I do know that you can get more honey flavor by adding the honey to the primary. Honey added to the boil has never yielded much flavor for me. You could also use honey malt. I have 3lbs of this stuff on hand for a brew I plan on making soon. I've been told that it is a very good way to impart that honey flavor into a brew. Once I get around to using mine, I'll be able to provide more insight. For now, this is the best advice I can offer.

 

[westo2]

Honey Malt will give a much sweeter/honeylike flavor than honey, as the honey is almost totally fermentable.

 

[wilson42203]

+1 on the honey malt. I have used it as a steeping grain in a honey blonde extract batch. It worked great with the pound of honey in the recipe. Austin Homebrew says you can make it up to 10% of your total grain bill, but I think that would be way too much. A little goes a long way with that stuff.

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[djt17]

I am 1/2 way through a keg that I used 8 oz of honey malt. Has a slight honey flavor; next time I will try 16 oz.

 

[pelipen]

I've done both. No question honey malt is the way to go even over honey direct into primary.
8 ounces is usually enough for me, but if you want a kick, go for a full pound. I used 12 oz in a cream ale, and it was well up front.

 

[70ls1nova]

I have had success when adding it to the secondary. Definitely use the honey malt, then, If you plan on racking to secondary, warm up the jug of honey in hot water, put it in the secondary, then rack on top of it.

 

[Gear101]

I find that honey, makes a really really dry beer. Honey malt achieves more of the honey favor.

 

[palys2]

I made a 5 gal batch of honey cream ale that had 1 lb of honey malt, 1 lb of orange blossom honey at flameout, and primed the bottles with honey (instead of corn sugar). It had a nice honey flavor without being overpowering.