Beer Forum

Ok, I have started drinking my Honey Brown All Grain from NB. And while it is a good beer, it is not what I wanted it to be. So, I am on the hunt for some info and help.

I think I want to move this toward a light or amber ale, maybe even a blond or cream ale base then add some honey malt to get the honey flavor. I have never used Honey malt before and would like to know how much to use to get a mild to low medium honey flavor.

I would like to keep the grains to:

2-Row
Crystal 40
flaked wheat or barley
and roasted barley

Hops:

Fuggle
Golding
Simcoe
Amarillo

This is where I am starting:

8 lbs. American 2-row
0.5 lbs. American Caramel 40°L
1 lbs. Honey Malt
0.10 lbs. Wheat Flaked
0.2 oz. Simcoe (Pellets, 13.00 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
0.48 oz. Simcoe (Pellets, 13.00 %AA) boiled 15 minutes.
0.50 oz. Simcoe (Pellets, 13.00 %AA) boiled 1 minutes.
Yeast: WYeast 1056 American Ale

So if you could help me from here, that would be great.

Tim

Honey malt really does give a honey flavor / aroma. I'd treat it like crystal - don't use much more than a pound. your recipe looks pretty good to me.
I made a honey brown a few years ago that turned out really well (all the spec grains were steeped). I need to try this one as an all grain, but would probably knock the spec grains down considerably.

8 lb Pale extract
1 lb Gambrinus Honey Malt
.5 lb Biscuit
.5 lb 75L
.5 lb 120L
.25 lb Chocolate
.25 lb Flaked Barley
1 oz Roast Barley

28 g N. Brewer 8.5 60
20 g Goldings 4.8 30
20 g Fuggle 4.7 10

WhiteLabs WLP-001 American Ale / II

26-May-07 OG 1.057
02-Jun-07 2G 1.020
09-Jun-07 Bg 1.010

The other dirty little secret is to use real honey, but don't boil it. It also helps if you use any kind of honey OTHER THAN clover. I used basswood honey in my last honey ale and it was yummy. If you just blend it with a bit of water and heat it up to about 170 F for 10 minutes to kill the nasty bugs, then add to the wort after the boil is completed, or even after primary fermentation is half over, you'll capture 99% the honey goodness in the final beer.

I came up w/ this recipe while thinking about cloning the uber version of Rogue's Honey Cream Ale. I ended up prefering this formulation:

6lbs 2row pale malt (2:1 ratio domestic/belgian)
1lb munich malt
1lb flaked maize
6oz toasted pale malt (toasted for 12min @ 350F)
4oz carapils (dextrin) malt
1.5lb clover honey

.5oz Cascade (7.8%alpha) 60min
.5oz Cascade (7.8%alpha) 30min
.25oz Cascade (7.8%alpha) 1 min

Mashed @ 151 F. I added the honey directly to the kettle for the entire boil and pitched a pretty healthy slug of brewery supplied Wyeast 1056.

Force carbonated @ 2.6 volumes CO2

OG:1.056
FG:1.009

Very light (straw), pretty beer w/ a nice beginning sweetness from the corn/honey/dextrin malt. Nicely attenuated, dry, and well- balanced. Crisp and refreshing.

This might be similar to what you're looking for? Good luck.

Msla

MX1 wrote:
Hops:

Fuggle
Golding
Simcoe
Amarillo

This is where I am starting:

8 lbs. American 2-row
0.5 lbs. American Caramel 40°L
1 lbs. Honey Malt
0.10 lbs. Wheat Flaked
0.2 oz. Simcoe (Pellets, 13.00 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
0.48 oz. Simcoe (Pellets, 13.00 %AA) boiled 15 minutes.
0.50 oz. Simcoe (Pellets, 13.00 %AA) boiled 1 minutes.
Yeast: WYeast 1056 American Ale

So if you could help me from here, that would be great.

Tim

If you're trying to accentuate the Honey malt you might want to use the Fuggles or Goldings for a more subtle earthiness/fruitiness instead of the more aggressive Simcoe.

There aren't any nasty bugs in honey, especially if your an adult. I routinely use nonfiltered unpasteurized honey in beer, braggot, and of course mead and have never had an infection problem or gotten sick. Heating it up kills some of the flavor and its an extra step that is in my experience unnecessary.

I had a batch of mead go bad when I did not heat up. Smelled and tasted like vomit, and was dry as a bone even using "sweet mead" yeast. YMMV.

Ok a few more questions / comments:

If I secondary this with a few pounds of honey, will it kick up into a full blown ferment again. If so, can I just leave it in the primary and add the honey at day 10-15. I usually leave my brew on the yeast for 21 days.

How long can I expect the new ferment to last?

Should I drop the amount of base grain, and increase the mash temp to offset the honey?

This is the new grain bill:

7 lbs. American 2-row
0.5 lbs. American Caramel 40°L
0.25 lbs. Honey Malt
0.10 lbs. Wheat Flaked

2 lbs honey after primary fermentation is done.

0.2 oz. Simcoe (Pellets, 13.00 %AA) boiled 60 minutes.
0.48 oz. Simcoe (Pellets, 13.00 %AA) boiled 15 minutes.
0.50 oz. Simcoe (Pellets, 13.00 %AA) boiled 1 minutes.

Mash Temp 156F 60 min.

Tim