I just started with all grain and received a pound of organic buckwheat raw honey from a friend. It is black, earthy, and not as smooth as clover honey. I would like to pair this with a darker ale added at the end of the boil. Any suggestions on a nice NB all-grain kit that this would be compatible with would be appreciated. P.S. The fun of this is tasting raw product and trying to figure out what it will become and not what it is. Thank you for any guidance. PPS I hope this is the correct forum for feedback.
If you want to taste the honey, add it in secondary or wait until after primary has slowed down. I think it would go well with a rye IPA (or pancakes).
A nice big IIPA worked well for me with that
Dunno if you wanna hear this, but I think the best idea is to make a mead with it. I did an experiment last year with several different types of honey. My Homebrew club overwhealmingly loved teh Buckwheat mead the best.
Going to need more than 1lb of buckwheat honey for a mead.
[quote=“Baratone Brewer”]Going to need more than 1lb of buckwheat honey for a mead.[/quote]Could make a half-gallon batch, but probably not worth the effort or the time. I would keep it for tea and pancakes and enjoy it’s intensity raw.
I want to add this to a beer recipe. One of the aspects of adding honey is that it adds aspects that I don’t think really equate to a sweetness. I’m always amazed at how the addition of yeast and the conversion of the sugars can create so many different flavors. Love this hobby. Like I’ve said before I’m having more fun than an old fat man should be allowed to have. Thanks for the feedback.
[quote=“flytyer”]I want to add this to a beer recipe. One of the aspects of adding honey is that it adds aspects that I don’t think really equate to a sweetness.[/quote]I’ve made a fair amount of beer with honey and when I’ve used small amounts of something special, like Tupelo, the end result has never been as good as the honey consumed in a way that really allowed the flavor to come through (like in tea or on a waffle or in a peanut butter sandwich). If you’re determined to make beer with it, a lb of honey isn’t going to add a whole lot of character to a 5-gal batch, so you might consider adding it to just one or two gallons once primary is complete (in a separate fermenter) - you’ll kick off a second round of fermentation, but it won’t be intense enough to scrub out all the aromatics, especially if you don’t heat the honey before adding it.
If you add it to the fermenter at high krausen a day or two in you will be able to get more flavor and aroma out of it than if you add it to the boil or even to boil out. Of course many people would state the increased risk of infection doing it this way but for my IIPA I just dumped in a pound of honey straight from the bottle then added a bit of hot water to rinse out the rest and added that too. I was shooting for something like hopslam which uses honey and it turned out alright, it was a bit sweet but I think that was more a yeast issue than a honey one. I think it could be an interesting late addition to a lot of things. I know some people use it their Saison’s and it is a good time of year for that. Otherwise I would dump it into a big beer and bulk age it until winter, maybe a RIS or Barleywine.
Going to need more than 1lb of buckwheat honey for a mead.[/quote]
Right.
I like the IPA idea. Buckwheat honey is one of the fuller flavored varieties, and would hold it’s own in an IPA.
not if you do a 1-gallon batch.
Last year I brewed an american wheat beer and racked one gallon into a carboy with one pound of clover honey. It took a while to lose the alcohol bite, but it’s really good now.
I’m not sure what I’d do, but I would keep it simple. If you use it in a IIPA or hop bomb I think you may overwelm the character of the honey. Maybe I’d do a sessionable brown ale?
And def add after primary fermentation, keep as much character as possible.
Dan
