[quote=“StormyBrew”][quote=“Ken Lenard”][quote=“StormyBrew”]To the OP: I brewed this as an all grain by converting the extract amounts to grain and I added my one pound of honey at flame-out. Mine does have a high-alcohol “note” to it because my efficiency is relatively high. My OG was 1.080, FG 1.020, ABV apprx 8%. :shock:
The color of mine in nearly the same (slightly lighter) as what you posted above but no where near as light at NB’s picture. I consider it a “Honey Brown” ale. Over the past 8-weeks, it has become smoother and much easier to down a pint. That being said, I’m a light weight and do get a buzz on one-pint :oops: so mine is not a session beer (well, very short session perhaps).
cheers.[/quote]
Stormy: I think it’s even possible that if you brewed this in the 5% range, you would still get a hot, jet-fuel character when the beer is young. There is just something about a beer with added honey or sugar that takes some time to mellow. I wish I had a scientific explanation for it but I don’t. Here’s a story: Years ago I was at a Brew-On-Premise with a buddy and we were making a “pilsner” of sorts. This recipe had [x amount] of dextrose to boost the gravity. My buddy was measuring it out and said, “If some is good then more is better” and he added MUCH more dextrose than he was supposed to. Almost every beer we made at this place was outstanding but this one was hot jet fuel and even though it mellowed a little bit, it was never really “good”. The honey beers I used to make were not 8%… probably closer to 5 and I still had that hot, boozy character. Also, I don’t bother with honey anymore because I don’t understand the point of it. It’s almost 100% fermentable so the chances of getting any amount of honey flavor is pretty much zero. Plus you have this lag time before the beer is smooth. It can add a crispness to a beer so if that’s important to the brewer, I could see it but I just don’t like the other drawbacks.
Ken,
now that you mention it, I do recall my past, low-alcohol honey-ales as also having that hot, boozy character. I mainly brewed this one for my wife as she’s fond of a particular honey-brown ale that is usually found near the BMC at 711.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a nice brew but if I brew it again I’ll omit the honey and plan on a producing a nice English Brown with a tad more hops. TBH, I think it should have be an English Brown from the get-go. [/quote][/quote]
A little JW Dundee Honey Brown?
This type of conversation makes my head hurt because there are a lot of variables. Do you want your beer to taste like “honey”? If so, adding honey to the brewpot is probably not going to cut it because i’s 100% fermentable and it’s delicate character will get burned off by the heat of the BK and the primary activity will scrub out anything that’s left. I don’t think honey malt is the answer but it will make your beer kind of sweet. But I don’t think honey malt is really very much like honey and using too much (like more than 4 ounces in 5 gallons) can make your beer nasty. Finally, I could see making a beer w/o honey, fermenting it, kegging it, chilling it and then adding some amount of heated honey to the keg where it would be too cold for the residual yeast to metabolize it. That would make your beer taste like honey but I would have no idea how much to add. Bottom line… I don’t brew with honey anymore. 8)