brentt03
Well-Known Member
I'm looking at making a honey amber ale. Thinking bout using real honey or honey malt. Which do you guys think would be best???
brentt03 said:My initial thoughts were to use the honey malt, but i ordered some orange blossom honey and was going to add it with 15min left in the boil. Just seems more full blooded to use real honey. Maybe a bit of both?
We will be brewing a 15gal batch and carbing with CO2
Honey will just ferment out. Use Honey Malt. I have some of this on tap and it is quite nice: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/bbd-brewing-kabes-secret-apa-139831/, which I converted to an all grain version. Note that you don't need to put a lot of honey malt in to get the flavor.
What about adding some honey to the keg when carbing?? just a thought...
I am good with using honey malt, have had some good results with it in the past!
Awesome! Thanks for all the help guys
With our setup, after the boil is complete, we pump the wort through a counterflow plate chiller and directly into the fermenter, so I am not sure how we would really add honey at the end. I guess we could just dump it in and then send it through the chiller, only problem is, not a direct way to calculate how much made it to the fermenter
I think ~25% other malts is a bit much. Especially using two amber malts as well as a darker malt.
I thought you were going to brew a 15 gallon batch...
IMO, 1# of honey in 3 gallons of brew is going to be a high concentration. I would also plan on letting it go as long as it takes to taste right. Don't assume that you'll only need a few days for the honey to finish fermenting. I also wouldn't assume that the main brew will be otherwise ready after just a week. Even with a low OG, you're adding a high concentration of honey. It could seriously thin the beer out beyond what you expect.
I think C80 or C120 would get you the roasty edge you're looking for better than the C40 (will be more caramel sweet)... Go with C120 and you could probably drop the extra special malt.
Keep in mind, unless you add the honey when the yeast won't go to town on it (chilled low enough that fermentation won't happen, like in the keg in the fridge) then you'll only have a wisp of a trace of what it had to offer. The yeast will devour most of the sweetness you think you'll get. Unless you stop/kill the yeast before adding the honey that is (stabilizing it like some people do with mead)...
How did it turn out? What are your thoughts on honey malt versus honey?Ok, here is my first shot at a recipe for a honey amber ale....what do you all think?
Batch Size: 3.5gal
Efficiency: 65%
Est. OG: 1.042
Est. FG: 1.009
Est. ABV: 6.5%
IBU's: 39.8
SRM: 17.6
Mash @ 153 degrees
Grains
2 Row - 5lbs (2.0 SRM)
CaraAmber - 1lbs (30.0 SRM)
Amber Malt - .35lbs (29 SRM)
Extra Special Malt - .75lbs (130SRM)
Hops
Citra - .25oz (60min)
Amarillo - .35oz (20min)
Zythos - .35oz (10min)
Yeast
WLP001
I also plan to add 1lb of Orange Blossom Honey, 1 week after fermentation to the fermenter, let it sit for 3-4 days, then keg.
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