For Daab

[iowalad]

I have decided to give a honey ale my yearly try.

Last year I went with:

3.3 kgs MO
.25 kgs Medium crystal
.45 kg honey
30 g Challenger 8.0% AA 60 minutes

estimates of
OG of 1051
FG of 1013
IBU = 35 using beersmith/Tinseth

Mash temp at 67C

Yeast: Wyeast 1275 (starter just started)

I will be using 1028 Wyeast this year and am thinking of upping the honey by about 50% as I did not get much honey flavor. Also for hops I will probably just use whatever scraps I have laying around!

I plan on adding the honey after primary fermentation.

Oh and if I come across some chocolate I may chuck it in as well!

[delboy]

You might need to tweak that recipe, like all great conniseuirs of chocolate honey beers DaaB wouldn't touch it unless it also contained a large healthy dollop of peanut butter

Seriously though honey beers are hard, they all start of with honey flavour and end up with virtually none.
I know most people wouldn't advocate this but if it was my beer i'd bung the honey in after primary fermentation to try and retain some of the flavour and aroma. If it was honey from a beekeeper you would be risking getting a wild yeast but with the shop bought stuff i think the dangers are overplayed.
Good luck with it

Edit: On closer reading i see thats exactly what you intend to do , what can i say great minds think alike

[mysterio]

Looks good... what kind of honey?

[flytact]

Isn't honey naturally sterile?
You could thin it out with some beer racked after primary fermentation and add a camden tablet. That would take care of any wild yeast.

I've never tried this and have never had any luck with retaining honey flavor. It just turns in to an alcohol booster.

[oblivious]

Isn't honey naturally sterile?
You could thin it out with some beer racked after primary fermentation and add a camden tablet. That would take care of any wild yeast..

Not sure about that, it a bacterial static agent as in it will prevent growth but wont kill them and once dilution this action is lost

[iowalad]

Not sure about the hone to be honest - bought it at the local farmers market. The guy who used to supply me with honey passed away last year.

I assume it is Clover honey but for all the investigation I did it could be honey from Walmart bunged into an old fashion jar!

Brewed this yesterday. Everything went smooth enough. Put the fermenter in a larger cool box with water and ice and got things colder tan anticipated so need to warm things up a bit (although hard to tell as I measure the temp of the water in the cool box not the actual wort/beer).

Flytact - my prior experience was similar. Maybe I need to up the amount of honey but fear the beer getting to thin. Maybe I should look into mead or braggot!

[subsub]

Nice one Iowalad hope it turns out ok. Mmmm love honey beer but it goes far too quickly in my abode

[Vossy1]

You might need to tweak that recipe, like all great conniseuirs of chocolate honey beers DaaB wouldn't touch it unless it also contained a large healthy dollop of peanut butter

[iowalad]

Cracked this keg tonight and must say I am pretty pleased with the results.

I only went with bittering hops but the beer has a pleasant slightly flowery aroma and a nice dry finish. Very please indeed. I think it is overly lively today as well so have high hopes that it will improve with time.

[mysterio]

Good result!

[flytact]

Nice job! Are you getting anything from the honey? Or is this a question to be answered the following morning?

[maxashton]

454gm of honey is probably not enough to get any honey flavours. I've made 1g batches of mead with more than double that and not really been bowled over by the honey flavour.

What kind of honey are you using?

[scarer]

Priming the bottles with honey seems to give good results from a recent tasting I went to

[maxashton]

That sounds pretty ideal, actually. No primary fermentation to take the flavour away, plus it's going into a sealed environment immediately!