How to make a honey beer sweet and not too dry

[HirosStorageUnit]

I was going over my brewing log book and came across an old honey brew I did a few years back. My wife really wants a sweet honey flavored brew.

Problem is everytime I have a honey beer I have made a very dry beer. I am after a brew that is can be medium in body, slightly light in color, and nice and sweet to the taste. But I DO NOT want a dry beer. I would welcome a high ABV since we seem to like stronger beers in our house.


Is this just a yeast selection issue or is there a few tips that can be done in the process to avoid the dryness.

 

[hoppymonkey]

USe a honey malt for honey flavor. HOney by itself will always be dry.

 

[funkapottomous]

My limited knowledge would suggest adding the honey in secondary after the wort has finished most of it's fermentation, leaving the honey as a flavoring rather than a fermentable.

 

[Germelli1]

Nope, from experience, no matter when you add honey it will be fermented out leaving minimal if any flavor and a very dry beer. The exception would be if you pasturized to stop fermentation, and forced carbonated.

Honey malt however does a great job of adding honey flavor and you can add carapils or the equivalent to keep good mouthfeel.

 

[wpshadowens]

+1 on the Honey Malt.

 

[HirosStorageUnit]

So will the honey malt be enough to give it a a heavy rich honey flavor? We want to try to replicate a honey beer that is very common in her home region of Poland.

 

[Germelli1]

I used a half pound of it in an American amber and the honey flavor was there, but not overwhelming. If you want in your face honey flavor, I would be pretty confident the malt could do it... maybe 3/4-1 pound per five gallons?

The other option would be to brew an insanely alcoholic beer, then adding honey after the yeast have crapped out from alcohol content. You would have some issues if you battle carb though!

 

[ChshreCat]

I'll throw my $.02 behind honey malt as well. I use it in my APA to add just a little interesting flavor underneath the hops. It's good stuff. Plus, you can use a little bit of actual honey when you brew and you don't have to tell anyone that the flavor isn't coming from the honey.

 

[HirosStorageUnit]

I used a half pound of it in an American amber and the honey flavor was there, but not overwhelming. If you want in your face honey flavor, I would be pretty confident the malt could do it... maybe 3/4-1 pound per five gallons?

The other option would be to brew an insanely alcoholic beer, then adding honey after the yeast have crapped out from alcohol content. You would have some issues if you battle carb though!

If I was to do this, would I still be able to bottle carbonate it?

 

[Germelli1]

If I was to do this, would I still be able to bottle carbonate it?

The second option...no.

When do you want this batch ready by? You could always brew and experimental batch or I could send you the recipe I used for the amber ale with honey malt so you have a starting point!

 

[hoppymonkey]

You could bottle carb it if you use honey malt, but not if leave unfermented honey in the bottle. What is the name of the beer she liked in poland? You would be surprised at the clone recipes available online.

 

[JJL]

You can use honey malt to add some honey-like flavoring. Depending on the OG of your brew, your could use up to a pound. I just wouldn't use a full pound in something that has an OG of 1.04 or below (rough estimate). If you want to up the overall sweetness of the beer, add more caramel malt. I'm guessing if this is an amber, you are using some amount of 40L-60L caramel. You could always add an extra pound. Or you could add lactose.

 

[HirosStorageUnit]

You could bottle carb it if you use honey malt, but not if leave unfermented honey in the bottle. What is the name of the beer she liked in poland? You would be surprised at the clone recipes available online.

It is a brewery restaurant called Spiz ( in Wroclaw) and the beer is just honey beer. Mutovy piwo. Great place and they have HOTTIE girls serving for that little bit extra.

But there are many other small brewers that sell some very similar ones in bottles.

Here is a picture a few months back of my wife drinking said beer at Spiz. That was some damn good stuff.

ETA the brew from the tap was 9 ABV IIRC

 

[legasus233]

If you want to increase the chances of a sweeter beer without adding more crystal or honey malts, mash higher, like 154-156. That should leave some of the sweeter malt intact since the higher mash temp doesn't produces as high a level of amalyse enzymes (more easily fermented sugars).

 

[JimRausch]

I also vote for honey malt. I've read posts that indicate that if you want honey flavor from honey, then late in the fermentation process is better, maybe even prime with it. Also, you could do your mash at a higher temp(155-157) to get more long chain nonfermentable sugars, and more malty flavor.

 

[Weezy]

yep, +1 on the honey malt and mashing high.

recommend shooting for 20% of grist in the honey malt for a nice rich flavor.

 

[quincy07]

I just used half a pound of honey malt in an American wheat. It gave the wort a much darker color than I was expecting. I was wanting a golden wheat color but ended up w almost an amber color, if not darker. I steeped half a pound at 155 for 45 minutes. I'm not too worried about the color as long as the honey flavor is present. It's still in primary so I can't say how strong the flavor is though.

Here's a pic of my boiling wort, before extract addition to give you an idea of the color I got from my honey malt, YMMV.

 

[shamfein]

I am replicating the same thing, had a good few honey beers whilst in Poland with my girlfriend (who is Polish) Ciechan is my favourite Miodowe in Poland, i have tried quite a few, Ciechan has a huge honey taste, its literally like drinking beautiful alcoholic honey.

Im trying to replicate it with a kit, i used 2.2kg of honey and primed with more honey, i only bottled it yesterday so its gonna take a while before i can taste it.

looking forward to hearing how yours turns out.