Honey porter feedback... how much honey?

[rhys333]

Hi All,

I've decided to brew a honey porter this weekend and appreciate feedback on how much honey is going to be needed to get some honey character coming through without it becoming dominant or too high in abv. I usually use one pound of wildflower in lighter beers, but I'm thinking I need to step it up a notch here.

The plan is to start with the following base beer, and then add a quantity of buckwheat honey directly to the primary fermentor. I chose buckwheat because I think its strong flavor should pair well with darker beer. One pound is my starting point, and will be about 10% of fermentables. Will this be enough for a porter, or should I add more?

HONEY PORTER. 1.050. 5.5 gal. 27 IBU.
73% 2 Row
10% Brown malt
8% C80
5% Black patent
4% Flaked barley
Chinook hops @ 60
Wyeast 1968

Then:
1 lb (or more) Buckwheat honey added to primary

 

[BrewMan13]

I think your plan is good as is. I would stick to 1lb, since I think it's plenty of honey unless you're going for a pseudo-braggot style. Personally I'm gun-shy about using >1lb of added sugars ever since I used 2lbs maple syrup in a dark ale and it came out very poor.
I do like the selection of buckwheat honey as well. And as it's so bold, sticking to 1lb again makes sense.

 

[rhys333]

I think your plan is good as is. I would stick to 1lb, since I think it's plenty of honey unless you're going for a pseudo-braggot style. Personally I'm gun-shy about using >1lb of added sugars ever since I used 2lbs maple syrup in a dark ale and it came out very poor.
I do like the selection of buckwheat honey as well. And as it's so bold, sticking to 1lb again makes sense.

Thanks for the feedback on this. I was tempted to increase to 1.5 lbs, but based on your experience I'm going to stay at 1 lb. Better to have muted honey character than a braggot-esque beer I don't want to drink.