Recipe development help: Honey Brown Apricot Lager

[Detergent13]

Hi All,
Looking to do a Honey Brown Lager clone this week, but want to kick it up a notch without going completely over board.

Here's my idea -
Do a dark lager maybe something like:
6 lb Pale Malt or Munich
1 lb Honey Malt
.5 lb dark crystal (120L) malt
2 lbs honey

Give it 2 weeks then dice 2 lbs of dried apricots and sterilize them in whiskey, let them soak. and the 2lbs of whiskey apricots + 1 or 2 lbs of puree to the Secondary.
OR
Just use all Puree and maybe soak some oak chips in whiskey and add them to the secondary with the puree.

1) is the whiskey (and/or oak chips) way over the top?
2) with the added sugars should I be able to get the ABV between 7-10%?
3) how should I balance out the sweetness from the honey and fruit? (just don't want it TOO sweet)

Thanks!

 

[FATC1TY]

Hi All,
Looking to do a Honey Brown Lager clone this week, but want to kick it up a notch without going completely over board.

Here's my idea -
Do a dark lager maybe something like:
6 lb Pale Malt or Munich
1 lb Honey Malt
.5 lb dark crystal (120L) malt
2 lbs honey

Give it 2 weeks then dice 2 lbs of dried apricots and sterilize them in whiskey, let them soak. and the 2lbs of whiskey apricots + 1 or 2 lbs of puree to the Secondary.
OR
Just use all Puree and maybe soak some oak chips in whiskey and add them to the secondary with the puree.

1) is the whiskey (and/or oak chips) way over the top?
2) with the added sugars should I be able to get the ABV between 7-10%?
3) how should I balance out the sweetness from the honey and fruit? (just don't want it TOO sweet)

Thanks!

No offense, but this sounds like a mess.

For one, you won't be making a lager in 2 weeks, period.

Your recipe as is, will not finish that low, due to the large amount of honey malt, and the dark crystal. The honey will ferment out completely and leave little to not flavor of honey as well, the honey malt is your best bet for honey flavor, but 1 pound if ALOT of honey malt.

Adding fruit, I would add the puree or fresh cut. Dried fruits aren't going to be the best idea. You can skip the whiskey addition totally.

Adding the fruit, hard to assume where the ABV would be, but you won't be near 7% anyways.. You'd be around 1.048-1.050 at BEST with that grain bill and honey. Assuming you manage to mash very very low with an attenuative yeast, 1.010 would seem plausible.. That barely gives you 5% ABV if you are concerned with that.

Have you ever made a lager before? I would assume you haven't based on your recipe.

What hops are you going to use?? With that much honey malt, and crystal malts, totally close to 16% of your grain bill, you'll have a higher FG and a very sweet beer. Adding fruit will only make it worse.

 

[sptaylor70]

1. Probably. Doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. It's your beer, after all, and you can do what you like.

2. Right now, ignoring fruit, you would need to add about two pounds of cane sugar to push your ABV over 7%. So you need to get about two pounds of sugar from your fruit.

3. You have a fair bit of honey malt, right now, and you will have lots of fruit, so it's going to be fruity sweet. Your SG (what I calculate using TastyBrew) to get to 7% ABV should be above 1070. So I think that you'd want at least 15 IBU to keep it from being cloyingly sweet, and probably closer to 25 IBU (or more).

 

[Detergent13]

No offense, but this sounds like a mess.

Yeah, I think you're right. That's why I came here.
I'll probably just do a kit like this (http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/honey-brown-ale-extract-kit.html)
and add the Apricot puree to the secondary.

Hows that sound?

1) if I add some Sugar&Malt to raise the ABV (plus the fruit) what else should I add to balance the recipe?

 

[TwinsBrewers81]

Yeah, I think you're right. That's why I came here.
I'll probably just do a kit like this (http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/honey-brown-ale-extract-kit.html)
and add the Apricot puree to the secondary.

Hows that sound?

1) if I add some Sugar&Malt to raise the ABV (plus the fruit) what else should I add to balance the recipe?

It's a good kit. I've done it before. If your adding more sugar/malt the only way to balance it would be more hops...remember tht browns should be a bit malty and if you keep adding highly fermentable sugars your going to have a dry, thin brown. To each there own...

 

[FATC1TY]

The brown sounds fine, if you are hellbent on adding fruit to secondary.

I'm not sure the reason to raise the ABV, unless you are just wanting a big beer to get your hammered, which incase you might not care what it taste like.

I would leave the ABV alone, from your posts, I can only assume you are a pretty new brewer, and have no idea about balancing out a beer in making it bigger, or smaller.

If you raise the ABV, you will thin the beer out if you don't make a bunch of changes.

Brew the recipe as is, and if you want fruit, then figure on 1# per gallon, ATLEAST, to get some flavor from apricots.

 

[Detergent13]

The brown sounds fine, if you are hellbent on adding fruit to secondary.

.., from your posts, I can only assume you are a pretty new brewer, and have no idea about balancing out a beer in making it bigger, or smaller...

...

Brew the recipe as is, and if you want fruit, then figure on 1# per gallon, ATLEAST, to get some flavor from apricots.

Sage advice sir, and true. thanks.

 

[FATC1TY]

No problem.. Hate to see someone want to toss it all in and hope for the best early. We've all been there, trust me!!!

My first advice would be to brew a beer, or style, and do it plain jane. No frills, no fruit or anything. See how it comes out "as is".. then tinker with it. Try a different yeast that might give you what you think you might like. Try some dry hopping, or adding fruit, or cocoa nibs, etc.


That said, some of us ( me included ) are just prone to do whatever the hell we want. After all, it's just 5 gallons of beer. It's not super expensive in some cases, and isn't the end of the world. We will add until it sucks and then learn.

With that- if fruit is your calling for a beer. Try it out with the brown. Or brew a really light blonde, or pale ale. A blonde with some light hopping to around 25-35 IBU's would pair great with anything from strawberries, apricots, pears, oranges, lemon/limes, watermelon, pineapple, peaches..

Some fruits are more prone to give flavors and others take a TON to even know it's there. I'm not a fruit addition guy, so I would advise to search around and seek out those that have here.