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Honey in Beer?

19K views 15 replies 11 participants last post by  beemandan 
#1 ·
I've made one batch of Honey Kolsh and while it was a good beer there was relatively little honey flavor in it. I even added extra to get a stronger flavor and simply ended up adding more fermenting and ending with a stronger end product...not really complaining about that.

I'm just wondering if there might be a trick in getting a stronger honey flavor without the fermentables in some way. I can add grains to add sweetness, but that is a grain sweetness, not honey.

Any ideas?

~Matt
 
#2 ·
Generally, the earlier in the brewing process that you add then honey the less flavor you'll get. All the flavor is driven off during the boil. So try adding your honey late in the boil, or at knockout. You might also consider priming your bottles/keg with honey instead of using malt extract or sugar.

Brian
 
#3 ·
Honey ferments completely out, so having honey character persist is difficult. To address this, creative maltsters have developed honey malt, which requires mashing (all-grain brewing or at least a minimash) which leaves a honeylike character in the beer. It's actually pretty good, but it's not really honey.
 
#8 ·
if you naturally carbonate, most yeast will cease at 20psi, I'm told. As long as you are kegging, you can pull a portion out, warm it, add honey, replace in the keg.

Using less obvious hops, the honey can be notice more, as well.
 
#11 ·
Tried a bottle of Rogue Honey Kolsch this weekend.




I was a little disappointed that it didn't have a stronger honey profile. It's a very mild, light beer. Given that the honey notes are so soft, it weights in at almost 6% ABV. I'm sure it's difficult to have a prominent honey flavor while keeping the ABV's low. On the bottle it says:

"Dedicated to Bees - Situated just across from 40 acres of Rogue hops, 119 Colonies of bees were carefully kept and fed and the honey was uncapped, extracted, filtered and finally infused into a refreshing Honey Kolsch Ale."

"Brewed using 10 ingredients: Rogue Barley Farm Dare & Risk Malts; Wheat, DextraPils & Aciduated Malts; Rogue Hopyard Honey & Wild Flower Honey; Alluvial Hops; Free Range Coastal Water & Kolsch Yeast."
 
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