I'm trying an experiment. I want a lightly spiced ale with honey overtones. My wife really likes Belgian ales so I thought about doing this with a Trappist yeast.

what do you think? critiques and comments are encouraged and welcomed!

10.25 lb Pilsner (2 Row)
1.00 lb Wheat Malt,
0.50 lb Caravienne
0.50 lb Honey Malt
1.00 oz Liberty Hops (90 min)
0.50 oz Styrian Goldings (45 min)
0.50 tsp Coriander Seed (Boil 45.0 min)
0.75 oz Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 5.0 min)
0.75 lb Honey (1.0 SRM) (Boil 10 min)
0.75 lb Honey (Kegging)
1.00 lb Sugar,
Trappist Ale (3L starter)

this is for a 5 gallon batch.

Mash in at 148*(90 minutes)
Ferment @ 70*

What do you think?

It all looks good Jim except the 0.75 lb Honey (Kegging). I'd do that only if you are going to naturally carbonate in the keg, otherwise you're going to have a cloying sweetness in the finished beer.

Would you do a secondary? I always seem to lose the honey flavor when I put it in primary.

I would think the only way to keep any honey flavor or aroma would be to add to secondary. Put it in the boil or add to primary and you'll lose both.

I'm with the others, I've only had good success with honey in the secondary. It kicks off a nice slow secondary fermentation but leaves a nice aroma and flavor. Having said that your recipe looks good. Only thing I might suggest is losing the sugar and bumping up the honey to 2 lbs in the secondary, since the sugar doesn't really bring flavor and the honey will thin the beer out just as nice.

I love the idea of using a Trappist yeast with honey. I'm brewing a couple of batches this weekend so I hope you don't mind if I steal...uh...borrow your concept.

Also, it helps the aroma and flavor to "keg prime" with the honey instead of force carbonating it. That's why I asked you that in my first response.

How much honey would I add for keg priming it? never done that!

So 1 lb honey in boil (no sugar)

2 lbs in secondary and...

___? to keg prime

Look good or did I misinterpret something?

I guess my only question is why bother with the honey in the boil at all? It's just bumping up your gravity. How about candi or cane sugar instead? Aren't they cheaper and also accomplish the same thing?

Jim, you'd be in the ballpark of 2.5 atmospheres of C02 with ~ 8oz. by weight in the keg.

Dan raises a good point. Would it work to just add 2lbs of honey in secondary, .5 lb in keg and forgo the honey (and sugar) in the boil?

If I've calculated correctly it will still keep my ABV about the same. ~8.5

From my experience, I'd say to skip the boil portion altogether and add it all in the secondary. It shouldn't affect your ABV as the honey will ferment out either way.

Be careful though since many honeys have quiet a big difference in their sugar content. I'd work out what the right gravity and volume of priming addition would give you the proper CO2, rather than solely relying on weight. Since you are putting this in a keg it might be a great way to experiment and find the right #s. I've wanted to prime with honey before but since I didn't think of trying it in a keg that could take excessive pressure I never tried it for fear of a bottle bomb. If you get it right please let me know.

Will do! I should be brewing this on Sunday.

I've primed with honey and it turned out perfect. I used about 5.2 oz for my 5 gallon batch.

Jim, why not add the honey at the middle of high fermentation? Or at a minimum- at flame out. I recently made a Braggot in which I added the honey at flameout. Plenty of the desirable honey qualities came through after primary. Honey rocks!

I've never brewed for the honey to come through (and be identifiable). I'm trying to find out the best way to do it. I know that even adding at flame out I lost a lot of honey flavor.

I think I'll try it on thr secondary this time. but Rad, I'kk try the recipe again and add at high ferment to do a comparison.

Thanks all for the advice.

If, when all is said and done and tasted you find that the honey flavor didn't come through well, you can add some "Barenjager" to the keg. It's a German honey liqueur. I added the better part of a 750 ml bottle to a 5 gallon keg of hefty hefeweizen and I am really enjoying it. You may want to use less though, mine is not very subtle with the honey flavor. I figure it also bumped the ABV up about 1 1/2 % (or more if some of the sugars fermented out). Barenjager is not a low-budget bump. I figure it about doubled the cost of tis batch. I think it was about $25 a bottle.

Fermented @70* went from 1080-1012!!!!!!!!! (in 5 days!)

Racked to secondary and added two lbs of honey today (boiled in 16oz of water) and fermentation took off again!!!!!

Should I be scared?

Nope should be good. This fermentation will leave just enough of the honey flavor and aroma.

I just tapped my last honey ale and the more I have of them the more I like them.

Enjoy.

Sheldon:

Did you try it with the belgian yeast?

Jim, I just got the belgian into the fermenter, so the answer is no, not yet.

I plan on adding it to the secondary but this is a big beer (triple) so it will probably be a week or two until the primary is finished, if my past belgians are any indication. I'm looking forward to it, though I have no idea when it will be drinkable. I'm sure yours will be good to go before me so let me know what you think. If it comes out tasty I'll ship you off a few for the inspiration.

Cheers,
Sheldon

Sheldon. PM me with your address and we'll set up a trade.