Anyone ever tried Honey Beer ?

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

pvt_ak

Budding Brewer !
Joined
Sep 8, 2016
Messages
2,012
Reaction score
621
Location
North Leicestershire
14g Golding type hops
4.5l water
Calsberg lager yeast
Nutrient
454g honey

Recipe from a book.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
14g Golding type hops
4.5l water
Calsberg lager yeast
Nutrient
454g honey

Recipe from a book.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi i have 10 kg of honey coming this week , i will use half for Orange Mead some i will jar, and i have started looking for a Belgian malt honey beer recipe. I will have a crack at it if i get a decent recipe, The one of yours above seems light on Ingredients ?
 
Hi i have 10 kg of honey coming this week , i will use half for Orange Mead some i will jar, and i have started looking for a Belgian malt honey beer recipe. I will have a crack at it if i get a decent recipe, The one of yours above seems light on Ingredients ?



Yeah I did think looked simple but taken direct from a book. It states old and popular so I wonder if simple because a very old recipe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Yeah I did think looked simple but taken direct from a book. It states old and popular so I wonder if simple because a very old recipe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wonder if its one of those two day and drink beers like these African tribes make ?:lol:
 
[emoji3] Lol - just been searching for other recipes , does seem a little lite !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The only fermentable is the Honey (not even a pound ) flavor a few hops , i think if you dissolved a couple of teaspoons of honey in a pint of weak hop tea and swigged it you would get a basic idea of what this would taste like yuk Theres no grain or malts , but years back they made some strange brews i am look to replicate a original Roman Mead. :whistle:
 
What was your recipe ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Havent made it yet i have two gallon of mandarin mead fermenting going to make more orange mead next week , looking for a old roman recipe then i will have a go at a gallon, just checked about the honey beer the flavor comes from honey malt ,honey is just another fermentable like suger , so its an expensive fermentable for no flavor ?
 
I've got a Joes ancient mead on the go.

1.6k honey
1 orange
25 rasins
1 clove
pinch allsoice
1 tsp bread yeast
4.5 L water

It gets some great reviews
 
These kind of things were popular certainly in the 18th century and into the nineteenth. The only ones that I know of to survive into modern times seems to be `ginger beer' and `elderflower champaigne'. I have a recipe for spruce ale which was apparently very popular - basically hops + spruce tips + molasses + water. Haven't had the courage to try it though...
 
I have made 2 honey beers, the 1st was a 23L kit that I added a jar of honey in place of half the sugar which was fine but there was barely a hint of honey. The second was an all grain half grain half honey (2.5Kg each) I did everything to try to get as much sweetness as possible but it still was totally dry (FG 1.002) and I find honey gives it a very medicinal flavour without the sweetness (that could be just me) and this is the only beer I ever made that was not nice at all.
 
I've made a light mead from 850g honey in 4.5L fermented with a wine yeast (d47) and it was very tasty but finished at 1.000 sg so isn't sweet other than a delicate orange honey flavour from the orange blossom honey. Also it didn't carbonate, but I got busy so probably left it too long and too much yeast had settled out.

My 2 concerns with your recipe are that with only 454g honey it'll be very mild tasting and it will finish dry so hop bitterness will likely be pronounced. Does the recipe say to boil like a normal beer? I'd probably only add hops St the end of the boil and/or dry hop for flavour and minimum bitterness.

Good luck, a hopped mead is on my list. Havoc meadery in Vermont does a "bitter bee" hopped mead which is meant to be awesome.
 
My 2 concerns with your recipe are that with only 454g honey it'll be very mild tasting and it will finish dry so hop bitterness will likely be pronounced. Does the recipe say to boil like a normal beer? I'd probably only add hops St the end of the boil and/or dry hop for flavour and minimum bitterness.
.

Yeah , I think 454g honey plus hops will be dry and bitter and little body. I've just put a normal mead from mexican honey (not orange blossom ..a bit darker..from Paynes Bee Farm) and to get a mead that is off dry to medium I've used 1.7kg honey plus Lalvin 71B yeast which should take it to 14%abv if I get the staggered nutrient additions right.
Last year I did a dry mead (equivalent of 1.4kg honey in a 4.5ltr batch..actual batch was 19ltrs)...was meant to be off dry but I mistakenly used EC1118 which can go to 18% and ended up with 19 litres of 0.998 FG thin acidic mead with little body...though it may turn into something good after a couple of years aging.
If you are using a beer yeast with lower alcohol tolerance you might be able to get a lower alcohol 8-10% mead but with some residual sweetness and honey flavour left over but expect you'll need more than 454g honey...I've been using this mead batch calculator this year as a guide.
http://www.meadmakr.com/batch-buildr/

Only honey beer I've done and was successful was an attempted copy of Fullers honeydew...basically a normal pale ale but with 0.5kg organic honey for a 23ltr batch which resulted in a normal pale ale but with a hint of honey flavour....quite nice.
 
Yeah , I think 454g honey plus hops will be dry and bitter and little body. I've just put a normal mead from mexican honey (not orange blossom ..a bit darker..from Paynes Bee Farm) and to get a mead that is off dry to medium I've used 1.7kg honey plus Lalvin 71B yeast which should take it to 14%abv if I get the staggered nutrient additions right.

Last year I did a dry mead (equivalent of 1.4kg honey in a 4.5ltr batch..actual batch was 19ltrs)...was meant to be off dry but I mistakenly used EC1118 which can go to 18% and ended up with 19 litres of 0.998 FG thin acidic mead with little body...though it may turn into something good after a couple of years aging.

If you are using a beer yeast with lower alcohol tolerance you might be able to get a lower alcohol 8-10% mead but with some residual sweetness and honey flavour left over but expect you'll need more than 454g honey...I've been using this mead batch calculator this year as a guide.

http://www.meadmakr.com/batch-buildr/



Only honey beer I've done and was successful was an attempted copy of Fullers honeydew...basically a normal pale ale but with 0.5kg organic honey for a 23ltr batch which resulted in a normal pale ale but with a hint of honey flavour....quite nice.



Thanks - good link [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I've just done a very similar mead to Zephyr's and it's nice. Finished at 1.000 from 1.050. I carbed after it finished but I'd left it outside in the cold and too much yeast had settled out.

It has a light body but gets aroma from the honey. I think for a straight mead, you've got to use speciality or single flower honey and you get residual aroma from the blossom that went into it. So goes the theory anyway.

There's a meadery in Peckham called Gosnells who do sparkling meads, and mine is similar in flavour and body to theirs. They do a hopped version with Citra I think.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top