Honey Amber Brewday

I decided to take a quick break from brewing some funky beers in my brett experiment to make a beer for the fall.  Not wanting to go the pumpkin route (and especially not this early in the year), I needed something else.  After passing a local honey stand at the Logan Square farmer's market, I decided to put together a simple beer with the honey.  I put together an amber recipe and then went to get the honey.  The place is called Chicago Honey Co-op and happens to be fairly close to me in the city.  Luckily, they also brewed beer and were interested in what I was doing.  Hopefully this turns out alright so when I drop off a couple bottles I do not disappoint them too much.

Honey Amber


Batch Size: 5 gallons
Original gravity: 1.065
Boil Time: 60 minutes
Mash: 60 minutes

9.25 lbs Marris Otter
1.0 lb Munich
0.75 lb Crystal 40 L
0.50 lb Crystal 120 L
0.75 lb Honey Malt
1.5 lbs Local honey

0.5 oz Centennial @ 60 min
1.0 oz Mt. Hood @ 30 min
1.0 oz Williamette @ 10 min

0.5 tsp Irish Moss
0.75 tsp Yeast Nutrient

Yeast: American Ale

Water Profile: Chicago

Mashed in with 4 gallons of water at 152 degrees F for 60 minutes.  Uneventful mash, which was nice considering that I was having some trouble with my last couple.  Collection 6.52 gallons of wort after a batch sparge and boiled for 60 minutes with the included hop additions.  Collected around 5 gallons and pitched my yeast starter.

Brewed: 8/24/13

8/30/13 Added around a pound and a half of the honey to primary fermentation as it was settling down.  Honey was particularly floral, will see if this will help.  Hoping that the addition to the primary fermentor will allow more of the honey character to come through.

Bottled:

Tasting: