Manuka Honey Lager

[Hamish Jones]

I like the concept but the ones I just tried from boundry road really missed on the execution,

Does any one have a recipe for something like this that is a nice summer sipper and not overdone and sickly like the beer I tried?

[mattd2]

Sounds like a lot of boundry road's efforts, just not quite there. I have not tried it but I have heard good reviews of the white house ale recipe... but American are known for their patriotism.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/09/01/ale-chief-white-house-bee...
I was thinking of trying something really toned down, just a slight hint since the manuka honey flavour is quite strong (and it's damn expensive too!)

[John S.]

EVERY beer by Boundary Road misses on the execution, LOL

[Richard Deeble]

Most honey beers I have tried have actually been really quite dry rather than sickly. Even a spiced beer I made last year that used 10% honey and quite a bit of crystal ended up fairly dry due to how fermentable the honey is. Fullers make an ok golden ale type beer using honey that wasn't too bad. 

I haven't brewed a summer beer with honey but I would brew something like a blonde ale or dryish Pilsner recipe with some hops/malt that will complement the honey. Its a difficult ingredient to brew with because it is easy to lose the character given that is fully fermentable. I wonder whether some of the more sickly beers (Boundary road, Monteiths summer ale) are actually backsweetened to keep more of the character of the honey.

I'd just modify a decent English Golden Ale or German Pilsner recipe. I'd go for a gravity around 1.045 plus or minus a few points  and target a fairly low final gravity. Maybe 86% Weyermman Pilsner Malt ( replace with an Englis Pale Malt for a Golden Ale), 7% Wheat for some head retention and then remaining 7% could be made up with a fairly strongly flavoured honey. I'd vary the mash temperature depending on how low you want the beer to finish and what yeast you are going to use. If you were to go the English route and use something like 1968 I would mash pretty low (65 or 66), perhaps slightly higher with US-05/1056/001. I think it could also go down well with as a lager, in which case I would mash at a fairly low temp too and get it pretty dry.

Maybe 25-35 IBU's of a hop of your choice, perhaps more if you like it with a bit more bitterness. I would probably use something relatively floral and crisp-maybe Goldings for an English style beer or a more noble type hop if you want to do something more along the lines of German Pils. Something like pacifica or hallertau would probably be quite nice in a beer like that.  

I would also avoid boiling the honey, maybe just pasteurise it or add it at knock out if you want to maintain the flavour.

[Hamish Jones]

I shall give that a whirl was thinking about going light on the honey and adding more each time until I get the right taste, cheers

[Mark]

I find the native NZ honeys are very strong in flavour and give an almost smokey flavour when the sweetness has fermented. They can taste a bit like a rauchbier so add judiciously!

[Hamish Jones]

Yeah I think the guys at boundry road eaither had colds or got an extremely good deal on the honey, after one mouthfull it was like drinking straight honey with a sickly taste, shame really as the idea behind something made like this that is spot on really appeals to an afternoon on the deck, maybe they should have called it sickly wicket instead