I’m thinking about doing a honey blonde ale soon. I’m working on the recipe. But What I’m Wondering Would Everyone Add CARAPILS For Head retention?
More information with the grain bill I’m looking at for this 2.5 gallon batch. this will be an all grain batch. What I have so far is
3.25 lbs 2 row,
4 Oz carapils,
8 Oz honey malt.
And .5 lb honey.
With the efficiencies I have gotten from my partial mash set up the og should be around 1.042 ish
I have heard that wheat can aid in head retention.
Carapils and honey malt are just types of crystal malt from what I understand. I could have been provided incorrect information. If that’s the case, 16.7% of the grain bill is crystal malt which is pretty high
When I mentally convert that to a 5 gallon batch it seems like a lot of honey malt, but not grossly too much. I don’t think the actual honey will bring much other than sugars. If it were me I would drop the actual honey, cut the carapils in half, and then adjust my gravity back up by increasing the two row.
+1. I’ve always added a bit of wheat for head retention or to just “fluff” it up some in general.
FWIW, my last blonde ale had 7% honey malt and was too much for me. I will be dialing it back to 5% for my next attempt.
I’d cut the honey malt in half, for sure. That would still make it a rate of 8 oz/5 gallons which is very noticeable. That stuff gets cloyingly sweet if you use too much.
I would but my system has a limit of around 4 to 5 lbs.
I have a 2 gallon water cooler to do the countertop partial mash method that Chris Colby has talked about
Have you had a problem with head retention in the past? if not why ‘fix’ something with carapils that isn’t really a problem anyway?
No I havent. But on the few recipes that I have built. This is only my 7th batch and the second one that I have designed myself it’s become a habit because I use it in my honey wheat beers
Nothing is wrong. But feedback wise, it looks like reducing the honey malt and reducing or cutting the carapils is a good idea. Build back your gravity by upping the two row.
I would ditch the Carapils and chop the honey malt in half. And/or take a look at my honey wheat recipe.
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=77133&p=722621&hilit=+honey+rye#p722621