Honey Brown 1.0 Misfire

Over the years I’ve made a variety of Honey Brown beers.  They tend to drink well at most times of the year and are quite food friendly.  Also, they tend to be less intimidating for those new to craft beer.

Efficiency was not as expected on the beer, requiring some last minuted adjustments.  These were reasonably easily handled, but changed the resulting beer somewhat.

This beer was quite good but as I refined it further I learned a valuable lesson in simplicity.  While Honey Malt is not the same as regular Crystal Malt, it is similar in some respects.  I found that there is little need to add both to a beer.  Now if I want to darken the beer more I find it much easier to add a pinch of Black Patent or Chocolate Malt in addition to the Honey or Crystal.  As well, for such a simple beer there is no need for two bittering additions, but I had wanted to finish the hops that I had on hand.