[homebrewdad7]

A silly idea occurred to me not long ago - how much crystal malt can I put into a beer? Today's post is about taking a good thing to silly extremes. This is the first in what I hope will be a fun little series of posts where I push the limits of various aspects of brewing.

[dmtaylor]

Wow, interesting!  I'm sure the Extra Dark Crystal is plenty roasty, I believe that for sure.  Very curious to see where the final gravity comes out, as well as perception of sweetness and body.

[reverseapachemaster]

I know somebody who made the mistake of making a beer with 100% honey malt.

Hopefully you will have better luck.

[homebrewdad7]

Well, it's a 1.75 gallon batch.  Five pounds of grain, a half ounce of hops, about 75 grams of DME are all I have invested in it.  If it's an absolute failure... hey, I know for sure that 90% is too much!

I was really surprised at how roasty it was.  This wort had a pretty unique flavor, that's for sure.

[kramerog]

Homebrewdad, could you change your link to http: from https:?  Using https: makes my browser think you are a scammer.

[69franx]

Very interesting. By the end, you had me hoping to hear results despite the disclaimer that it would be a couple weeks. I look forward to hearing the outcome

[homebrewdad7]

Link changed.  Though that seems like really odd behavior - the entire point of https is to protect you from scammers. 

The https comes from the fact that I was logged in to BU when I copy/pasted the link.  I have the site set so that if you are logged in, everything goes on https so as to prevent people from, say, intercepting any data you enter. 

Sorry, I will post results as soon as I have them!  I do have airlock activity, suggesting that SOMETHING is happening. 

[denny]

I know somebody who made the mistake of making a beer with 100% honey malt.

Hopefully you will have better luck.

Me, too.  It turned out surprising well.

[stpug]

:cry:

[homebrewdad7]

The variety of feedback I am getting on this is really intriguing.  I'm being told that it won't convert - even after I quoted the Briess web page where they say conversion already happened in the grain, been told that I need to add amylase to make this work (utterly contrary to the entire point of this silly experiment), that it will be nasty, that it sounds delicious.  Heck, now I have two references to 100% honey malt beers with different opinions of them.

I'm not going to try to evaluate this as a "good" beer - that is too subjective.  My goal for calling this an experiment a success or failure is based on pure numbers - did I end up with reasonable attenuation (i.e. finished below 1.020).  If so, I will certainly give it a subjective evaluation (i.e. see if it tastes nasty or not), but if it is a success, I plan to bring a few bottles to HBC this year. 

Sorry, I hate wait, too.  I've had a lot of fun with this, and hated to just sit on the idea; I wanted to share it while it was fresh.  I'll publish my findings as soon as I can!  I followed up on the Red X/Irish red, I promise to not leave you hanging here!

[stpug]

Sorry, I was trying to be funny.  I'm terrible with that in real life, I don't know why I try in type

I look forward to your impressions of this experiment when it concludes.

[homebrewdad7]

No need to apologize, I think I took it in the spirit it was intended.   

[MaltMaker]

Maybe not directly inline with your intent but have you seen these threads?

Testing fermentability of crystal malt:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=208361

Are crystal malts completely unfermentable?
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=9465.0

Crystal Malts Reduce Fermentability: Fact or Fiction?
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/crystal-malts-reduce-fermentability.html

[homebrewdad7]

Very interesting reading, to be sure!

[denny]

Maybe not directly inline with your intent but have you seen these threads?

Testing fermentability of crystal malt:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=208361

Are crystal malts completely unfermentable?
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=9465.0

Crystal Malts Reduce Fermentability: Fact or Fiction?
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/crystal-malts-reduce-fermentability.html

This might be interesting also....http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Homebrewing/FAQs.htm#a