🍺 Top-down Brew: Honey Basil Ale

Recipe Variables

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Variations

For steeped grains plus malt extract:

  • Delete the toasted, wheat, pale ale, and Munich malt lines.
  • For liquid malt extract, add sugar: Liquid light malt extract, 62, 5, 76
  • For dry malt extract, add sugar: Dry light malt extract, 62, 3.5, 96
  • Set the mash efficiency variable to 55% (eff: 55) for steeping.
An even simpler option would be to replace all of the malts with amber malt extract. sugar: Amber LME, 72, 10, 76 or sugar: Amber DME, 72, 10, 96.

The upper limit of basil is .15 ounces per gallon. The metric equivalents would be .75 to 1.12 g/l.

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Results

Notes

The basil is fresh, 1/2 to 3/4 ounces (14 to 21 g) for 5 gallons (19 l), and steeped for 15 minutes at the end of the boil.

The timing for adding honey makes a significant impact. The Homebrewer's Garden recipe calls for boiling the honey in the kettle, with the honey added at the beginning of the boil. The downside is that this results in less honey character and aroma. The alternative is to add diluted, heat-treated honey after primary fermentation slows. See the BYO recipe below for a similar recipe with honey added at fermentation time.

The amount of honey impacts the degree of final honey character. The National Honey Board has conducted research on honey in beer. "At just 10%, honey will have an impact on fermentability, color and pH in the finished beers." Naturally, going above 10% will produce a higher impact on flavor and fermentability. There is a wide range of honey flavor varieties. Take care to choose one that matches your flavor goals. Go local if you want a local character.

The toasted malt could possibly be replaced with Victory or Biscuit malt. Another malt bill possibility to consider is replacing some of the honey with honey malt.

The recommended yeast is American Ale.

The Fishers published a similar, but slightly different recipe in BYO magazine. The key difference is that this one has most of the honey added during fermentation rather than the boiling kettle. The recipe for US/Imperial units follows. 

name: Honey Basil Ale (BYO)
og: 1.062
ibu: 25
malt: Toasted Pale Malt, 2.5, 25, 82.6
malt: Wheat Malt 2L, 3.1, 2, 82.6
malt: Mild Ale Malt, 64.4, 2.5, 80.4
sugar: Honey, 4.3, 10, 69.6
sugarferm: Honey, 25.7, 10, 69.6
hop: Willamette, 90, 5, 60
hop: Willamette, 10, 5, 0
lateboil: Fresh basil, .1
yeast: ale
vol: 5.5
system: US
eff: 75
prime: 2.7, 72

For the metric version: .75 g/l fresh basil, and a priming temp of 22C.

name: Honey Basil Ale (BYO)
og: 1.062
ibu: 25
malt: Toasted Pale Malt, 2.5, 25, 82.6
malt: Wheat Malt 2L, 3.1, 2, 82.6
malt: Mild Ale Malt, 64.4, 2.5, 80.4
sugar: Honey, 4.3, 10, 69.6
sugarferm: Honey, 25.7, 10, 69.6
hop: Willamette, 90, 5, 60
hop: Willamette, 10, 5, 0
lateboil: Fresh basil, .75
yeast: ale
vol: 19 
system: metric 
eff: 75
prime: 2.7, 22

Sources

Fisher, J., and Fisher, D. (1998). The Homebrewer's Garden: How to Easily Grow, Prepare, and Use Your Own Hops, Malts, and Brewing Herbs Storey Books, p. 143.

Fisher, J., and Fisher, D. BYO Brewing with honey

National Honey Board: Brewing with Honey