Sure I believe in first impressions, but I also know that looks can be deceiving. How many times have we all looked at a beer, homebrewed or commercial, and said, “Wow, what a nice looking beer,” only to taste it and be disappointed? How many times have we allowed an expectation to build up as to taste, aroma, richness, bitterness, based on appearance alone? But color and clarity can only tell you so much. You have to taste the beer.

This month’s recipe is a beer that promises one thing and delivers another. But in this case what it delivers is a pleasant surprise.  

Take a look. The head is creamy, off-white, tiny bubbles, constantly replenished by more rising from the bottom of the glass. The beer itself is crystal clear, a ruby-red color, deep-hued with a hint toward blackness.  

Now smell it. Hops, no doubt, noble-type: Saaz? Hallertauer? Yes to both. But something else. Two somethings, actually. A sweetness, not quite cloying, not exactly sugary. Honey, to be exact. And a tart, almost sour fruit aroma that could only be cherries. Now  the color makes more sense.  

Want to taste it? Sure. Go ahead. Crisp and slightly bitter, tart but fruity sweet at the same time. Yeah, there are hops in there, and honey and cherries. Well balanced; none of them are overwhelming. And somewhere back there, among all the other things, there’s malt. Dark malt, but not quite black or chocolate. More than just crystal, though. But how? I’ll let you in on a secret I’ve just discovered. It’s called kilncoffee. It’s a lightly roasted malt, about 170° Lovibond, recently introduced by Malteries Franco-belges, and it does wonders for brews that need to be dark but not really dark and that shouldn’t have a lot of burnt or roasted character. It’s the reason this beer seems darker than it really is. I also use the darkest honey I can find, and if it isn’t dark enough, I wouldn’t be averse to using a little dark candi sugar just for reinforcement.

This is one of those beers that reminds me of an old-fashioned rickety wooden roller coaster. You go up, you come back down. You go around curves, sway side to side, speed up, and then slow way down again. And as you get out of the car, you run to get back in line to get on again. When you open a bottle of this beer, you get hops, then fruit, then hops again. You sip it and you taste sour fruit, then malty sweetness, then hop bitterness, then malt again, then honey, then hops, and then all of a sudden it’s gone and you have to open up another to confirm all those tastes and aromas you think you just went through.

Black Honey Cherry Lager
(5 gallons, extract, grain, and adjuncts)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. medium crystal malt, 60° Lovibond
• 0.5 lb. kilncoffee malt
• 0.5 lb. malted wheat
• 6 lbs. unhopped amber dry malt extract
• 2 lbs. dark honey
• 0.5 lb. dark candi sugar (optional)
• 1.5 oz. Saaz hop pellets (4% alpha acid), for 60 min.
• 1 oz. Hallertauer hop pellets (4% alpha acid), for 30 min.
• 1 oz. fresh whole Hallertauer hops (4% alpha acid), for 30 min. steeping
• 4 lbs. sour black cherries
• 10-14 g. of dry lager yeast or 1 pint (minimum)
   liquid slurry (Wyeast 2278 or something similar)
• 3/4 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step:

Steep the crystal, kilncoffee, and wheat for 30 min. in 3 gal. of 150° F water. Remove the grains and add the extract and honey. Add candi sugar to darken, if desired. Bring to a boil, add the Saaz pellets. Boil 30 min., add Hallertauer pellets. Boil 30 min. Total boil is 60 min. Add the whole hops and the cherries, and steep 30 min. Remove hops and cherries, cool wort. Put steeped cherries in fermenter, add cooled wort along with enough pre-boiled cold water to make 5.25 gal. At 70° F, pitch yeast and gradually chill fermenter to 50° F over the next 24 hours. Ferment at 50° F for three weeks, then rack to secondary, removing cherries. Condition at 45° F for six weeks, prime with corn sugar, and bottle. Bottle age four to six weeks at refrigerator temperature.  

Alternatives:  

All-grain brewers can replace the amber dry malt with 8 lbs. lager malt and 1/2 lb. each brown and Munich malt in addition to the crystal, kilncoffee, and wheat. Mash in 3 gal. at 150° F for 90 min., sparge with 3.5 gal. at 169° F.

Can’t find kilncoffee? If your supplier cannot order some for you, you can, in a pinch, use 1/8 lb. chocolate malt instead, but only steep it for 15 min.

If you want to use cherry juice instead of cherries, add 16 oz. pure black cherry juice to wort with steeping hops. Obviously you won’t need to worry about getting it out.

Use a good, fresh yeast culture, and pitch as big as you can manage. Fermenting and conditioning temperatures are very important to this beer, if you want to taste any of the subtleties of the honey and dark malt.


Reader Recipes

Spontaneous Raspberry
(5 gallons, partial mash)

This is a lambic style that is the result of spontaneous fermentation. It might not work every time. Use yeast if fermentation does not occur within three days.
Peter A. Hearn - Home Brew Mart, San Diego, Calif.
 
Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. flaked wheat
• 1 lb. six-row barley malt
• 4 lbs. wheat malt extract
• 4 oz. two-year-old oxidized Hallertauer hops
   (4.5% alpha acid), for 75 min.
• 8 lbs. frozen raspberries
• 1 cup corn sugar for priming

Step by Step:

Do a mini-mash using a steeping bag with 2 gal. 150° F water for 60 min. Remove bag. Add extract and boil 75 min. with Hallertauer hops. Add to 3 gal. cold water in bucket fermenter. Cover with cheesecloth to keep clean. Put outdoors in a shady place. When fermentation is active, put on lid and airlock. When fermentation is complete (usually two weeks), rack and age two months. Add raspberries and age three more months. Prime with corn sugar.

Far North Pale Ale
(5 gallons, extract with specialty grains)

This is a favorite of mine and my friends. Hope you like it.
Kevin McRee - Anchorage, Alaska
 
Ingredients:

• 6 lbs. Alexander’s pale malt extract syrup
• 1 lb. wheat malt extract
• 0.5 lb. cara-pils malt
• 1 lb. crystal malt, 40° Lovibond
• 1.5 oz. Northern Brewer hops (7% alpha acid), for 60 min.
• 2 oz. Cascade hops (4.1% alpha acid): 0.75 oz. for 15 min.,
   0.75 oz. for 5 min., 0.5 oz. dry hopped in secondary
• 1 tsp. Irish moss
• Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Step by Step:

Steep grains in 3 gal. of 150° F water for 30 min. Sparge with 1 gal. of 170° F water. Add malt syrup and bring to a boil. Add 1.5 oz. Northern Brewer. Boil 45 min. Add Irish moss and 0.75 oz. of Cascade hops and boil 10 min. more. Add 0.75 oz. Cascade and boil 5 min. more. Total boil is 60 min. Top up to 5 gal. Cool to 70° F and pitch yeast.

After primary fermentation rack to secondary and add 0.5 oz. Cascade hops. Ferment to completion and bottle.

OG = 1.060   FG = 1.012