I liked the flavor provided by 3% honey malt. It was just too much of a good thing resulting in domination over the beer. I’m disappointed in the result. I’ll try again using maybe 1%.
I brewed a Firestone Walker 805 clone recipe that called for 7.7% Honey malt. I was scared, but I followed the recipe and was really happy with the resulting beer. I think it was pretty close to 805. The beer wasn’t sweet.
I think it could be that honey malt combines with other malts that then together accentuate sweetness. There was no caramel or Munich in the 805 clone, just base malt and honey malt. Also, the OG was 1047 so, 7.7% of that malt bill may have been a relatively small amount of honey malt.
I also think yeast choice may influence how the honey malt presents in the beer.