Honey Wheat Beer

[DrewRev]

Hello all.

I'm fairly new to brewing, this is to be my 2nd brew, but would like to brew up a honey wheat beer based on the coopers wheat beer kit. I've made coopers English Bitter before and it turned out pretty good, but I followed the kit instructions fully that time. Now I'm eager to start experimenting and putting my own touches in.

I'd like to create more of a Bavarian style wheat beer, with a subtle honey flavour. Having read through the forums I've picked up several tips and tricks regarding wheat beer, and the recipe I've come up with is as follows;

1 x Coopers Brewmaster Wheat Beer Kit
300 - 500g Orange Blossom Honey
500g - Muntons Wheat Spraymalt
11.5g - WB06 Dried Wheat Beer Yeast

I'll likely brew it short to 20l and ferment at around 21 degrees Celsius, for a week or so, or until the FG is stable.

I plan to bottle in glass, grolsch style (swing top) bottles, 500ml if I can get my hands on em, or if not, 500ml plastic PET bottles, and prime using coopers carbonation drops. Was just considering priming with honey though, would that give a stronger honey flavour?

As I said I'm very new to this and I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing, so if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears, I'm especially eager to hear from anyone who has brewed with honey before and can suggest how much I will need to get the honey taste in there..

Cheers!

 

[Slid]

Hi DrewRev

I've not used honey myself for brewing, but I would suggest that:

Priming with honey sound like a logistical pain - suggest table sugar, especially for bottles. The priming sugars don't usually add that much taste.

How much honey needed to impart a distinctive taste probably depends on the amount of honey, as opposed to sugar syrup, there is in the honey you use. The Orange Blossom honey you mention is likely to have quite a strong residual flavour once the sugars are fermented out.

I have seen recipes for honey ales that use 500g of honey.

It does sound like a good and adventurous plan for a second brew, I must say.

 

[clibit]

It all looks good to me. Good choice of yeast. Maybe get some hops to provide a good fresh hop flavour/aroma.

 

[DrewRev]

Thanks for the replies, will avoid priming with honey and stick to sugar I think, just not sure how much :/ I have carbonation drops, and when I made the Coopers English Bitter kit I used 1 drop per 500ml bottle, but it seemed I could have done with a bit more. I understand wheat beer can be quite vigorous, and I wouldn't want to smash my new glass bottles!

As for hops, I'd like to get into dry hopping these kits to add flavour, but I haven't yet researched each type of hop and what kind of flavour/aroma they'd add, do you have any suggestions? It would be nice to add another dimension to the beer, but at the moment my knowledge of hops is very little! I am however eager to try and jump straight in :)

Thanks again!

 

[clibit]

Standard hops for wheat beers are German/Czech hops like Saaz, Tettnang, Spalt, Hallertau and Perle.

My tip, unless you're really after a traditional wheat beer taste, would be to try versions of these hops that are grown in America and New Zealand. So Crystal, Sterling, Motueka, Wakatu, Pacifica for example. They have more zing and fruitiness.

 

[DrewRev]

Hi, and thanks again for the advice clibit.

I've been looking into hops and there's a lot to learn. I'd like to add some Pacifica hops to this brew, to compliment the orange blossom from the honey, I'll not get into combining hops just yet.

I've just ordered all the ingredients and will start this on Monday next week. My plan for adding the hops is as follows.

I'll boil around 6l of water and add the honey, malt and beer kit to this, and mix it thoroughly.
I'll then add 10g of the hops, then boil it for 45mins. I'll then add 5g more, then let boil for 15/20minutes. Then I'll turn off the heat and add a final 5g of hops and let it sit for a wee bit. (Using a total of 30g of hops).

After that, I'll fine strain the mix into my fermenting vessel and dispose of the hops. Then top up with cold water to 20l mark, checking the temp is around 21/23degrees.
Then take a sample and pitch the yeast, then stand back in amazement as the foam surges up, sending the lid flying...maybe :/

Again, this is all guess work and taken from various posts on these forums, and if there's anything anyone can recommend, I'm willing to learn

Cheers again!

 

[clibit]

You're over-doing it. There's no need to boil those ingredients like that, and it will just darken the wort.

Why boil the kit and the malt? No need. Why boil hops for 45 minutes? The kit has bittering hops built in, you only need to short boil the hops to obtain flavour/aroma. Boiling longer loses those.

Just boil about 15-20g of Pacifica in a few litres of water and the 500g spraymalt for 5 to 10 minutes (or you could boil 10g for 15 mins and 10g for 5 mins).
Add the honey at the end and stir to dissolve it.
Add the mix to the FV (strain the hops out).
Add the kit extract and stir well.
Top up to 20L, stirring again.

Much quicker and more effective.

Pacifica sounds like a good choice of hops.

 

[DrewRev]

Haha, like I say, I've a lot to learn!

Aye that does sound quicker and far easier, I'll give that a go, much appreciated! Can't wait to get started now

 

[clibit]

It's a doddle, very quick and the beer will be good. :thumb:

You've chosen the yeast and the hops well.

 

[rodwha]

As clibit mentioned do not boil the honey. I add my honey at flameout, but have also added it to the fermenter a week after fermentation began. I prefer flameout so I can get an accurate OG reading.

Something to consider is whether you want the honey or the hops to be the star. For me it's about the honey so I don use much for the flavoring or aroma additions and don't whirlpool or dry hop. Not to say it wouldn't be good, but I was after something like Blue Moon's honey wheat.

 

[DrewRev]

I brewed this up yesterday, following Clibit's guide with the hops, and put the honey in at the end with the fire off, added the honey, malt and hop mix the FV and put in the kit, topping up to 20l, temperature was at around 24degrees.

I took a reading on the hydrometer, which read 1.038, then pitched the yeast and covered up.

Smells good, and the sample wasn't too bad either.

I still have half a jar of honey left, I put in around 500g originally, perhaps I could chuck in the other half after fermentation? I'm not looking for a particularly strong honey or hop flavour, I want both to be subtle and to work together. I bit one of the dry hops and chewed it a bit, then had a little bit of honey and they seemed to combine well

I will eventually make a dark honey beer, and with that I want a strong honey flavour, any idea how much honey would be needed?


Anyway, I digress. It's been about 18hours in the FV since I pitched the yeast, and I'm still not seeing a lot of foam. I was under the impression that this beer would be quite vigorous, and produce a lot of foam, but so far there's just a fairly thin layer of it, am I just being impatient or should I be seeing foam pushing up to the lid by now?

Cheers for the help so far,and apologies for so many questions!

 

[rodwha]

I typically convert to metric, but my computer is down and I'm forced to use my phone which isn't as simple to work on. Please forgive my measurements.

I have tried a fellow's beer where he used 1 pound (guessing I was a ~19 L batch) that had a nice honey flavor. I have tried many things and one used 3.25 pounds of honey in 5.3 gallons and it was oddly thin. I generally use 2-2.5 pounds of honey in a 5.3 gallon batch with 1/2 pound of honey malt as well.

 

[DrewRev]

Hello again, thanks for the previous replies, they have all been helpful

The brew has now been fermenting at around 24/25degrees for two weeks and I'm gonna bottle up tomorrow. I have 12 glass swing tops and the rest are PET, all 500ml.

I've been reading "home brew beer" by Greg Hughes, and was going to use the priming levels suggested for wheat beer there, which, for my 20l batch would be 230g of cane sugar (I'm guessing granulated or caster is ok?).

I was going to make a sugar syrup and stir this into the entire batch, then bottle up.

I don't want any of my bottles exploding, and I'd like to avoid flat beer, does this sound about right? Any help is much appreciated!

Cheers again!

 

[clibit]

That does look right for a wheat beer. It's a lot of carbonation though, I'm not a wheat beer brewer, but first time I'd be tempted to go lower, maybe 200g, that would give plenty of carbonation - unless a wheat beer brewer can advise?

 

[dad_of_jon]

Hello again, thanks for the previous replies, they have all been helpful

The brew has now been fermenting at around 24/25degrees for two weeks and I'm gonna bottle up tomorrow. I have 12 glass swing tops and the rest are PET, all 500ml.

I've been reading "home brew beer" by Greg Hughes, and was going to use the priming levels suggested for wheat beer there, which, for my 20l batch would be 230g of cane sugar (I'm guessing granulated or caster is ok?).

I was going to make a sugar syrup and stir this into the entire batch, then bottle up.

I don't want any of my bottles exploding, and I'd like to avoid flat beer, does this sound about right? Any help is much appreciated!

Cheers again!

I used 13g a litre or 290g for 21.5 liters which finished at 1.014 and that was fizzy.

I used this

http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

and aimed for 3.2 volumes which was on the low end for wheat beer, but it seemed fine for me. all depends on serving temp, I suppose. It wont be flat at that level and you can always gradually ramp up the fizz in subsequent brews. My test carb bottle was done in 2 days.

 

[DrewRev]

Thanks for the advice, I also had a look at that calculator and it came up with 200g, at 3.3volumes of co2 and beer temperature 24degrees celcius.

So 200, can work up or down in future wheat beers depending on how this one turns out.

The FG is 1.004, and OG was 1.038.

Will store the bottles at around 23 degrees for a week or two, then stick em in the pub cellar to chill for a further week, then I think they'll be ready to drink.

It does look a bit strange at the moment in the FV, as it seems to have layered. It's dark and clearer towards the top but very cloudy lower down. The sample I took today was also cloudy..

I'll stir it lightly tomorrow when I add in the sugar, but should I be worried at this point? It smells ok, just like slightly flat wheat beer, I was concerned it's perhaps been brewed at too high a temperature, that hasn't been easy to maintain, mostly between 24 and 26 degrees.

Ah well, I'll bottle it regardless and take it as experience gained, but if anyone can pick up on something that might be wrong I'd be interested to hear about it.