Extract Honey Wheat Recipe Feedback

[chemacky]

G'day!

After much reading I have decided on this recipe for an extract honey wheat. I quite like beez neez, so something in that ball park would be ideal.

1.5kg LME - Wheat
1.5kg LME - Wheat
500g Honey
Danstar Munich Wheat yeast

15g POR 9.8% AA @ 30
10g POR 9.8% AA @ 10
10g B Saaz 9.8% AA @ 0

EBC: 6.9 IBU: 15.8
OG: 1.047 FG: 1.10 ABV: 4.8%


I'm wondering weather swapping some on of the wheat tins for a light or extra pale LME tin might be a good idea...
I'm also a bit worried about what yeast to use. I'm not sure if a more neutral yeast like us-05 or nottingham might go a bit better... but I'm really not quite ready for liquid yeasts yet.
Lastly, what type of honey should I use? I've read that orange blossom is the best, however I've never seen any... anywhere. And do you think 500g is enough?

Thanks!

 

[manticle]

Why aren't you ready for liquids? Don't be put off by all the suggestions of slanting and splitting - you can just dump it straight in if the pack is fresh and the wort isn't crazy high gravity.

 

[chemacky]

Because I'm not ready to go culturing yet, and as a single use it's just a bit too far out of my student price range.

And I've got to admit, I'm quite intimidated by them at the moment too. I've only just moved to extract and fresh hops, and would like to have a few more brew days to iron the out my technique before I jump into something new.

 

[MaltyHops]

I'm also interested in doing a honey beer in the near future and the honeyflowfarm.com
page (about halfway down) recommends sterilizing honey by heating honey to about
80 deg.C and maintaining at his temp for 2.5 hours to kill off the diastatic enzymes
in honey that could "degrade the dextrins (non-fermentable carbohydrates) in beer
into simple sugars, thereby destroying the texture and body of the end product."

T.

 

[manticle]

Because I'm not ready to go culturing yet, and as a single use it's just a bit too far out of my student price range.

And I've got to admit, I'm quite intimidated by them at the moment too. I've only just moved to extract and fresh hops, and would like to have a few more brew days to iron the out my technique before I jump into something new.

Fair enough.

Just wanting to point out that their use is not as complicated as you might think. Even if you used a single pack in the brew without splitting, you can still reculture yeast from every single one of the resulting bottles as well as the slurry in the bottom of the fermenter so that $15 odd dollars can be stretched over quite a few brews.

Splitting can be as simple as pouring a third of the pack into a sanitised stubby, topping up with boiled cooled water, capping and refrigerating.

Making a starter is as easy as pouring the rest into another stubby with some more boiled cooled water and some malt extract, covering with glad wrap and a rubber band and waiting until it shows signs of fermentation.

Yes it can be more complicated and it's worth learning about that over time but it shouldn't put you off the wonderful world of liquid yeasts. By the way - I'm a student too so I understand budget restrictions.

I haven't used honey in a brew so I won't offer advice (actually I used some in a stout once but couldn't really advise the best techniqhue or amount) but there is a wiki article about it in the wiki articles section.

 

[Parrothead]

For what it's worth, I recently did a honey wheat beer with only the Thomas Cooper Wheat Beer kit and 1 kilo of store bought honey and the kit yeast. I did it that simple to use as a base for further tweeking. After three weeks in the bottle, I'm very pleased. The honey is evident but not cloying. I'd add some maltodextrine next time, and maybe, just maybe some aroma hops, but not much.

 

[chemacky]

Would you suggest I use more honey then?

I would prefer to keep the beer as an extract, as I find this a much more satisfying and enjoyable way to brew beer. I like the idea that I get more control over flavour and bitterness.

Does anyone have any advice on the malt? should I stick with all wheat, or add some light or extra pale instead? Are the IBU's about right, and will it be an appropriate hop combination in the style?


Manticle - thanks for the adivice, I'll put my head down and do some reading into yeast culturing very soon. It's just the push I need. -- I'm actually a bit worried it's going to lead me down the path to be looking at getting equipment for AG and kegging... and by god that certainly blows the student budget!

 

[jakub76]

More honey, why not. I'd go the full 1kg but that's just me. As for malt keep in mind that the wheat malt extracts are only 40-50% wheat malt so there's plenty of regular pilsener or Pale in there already. Also being an extract you'll end up with a pretty chewy beer/high finishing gravity/lots of body so parrothead's suggested maltodextrin won't be necessary. Should be a nice brew.

PS: for what it's worth I would lose the 10 minute POR addition - might drown out the subtlties you're looking for.

 

[stef]

Glad this came up because i was intending to ask exactly the same question.

Recipe looks good, though i reckon i will use a kg of honey and i prefer to use dry extract. My mum keeps bees on my folks farm, so i have access to tons of free, completely untreated honey. Think i will heat the honey up with a little water first though- get rid of the bugs etc. I believe that boiling the honey is a no-no because it detracts from the flavour etc- especially if boiled for a long time, but feel free to correct me on that.

I wasn't sure about the yeast either. I thought i might try to culture some out of a bottle of imported wheat beer- or even a beez neez itself, though i dont think they have massive amounts of yeast sediment, so dont know if that'd work.

I'm at a similar stage in my brewing to you. Never tried to culture a yeast from a bottle- but if it doesnt work i'll just use a dried yeast, so not too worried about it.

My only other thought was maybe adding a little dex- i thought maybe that would help counter some of the unfermentables in the honey and add a little balance.

Interested to see what others have to say in this thread...

Edit: Also, out of curiousity, did use promash or some other software to formulate the recipe?

 

[MaltyHops]

...
Manticle - thanks for the adivice, I'll put my head down and do some reading into yeast culturing very soon. It's just the push I need. -- I'm actually a bit worried it's going to lead me down the path to be looking at getting equipment for AG and kegging... and by god that certainly blows the student budget!

Yeast culturing is completely separate from whether you do kits, all-grain or anything
in-between and should actually help to keep the budget down in the long run by buying
a particular yeast just once and/or swapping with other peple - do need fridge space
though. And while it's nice to use nice lab gear to do it, you should be able to improvise
all the gear you need from everyday sources - just remember to clean/sterilise well.

Also, yeast being a major determinant on the type of beer you end up with means if
you have a bit of a collection, you can brew lots of different types of beer.

T.

 

[mkstalen]

I thought i might try to culture some out of a bottle of imported wheat beer- or even a beez neez itself...

I'm pretty sure Beez Neez isn't bottle conditioned so you're not going to be able to reculture anything from it.

 

[barto1308]

I'm pretty sure Beez Neez isn't bottle conditioned so you're not going to be able to reculture anything from it.

I'm looking at doing a honey wheat beer as well, and was advised by a few to use a more neutral ale yeast like US-05, rather than a german wheat yeast, as it may detract from the subtle honey flavours. I have done an extract honey beer before that everyone loved, and it was made with a tine of Coopers Canadian Blonde, 1kg blackbutt honey and 1kg of Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 + kit yeast.

Im branching out a little more this time around, but the first one i made was a top drop and easily repeatable

 

[stef]

how about safale s-04?

 

[bullfrog]

As to the honey that's used, if you've ever read the label on a Beez Neez stubbie it says that it was originally brewed for a gift to Capilano staff using their honey, then Matilda Bay decided it was good enough to sell. Not sure how much stock we should put in their little blurb there, but I'd think that at least starting with Capilano may be a good idea. If it turns out awfully, then blame Matilda Bay and their labelling, not me.

I've only ever used honey in a brew once and that's because an apiarist acquaintance of mine gave me a jar of their own honey. I thought the porter I made from it was okay but my mates absolutely loved it. What would they know, they drink New

 

[chemacky]

Edit: Also, out of curiousity, did use promash or some other software to formulate the recipe?

I used Brewmate for this one, as honey is in it's fermentables list, but I also extensively use ianh's spreadsheet. Software is pretty key to helping you (well, at least me) understand and improve on extract brewing.



Ok, after doing a little bit more reading, including your comments, these are my adjustments:

1.5kg LME - Wheat
1.5kg LME - Wheat
1kg Honey
US-05/Nottingham

15g POR 9.8% AA @ 30
10g B Saaz 9.8% AA @ 5

EBC: 7.1 IBU: 13.6
OG: 1.053 FG: 1.10 ABV: 5.6%

What do you guys think?
...and US-05 or nottingham? 6 of one half a dozen of the other?

thanks again guys.