Formulating Honey (wheat) Ale Recipe

[Wolfy]

I told the kid I'd make him a batch of beer - whatever he wanted - but since he's just turned 18 and new to all this beer drinking stuff, it seems his favorite 'pub' beer is Beez Keez.
Which means I need to come up with some sort of Honey/Wheat (Ale) recipe - hopefully something not quite so bland, light and lager like as BN is.

Bee Sting uses 5% wheat and 5% honey with Styrian Golding for bittering and aroma.
Murray Honey Wheat also has pale and wheat malt with POR for bittering and Perle for aroma.

So I was thinking something like this:

80-85% JW Pale malt
5-10% BB Wheat malt
Mash at fairly high temp to give it some body.
10% Honey (directly to the fermenter or in secondary)

IBU somewhere about 15-20
Halleratu Aroma, Galena or Northern Brewer for bittering.
Hallertau, Saaz, or Mt Hood as a late Aroma addition and/or for bittering as well.
(I do have POR, Galaxy, Goldings and a few others on hand but not sure they'd fit as well).

A neutral yeast fermented cool: Wy1272, Wy1056/US05 or even Wy2565 (Klsch)
(Wy1010 would probably be good but not sure I want to buy it just for this).

Any/all suggestions and comments are welcome, it will probably be a week or few before he comes over to brew it (that was part of the deal if it's his beer he can learn how to make it).

 

[kenlock]

Sounds like you've got it covered! :icon_chickcheers:

I've used Hallertau with success @ 60, 15, 0 Pale Ale Malt and Wheat combination, using 1056. Though it ended up being quite a light body as it was 50/50, with a bit of Carapils for head retention.

You obviously meant 90 - 95% JW Pale Malt

 

[Wolfy]

You obviously meant 90 - 95% JW Pale Malt

Only if you don't count the 10% honey as a fermentable.
I also assumed the wheat would assist with head retention.

 

[Stubbie]

Hi Wolfy,

I can vouch for the NB, hallertau, saaz 60/15/0 combo in an american wheat beer, of which I've brewed quite a few. Made another yesterday, as it happens.
As far as grain bill goes, for a beer to be classed as a wheat, my mind tells me there ought to be a bit more than 5-10% wheat malt.
My money is on 1056 to provide a clean as possible background for the honey to stand out, and not get lost amongst any fruitiness.

Stubbie

 

[marksy]

make sure you get the right honey. There is one you need to avoid from the shops, but then you can buy brewers honey at most brewshops but ive found they are more expensive.

I made a honey ale the other month. Used 1kg of honey and simmered it in water for about 30mins to disolve it. Next time i want to try adding it at the end of the fermenation peroid.

 

[Fourstar]

If you are after recipe inspiration here is the Cararye Honey wheat i made a few weeks back. Its about be kegged in the next 48 hours. I added honey to the kettle with 5 mins to go.

Everytime i take a sample there it stil ALOT of honey in the aroma so it seems like the hop/malt profile suits the honey% i used.

Cheers.

Ryebox Honey Ale
Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer

Type: All Grain
Date: 29/06/2010
Batch Size: 23.00 L
Brewer: Braden
Boil Size: 30.90 L
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: My Brew Pot (40L) and Frosty Cooler (38L)
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68.00

Ingredients
3.00 kg Pale Malt, Ale (Barrett Burston) (3.0 SRM) Grain 56.60 %
1.00 kg Wheat Malt, Malt Craft (Joe White) (2.0 SRM) Grain 18.87 %
0.50 kg Munich, Light (Joe White) (8.9 SRM) Grain 9.43 %
0.30 kg Caramel Rye (Weyermann) (35.0 SRM) Grain 5.66 %
20.00 gm Magnum [12.10 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 30.2 IBU
3.00 gm Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
6.00 gm Calcium Chloride (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
0.50 kg Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 9.43 %
1 Pkgs American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.96 %
Bitterness: 30.2 IBU
Est Color: 7.0 SRM

Mash Profile
60 min Mash In Add 14.00 L of water at 72.8 C 67.0 C
10 min Mash Out Add 10.00 L of water at 82.5 C 73.0 C

Notes
3g CaSO4 Mash
6g CaCl2 Boil

 

[EK]

make sure you get the right honey. There is one you need to avoid from the shops, but then you can buy brewers honey at most brewshops but ive found they are more expensive.

I made a honey ale the other month. Used 1kg of honey and simmered it in water for about 30mins to disolve it. Next time i want to try adding it at the end of the fermenation peroid.

"brewers honey"? Can't say I've ever heard of this. Can you tell me more about it? How does it differ from non-brewers honey?

I have made mead before using honey I got from a fruit, veg and other stuff shop, so it wasn't a major brand, an I had no troubles.

-EK

 

[Supra-Jim]

I believe the honey you want avoid when brewing is eucalypus as it can leave a flavour that doesn't lend well with beer.

I've used orange blossom a few times with good success, nice delicate flavour/aroma.

Cheers SJ

 

[Wolfy]

Stubbie if I was going for 'style' yes it would need more wheat to be called a wheat beer, but it seems that various commercial brewers don't feel the need to stick religiously to style, and if I'm not entering a comp I don't see the need to either. I'd be worried that more wheat would detract from the sweetness of the honey, and make it a bit more tart which (given he likes Beez Neez) may not be what he likes.

Thanks 4* I looked in the recipe DB but didn't find too many AG recipies, it seems that you've used about the same amount of honey I plan to so it may work well. But I might make the hops a little more subdued for the same reasons as above, but seems the American Ale yeast might be a good option anyway.

I have a range of honey here, and non of it is the generic supermarket stuff, but I think I'll keep the Orange Blossom for mead or something that needs a bit more of a delicate touch.

Thanks everyone, will make the few adjustments as suggested.

 

[marksy]

Yeah brewers honey. They sell it at my local brewshop. It is just normal honey but as someone just mentioned there is different types of honey and this one it the better suited for beer.

I go to the supermarket and get a kilo tub and just make sure its free of presevitives and not made from eucalyptus. I think the last one was made from bluegum.

 

[MeLoveBeer]

Have used Yellowbox honey with success in the past... its very subtle and provides little to no floral flavours.

 

[marksy]

Yeah im unsure what i used but i do remember that it should be 100% honey in there.

 

[Nick JD]

This is what wiki says is in honey.

Typical honey analysis.

• Fructose: 38.2%
• Glucose: 31.3%
• Sucrose: 1.3%
• Maltose: 7.1%
• Water: 17.2%
• Higher sugars: 1.5%
• Ash: 0.2%
• Other/undetermined: 3.2%

 

[Fourstar]

Aldi honey is good too! the on in the glass jar.

 

[Gar]

Never made a honey beer, would something like this work?

OG - 1050
Size - 25L
IBU - 26 beersmith (no chilling)
Mash - 65' - 1 hour
Ferment - 18'

52% Maris Otter
22% Wheat Malt
9% Biscuit Malt
4.5% Cara-Pils
3.5% Light Crystal
9% Honey

30g Tettnang - First Wort
30g Tettnang - 20 Mins
30g Tettnang - 5 Mins

Wyeast 1272 - All-American Ale


*edit* forgot to add honey :lol:

 

[lael]

Hi guys,

Had a beesting the other night and it got me thinking a honey wheat would be a nice pleasant drinker for summer. Has anyone brewed one of the above recipes or have any suggestions for a honey wheat beer?

Thanks!

Lael

 

[TimT]

'tis an old thread Lael but one of interest to me too. Honey is a beautiful ingredient; almost all of the honey sugars will ferment out so it's always sensible to mash high to get unfermentable sugars from the malt that will lend body to your ale.

I prefer not to add honey to the boil, but straight into the fermenter at peak ferment. That way more of the floral smells/tastes of the honey will be retained. (In the boil it will all vanish, of course). You might be able to go one better and do as Randy Mosher suggests - add honey in at the end of the primary fermentation, like you might with fruit or some other adjuncts - that way you'll get some more of the floral essences retained in the final brew. Infection may not be such an issue as it is with other ingredients as honey has some weird antibacterial properties of its own (it pretty much keeps forever, though it might end up candying after a year or two).

I mix the honey in with clean water and add it to the fermenter that way. In the past I've tried to add honey until the syrup solution has the same gravity as the unfermented beer wort - that way the measurements will make more sense to me at the end.

So far I've done a honey altbier, a honeyed amber witbier, and a honey saison. (And various meads, of course). They've all turned out nicely. Next time we get a honey glut from our dear hardworking bees I want to do a kind of floral, herbal, non-hopped ale (honey added in at secondary ferment, gentle herbs and spices added to the must, so hopefully the final ale has a lot of gentle yeasty and herbal flavours from both the additives and the honey) - and a kind of honey-rich braggot (enough honey for a traditional mead, with enough malt added to get that maltose flavour in the final brew).

As for Beez Kneez, I've had it and it's not a bad exponent of the style - a light sessionable beer; hops not high, so what remains of the body comes through. With a little tweak to the style (maybe a richer honey with strong floral/herbal flavours) you might get quite a pleasant drink.

 

[Forever Wort]

Honey plays a prominent role in the Saison I am brewing for the Merri Mashers Inaugural Case Swap. I am using it in the boil and in the fermentor post-fermentation.

I made a braggott with a kit beer about a year ago, it was very interesting. 1.5 kilograms of honey during fermentation, added every three days to keep the krausen up.

It smelt ridiculously sweet and honey-like but had quite a bitter body; it was a weird mix.

 

[TimT]

added every three days to keep the krausen up.

Interesting. That's essentially the old trick used by brewers to nudge the alcohol content up, effectively rewarding the yeast that survives higher alcohol content by feeding it more. I think you might get quite an interesting mix with daily additions of honey - fermentables from the first and second additions, perhaps, non-fermentables more from the later additions.

As for braggot I'm pretty sure the idea traditionally is to have a malt base with honey as an additive, though I'm interested in what happens if you switch that around. A honey beer will always taste like a beer, with some subtle honey qualities - but I now wonder what a maltose mead might taste like.

 

[lael]

it is old - but better than starting a new thread, and maybe someone has used the recipes and can comment on their quality...

Do you have any particular varieties of honey you would recommend? I've read not to use eucalyptus, and someone mentioned that yellowbox was nice, though subdued.

Do you boil your honey or just put it straight in?