Honey Wheat Beer

[donald_trub]

Hi guys,

I'm up to about my 5th batch of homebrew, usually using extracts and some steeped grain. This time I've gone for a honey wheat beer recipe I found on the net. The ingredients were listed as follows (for a 20 litre batch):

226.8 g Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (39.4 EBC)
1.36 k Extra Light Dry Extract (5.9 EBC)
1.36 k Wheat Dry Extract (15.8 EBC)
42.5 g Northern Brewer [8.0%] - Boil 45 min
1.50 lbs Honey (Boil 45 min)
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15 min)
28.3 g Cascade [4.3%] - Boil 5 min
1 White labs Belgian wit yeast



Everything went pretty well but I have a few questions:

• When looking at honey in the supermarket, I randomly chose a jar of Ironbark honey. The beer is almost done fermenting and it reeks of eucalyptus, which it turns out is what Ironbark is. It also has a eucalyptus taste to it which isn't a very nice thing to have in a beer. Should I bother bottling this? Do you think some of the eucalyptus will dissipate once I bottle it? I do notice I get some flavour changes after bottling.
• The beer is still very cloudy.. is this from the honey or is it just the wheat? If it's the honey, would adding gelatine to the bucket get some of this honey to drop out, saving me from the eucalyptus?
• The OG was a real challenge to read. When I put the hydrometer in the sample, it would measure immediately as 1.075 but over the course of a minute or two would drop to about 1.070. It was such a cloudy beer than it seemed to be propped up by all the sediment floating around. Which reading should I be taking? Should I let the hydrometer settle for a few minutes?
• Does 1.5 lbs of honey seem like an awful lot? I followed along trusting the recipe, but that seemed like a lot.

Thanks guys. Pretty worried about the eucalyptus tastes I'm getting and I'm considering chucking it without even bottling it. Lesson learned to not be fancy and stick to the good old Capilano honey!

 

[Wadey]

Hi Donald

I just put down a Beez Neez copy from a recipe off Brewers Choice, the guy at Brewers Choice specifically advised me to use plain honey and not scented and I only used 500g. Maybe over time mate the eucalyptus might dissipate. From what I've read wheat beer is cloudy by nature so don't worry about the clarity.

Give it a taste mate, that's what I do at end of ferment, if its unbearable than you might have to right this on off to experience.

Good luck!!!

 

[Alex.Tas]

I made a 25l batch of mead a year or so ago and used loads if honey. Over 10kg from memory.
Obviously mead is primarily a honey drink, so you would expect a lot of honey in it. However after making the mead, 1.5 lbs of honey doesn't seem too silly.
Also, the honey flavours in my mead mellowed out over time. A long time, but the change was dramatic.
My advice: bottle it, leave it for 4 months or so and see how it goes.

 

[Dave70]

Ray Daniels cautioned against using eucalyptus honey in beers due to the strong flavors. That's his opinion anyway. He's certainly earned the right to have one. And I'd agree.
In the pic below are the ingredients I used in a cider, the honey is yellow boy which is actually milder than ironbark.
Four months down the track (two sitting months in the bottom my keezer) the honey flavor still cut through everything else like it had done from the first sip. Aging did zero to dissipate the flavor, only dried it out more.
Next time I've a mind to use honey in a recipe I'll make it a floral variety.

 

[donald_trub]

Thanks guys. I can't afford the space or bottles to put it down for 4 months. I've got a few spare bottles so will bottle up what I can and chuck the rest.

Serves me right for picking up the most gourmet looking tub of honey in the shop.

 

[Alex.Tas]

dave, do you work for woolies? ha.

did you use oztops for the cider, or did you do it properly in the barrel?

 

[Dave70]

dave, do you work for woolies? ha.

did you use oztops for the cider, or did you do it properly in the barrel?

No, you wont see a smiling life sized cut out of me in an apron directing your attention toward the weekly specials at Woolies.

It was just a spur of the moment thing I did whilst keeping my two year old entertained in the trolley.

No oztops either, you see that bread yeast in the corner, there you go. Fermented in a carboy, in the kitchen. The best thing about it was the ornamental appeal.

While I'm walking with muddy boots in someone else's post, I might add after juicing my own apples, I would never go back to making cider from shop bought juice.
And use proper yeast. With no honey.