My Honey Wheat

[dirty mac]

I know there is a s**t load of info on the ol honey beer but this is kinda off the track. I used a tin of baverian wheat, 1 kg of wheat dry malt, safwheat k97 yeast and will dry hop some hersbruckers.
I'm going to bulk prime with the honey and its seems to be ticking along quite nicely at 22C. Question is...
I wanted a really malty beer and was told that all I had to do was get up to a kilo of fermentable sugars for a standard full strength beer. Thats why I chose a 1kg of malt.

Is this true ?? and if I had of added say a kilo of brew blend instead and then added some malt would this have been heavier (higher alcohol)?? I'm just a little confused on how much sugars are allowed and have I made an F up by only using malt?

 

[DJR]

Malt's about 75% fermentable so you'll be close, not quite but close. Different "brew blends" have different amounts of fermentability, you never really know and that's why you should avoid them and do your own either out of dex and malt or as a partial with some real grain. You'll definitely have a "very malty" beer with an extra 1kg of malt, next time you can fix the ABV% by adding 250g dextrose as well (that is, if you like what you make this time).

You can put plenty of sugar in before it becomes a problem though. Most yeast will go up to about 10%.

 

[dirty mac]

next time you can fix the ABV% by adding 250g dextrose as well (that is, if you like what you make this time).

You can put plenty of sugar in before it becomes a problem though. Most yeast will go up to about 10%.

Sorry whats ABV% and what do you mean by yeast will go up to 10%?

 

[DJR]

next time you can fix the ABV% by adding 250g dextrose as well (that is, if you like what you make this time).

You can put plenty of sugar in before it becomes a problem though. Most yeast will go up to about 10%.

Sorry whats ABV% and what do you mean by yeast will go up to 10%?

Alcohol By Volume - the standard measure of alcohol content, 10% alcohol content.

 

[Corellion]

next time you can fix the ABV% by adding 250g dextrose as well (that is, if you like what you make this time).

You can put plenty of sugar in before it becomes a problem though. Most yeast will go up to about 10%.

Sorry whats ABV% and what do you mean by yeast will go up to 10%?

and "go up to 10%" means the yeast will continue to function/"live" up to an alcohol concentration of 10% alcohol content. After that, they're no longer able to convert sugar->alcohol... you need specialised strains to work at higher concentrations...

 

[dirty mac]

So if I'm making my own blend of fermentables ie dex malt etc. how do I keep the ABV down to around 5%?.

 

[DJR]

So if I'm making my own blend of fermentables ie dex malt etc. how do I keep the ABV down to around 5%?.

Well the simple way is to work on the fact that a 1.7kg malt extract can and 1kg of dextrose in 23L or so will give approximately 5%. So to work out how close you are, you can just work out what equivalent amount of sugar you are adding. That or get a program that works it out for you, like Promash, Beersmith or Qbrew.

 

[dirty mac]

Thanx heaps guys. I'll keep a bit of a log on this beer and will post back to see how the result turns out ie; ABV% taste etc. for anyone interested. I am on a mission to establish the ultimate honey wheat using a kit. (no I don't have time to be an AGer)

;]

 

[dirty mac]

Thanx heaps guys. I'll keep a bit of a log on this beer and will post back to see how the result turns out ie; ABV% taste etc. for anyone interested. I am on a mission to establish the ultimate honey wheat using a kit.

;]

Well the brew has been in Fermenter now for 8 days. PF was relatively short (3-4 days) at around 22C. I gather this is due to the fact that only 75% of the sugars were fermentable. Upon taste it seemed overwhelmingly wheaty almost like a 'redback'. Not really to my liking so I hope those flavours wane a little. Dry hopped with the Hersbruckers after about 5 days. Will leave in PF for another 6 days then I'm gonna bulk prime with the honey.
Stay tuned.....

 

[DJR]

The "wheaty" flavours will wane a little but not too much - in no time you'll love the taste of cloves anyway :lol: I think if you want a nice clean honey wheat then maybe try a lager yeast, or a clean ale yeast like US56 or Nottingham. K97 is an Alt yeast and will throw some phenolics (cloves) and some esters (banana/fruit) if it's at a high temperature like 22. At 16-18 most clean ale yeasts will *almost* taste like a lager.

Let us know how it turns out.

 

[dirty mac]

Yeah, unfortunately I didn't intend the temp to be that high. Had a few hot days in Brissy that raised it to 22C from initial pitching at 18C. I think it was the K97 yeast? It said SAFwheat. Anyway next brew I will be not adding so much wheat!!

 

[DJR]

K97 although they say "safwheat" is not a true wheat (weizen) yeast - although it's similar, after a bit of time aging, the beer won't taste very "wheaty". They haven't got an authentic wheat yeast to dry yet. Doesn't sound like you want that flavour anyway, and a wheat yeast isn't required for wheat malt, just if you want that flavour that's typical of german weizens.