Honey Wheat

I got some free Red Wheat and Honey Malt that I would like to make into...A Honey Wheat Ale. Here is the recipe I came up with. Comments appreciated.

2 lbs Maris Otter
7 lbs Cargill Red Wheat
5 lbs Honey Malt
1.0 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker - 4.5 AA% pellets; boiled 60 min Fermentis T-58 Safbrew T-58

Five pounds of Honey malt is overkill. I would cut it back to a pound. And it will still be sweet.

Yeah, honey malt is best used sparingly. I think if you use that much, you'll find it will be cloyingly sweet and under attenuated. For that recipe, I'd cut back to 1 pound of honey malt, probably even increase the MO a little.

Ok, so I have almost a full 5-gallon bucket of this stuff and more than that of the wheat. All of it was free and I need a good way to use a lot of it up. Suggestions?

I don't have much experience with wheat, so I can't comment on that, but I would suggest just making multiple batches, and trying different recipes using both. Just keep the honey malt to around 10% of the total. You could go as high as 20%, but that would still be very very sweet.

That helps, thanks. It will still be super cheap and hopefully not too sweet.

I use alot of honey malt, and I would NEVER go over 10% of the total grain bill with honey malt. 0.5lbs/10 lbs gives noticable sweetness. 1.0lbs/10 lbs is VERY sweet.

BTW, I recently discovered Red Wheat malt myself, and I loveeeeee that stuff. It gives a different mouthfeel and complexity than normal white wheat.

So anyway, I've worked with both of those malts pretty extensively. Back that honey malt back to 1.0 pounds and I think you have a good recipe there.

I'm with Topher! In addition, if the grains are not milled then just seal up the malt you don't use and keep them in a cool dry place and they'll keep well until you're ready to brew again.

Thanks for all of the info. I typically dont brew this style so I dont have much experience. All of the ingredients are ones I already have so it will be cheap and tasty. If this recipe works out nicely I will brew it up again for a nice early summer beer. Brewing it 11/8/12.

I am brewing this tonight. I threw .5lb of rice hulls in there just to avoid any sticking. Should be an amazing smelling boil!