Please Critique: Honey Wheat - Honey Blossom

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DGibb

DGibb

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Cross posted from Recipes/Ingredients due to lack of response:

Honey Blossom
Honey Wheat
Extract + Specialty Grains
5 gallons
OG: 1.068
FG: 1.018
IBU: 29
SRM: 9
ABV: 6.7%


Fermentables
3 lb 5 oz Wheat DME
3 lb 5 oz Wheat DME (Late addition)
1 lb Orange Blossom Honey (Late addition)
8 oz Honey Malt

Hops
0.75 oz Mt. Hood (bittering - boil 60)
0.75 oz Mt. Hood (bittering - boil 20)
1 oz Centennial (aroma - boil 1 min)

Yeast
Safale US-05 Dry Yeast

Misc
zest of 2 oranges (boil 15)

My typical boil is a 3 gallon stovetop boil, but I am going to move up to a full boil soon. Hopville calculated the IBUs based on a 3 gallon boil.

This is the one of the first recipes I have written, and I would love some feedback. I was initially looking for a session honey wheat with a touch of citrus, but this is coming out as 6.7% ABV. How can I tone the alcohol level down? I do plan on having the honey/wheat/orange combination for a spring and summer ale on tap. What do you think?

I look forward to your suggestions!

Thanks.
 
The IBUs seem a little high for my taste in a wheat. I'm not sure what you're after, but reducing the DME may also increase your hop utilization a bit. Check that out and then maybe back off the bittering hops? Of course this all depends on your goals for the beer.

If you're moving down to 4lbs DME also, that makes 1lbs of honey 20% of your fermentables. From BYO:

"3 to 10 percent honey produces a subtle, floral flavor and delicate aroma; 11 to 30 percent produces a robust honey flavor that should be balanced by strong hop flavors, spices, or darker specialty malts; above 30 percent produces beer dominated by honey flavor, which verges on being what medieval brewers called “braggot"

In this case- if that's the flavor you're after, then perhaps the IBUs are in line with the style. That plus the honey malt will give you a very "honey-y" beer. All up to you to play with. I'd love to hear how this beer turns out. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the advice. I am trying for a nice spring beer. I am not very good at these - I tend to make big hop bombs. That is the reason that I asked for help on my stout and honey wheat recipes.

I am going to back off on the DME, bittering hops, and honey to try to bring this more in line with a lighter bodied spring/summer patio beer. New recipe here.
 
I would wait for more feedback from more experienced brewers than myself, but that looks like a mighty tasty brew. On personal taste, I might leave out the orange peel, but it could be great as a nice light summer ale (wit-like), but let me know how this turns out. You may have to ship me a sixer for QC:tank:

Also: for wheats you need to be ANAL about fermentation temperatures (in the wort, not just ambient). I would keep this one pretty cool if you're sticking with the US-O5, to make sure the yeast gets out of the way, flavor-wise.
 
Agree with daksin on the honey, cut back on that if you are dropping the dme, rather add more honey malt. I would shoot for about 10-15 IBU's in this beer, just note that if you do not boil full time with all the malt you will need to add more hops to get to the desired IBU's. Don't think hopville adds that into account. I'll try this in iBrewmaster and let you know what I came up with.
 
DGibb said:
Cross posted from Recipes/Ingredients due to lack of response:

Honey Blossom
Honey Wheat
Extract + Specialty Grains
5 gallons
OG: 1.068
FG: 1.018
IBU: 29
SRM: 9
ABV: 6.7%

Fermentables
3 lb 5 oz Wheat DME
3 lb 5 oz Wheat DME (Late addition)
1 lb Orange Blossom Honey (Late addition)
8 oz Honey Malt

Hops
0.75 oz Mt. Hood (bittering - boil 60)
0.75 oz Mt. Hood (bittering - boil 20)
1 oz Centennial (aroma - boil 1 min)

Yeast
Safale US-05 Dry Yeast

Misc
zest of 2 oranges (boil 15)

My typical boil is a 3 gallon stovetop boil, but I am going to move up to a full boil soon. Hopville calculated the IBUs based on a 3 gallon boil.

This is the one of the first recipes I have written, and I would love some feedback. I was initially looking for a session honey wheat with a touch of citrus, but this is coming out as 6.7% ABV. How can I tone the alcohol level down? I do plan on having the honey/wheat/orange combination for a spring and summer ale on tap. What do you think?

I look forward to your suggestions!

Thanks.
Click to expand...

That's practically identical to my honey wheat recipe (check my recipes). The only difference is I use 6lbs of wheat LME. The beer comes out really nice.
 

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