orange blossom and ginger??

Hi, Never brewed with honey before, and was thinking about trying the basic recipe for Rocky Raccoon Crystal Honey Lager thats in The Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian. There's a modification to it to add ginger when you start the boil (calld Linda's Lovely Light Honey Lager).

Has anyone ever done this with orange blossom honey rather than clover (which it calls for)? How'd it turn out?

I'm still a new homebrewer (on 8th batch with my BF) so I'm no expert, but I didn't want to follow the recipe to a T - want to be a little creative. I bought the ingredients (no grains required), but now I'm reading other recipes I like better that call for adding the honey and/or ginger at different times.

Recipe: 3.5# LME, 2.5# honey, 1.5 oz cascade (at boil) and 2-4 oz ginger - all going in at the start of the 60 min boil. Then .5 oz cascade to finish it off.

Should I try adding the honey at intervals? Read it adds more flavor if its added later. Should I add the ginger at intervals too? Or just stick to the recipe. Also read about adding orange peel to enhance the organge flavor of the honey...

So many options!

I would just wait and add all the honey after the end of the boil, but when the wort is still hot. I've had good luck adding honey after fermentation ends, but there is a slight chance of intrucing wild yeast this way. Orange blossom honey is great, good choice.

I'd add the ginger closer to the end as well. Stay on the low end, you can always add more later if you want it. Orange zest would be a good addition as well if you want more orange aroma.

Good luck.

Ive use orange blossom honey in some of the aphelwein recipes that I experimenting with, and the results are great. I've also used clover and the diferences in the finished product are to hard to give an acurate descripttion. Orange blossome is much more sweeter than the clover, and if you are using laney honey, Basswood is even sweeter than orange blossom. I just brewed a saison also and used the orange blossom honey. added to the secondary to keep fermentaion going from primary. This dryed the beer out nicely, and even though the beer is still young you can taste a hint of honey after every sip. not as strong as you would in other styles of course, becase of the spicy notes. Still very refreshing though.

Also that seems like a lot of ginger for a 60min. boil. I also would add this at the end, maybe 5-10 min. deppending on how much ginger you use. I would use no more that 2 oz. your first time, to get an idea of what this spice does to your finished beer. I brewwed a double belgian and used 2 star anise seeds, 1/2 oz sassafras, and 1/2 oz ginger for last 10min. in boil, all flovors came through strong, mostly the sassafras and ginger.