About 6 weeks ago I bottled my forth batch of beer, Jamil's Hefe recipe from Brewing Classic Styles. The beer is good but has a very strong honey overtone to it and everyone notices...frankly, I don't think it tastes much like a hefe. I haven't had this issue before or in the 2 other batches I've done since (an English bitter and an American brown). The recipe is below but I think the mistake happened in one of two mistakes:
1 - Not realizing that hops pellets expand like a hundred times their size, I packed the pellets into a small muslin spice bag for mulling cider. At the end of the boil, the bag was about to burst at the seems. I'm thinking I didn't get the full bittering effect from the hops, possibly making the beer sweet.
2 - I fermented the beer at an ambient temp of 68 degrees. At the time I didn't realize that I should have had the temp probe on my freezer on the side of the carboy reading the wort temperature. The ferment smelled was knock-you-over banana smelling but there's not really a banana flavor, nor is there a clove flavor, just honey, honey, and more honey.
Recipe:
8.6 lb Wheat LME
0.8 oz Mittlefruh (60 min) - recipe called for Hallertau
Yeast = WLP300
Full boil. Boil to pitching @ 65 degrees in about 35 minutes. No honey or honey malt at any point.
So where did this honey flavor came from? Next time I make a hefe, I hoping it tastes more like Franzikaner.
Thanks.
1 - Not realizing that hops pellets expand like a hundred times their size, I packed the pellets into a small muslin spice bag for mulling cider. At the end of the boil, the bag was about to burst at the seems. I'm thinking I didn't get the full bittering effect from the hops, possibly making the beer sweet.
2 - I fermented the beer at an ambient temp of 68 degrees. At the time I didn't realize that I should have had the temp probe on my freezer on the side of the carboy reading the wort temperature. The ferment smelled was knock-you-over banana smelling but there's not really a banana flavor, nor is there a clove flavor, just honey, honey, and more honey.
Recipe:
8.6 lb Wheat LME
0.8 oz Mittlefruh (60 min) - recipe called for Hallertau
Yeast = WLP300
Full boil. Boil to pitching @ 65 degrees in about 35 minutes. No honey or honey malt at any point.
So where did this honey flavor came from? Next time I make a hefe, I hoping it tastes more like Franzikaner.
Thanks.