Help with Honey Wedding Beer

One of my friends is getting married and wants an orange honey wheat beer. I came up with a recipe, but would like some advice and criticism. Also I have never brewed with actual honey and have read some people saying it takes a long time to finish fermentation, does anyone have any guesses on the time needed for this to mature? Any other comments or advice to help with making this a better beer?

Orange Honey Wheat

5 Gal 64% Efficiency Estimated OG: 1.056 (with honey included) FG: 1.010 IBU's: 26.7

Grains
4lbs Vienna Malt (36%)
3lbs 8oz White Wheat Malt (31.5%)
1lb 2oz Flaked Barley (10.1%)
8oz Honey Malt (4.5%)
8oz Caramel 10 (4.5%)
24 oz Ambrosia Raw Honey (13.5%) (added to secondary after pasteurizing by bringing to 170 for 5 min)

Hops

.5 oz Calypso @ 20 min (15.8 IBUs)
.5 oz Citra @ 10 min (8.1 IBUs)
.5 oz Cascade @ 5 min (2.8 IBUs)

Yeast
S-04

Adjuncts

2 oz Orange Zest @ 10 min
.7 oz Coriander Seed (crushed) @ 10 min
(I am thinking of using Grains of Paradise instead of Coriander due to the fact that it used to be thought of as an aphrodisiac and this is a wedding!)

I like where you are going with this, the only thing I would be concerned at all with is the honey addition to secondary. IMO it will kick fermentation back up, and honey ferments out very dry as it is basically 100% fermentable. Most likely the only flavor and aroma you will get will be dry mild floral. However I think the honey malt will bring that honey flavor you are looking for out in your finished beer. Are you going to bottle, or keg this beer?

I am going to bottle, do you think I should add some malto-dextrine to thicken it up a little? Or should I decrease the honey addition? Or even up the honey/caramel malt to try and counteract that dryness, I usually like my beers from 1.012-1.020 so I am a little worried about dry beersmith is predicting this to be

Just a few thoughts...

+ with the flaked barley & malted wheat, I think you'll be doing fine on body & head.

+ 1.5# of honey sounds good for a 5-gal batch. It is mostly fermentable, lending some dryness, but I don't think you'll be in too bad shape in the 1.008-1010 range.

+ I would add the honey during the wort cool-down .. once it is below 130-F.. heat will drive off the delicate aromatics & flavors, so the lower the better IMHO. Honey has low water content (very bacteria adverse enviornment) and is a very safe add at this point. This allows the honey to fully dissolve into solution and be fermented during primary. No need to wait a long time... (whereas meads take a long time to ferment, as they are 100% honey and a difficult enviornment for yeast to survive in).

Good luck!
--LexusChris

really, no need to pasteurize honey. Yeast will take care of any bothersome bacteria by peeing alcohol and farting co2. not much else to worry about.

Ps, as far as times go, i made a mead that took the better part of a year to get 'good.' I think the amount of honey you have, if added to the wort just prior to pitching yeast, will be fine in a few months. 2-4'd be my guess, depending on racking. honey likes to be racked every 3-4 weeks, in my experience. cold crashing does seemingly nothing, too.

Two things...

The March/April 2012 edition of BYO has a very good article on brewing with honey...

Second, the National Honey Board has a excellent PDF on how to homebrew with honey here

I would add the honey as the yeast is starting to drop, 2-3 days into fermentation; avoids yeast focusing on the simple sugars at the start. I've used 1 kg (2.2 lbs) in 5 gallons of Belgian Golden Strong added half 2 days in and a the rest on the 4th day. Finished in normal time. (flavor took time to develop, but that was due to the Belgian yeast, not honey) With only 1.5 lbs in your recipe, simple sugars might not be a concern, but won't hurt. I wouldn't bother pasteurizing - especially if adding into fermentation where there is already substantial alcohol present.

Thanks everyone for the help, I am getting excited to brew this!

Just wanted to let you guys know how this was shaping up as I just bottled this last night.... the final recipe was as follows:

OG: 1.061 (1.050 pre honey) FG: 1.012 IBU's: 19 Mashed @ 152

Malts:

4lbs Vienna Malt (36%)
3lbs 8oz White Wheat Malt (31.5%)
1lb 2oz Flaked Barley (10.1%)
8oz Honey Malt (4.5%)
8oz Caramel 10 (4.5%)
24 oz Raw Florida Wildflower Honey (13.5%)

Hops and Adjuncts:

1oz Cascade @20min (12.6IBU's)
0.6oz Cascade @10min (4.5IBU's)
1.7oz Orange Zest @10min
0.5oz Cascade @5min (2.1IBU's)
2 grams Grains of Paradise @ 5min


The honey was an interesting mix of tropical flowers and palmettos and had a really nice flavor. I added the honey to secondary without pasteurizing. As of bottling there is definitely a distinct honey flavor and aroma. The orange zest seems pretty balanced right now and the grains of paradise are not that noticeable. I am hoping the honey doesnt fade too much by the wedding in a month and half....

A little late but I would have suggested bottling with honey, it really brings out an immediate taste and aroma. Good luck

I also just did a orange honey wheat beer for a wedding. Used 6 blood oranges (zest and fruit) in the secondary. I used .75 of honey malt, but no actual honey. I bottled it a couple of days ago, and it tasted pretty good then. I think I'll probably use the full pound of honey malt next time though. You could taste it, but had to hunt for it over the blood oranges. I might bottle with honey next time too. That seems like a good idea.

I have actually found that adding 2oz of chamomile @ the last 15 mins of the boil (5.5 gal batch) will impart a distinctly honey-like flavor to a wheat beer. I think this is due to the fact that honey is obviously a byproduct of flower pollen, and well... chamomile is a flower. If I'm not mistaken adding pure honey doesn't impart much actual honey flavor due to the fact that most of it is converted into simpler sugars and then eaten by the yeast in the fermentation process. That is unless you add a lot of it at which point you might actually end up with bad "cidery" type off-flavors.

I brewed a honey wheat with 1/4 lb honey malt and 1 lb generic honey at flameout. You could definitely taste the honey but it was not all in-yo-face. It came out as a very inoffensive beer.