Honey Wheat ideas for anniversary beer

My 9 year Anniversary is coming up and wanted to brew a beer to help celebrate it. I figured a hefeweizen would be great because my wife loves them. I also figured I add some honey to sweeten it up (sounds like the right thing to do in the name of love)

I came up with this real simple recipe but need help as to what may be missing or changed because I have no idea what the heck I'm doing.


Batch size: 5 Gallons

41% 3Lb Muntons Wheat DME

28% 2Lb Muntons Wheat DME (@knockout)

21% 1lb 8oz Honey (Boil for a min)

5% 8oz Honey Malt

5% 6oz Weyermann CaraHell


boil 35 mins 1oz Tettnanger pellet 4.5 AA


Wyeast American Wheat (1010)

Original Gravity
1.052

Color
5° SRM

Bitterness
14.4 IBU

Alcohol
5.3% ABV

American Style Hefenweizen


Updated recipe

Your honey is completely fermentable and will not leave you with any sweetness from it. Read up on using honey malt in place of the honey.

Thanks I changed it up a bit

I tasted a honey ale that had a very nice honey smell and flavor - the brewer used a pound of honey and added it at flamout - he also mentioned that he stirred like crazy to get it to dissolve. I know it is highly fermentable but I could definitely taste it when it was added at flameout.

I brew a lot of hefs and love the wlp380 strain above all others. I would also not worry about the flavor and aroma hop additions for this style - just add all the ibus you want at 60 minutes - I usually make it between 12 and 15.

Patirck said:

I tasted a honey ale that had a very nice honey smell and flavor - the brewer used a pound of honey and added it at flamout - he also mentioned that he stirred like crazy to get it to dissolve. I know it is highly fermentable but I could definitely taste it when it was added at flameout.

I brew a lot of hefs and love the wlp380 strain above all others. I would also not worry about the flavor and aroma hop additions for this style - just add all the ibus you want at 60 minutes - I usually make it between 12 and 15.

Click to expand...

the wlp380 I'm sort of shying away from since I'm not too much into cloves. is it too prominent?

I took your advice on the Hops

theres a honey hefe extract kit on northern brewer that gets great reviews(in fact I am making it in two weeks), and it has a pound of clove honey added at 1 minute, and people say that the honey makes the beer, they also said theyd probably add up to a pound more. Im prob gonna add 1.5 pounds at 1 minute

I like the idea of adding the honey at the end! Going to try it!

I brewed an extract honey-brown adding a pound of honey at flameout. That is definitely the way to go if you want to impart some of the honey taste/aroma to the beer.
As stated, it doesn't make the beer sweeter. I'm assuming some of the flavor compounds in the honey get boiled off rather quickly.

I would use a clean yeast like Wyeast American Wheat. You don't want all that banana Bavian wheat thing trying to duke it out with your honey.

My 2cents...Pez

Edit - I have no experience priming with honey, but I've heard it doesn't impart flavor to the beer, and is harder to get an approximate carb level due to the varying moisture content of the honey. I'm assuming you want a high carb level with a wheat, so I would go with corn sugar and be precise.

I made a superb honey & chamomile wheat back in the summer. This recipe is straight from a Sam Calagione book. What a coincidence, I'm drinking one right now

It has a very distinct honey flavor, so ignore those other comments. Add the honey at the end of the boil. IMO, the chamomile flowers add a floral delicacy that greatly compliments the honey. I still think this was a very fine beer.

Here's my recipe thread in case you're interested.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f70/honey-chamomile-wheat-what-way-end-long-day-191443/

passedpawn said:

I made a superb honey & chamomile wheat back in the summer. This recipe is straight from a Sam Calagione book. What a coincidence, I'm drinking one right now

It has a very distinct honey flavor, so ignore those other comments. Add the honey at the end of the boil. IMO, the chamomile flowers add a floral delicacy that greatly compliments the honey. I still think this was a very fine beer.

Here's my recipe thread in case you're interested.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f70/honey-chamomile-wheat-what-way-end-long-day-191443/

Click to expand...

I'm convinced that the people who say honey doesn't add any flavor have added it way too early in the boil. Like you said, I definitely tasted honey in my beer. The flavor components must boil off easily. Pez.

Pezman1 said:

I brewed an extract honey-brown adding a pound of honey at flameout. That is definitely the way to go if you want to impart some of the honey taste/aroma to the beer.
As stated, it doesn't make the beer sweeter. I'm assuming some of the flavor compounds in the honey get boiled off rather quickly.

I would use a clean yeast like Wyeast American Wheat. You don't want all that banana Bavian wheat thing trying to duke it out with your honey.

My 2cents...Pez

Edit - I have no experience priming with honey, but I've heard it doesn't impart flavor to the beer, and is harder to get an approximate carb level due to the varying moisture content of the honey. I'm assuming you want a high carb level with a wheat, so I would go with corn sugar and be precise.

Click to expand...

Wow I hadn't considered american wheat but think I will. Not down with the cloves or bananas

Daver77 said:

Wow I hadn't considered american wheat but think I will. Not down with the cloves or bananas

Click to expand...

Yes, I just read pez's post and he is right. Exactly right.

passedpawn said:

Yes, I just read pez's post and he is right. Exactly right.

Click to expand...

So then I have to call it an American wheat not a Hefeweizen right?

Is the WLP351 still a seasonal yeast? As far as the American Wheat, I just used the WLP320 for the Blood Orange Wheat because my wife isn't a huge fan of the huge banana/clove in a hefeweizen and I didn't want it fighting to the death with the citrus from the blood oranges. Seems to have worked well based on the hydrometer sample at bottling.

The Final recipe I'm brewing this weekend




41% 3Lb Muntons Wheat DME

28% 2Lb Muntons Wheat DME (@knockout)

21% 1lb 8oz Honey (Boil for a min)

5% 8oz Honey Malt

5% 6oz Weyermann CaraHell


boil 35 mins 1oz Tettnanger pellet 4.5 AA


Wyeast American Wheat (1010)

Original Gravity
1.052

Color
5° SRM

Bitterness
14.4 IBU

Alcohol
5.3% ABV

American Style Hefenweizen

Any suggestions?

I'll throw my two cents in on the honey matter as well.
I have used honey in many batches and experimented with early, late and flame-out additions. I have found the best residual honey flavors/aromas by adding at flame-out before chilling. The honey dissolves quickly in the hot wort and will be pastuerized by the the near boiling temps. I have a local beekeeper that I get most of my honey from, usually a raspberry or almond. They both add subtle flavors and just a hint of floral aroma. I have a honey blonde that gets rave reviews from all.

I was worries about putting it at flame out because of not being able to boil off any bacteria