Wheatwine / Terrapin Gamma Ray clone (ish)

I'm trying to brew a wheat wine based off Terrapin's Gamma Ray.

One thing I'm wondering about in my recipe; am I using too much honey?

The only time I've used honey is in a cider so I'm not totally sure how much "honeyness" it adds to a beer.

This is my recipe so far:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 3.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.100 SG
Estimated Color: 10.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 39.3 IBU
Estimated ABV: 10.8

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
9.00 lb Wheat Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 69.2 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 3.8 %
0.50 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 3.8 %
2.00 oz Pearle [8.00%] (60 min) Hops 24.1 IBU
1.00 oz Pearle [8.00%] (30 min) Hops 9.2 IBU
1.00 oz Pearle [8.00%] (15 min) Hops 6.0 IBU
0.50 oz Mt. Hood [6.00%] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-SteepHops -
3.00 lb Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 23.1 %
2 Pkgs Nottingham Ale (Danstar) Yeast-Ale

I would knock the honey down to 2#'s and maybe add a 1/2# of honey malt. 23% honey might dry it out a bit. But YMMV. I would also double the hops. This is a strong beer and could use a kick! I made a wheatwine at 88 IBU's (see drop down). Try to get at least 60 or so...

I really liked Gamma Ray. I don't remember any hop aroma or flavor. It was balanced a bit on the sweet (honey) side, and I thought they must do sugar additions as well. Sorta Duvel-ish. Your current bitterness ration of 0.393 sounds great. I wouldn't make it any more bitter or you'll lose the honey flavor to the hops.

Also from memory, it was quite light colored. It seems to me that your beer is a little dark for a clone. Not much you can do about that I guess.

I think I will give a similar beer a try this spring. Please post back to this thread with tasting notes if you brew it and, of course, a picture is worth a thousand words! Good Luck.

Resurrecting an older thread here, but I've had Gamma Ray on my mind, and was searching for any recipe ideas....

Any brew notes/tasting notes?

I'd agree with passespawn that you don't need to increase the IBU's...Gamma is on the sweet side, but not cloying at all (at least to me, and I consider myself supremely sensitive to sweet). Terrapin quotes their IBU's to be 40, just like the OP recipe.

Gamma has a quite up front honey aroma, and I'd wonder if they add the honey later in the process (? late in primary)...if you add honey in the boil, even a flameout, you will loose a lot of the aroma.

I thought that the beer was a bit cloying, personally. I think that the biggest part was the yeast and the honey flavor. I don't make any hefeweizens, but I'm assuming the yeast was probably 3068 (the one that most people seem to use).

Yup I'm going to have to agree with Devil. Its was too cloying.

I think I posted the email terrapin sent me about a recipe for a clone. I used too much honey and I used s-05 yeast when instead I should have used a hefe yeast.

I hope that helps!

zoxygen said:

Yup I'm going to have to agree with Devil. Its was too cloying.

I think I posted the email terrapin sent me about a recipe for a clone. I used too much honey and I used s-05 yeast when instead I should have used a hefe yeast.

I hope that helps!

Click to expand...

Could you post the email that you got from them?

My brother just moved back to Chicago from South Carolina and brought some with him.

Unfortunately I don't think they sell it here.. great beer