Alternative Sugar Beer Hefe Candy #1

This recipe arose out of my desire to brew a Honey Hefeweizen with some honey and brumalt. It just seemed like a natural recipe to me and this is my third attempt, tweaking the recipe, here's what I came up with. It is Hefe Candy- it tastes like a hefeweizen, but has an incredible candy-like quality. The belgians would be proud. Don't think of this as a German Hefeweizen. Think of it as a Belgian with a ton of character. In fact, some candy sugar would be perfectly at home in this recipe...

Yes, ladies and gents, I finally, I have a beer worth sharing with you. This one is worth the price of admission for you malt-heads. It is special. I won't say everyone should brew this. It's definitely going to appeal to its core audience of malt lovers. But, if you love malt, honey, and hefeweizen, you've GOT to try this. It's like pouring yourself a Willy Wonka candy... It may not be an Everlasting Gobstopper, but its a Banana-Split. And honey on a tit.



Imagine if the Belgians invented the Hefeweizen. This might be what they came up with... Add some Brettanomyces and you'll have a beer with all of the universe's complexity. Without it, you have an amazing dessert beer, perfect for 12 ounce bottles. I've been switching to 22 ounce bottles, but this one just begs for 12's. It's the perfect size. Each 12-er is like opening the wrapper of a confectionery delight! Like a chocolate in a box, if they were twice the size, they just wouldn't be right.


This beer has got a TON of character. I dare compare it to Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout. It has nearly that complexity.. but without the years' worth of aging. It's only 5.8% ABV, so it's not meant to age forever or take a long time like Barleywines or Imperial Stouts. It's meant to be ready fairly quickly, but it definitely gives the illusion of a strong beer. It's got that intense mouthfeel and thickness, almost a syrup-like quality that really satisfies. And yet, at its heart, it is a wheat beer, perfect for a hot summer day. It's definitely a beer that drinks bigger than it is. If you want a "light beer" this is definitely a recipe that you could lighten up... and still wind up with a "real" beer.

Best of all, for as intense as the taste is, this baby is ready to drink within a month. If you love Bourbon County Stout and Hefeweizens, you'll love this as well. I've had "wheat wines". Basically barley wines with wheat. They tend to be "sharp" tasting like barleywines. This is FAR better than anything in that genre. This is smoothness, trapped in a bottle after only a month.


Based on 65% efficiency:
6.0 lbs German Wheat
4.0 lbs German Pilsner
2.0 lbs Honey Malt (aka Brumalt)
1.0 oz Hallertau (6.0% AA) at 60
0.5 oz Hallertau (6.0% AA) at 30
0.25 lbs clove honey (added after the primary ferment starts to subside)

Note, there is no secondary. Just 3-4 weeks in primary, then bottle.

Single infusion mash at 157 with a 90 minute boil to impart some caramel-like maltiness. The real "honey flavor" comes from the brumalt. Don't over-do the real honey because it will dry out the beer. Get most of your flavor from the brumalt- it will increase the complexity of the beer. If fermenting at a lower temp, use wildflower honey. If (like me) you are stuck with higher temps, use clove honey to impart at least a hint of cloviness. I fermented in the mid-70's.

The end result is very sweet. Candy-like. Bottle in 12 ounce bottles and it's like unwrapping a Brach's candy. 22 ounces would just be overkill. This isn't a sickeningly sweet recipe, but it's certainly a desert beer. It's like a great strong barleywine, but without the long aging period. This is something special. I hope you agree.

Just found this recipe, and I'm glad. I bought 2 pounds of honey malt today for a honey hefe next weekend. I might add a decoction to the schedule for even more maltiness, and I'm using 3068 since my LHBS doesn't have White Labs. I'm also considering adding either a little cascade or sorachi to give it some citrus flavor.

Is that wheat malted or raw? I have been having excellent results using raw in recipes that call for it, but I'm not sure what the difference would be.

And is the honey boiled before the addition?

mr x said:

Is that wheat malted or raw? I have been having excellent results using raw in recipes that call for it, but I'm not sure what the difference would be.

And is the honey boiled before the addition?

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I don't know why I didn't get notified of the posts to this thread. Sorry for the slow response. That is malted wheat. As I recall, I used malted German wheat... it's basically based off of a hefezweizen recipe.

The honey is not boiled. You wait till you're up to 5%ABV or so, move it to secondary, and let the alcohol fight and kill off the honey's impurities. Is that risky? I suppose it is. But you aren't Budweiser, you are HOMEBREWER! You can afford the enormous risks imposed by the use of unpasteurized ingredients in pursuit of the supreme pint. You value tastiness over financial responsibility in your brewing.

If it gets infected, it will get worse over the course of a month in bottles. Truth be told, we can drink 5 gallons of this in that month, especially if you share with friends. So, really, there's no worry. By the time the nasties take hold, you'll have downed the last bottle.

And what do you get in exchange for your living-on-the-edge no-boiling-the-honey approach? You get a LOT of honey flavor. It would be almost mead-like if not for the intense milkshake-like sweetness.

And wheat beers are meant to be consumed while young. Don't bother aging it. I say throw the honey into the secondary. The beer will be gone before you know it anyway....

Humps--
Are you using the honey as your priming sugar as well?

JodsterBrewMan said:

Humps--
Are you using the honey as your priming sugar as well?

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No. My personal opinion is that using honey to prime is gimmicky. You aren't really adding enough honey to give it much flavor... and unlike dextrose, the amount of sugar in honey is variable. As a result, you need to guess at the amount of honey or else dissolve it in water and take some measurements. Either way, it's a lot more effort than just adding dextrose boiled in water and the results aren't all that significantly different... except that honey is slower to ferment out.

With all that said though, I have primed with honey in the past and I'm not saying I wouldn't do it again. I'm just saying that I can't think of a reason to do it except that it's a neat gimmick to say that your beer became carbonated through the use of honey.

So I guess you could prime with honey if you want, though I generally advise against it unless you have a good reason to.

Edit to add: Thinking about it more, my advice against priming with honey goes DOUBLE for this recipe. You're already adding unboiled, impure honey to start a secondary fermentation after the initial fermentation subsides. As a result there is really no flavor advantage to adding a tiny little bit more at bottling. It'll just take longer to carbonate and clear.

Sir Humpsalot said:

No. My personal opinion is that using honey to prime is gimmicky. You aren't really adding enough honey to give it much flavor... and unlike dextrose, the amount of sugar in honey is variable. As a result, you need to guess at the amount of honey or else dissolve it in water and take some measurements. Either way, it's a lot more effort than just adding dextrose boiled in water and the results aren't all that significantly different... except that honey is slower to ferment out.

Edit to add: Thinking about it more, my advice against priming with honey goes DOUBLE for this recipe. You're already adding unboiled, impure honey into the secondary. As a result there is really no flavor advantage to adding a tiny little bit more at bottling. It'll just take longer to carbonate and clear.

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Your edit is exactly what I was looking for (when you were adding the honey), but I forgot to ask that question!! Thanks Humps!!

JodsterBrewMan said:

Your edit is exactly what I was looking for (when you were adding the honey), but I forgot to ask that question!! Thanks Humps!!

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But my edit was wrong.

This recipe doesn't have a secondary. You add it to the primary after the initial fermentation has subsided. Once the alcohol level has climbed high enough to fight off the nasties.

I just tried this recipe but added a concoction of grapefruit juice and zest and kumquat puree. I'll tell you how it turns out in a month.

kumquat? That sounds dirty....

Let's recap...2 types of German malt, German hops and German yeast and you're calling it a Belgium??

homebrewer_99 said:

Let's recap...2 types of German malt, German hops and German yeast and you're calling it a Belgium??

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Actually, no. I said, "Imagine if the Belgians had invented hefeweizen". Slight difference there.

Sir Humpsalot said:

kumquat? That sounds dirty....

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Yeah, doesn't it? All the names you can come up with for it... Kum-fruit, Kummelo (grapefruit's original name was pummelo), Kum-pum, Sour-kum (with the sourness of grapefruit mixed with the sweet-tartness of kumquat). The possibilities are endless! I think I might have overdone the kumquat though, because my whole apartment smelled like the fruit when the fermentation was at full boil. Can't wait to taste it. I took some sips from the satellite fermenter and it's really smooth and creamy. I think it'll be awesome.

I can only do extract brews, and I’m a total noob (3 batches under my belt). Is there a way to convert this to extract? I love a good Bavarian hefeweizen, and this sounds neat.

polamalu43 said:

I can only do extract brews, and I’m a total noob (3 batches under my belt). Is there a way to convert this to extract? I love a good Bavarian hefeweizen, and this sounds neat.

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Be prepared for a somewhat long aging process, at least 2 months before it really gets good and interesting. Sometimes that's hard for a new brewer, so I'm just warning you. The yeast loves to stay in suspension, so you've got to be patient and handle it with care if you hope to have anything close to a clear beer. Then, when bottling, again, you prime the bottles and it's quite a long wait before they get clear. And pouring a clear one is tricky... but clear or cloudy, it's a dang good beer.

But if you're still interested, I know you can get DME that is half wheat and half barley. 6.5lbs of Wheat DME will work (half wheat half barley) in place of the wheat and barley.

And I do believe you can steep the honey malt, so just go ahead and steep that...

then just follow the hop additions.


The color is somewhat darkish, so don't worry too much about late extract additions or anything...

Also, this would be a great recipe with which to use gelatin for a couple of days before bottling to help clear out the beer.

Sir Humpsalot said:

The color is somewhat darkish, so don't worry too much about late extract additions or anything...

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Yeah, I was wondering about that. Why is it so dark? I guess it's the German wheat? 'Cause I know we make plenty of Hefes here in the U.S. that are very light in color.

Also, my FG is settling at around .020. I noticed your FG is .010. Did I mash at too high a temp or something? My SG was only .060 (and I even had to kick it up with a little DME to get 'er there due to my primitive AG setup's poor efficiency). I fermented it in the low 70s.

AZWyatt said:

Yeah, I was wondering about that. Why is it so dark? I guess it's the German wheat? 'Cause I know we make plenty of Hefes here in the U.S. that are very light in color.

Also, my FG is settling at around .020. I noticed your FG is .010. Did I mash at too high a temp or something? My SG was only .060 (and I even had to kick it up with a little DME to get 'er there due to my primitive AG setup's poor efficiency). I fermented it in the low 70s.

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That SG is before the honey addition, correct?

1.020 is within the realm of feasibility. Maybe you did ferment too high, but if that's the case, don't worry, it will really work well for this recipe. I think you'll like it.

Nevertheless, remember honey ferments very slowly so don't be too impatient. As for the DME, what brand did you use? Some, like Laaglander, are notoriously unfermentable.

Sir Humpsalot said:

That SG is before the honey addition, correct?

1.020 is within the realm of feasibility. Maybe you did ferment too high, but if that's the case, don't worry, it will really work well for this recipe. I think you'll like it.

Nevertheless, remember honey ferments very slowly so don't be too impatient. As for the DME, what brand did you use? Some, like Laaglander, are notoriously unfermentable.

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You mean mash too high? That's what I was thinking, because a higher mash temp means more unfermentable sugars, means a sweeter brew, right? So that would explain my high FG. But I did add some honey (about 1/4 lb) to the primary just to get the OG up, so it might just be the honey taking its time to ferment. Also added some sugar (about 1/2 cup), and I think a little bit of DME. Wasn't Laaglander, though. It would have been Briess.

I'd like to add some honey to the secondary, but I'm afraid with all the other sugars I've got in there it won't end up tasting good.

I went ahead and bottled it last night. Had a sample from a bottle that didn't get filled all the way from the bottling bucket. I'm surprised at how non-sweet it is. I was expecting something almost syrupy, like snowcap or something, but this is about like a regular hefe with a little grapefruit and kumquat juice in there. Probably would have been closer to your 'candy' version if I had gone with more conventional AG techniques though. I did the 'brew in a bag' method, and I didn't add any honey to the secondary. I should have though. Next time.

But I really do like the taste. It tastes exactly like you'd think it should when you hear 'grapefruit hefe'. The grapefruit pucker isn't overpowering, about like adding a lime to a Corona. And the kumquat flavor is a nice sweet-sour addition to round out the pure sourness of the grapefruit. Should be very refreshing in a month or two when it gets hot.

For those of you interested in the recipe, I juiced four grapefruits by hand (same method as squeezing the juice out of a lime) and pureed about ten kumquats. After removing the seeds, I pasteurized the mixture by putting it on the stove for about 30 minutes at 170-180 degrees. I threw this mixture into the primary at the same time I pitched my yeast. There was a significant amount of kumquat pulp and rind that I was worried would clog my racking cane toward the end, but it all floated and essentially wasn't a problem until nearly all of the usable beer was already racked off the yeast cake. I also zested about half a grapefruit and put the zest in at 5 minutes before flame-out.

Wow and to think that I was going to be the first Honey Wheat Home Brew, LOL!

A friend of mine used to live in Seattle and ws raving about a beer called Yakima Honey Wheat. I was like that sounds great and Right now it sounds really goods...even more so after reading your Hefe Candy and the other Honey Wheat Recipes. I formulated one that went something like this. (not exact, not on my computer):

Briess 2 row 6lbs
Wheat Malt 4lbs
Cara-pils 1lbs
Honey Malt 1.5lbs
Flaked Wheat 1lbs
Honey 2lbs (after reading your post I guess I should back this off)
I was going with a more american style so I was thinking
Magnum 1oz
Cascade 1oz
Cascade 1oz (Dry Hop)
Yeah I'm a Hop Head!

You should see my Hopptastic Hop Monster recipe, LOL Right now would cost like $25 in Hops