OBP - Orange Blossom Pilsner Clone?

Went to the World Beer Festival in Durham NC Saturday, and one of the many (MANY!) fine brews that I tried was a Florida brew called "Orange Blossom Pilsner."

It was a kolsch-like beer (yes, I know it says pilsner) meaning very light, and not hoppy but the schtick behind this brew was that it had orange blossom honey as 30% of its fermentables. Best of all, it had a really nice hint of orange blossoms - not the fruit, the flower - and it made the brew a delightful one on an unseasonably hot day here. There was no yeast notable characteristic and the brew was ever so slightly malty but had a bit of a sweet finish.

Naturally, my first thought was to build a clone recipe. No sense in buying six packs for the house when 5 gallons on tap will do! Besides, I get out enough to buy the brewery's wares, which I will do.

I was thinking of using a kolsch base recipe (based on Jamil Z's fine Kolsch recipe) on the mid to high end for malt and using Munich or perhaps Canadian Honey Malt to give some of the residual sweetness. Don't want to do a lager, especially for an experimental recipe.

I'll grab up some orange blossom honey when I go down to the Shuttle launch in a couple weeks to get the 30% of the fermentables as the brewery does in its version. Thing is, I know that honey will almost totally ferment and not leave anything sweet behind. Think honey malt added in with the Munich will help add that component back in?

Still, it seems like a LOT of honey and that the cool kolsch yeast fermentation might be all that keeps this beer from tasting like beer-flavored vodka.

Here's my brainstorm recipe

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Boil Size: 7.97 gal
Estimated OG: 1.065 SG
Estimated Color: 5.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 20.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 71.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.75 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 63.64 %
0.75 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 5.45 %
0.25 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 1.82 %
1.33 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 19.3 IBU
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] (5 min) Hops 1.4 IBU
4.00 lb Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 29.09 %
1 Pkgs Kolsch Yeast (Wyeast Labs #2565) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 9.75 lb
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Single Infusion, Light Body
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
75 min Mash In Add 12.19 qt of water at 165.3 F 150.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 7.80 qt of water at 202.4 F 168.0 F

I think you have too much honey, the brewery's website says 2.3 tsp per bottle so ~2.25 cups in 5 gallons. Maybe they changed something? I also see it listed at 5.5% ABV, so I'd back down on the OG (unless you are going for a bigger - cool weather - version.)

I've had the best luck adding honey after primary fermentation, that way all the CO2 the yeast produces fermenting the malt sugars won't drive off the delicate floral aromatics.

Honey malt will certainly add some sweetness to the beer, but Munich really won't (it's just a toastier version of pale malt essentially).

Hope that helps, enjoy the shuttle launch.

Agreed, I thought I had WAYYYYYY too much honey, but the guys at the festival were insistent that there was 30% honey in the fermentables. Didn't make sense from a brewing standpoint to have that much honey in it, seems like it would be rocket fuel and taste like it.

Good point to about honey additions. I have always waited for high krausen to pass its peak to add honey, mainly because I want to ensure that the yeast has chewed up the more complex sugars and won't ignore them for the sugar bomb the honey gives. It's an old trick to make cleaner Belgian Strong Goldens (I'm lazy and use honey rather than other sugars) that I have used for a long time.

Again, thanks for the thoughts. This is a brew scheduled for the November time frame and I want to really think it through before hitting the mash tun and the fermenter.

Cool, let us me know how it turns out.

Also, FYI you have more than 30% of your ferementables coming from the honey because you have 30% by weight. Honey is about ~40 pppg, so you are getting ~.032 of your .065 from it (so you are at about 50% of your fermentables at the moment).

It's gotta be done by now. How'd it go?