Critique honey orange wheat

I'm going to be brewing a honey orange wheat. I want the orange and honey flavor to shine through and to be balanced with each other. Pleas critique the recipe and leave any suggestions you think would be helpful!

5 gal batch

6 lbs. pale 2 row
5 lbs weyermann light wheat
.5 lbs honey malt
1 lb rice hulls

1 oz Tettnang 60 min.
1 oz Tettnang 30 min.

5 oz orange zest added at 15 min.

1.5 L starter of Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast

Estimated O.G. 1.055
Estimated ABV: 5.37%

I also have some cascade, centennial, hallertauer, and zythos (Simcoe substitute) hops on hand.

I've thought about adding oranges to the mash, then I started worrying about the pH of the mash so I decided zest at 15 min/flameout would be best.

We brew something similar to that and everyone loves it. We zest four oranges per 5g batch. The honey malt will do its job. I prefer a Belgian yeast though, like wl400, fermented warm

10G batch

Amt Name Type

9 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain

7 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain

2 lbs Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain

Honey Malt (25.0 SRM)

1 lbs 8.0 oz

1.00 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min

2.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)

1.00 oz Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min

8.00 Items Orange Zest (1 lg. orange) (Boil 10.0 mi Spice

wl400

So I would drop you're hops down a bit. This is a regular and VERY popular

Also, you don't need a pound of rice hulls. Just a handful.

Consider moving your zest addition to 5 or even flameout. I used to do 20 and 15 addition but found there was virtually no flavor added. You could also soak it in vodka and add it at bottling/kegging or in a secondary

I actually did plan on moving it to flameout and adding zest soaked in vodka after primary was finished. I'm going to cut my hop additions in half. Thanks for the advice!

I added the zest on my citrus wheat at 2 minutes. Huge citrus flavor only using 3/4 oz of zest in a 5 gallon batch

I just cracked my first honey lemon wheat.

50/50 two row and wheat. The wheat was half white and half German light wheat.
1 lb crystal 10.

1 oz tettnang 60
1 oz tettnang 10

1 lb honey at 10. Zest of 5 large lemons at 10.

Great smooth bitterness like a wheat should be. Great blast of citrus up front with a subtle honey hint. I'daybe up the honey a touch, but otherwise it turned out great.

I see you guys are going with honey malt rather than actual honey. I'd be interested in tasting the difference.
I also used American wheat 1010.

Actual honey is 100% fermentable which lightens the body, dries it out, and bumps up the alcohol percentage without giving much honey flavor from what I understand. Honey malt evidently imbues a honey flavor. I have used actual honey several times but didn't get what I was looking for.

MacGruber said:

Actual honey is 100% fermentable which lightens the body, dries it out, and bumps up the alcohol percentage without giving much honey flavor from what I understand. Honey malt evidently imbues a honey flavor. I have used actual honey several times but didn't get what I was looking for.

Click to expand...

Yep. Honey malt does a great job of imparting honey notes to the beer. Unless of course the yeast can't ferment all of the bee honey and falls out...I suppose then there would be some residual flavor.

Our recipes are VERY similar! Can you give me some tasting notes to look forward to?

Try bottling of carbing with orange blossom honey. It will give you a nice upfront flavor/aroma. The honey malt will give you the more stable taste throughout the brew, using both can give it a nice punch!

MacGruber said:

Our recipes are VERY similar! Can you give me some tasting notes to look forward to?

Click to expand...

Yours won't taste a whole lot like mine as I used a lot more wheat compared to 2-row and a different yeast fermented hot. Mine has a spice note in aroma and taste despite no actual spice in the brew. That's the wl400 and high ferm temps. Otherwise its smooth but with silky body and slight floral/citrus notes.