Having visited Thunderhead Brewing in Kearney, NE last summer, and very much liking the Golden Frau Honey Wheat beer, I decided this would be something I would like to try to make.
I started with the Northern Brewer American Wheat extract kit. I did a late extract addition (1/3), but cut both the bittering & aroma hops by %40. I Added 3# of locally grown SD honey at flameout.
At 3 weeks bottled, the beer tasted somewhat like a pale ale -- the bitterness and hop aroma was very noticeable, but still not overpowering. I made a mental note to cut back on the hops next time as this was not quite what I had intended.
Fast forward 5 more weeks since the first samples to today. The beer is totally changed -- the initial bitterness and hop aroma are mostly gone, replaced with a pleasant honey aroma. The beer is awesome -- much closer to what I remember the original to be like.
From what I have read, Thunderhead uses 1.2 gallons honey per barrel. Not sure if this is accurate, but based on a weight of 12# per gallon of honey, this comes out to 2.3# per 5G beer, so I'm high (25%+) on the amount of honey (1.2*12)/31.5*5=2.3). Maybe I should have done this calculation earlier instead of winging it
Still, if every beer tastes as good as the one I had tonight, I'm a happy camper.
I started with the Northern Brewer American Wheat extract kit. I did a late extract addition (1/3), but cut both the bittering & aroma hops by %40. I Added 3# of locally grown SD honey at flameout.
At 3 weeks bottled, the beer tasted somewhat like a pale ale -- the bitterness and hop aroma was very noticeable, but still not overpowering. I made a mental note to cut back on the hops next time as this was not quite what I had intended.
Fast forward 5 more weeks since the first samples to today. The beer is totally changed -- the initial bitterness and hop aroma are mostly gone, replaced with a pleasant honey aroma. The beer is awesome -- much closer to what I remember the original to be like.
From what I have read, Thunderhead uses 1.2 gallons honey per barrel. Not sure if this is accurate, but based on a weight of 12# per gallon of honey, this comes out to 2.3# per 5G beer, so I'm high (25%+) on the amount of honey (1.2*12)/31.5*5=2.3). Maybe I should have done this calculation earlier instead of winging it
Still, if every beer tastes as good as the one I had tonight, I'm a happy camper.
