Honey Wheat Kit

[bmwwd6]

I just purchased a Honey Wheat kit from adventures in homebrewing. The instructions say to...

-steep the grains
-add LME
-bring to boil and add hops, continue boil for 45 mins
-add honey, continue boil for 15 mins

However, after doing some research I've decided to add the honey to secondary as opposed to the boil. So should I just add the hops and boil for 60 mins? Or should I adjust the boil time since I am not adding the honey at the 45 min mark? Also, I was planning on heating up the honey to 160 for 15 mins and then pouring it straight in to the glass carboy. Is this a good idea or should I dilute it with water?

 

[bchurch]

Keep the boil at 60 min. and I would dilute the honey with a little bit of boiled water just to make it easier to pour. Also let it cool before adding.

 

[Schumed]

Make sure your fermentation is over when transfering to secondary.....yeast will eat that honey up and kick back up fermentation

 

[bmwwd6]

How much water would you suggest mixing with 1lb of honey? Also, will adding honey after fermentation is complete still get the desired aroma/taste?

 

[iambeer]

Just wondering, what is the desired aroma/taste of fermented honey in (mostly) beer? To me I imagine it depends on the type of flowers the honey is made from, but not sweet. I had a beer that had honey and chamomile in it... they seem to work very well together. I recently realized while making another beer that the reason my beer is sweet is because I used a Munich malt. I'm not sure about all the technical details, but apparently Munich malt and "Honey" malt is used to provide the beer with sweetener that won't be processed by yeast. Anyway I'm just learning, and I thought I'd throw my stream of consciousness out there.

 

[Pezman1]

My two cents:

Don't secondary. Add the honey at flameout (0 minutes) - NOT at 15 minutes. The heat from your just boiled wort is more than enough to pasteurize the honey.

Consider adding a bit (4-8 ounces) of Gambrinus Honey malt as a steeping grain - your kit might already have some in it - on your next honey brew.

Keep the boil schedule the same regardless of any plans to secondary or add sugars later.

Also, search on late extract addition. I start the boil with half of the extract, then add the rest during the last 10-15 minutes. Keeps the color light and helps with that caramelized taste you can get with extract.


Pez.