Honey ale tastes bitter now, too much honey?

[anico4704]

I have brewed the following recipe, 5 gallon full boil. 1.045OG - 1.008FG. After a week I took a sample and it was down to 1.008 and fermentation seemed to have stopped, so I added the planned honey addition of 1lb in 2 cups of water. When I took that reading after 1 week it was very good and slightly sweet. I have since took another sample a week later after the honey addition, where the gravity was 1.008 once again, but this time it had a very bitter aftertaste with almost no sweetness at all. Is this because of the honey drying the beer out? How can I make this beer a little more balanced(sweeter) as it is supposed to be a honey wheat, but it just tastes like a clean bitter beer.

Steeping:
8oz honey malt

Boil:
5 lbs wheat DME

Hop Schedule:
.75oz Mt Hood 60 mins
.75oz Mt Hood 20 mins
1oz Centennial 1min

Yeast:
American Wheat Wyeast

Fermentation:
63-66 degrees F
1Lb Orange Blossum Honey after a week.

 

[duboman]

I have brewed the following recipe, 5 gallon full boil. 1.045OG - 1.008FG. After a week I took a sample and it was down to 1.008 and fermentation seemed to have stopped, so I added the planned honey addition of 1lb in 2 cups of water. When I took that reading after 1 week it was very good and slightly sweet. I have since took another sample a week later after the honey addition, where the gravity was 1.008 once again, but this time it had a very bitter aftertaste with almost no sweetness at all. Is this because of the honey drying the beer out? How can I make this beer a little more balanced(sweeter) as it is supposed to be a honey wheat, but it just tastes like a clean bitter beer.

Steeping:
8oz honey malt

Boil:
5 lbs wheat DME

Hop Schedule:
.75oz Mt Hood 60 mins
.75oz Mt Hood 20 mins
1oz Centennial 1min

Yeast:
American Wheat Wyeast

Fermentation:
63-66 degrees F
1Lb Orange Blossum Honey after a week.

The honey completely fermented out and dried the beer. You can boil up some malto-dextrin or lactose, maybe 8oz and add back some body and sweetness

 

[anico4704]

The honey completely fermented out and dried the beer. You can boil up some malto-dextrin or lactose, maybe 8oz and add back some body and sweetness

Is one going to be better than the other? I read so far that lactose is more of a sweetener where malto-dextrin is for body/mouthfeel, is that true? Should I use both? Its a bit thin tasting, but mainly I am concerned about the bitterness. Would 8oz of Lactose take care of this?

Also, if I added it at bottling time, will I be able to taste it to see what the final product will taste like right away, to know to add more or less?

 

[duboman]

8oz of Lactose would probably get you where you want to be in adding back both some body and sweetness. You can add it at bottling. Boil it up to dissolve and cool. Pour into bottling bucket and rack beer onto it to mix. You might want to start with 4oz and taste and then add more if necessary. If you decide to add more, be careful and gently swirl beer so as not to introduce O2 and oxidize the beer.

 

[billl]

The bitterness is because you re-created "green beer". Fermentation was done and then you added another pound of fermentables. Give it another week or 2 and you'll be back to decent tasting beer.

You aren't going to get sweet beer by adding honey though. You'll get some delicate flavors from the honey, but all of the sugar will be fermented. If you want a sweet, honey flavor, then you should have used a little honey malt.