Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Honey & Chamomile Wheat: What a way to end a long day

[JeffoC6]

That gravity will work fine. You will have a ~5.1% beer, which is fine for a wheat.

Thanks! Excited to try this. I'm a huge fan of Chamomile and Lemon tea, so I figure this has gotta be good!

 

[passedpawn]

Thanks! Excited to try this. I'm a huge fan of Chamomile and Lemon tea, so I figure this has gotta be good!

I love chamomile tea also, which is why I brewed this. In fact, thanks for reminding me, I've got to plant my german chamomile seeds!

 

[matalec1984]

Love this beer, I have been keeping a version of this beer on tap every spring and summer for awhile now. Always a hit. (In fact just keggedd my first batch of it for this year)

 

[JeffoC6]

Whoa, I got a OG of 1.051 and a FG of 1.009

 

[passedpawn]

Whoa, I got a OG of 1.051 and a FG of 1.009

So what's your thoughts? Can you taste the honey and chamomile?

 

[JeffoC6]

So what's your thoughts? Can you taste the honey and chamomile?

I just did my first FG reading, so I'm not drinking it yet, but I had a very small taste and yes, I can definitely pick up the backbone of the honey and the chamomile

I just gotta let this baby carb up now, just didn't expect to get down so far on the FG.

 

[Draygon]

So if one were to want to make this as a extract/partial would I use the recipe posted a few pages back? I havent seen an updated one so Id assume so, just making sure before I add this to my list of things to buy at the LHBS.

 

[stbnj]

Was thinking about brewing this next week but I only happen to have WLP005 on hand. I see you used English yeast, so do you think this might work for me?

 

[passedpawn]

Was thinking about brewing this next week but I only happen to have WLP005 on hand. I see you used English yeast, so do you think this might work for me?

Sure. It'll probably be better than what I made. Seriously.

 

[stbnj]

Sure. It'll probably be better than what I made. Seriously.

Thanks! After reading further I see Dogfish uses WLP005/Ringwood in a lot of their beers. I am going to guess that they used it in the beer this recipe when they originally brewed this for the BrewPub as opposed to propping up something else.

 

[midfielder5]

I am mashing at 154* my 5 gallon version of this now--
60/40 wheat & two row,
saaz to bitter (20 ibu),
2oz of chamomile at 60 min and probably flameout addition too [edit: 0.6 oz at 5 min / store didnt have scale and I eyeballed way low].
1# of good honey at flameout.
and wb06 dry yeast
cheers!

 

[passedpawn]

I am mashing at 154* my 5 gallon version of this now--
60/40 wheat & two row,
saaz to bitter (20 ibu),
2oz of chamomile at 60 min and probably flameout addition too,
1# of good honey at flameout.
and wb06 dry yeast
cheers!

I think WB-06 throws a lot of banana/clove esters. I've got some in my closet that I've never used, but I've read things about it. That might be great, but definitely not what I was shooting for when I made this. With honey and chamomile, I think the neutral yeast wouldn't interfere.

OTOH, I would love to try it with the WB-06. Very interesting. Good Luck.

 

[midfielder5]

I have not used wb06 either. I might split- ferment the batch with a second yeast; I have US05, Windsor and Notty.

 

[stbnj]

I brewed this the other day, the mods being that I used ahtanum, wlp005, and I added a half pound of honey malt and only 12 oz. of honey. Obviously I also adjusted the recipe to my 80% efficiency. I picked up a Wolavers Wildflower Wheat to get an idea of a commercial example and after pulling a hydro sample its awesome. This may definitely become a stape in my rotation and I may do a second batch as soon as I can. By the way I got my chamomile off amazon for 5 bucks.

 

[JeffoC6]

Now THIS is what I'm talkin about. Shot a 98 today, hit the majority of my fairways, had a few pars, and came home to this...

Thank you passedpawn! I'll definitely be brewing this again!

 

[passedpawn]

Now THIS is what I'm talkin about. Shot a 98 today, hit the majority of my fairways, had a few pars, and came home to this...

Thank you passedpawn! I'll definitely be brewing this again!

What a way to end a long day!

That looks perfect! Oh, and way to break 100 (I'll never do it, I'm a hack, wutever ).

 

[Lazersgopewpew]

I'm very curious as to what a variation of this brew would taste like if it was hybridized with a Wit. Maybe some orange zest added in after fermentation.
I might try something like that pretty soon.

also, how do you feel about honey malt instead of honey?

 

[passedpawn]

If you want orange, just do a wit or American Wheat. That will be too much for this beer I think.

Honey malt would be very interesting. I've used it a couple of times. That stuff smells exactly like honey when the malt is fresh!

 

[Blackhawkbrew]

This might be a silly question, but where do you buy chamomile?

 

[passedpawn]

This might be a silly question, but where do you buy chamomile?

I got mine at a local place called Palm Harbor Whole Foods. It's a smallish grocery store for very particular (!) people. Loads of organic stuff, etc. I'll bet you have a place near you like that.

I'll bet some of the high-end tea places also carry whole chamomile flowers. There's a place called Teavana that you might have nearby. I've gotten it online (for my tea-drinking habit) at:

http://www.adagio.com/herbal/chamomile.html?SID=be40f876993e2762f2bbfce97941df46

You can also grow your own, fairly easily. Look for German Chamomile seeds.

 

[midfielder5]

Try a good market with a bulk food, spice section.

 

[JeffoC6]

Go to etsy.com and search "dried chamomile." Very fair prices and ships quickly. That's what I did.

 

[SnowBird]

I brewed this up last week with no problems. Took a sample today when I moved it to the secondary and everything fermented out just fine but it tastes very strong of chamomile. Should I have strained the chamomile out after the boil before putting in then the fermentor? I have a feeling this is why the chamomile is so strong.

I am working on getting all of it out now but wanted to check if anyone else has done this. Also, would it help if I added some more honey to this batch to mask the chamomile a bit? Thanks for your help.

 

[passedpawn]

I put the chamomile in a hanging hop spider - see pic. They should be treated like any other hop addition to the boil. Put them in a hop bag or something similar. I'm sure that none of the chamomile got into my fermentor.

BTW, I still have bottles of this. I found one a week ago and it was still very nice. The chamomile is not strong in mine, and the honey is recognizable but just barely.

 

[kcpup]

Passed Pawn, I'm going to brew this recipe this week. I wanted to confirm the Chamomile addition at 60 minutes ...I use it in wits frequently but normally add at flameout. Love chamomile and look forward to tasting this!

Cheers and thank you

 

[passedpawn]

Passed Pawn, I'm going to brew this recipe this week. I wanted to confirm the Chamomile addition at 60 minutes ...I use it in wits frequently but normally add at flameout. Love chamomile and look forward to tasting this!

Cheers and thank you

Yes, the chamomile boils for 60 minutes. I copied the process listed in Extreme Brewing ("Wildflower Wheat"). It explicitly states to boil the chamomile for 60 minutes, so that is what I did.

 

[kcpup]

Thanks for confirming! Based on your earlier comments, the honey is added at flameout, correct? Thanks again.

 

[passedpawn]

Thanks for confirming! Based on your earlier comments, the honey is added at flameout, correct? Thanks again.

Correct.

 

[carbonbrew]

The first batch I did was all-grain, lately I've only had time to brew at my store and I am kind of limited to partial or extract brews while I'm there. The kit I set up at the store is an extract recipe, but its been flying off the shelves.

The extract kit I put together is...

Specialty grains:
.5 lb honey malt
1 lb wheat malt

Fermentables:
6.6 lbs Wheat LME
1 lb. Wildflower Blossom Honey

Extras:
2 oz dried chamomile flowers

Yeast: WLP320 American Hefe.

Is this a 2.5 or 5 gal boil?

 

[passedpawn]

Is this a 2.5 or 5 gal boil?

That's a 5g batch. It's the recipe right out of Extreme Brewing.