Honey Wheat Revision

[rodwha]

First off I'm a little concerned that I may have a bit too much honey malt. It comes up as 13% when all things are included.
Here's my plan of attack for Mon or Tues:

4 lbs Briess Bavarian wheat DME
1 lb Gambrinus honey malt
1 oz of older Willamette (~4.5%) and 1 oz of Liberty (3.9%) @ 50 mins
WLP 320 in 1 qt of starter w/ 4 oz extra light DME
5 gallon yield initially

After a week of fermentation I'll add 2 lbs of honey in as much water as it takes to give an additional 1/2 gallon (5 1/2 gal total). I'll give it an additional 2 weeks of fermentation.

Then 8 oz of honey in a pint of water for carbonation.

Should I boil the honey or would 160* for 20 mins due? I'm concerned with diluting the honey taste.

I also can't keep it within BJCP guidelines of FG under 1.014. Not that I care that much, but prefer to be within specs.

Anything I ought to change?

 

[Calder]

Honey malt should be mashed. It will add no fermentables if only steeped.

Seems like too much honey, but why not!?!

8 ozs honey at bottling seems like a lot. Find a bottling calculator and use the same weight as corn sugar.

Honey can be added straight to the fermenter. No need to boil or sanitize it.

 

[rodwha]

I forgot to mention that I was going to attempt for the first time a mini mash with the honey malt. I steeped it in my first attempt, which didn't give much honey flavor.
I've had people tell me that I should use 2-3 lbs of honey in a honey wheat. Typical I suppose? But maybe they meant without the honey malt too... In my first attempt I only used about 1/2 lb at flameout and didn't get much honey flavor.
So is the amount of honey malt reasonable?

 

[rodwha]

I was also told to dilute the honey in water for ease of adding it to fermentor. That water should be boiled to get rid of oxygen if nothing else right?

 

[rodwha]

Is a pound too much honey malt?

 

[kanddr]

When I made my honey wheat I only used 1/4-1/2lb (I forget the exact amount) and it's pretty sweet. That stuff goes a long way in a batch so I'd be careful with 1lb plus the honey added to the batch.

 

[Calder]

I forgot to mention that I was going to attempt for the first time a mini mash with the honey malt. I steeped it in my first attempt, which didn't give much honey flavor.
I've had people tell me that I should use 2-3 lbs of honey in a honey wheat. Typical I suppose? But maybe they meant without the honey malt too... In my first attempt I only used about 1/2 lb at flameout and didn't get much honey flavor.

Mashing will get the effect you are after. You might want to add a couple of lbs of 2-row to the mash. Honey malt can self convert, so the 2-row is not necessary, but I have found it very difficult to maintain the temperature with a very small mash. For 1 lb, you will be using somewhere between 1 and 1.5 quarts of water, and the temperature will drop a lot over half an hour.

Honey is simple sugar, so will thin the beer out. I don't know what your recipe is, but 2.5 lbs of honey in 5 gallons will contribute about .016 to the gravity.

I was also told to dilute the honey in water for ease of adding it to fermentor. That water should be boiled to get rid of oxygen if nothing else right?

Water should be boiled. Might want to boil the water, let cool, and then when it gets down to about 160F, stir in the honey. That will help cool the water too.

Is a pound too much honey malt?

I'm not a fan of honey malt. I have used up to half a pound in 5 gallons and found it to be very noticeable.

It's your beer. Be creative and make what you think you will like, and not what others (like me) say you should do. Good luck.

 

[ChessRockwell]

I also can't keep it within BJCP guidelines of FG under 1.014. Not that I care that much, but prefer to be within specs

You probably won't have any problems with this if you're making a starter and using that much simple sugar (honey). I don't know what software you're using but some of them don't account for simple sugars being 100% fermentable, so you'll likely end up with a lower FG than your software says. I just made a wit with a similar amount of extract and only 1lb of honey and it finished at 1.010, so you might even end up lower than that with 2 full pounds of honey to dry it out.