Light Summer Wheat Beer

[jmarx13]

I am trying to build a nice Summer Ale or Wheat Beer. I used the Beer Smith Software but havent Bought the products yet... Curious to know everyones thoughts and advice for a great tasting beer.
Still a rookie so using Extract.
Grains
8oz - Biscuit Malt
1lb - Honey Malt
Extract
6lbs - Liquid Wheat Extract
1lb - Wheat Dry Extract
.75 oz of Bitter Orange Peel
1lb - Actual Honey - Flame out
Hops
1.5 oz East Kent Goldings - Bitter
1.00 oz Citra 15 min
1.00 oz Citra Dry Hop
OG - 1.060
Est. ABV - 6.3%

 

[Rockn_M]

It might be a little heavy on the hops for a Wheat or a "Blonde" but looks good.

The great thing about this hobby is you can pretty much do anything and still end up with beer. Probably pretty good beer.

 

[roastquake]

I think what you have will be a good beer, what yeast do you plan to use?

It's been said before on HBT and I will reiterate it, you wont get much, if any, flavor from the actual honey. Honey is very fermentable so it doesn't leave enough residual sugars to effect flavor, using cheap sugar will serve the same purpose in this application. I would just save the expensive honey for mead

 

[jmarx13]

What do you suggest to get a slight Honey flavor?

 

[jmarx13]

I was planning on a Wyeast Ale Blend

 

[boysbrew2012]

Grain Bill:

Maybe increase the honey by 1 lb or add pure honey at flameout?? I did a boddingtons clone and loved it...second turn im doing 2 more pounds of honey to really round it out so it really depends on what flavors you want to pop. If you want more of a honey flavor id drop the citra and replace it with UK fuggle

Hops:

I agree the citra comments as it is a very overpowering hop i would do 1 oz at flameout and do 1 oz of EKG at 60 and .5 oz at 15...just my suggestion

 

[rodwha]

I've brewed several beers with honey and honey malt in an attempt to make something like Blue Moon's honey wheat. I've never hit it right, but the best I've done so far is 2+ lbs of honey at flameout or in the primary a week after fermentation began in conjunction with a little honey malt (1/2 lb).

I just made a hard hopped honey wheat on the 25th. My 6 gal partial mash recipe is as follows:

3 lbs wheat DME (2 lbs @ FO)
2.25 lbs honey (FO)
1.75 lbs 2-row
1.75 lbs soft white wheat berries
0.5 lb honey malt
0.4 oz Willamette/Mt Hood @ 45 mins
0.8 oz Willamette/Mt Hood @ 20/5 mins
WB-06

1.053/1.008
5.9% ABV
30 IBU's
4 SRM
~70% efficiency

I have a hard time getting a nice strong honey flavor, but this has been the most noticeable. And I've even used honey for priming too.

 

[boysbrew2012]

Blue Moon Honey Wheat....why wouldn't you just take MoreBeer's Witbier and remove the corriander and replace it by a generous amount of Pure Honey and a few lbs of Honey Malt in the grain bill??? MoreBeer's Witbier is a very close clone to Blue Moon standard wheat. Per the Blue Moon Brewing website the Honey Wheat has orange and clover honey and uses Chinook.See link below and enjoy !!!!!

http://www.bluemoonbrewingcompany.com/OurBeers/Product/summer-honey-wheat

http://morebeer.com/products/witbier-grain-beer-kit-advanced.html

 

[Jayhem]

You need flaked wheat, lots of it. At least 1.5 lbs in a 5.0 gallon batch. It will give you that creamy full bodied mouthfeel that most homebrewed wheat beers lack. Alternately you can use flaked oats. Go easy on the orange peel, it really comes through strong and bitter and using not enough is better than too much!

 

[rodwha]

Awesome! Thanks!

I've used 1.5 lbs of honey malt in a 4.5 gal blonde and it took several months before it was somewhat drinkable. 1 lb has now been my max.

But I've also used a mere 1 lb of honey at flameout and had a nice honey taste, though mild. I wasn't expecting it to shine as nicely.

 

[jmarx13]

So am I good with the 1lb of Honey Malt?
I am now concerned that 1.5 lbs was undrinkable for you.

 

[rodwha]

Yes. It ought to be OK assuming we are talking about a typical 5 gal batch.

Maybe additional flavors helps as I see I had a honey cherry wheat that used 1.5 lbs of honey malt in a 4.8 gal batch and it was really good (I don't care much for cherry flavor).