Should I add honey to my raspberry wheat?

[LoganGoesPlaces]

I started with a wheat recipe that uses a little chocolate malt to get a darker red color in the end product. I then went and picked 10 pints of raspberries at the local farm and I added half after the boil. I am planning on adding the other half to the secondary.

I was looking around and I am a little concerned about how tart the beer will be because of the amount of raspberries I am using. So I was thinking about also adding some honey to the secondary. But I'm really not sure.

Anyone have any suggestions or experiences from similar brews?

 

[wcarter1227]

try adding a bit of lactose when you bottle it. adding honey will increase the abv as well as any sweetness will pretty much be fermented out.

if you keg you could also add some potassium sorbate and then backsweeten with raspberry juice. If you bottle this is not a option as the potassium sorbate will kill the yeast and the beer will not carb

 

[LoganGoesPlaces]

I like the idea of using lactose. That way I might be able to get a bit nicer body also. About how much would you recommend adding to a 5 gal batch?

And yeah, I'm not lucky enough to be kegging yet

 

[jgln]

Honey? Yuck! I don't like honey at all but that is just my opinion.

 

[LoganGoesPlaces]

Honey? Yuck! I don't like honey at all but that is just my opinion.

My grandfather was a bee keeper so I have always had it on hand and enjoyed it

 

[HalfPint]

With a fruit beer, I'd stay away from adding honey b/c like said above, it will dry it out too much. Also like said above, if you want to add honey, you will need to back sweeten due to the fact that you need that balance between sweet/sour, sour being from raspberries. Also, I like to keep my brews as natural as possible, so I don't ever use anything like potassium sorbate. If i were you, I'd just brew your regular wheat recipe, let it ferment all the way out, then rack on top of your berries. After around 10 days (or until it has the berry character of your liking), bottle.

So back to the original question, should you add honey? No, I wouldn't.