Fire Season Honey Wheat

Beer Recipes
1

I live in Missoula, MT. and there are forest fires in every direction leading to a smoke filled valley. I thought it was time I tried a brew with honey and it seems that wheat beers work well. I can get a really nice local honey with  really nice depth of flavor.

I will do a single infusion mash at 152 for an hour with mash out and fly sparge. Brewing on Sunday. Any thoughts on recipe appreciated.

5.50 gal              Missoula, Montana                        Water        1        -           
1.10 tbsp            PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 mins)      Water Agent  2        -           
4 lbs                White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)              Grain        3        36.4 %       
3 lbs                Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)          Grain        4        27.3 %       
2 lbs                Pilsen (3.0 SRM)                        Grain        5        18.2 %       
1 lbs                Honey Malt (25.0 SRM)                    Grain        6        9.1 %       
0.75 oz              Perle [8.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min          Hop          7        18.4 IBUs   
0.50 oz              Saaz [3.75 %] - Boil 30.0 min            Hop          8        4.4 IBUs     
1 lbs                Honey [Boil for 20 min](1.0 SRM)        Sugar        9        9.1 %       
0.28 oz              Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)              Fining        10      -           
0.50 oz              Saaz [3.75 %] - Boil 10.0 min            Hop          11      2.1 IBUs     
0.25 oz              Saaz [3.75 %] - Boil 0.0 min            Hop          12      0.0 IBUs     
1.0 pkg              American Wheat Ale (Wyeast Labs #1010) [ Yeast        13      -

2

Really have not done any wheats in my brewing, but have seen/read from many that 5.2 Stabilizer is worthless. No experience with it either, but sounds too good to be true to just add that and it fixes everything. Back to the recipe, looks like a beer I would drink, sorry nobody else has chimed in yet

3

Don’t put the honey in the boil; that will drive off most, if not all, of the honey aromatics. Add it after most of primary fermentation is done.
Also nix on the 5.2 crap.

4

I add honey after flameout and have had good results. Adding after primary fermentation has ended works, too.

5

Thanks for the advice on the honey, still deciding when I should add. I think at the end of the boil. In respects to the PH 5.2 it has help improve my efficiency since Missoula water is extremely hard and has a PH of 7.4.

6

“I can get a really nice local honey with  really nice depth of flavor.”

Not surprising, since Missoula is surrounded by fields of knapweed, a noxious weed that makes for awesome honey.  ;D

7

Amazing how that works, huh?  Some of the best honey I’ve ever tasted is poison oak honey.

8

It’s the pH of the mash that is important rather than the pH of the source water (and 7.4 is not extreme anyway).

Hardness in your water (mostly calcium and magnesium) will bring your mash pH down due to reaction with phosphates in the malt.

It looks like Missoula water has pretty high alkalinity though.  If your mash pH is coming in high, you could try cutting it with RO or distilled and adding back minerals as needed as opposed to using the pH stabilizer.

If you don’t have a copy already, the Bru’n Water spreadsheet is really helpful, and the “Water Knowledge” tab is a good read.