Orange Blossom Honey Wheat
Ale
Stock # HBS022
Ingredients:
· 8 pounds unhopped Wheat DME
· 3 pounds orange blossom honey
· 1 ounce Fuggle hops (bittering)
· ½-ounce Perle hops (flavor)
·
1 packet Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast
(recommended liquid yeast: White Labs WLP380 Hefeweizen
IV)
· 1 muslin hops bag
Procedure:
Set aside a cup of honey to be used at bottling time. Start a yeast slurry in a clean and sterile quart jar.
Pre-boil 6 quarts of water in a (minimum) 16-quart brew kettle. Slowly stir in the malt extract, allowing it to liquefy to avoid scorching. Bring the solution back to a boil, and set the timer for 45 minutes. Add the Fuggle. With 15 minutes remaining, add the Perle. Remove from the heat, and cover.
In a separate pan, pre-boil 2 quarts of water. Slowly stir in the honey, allowing it to liquefy to avoid scorching. Set the heat to simmer - you don’t want the honey to boil. If any foam rises to the surface, skim it off. After 20 minutes, remove from the heat and add it to the malt solution.
Add 3 gallons of chilled water to a clean and sterile fermenter. Strain the wort into the fermenter, ensuring that it mixes thoroughly with the water. Top up the fermenter to 5¼ gallons with additional chilled water. Pitch the yeast slurry when the temperature of the wort is below 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Primary ferment should last approximately 15 to 20 days.
After primary ferment, rack the beer into a clean and sterile secondary fermenter. Allow it to sit for another two to three weeks before bottling.
Pre-boil 3 cups of water in a small saucepan. Dissolve the remaining cup of honey in the water, and pour into a clean and sterile bottling bucket. Rack the beer into the bottling bucket and mix thoroughly to ensure even distribution. Bottle normally. You can also keg the beer and force carbonate; however, the addition of the orange blossom honey as the primer adds to the aroma of the finished beer.
As a variation, you may set aside a cup of malt extract to use as primer, and blend all of the honey into the fermenter.
OG: 1.084 FG: 1.028 (ABV ~7.2%)
SRM: 6.2 IBU:
19