Homebrew Session: Honey Hefeweizen

A few weeks ago when I realized we were putting together A Mid-Summer’s Day Beer and Food Event, I realized that I needed to replenish the beers in my kegerator. Since we would be celebrating Mead Day, I wanted to brew a beer that incorporated honey. I already had a sessionable, summer pale ale ready but I needed something that would be done fairly quick, a beer that could be consumed young and hazy… a hefeweizen.

Hefeweizens are great beers to brew when you’re in a bit of a rush. They’ll ferment in about a week and because haziness is part of the style, you don’t have to go through a secondary clarification period to allow the remaining yeasts to settle out. I originally wanted to re-brew my raspberry wheat ale but the homebrew shop was out of the raspberry puree I like to use. Fresh raspberries were out of the question from a pure financial standpoint. Them dang things are expensive.

In wanting to incorporate honey into this beer, I consulted Rich over at Beer and Winemakers of America. According to Rich, whenever honey is used in beer as a fermentable, it leaves an off flavor. What makes honey a desirable ingredient in most foods is it’s aroma and sweetness. The sweetness is gone when the honey ferments out and so does the aroma. Rich also mentioned the use of a honey malt that has as much of a honey aroma as honey does. In the end, I decided to go with another route completely to infuse honey into this hefeweizen: blending.

About a year and a half ago, I made a wildflower mead from some honey I picked up locally. I don’t remember where exactly I found their contact information but Tina and Thomas live in Campbell and are beekeepers with several hives in their backyard. They collect the honey their hives produce and sell them through various channels.

So, in order for me to get the honey aroma and flavor that I was looking for, I blended my 1.5 year old mead with my 1 week old hefeweizen. Here is my simple recipe:

Malt:

• 6 lbs – Dried Wheat Extract

Hops:

• ~ 1.3 oz – Tettnang hops (4.0)

Yeast:

• White Labs Hefeweizen IV (WLP380)

Extras:

• 1 tablet servomyces
• ~ 8 cups wildflower mead

Original Gravity: 1.050 (within the style)

Final Gravity: 1.016 (too high for the style)

ABV: 4.4625%

Tasting Notes (wort): Dull gold in color with tiny, white bubbles. Grainy, cereal, sweet malt flavor. Smells kind of like soggy Wheaties with a touch of Honeycomb. Hop aroma is low. Flavor is sweet, like Wheaties and Honeycomb. Hop flavor is low, hop bitterness is low. Flat but medium bodied.

Post Primary Tasting Notes: Hazy, dull gold with tiny, white bubbles. Prominent ripe banana esters, slight clove phenolics. Sweet malt aroma, some wheat, grainy flavors. Low, almost no hop bitterness. This beer didn’t fully attenuate and it is noticeable in it’s taste. The wort flavors are still present, just less. Much sweeter than expected and there was a little grainy bitterness as well.

Final Tasting Notes: This beer is a very hazy, nearly opaque honey yellow in color with a white head that dissipated quickly. Banana fruit esters dominate the aroma with honey notes in the background. Banana and wheat malt are the initial flavors to hit my tongue with slight honey notes in the background. With medium carbonation, this beer is spritzy and slightly creamy. The body is medium low and I attribute that to the addition of the mead.

Brewing Notes: I was disappointed with how the initial beer turned out. It didn’t fully attenuate and it was noticeable. I then started blending in my mead one cup at a time until I felt I could perceive honey notes in both the aroma and the flavor. In the end, it took me approximately 8 cups.

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