Saturday, August 07, 2010

Killer Bee #2

I've been trying to craft a honey-wheat beer for a couple of months now.  The one I have my heart set on at the moment is a weissenbock, sort of a higher-gravity hefeweizen that I'm calling Killer Bee.  "Killer" because it's final ABV will be above 7%, and "Bee" because it is made with lots of honey.

What can I say?  I love the taste of honey.

Well, the first batch didn't work out so well.  So I made a few adjustments to both the ingredients and to the process, and now I have:

KILLER BEE No. 2
Batch size: 5 gallons

Mash:
6.5 lbs. Light wheat malt
4.0 lbs. Brewer's 2-row malt
2.5 lbs. Cara-Wheat malt
0.3 lbs. Flaked wheat
0.5 lbs. Rice hulls
2.5 lbs. Honey*

Mash water: 4.2 gallons

Hops:
1.0 oz. Hallertauer @ 60 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade @ 6 min.

Yeast:
Wyeast American Wheat 1010

*Add the honey during the last 10 minutes of the boil, 4 minutes before adding the Cascade hops.  Boiling the honey longer than 10 minutes will fade its flavor.

-----

OG:  1.076
FG:  1.018
IBU:  19.308
SRM: 19.44
ABV: 7.5%

4 comments:

Beardking said...

So, this is just about ready for you to send me a couple of bottles, right?

Trav said...

Just about. We bottled it last weekend, and it will need to condition for about three or four weeks.

Trav said...

Well, it turned out great. We bottled half of it and put the other half on tap, and honestly? The rumors are true: beer always (ALWAYS) tastes better from the tap.

So now I've got to buy a kegerator system. *sigh*

But anyway. The color was darker than I was going for, and the head retention was a bit weak, but the flavor was absolutely delicious. The next time I brew this recipe, I'll make only a few minor changes (less Cara-Wheat and more white wheat malt; more wheat flake).

Beardking said...

need my address?? :)