Last week I started brewing again after a 15 year break. I brewed an American Wheat and added a little extra ingredients. The problem is that I only meant to add 1lb of honey and without double checking the label on the container added 3 lbs of honey. Blowoff was great for 2 days and now has settled down and airlock installed.
Did I trash this batch by adding too much honey?
Is this going to be a very sweet beer?
Should I let it Ferment a little longer in Primary and rack to a secondary and ferment longer?
FG depends on the yeast - two extra lbs of honey equals about 2% higher ABV so it shouldn’t be a problem, though. I would leave in primary until you achieve the desired FG (you want the yeast cake in contact with the beer to get maximum attenuation).
[quote=“mak2403”]Last week I started brewing again after a 15 year break. I brewed an American Wheat and added a little extra ingredients. The problem is that I only meant to add 1lb of honey and without double checking the label on the container added 3 lbs of honey. Blowoff was great for 2 days and now has settled down and airlock installed.
Did I trash this batch by adding too much honey?
Is this going to be a very sweet beer?
Should I let it Ferment a little longer in Primary and rack to a secondary and ferment longer?
Thanks,
Matt K[/quote]
No, but you may be in braggot territory.
No, the honey will mostly ferment.
You could let it go longer in primary, but I don’t think that a secondary is needed. What was your recipe?
My recipe was
6 lbs wheat malt syrup
1 oz williamettes (60)
1 oz cascades (15)
1 oz coriander (15)
3 lbs honey (15) it was supposed to be 1 lb
Wyeast 1010 American Wheat
I’ll leave it in the primary for max attenuation. Probably around week 4/5.
I’m going to keg it.
Should I use priming sugar? Or just use the CO2 to carbonate it?
Looks like a tasty braggot. Your plan is good – it will probably need the full 5 weeks or maybe even longer to quit fermenting. Priming will work fine if you want to try that route. Either way. Enjoy!
Honey doesn’t add sweetness to a beer, in fact quite the opposite. It will dry the beer out.
Treat it as you would any other beer when kegging. You can add priming sugar to save some CO2 from the tank, but doing so will mean you need to leave the keg at room temp for 2 weeks, followed by some time to let the beer clear, and deal with a bit more sediment when you tap it.
I’m thinking at week 5 (max attenuation) I’ll transfer it over to the secondary and add an oz of cascades a few days before kegging.
This will also free up a carboy, and allow me to experiment with another batch of caribou slobber.
I just realized I should buy one more carboy.
Update you all on the American wheat with maybe too much Honey.
I left in Primary for 5 weeks.
Racked to secondary for 2 weeks.
Kegged and force carbonated beer.
Beer Specifics
Has an excellent white foamy head
It tastes excellent, Everyone who has tasted it Loves it. Even The ladies that are usually non beer drinkers have asked for a pint.
It has a high amount of alcohol, exactly I don’t know because I did not do an OG on it but FG was 1.012. But you will get a great Buzz.
The beer is a little cloudy, but does not affect the taste.
The beer does leave the glass a little sticky. My best guess is the yeast could do only so much, but what they did was awesome.
I will try this recipe again, But with only a LB of honey.
Thanks for all your feedback along the way.
Matt K
Primary Brewing next weekend
Secondary Carribou Slobber
Kegged American Honey Wheat
