A friend just hooked my up with a gallon of fresh honey and about 6 pounds of frozen sour cherries so I wanted to make something that would use both. I have the grain and yeast for a Hefe I had been planning so I thought about this as a recipe for the additional ingredients:

5lbs wheat malt
4lbs Pale malt
Hefe yeast.
ounce of Tettnang hops
2lbs honey at end of boil/or possible added to secondary
6lbs sour cherries crushed and added to secondary

Any idea what this might turn out like? Will a hefe yeast compliment the cherry flavor or should I use a more neutral cleaner yeast to let the cherry and honey through? Any ideas/thoughts are welcome.

Honey in the boil won't translate into a final honey taste. The honey will ferment almost completely out and add dryness to the beer.

I know from experience. If that's what you're shooting for, that's cool. If you're doing it cuz that's what you have on hand, that's cool, too. If you're actually shooting for a honey flavor, go with the honey malt (gambrinus).

sounds like it will taste like poo.
dk

thanks dk for that insight...punk!

I figured honey would ferment out pretty well, thats why I was considering putting that in the secondary in the hopes that the flavor would remain a little more. I've got a gallon of fresh honey to use so thats kind of why I want to add it to something.

I've used it in the boil, fermenter (primary and secondary) as well as for bottling. I've never gotten the honey flavor/aroma to come thru as much as i had using gambrinus.

Use that sparingly, though, as too much can produce something you really might not like. If you have the means, i suggest smaller test batches with varying amounts of the honey malt. I can tell you i wouldn't use more than a pound for 5gal.

Oh, and pay no attention to trolls round these parts.


g

Make some mead with the honey!

If you are kegging, add 2-4 oz by weight of honey to the keg for some residual sweetness then refrigerate promptly and you are golden. Then take Mark's advise with the rest.

Hey to you Mark....how ya been?

My wife really likes the Sam Adams cherry wheat . Are there any good concentrates that will work well, rather then messing with real cherries?

Doing good Bob, I'll email ya so I don't hijack the thread.

I've had better luck with a pound of honey malt in the mash than actually adding honey. Hefe yeasts produce enough different flavors on their own but I've made a few hefes with honey malt and/or honey and they were good.