Okay, the experimental bug has hit hard. First SWAMBO's chocolate ale (perhaps to be rebranded Lola's Chocolate Ale - Lola is a reference to the musical "Damn Yankees" by the way - then this for your consideration, feedback, raspberries, insults, etc.:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... oney-wheat

(Chess: Don't take that raspberry or insult thing too seriously - I'll see you in a few weeks) The Colorado pale malt gives beers a delightful honey flavor, the organic crystal is delightfully floral, I'll add the chamomile and rose hips just before flameout, the honey will be pasteurized and added to secondary. Magnum is my bittering hop for neutral bitterness, about the only thing I'm really not sure of is the yeast. Again, since I"m adding so many floral ingredients, I want a neutral wheat yeast. So I just talked myself into Wyeast's 1010 American Wheat.

Thoughts welcome...

 

Fermentation is winding down. Honey is going in tonight - I used bulk wildflower honey, pasteurized in the oven for an hour at 180°. Once that's done, I'll taste and decide if I want to "dry hop" another ounce of rose hips.

 

This stuff wowed the staff at the Brew Hut! It's in the State Fair, we'll see how it does. A session beer with lots of complexity. Yum!

 

Mine has 0.5 oz of dried chamomile - strong "juicy fruit gum" aroma when I dumped it in, not as prevalent now. The rose hips give a light orange color and a citrus tang - I used them both in the boil and as a "dry hop" addition, next time I'll skip the dry hopping. I handle honey this way: Thin it with an equal amount of water, heat it to 170° then stick it in a 170° oven for about a half-hour. Dump the mixture into primary about three days in. Preserves the honey flavor while killing off all the bad bugs that live in it. I'll generally use a wildflower honey for the flavor and I like unpasteurized, unfiltered stuff.

 

The Brew Hut in Aurora has the malt. It's the only malt I know of from Colorado Malting Company that they carry but some of the stuff in the bins might be from them as well, I know Colorado Malting Co. produces other malts. If you're there, you could always ask the staff....

 

Hops: I get local hops in Palisade - I know of two hop farms. One of them is thinking of marketing to homebrewers and the Brew Hut has a bucket with "Colorado Hops". A local yeast and we can make a true "Colorado Native!"

 

I did it mostly, not long ago. The only thing non-Colorado was the 1.5# Vienna malt and the yeast in a pale ale. The Colo. pale gives a very sweet, almost honey flavor to the beer - plan hops accordingly!