Anyone used honey in Hefeweizen?

I haven't done this but I bet it will turn out wonderful. Go for it.

 

I've heard good things about the WB-06.

Honestly, odds are probably close to 50/50 of being able to taste the honey at all in the finished beer. Clover honey, especially, is very mild, and will of course generate alcohol but not necessarily much if any flavor. But if you used any interesting honey like wildflower or buckwheat or raspberry blossom or something crazy like that, it might turn out interesting. What kind of honey did you use? Plain old clover? Yeah, odds would be about 50/50 of tasting anything from that. But it shouldn't hurt anything either.

 

Oh good. Sounds great.

You thinking about priming with honey? I've never tried that but I should do it sometime.

 

I doubt priming with honey would have a large enough of an impact to turn a beer into a honey bomb

 

To each there own, but honey in a hefe almost sounds like "too much going on" to me. Report back on how it ends up.

 

My third batch was a Honey-Lime-Chipotle Weizenbock, and it was a lot going on. Luckily, a blind squirrel will get a nut sometimes, and it was the batch that got me to keep going (like a lot of others who didn't bother to nail the basics first, my first dozen batches usually weren't so great), as well as inspire a couple of friends to take up the hobby (one of whom makes cider professionally now).
I wouldn't try to pull it off again, though.

 

I recently brewed an American Hefeweizen with an addition of sweet and bitter orange peel and 2lbs of orange blossom honey...turned out really good!

 

I don't know, but I suspect the two issues are unrelated. The banana flavor comes from isoamyl acetate, which is produced by the yeast. I'm unaware of anything in honey that would interfere with that. Is S-6 known to be a good producer of isoamyl acetate?

I note the following from Wikipedia:

Isoamyl acetate is released by a honey bee's sting apparatus where it serves as a pheromone beacon to attract other bees and provoke them to sting.
​

So bees have at least two reasons to be attracted to your beer.

 

The one time I used WB-06, the hefeweizen character of the resulting beer was very muted. I can't speak to what effect the honey had. I like very pronounced banana/clove flavors in my weizens which is why I am sticking with my go-to yeast (WL hefeweizen IV fermented at 62 degrees).

 

Banana shows up more with warmer temperatures 68-75 F. If you love banana you should ferment warmer. Too late now, but next time.

 

You might try using a Belgian yeast with some orange blossom honey. 5# pils and 5# wheat malt.

 

WB-06 is weak. Not good for banana / clove hefe. OK for American wheat beers.

 

Brewing is full of tradeoffs. Some people like the bubblegum though.