Session beer with honey will it work and what yeast?

Trying to make a session beer that is a little sweet. Didn't know if this would do it or not as I am a little new to all grain.

18lbs Pale malt 2 row
1lb Caramel Crystal Malt 20L
1.75 oz cascade 60 minute
1lb of Honey

I don't know what yeast to use. Thanks for any and all help.

If you want it a little sweet, the safest way I know how to do that is to add some unfermentable sugars. You can also stop the fermentation at about 1.01-1.015 but you run the risk of exploding bottles if you bottle condition. But the amount of hops you have there seems pretty good to leave a little bit of inbalance (desireable to let some sweetness come through)

That looks VERY similar to an extract recipe I put together for a session beer. The only difference is I added 1.5 oz of hops split up in two parts. I used British Ale Yeast (WLP 005) but the yeast you choose should be your choice based on what flavors you want.

If you don't want to add much in the way of crystal malts you could swap the honey for honey malt and mash on the high side. Adding honey is going to make the beer drier, not sweeter. All the sugar ferments out. Honey malt keeps its sweetness. Mashing higher (156-158) keeps more non-fermentable sugars in the wort, which also will make it sweeter.

There may be better options, but from my limited experience I have found that Wyeast1318 (London Ale III) finishes sweeter than most yeast. Fermenting at 64-66 keeps the esters to a minimum.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Drop the honey, mash a bit high, and use an English yeast with low to medium attenuation. That should work well. Some of the lighter crystal malts add some sweetness, too. Consider using a bit more.

I hope this isn't a 5 gallon batch. You'd have a pretty wicked tolerance for this to be a session beer, if so.:rockin:

I basically took one of the recipes from beersmith and changed it around to what grains I had on hand. I'm pretty sure this is a fairly common session beer recipe format but then again I've never brewed one. How did your session beer turn out Germelli1?

I think I'll drop the honey, mash higher and use the London Ale III. I was hoping to have a light bodied beer but I guess these are the trade offs. Thanks for all the good advice.

Oh, and what beer style would you think the recipe would fall under?

How many gallons is this? 18lbs is no where near a session beer at the 5 gal range.

Honey will not make your beer sweet, it is nearly %100 fermentable and will dry out your beer. For a "sweeter" beer you need to mash a little higher, use a less attenuative yeast and be certain to carry lower IBU's so that you accentuate the malt and don't overwhelm with hop bitterness.

This has got to be a 10 gallon batch

WLP002
18 pounds two row (halycon or MO if you can)
1 pound honey malt
1 pound C120
Cascade to 17 IBU at 60
English Ale Yeast
Mash at 154

mmmmm, session ale....check it out...I changed it from C20 to C120.....tasty.

For what it's worth you should shoot for the style of "bitter" or "special bitter" depending on gravity. IMO, there is no better session beer than a good standard bitter.

It's 10 gallons

Permo, I like what you've come up with and will give it a go. I'll probably stick with the Caramel/Crystal 20SRM, use the London Ale III and cut down the Pale Malt by 3lbs. I won't mash as high since I'll use the honey malt. What does Cascade to 17 mean?

This will probably be the last time I'll get to brew in a while and I'm stocking up so to speak...little one on the way.

Thanks for all the good advice. If you have any more suggestions let me know.

DPB said:

What does Cascade to 17 mean?

Click to expand...

I would assume that he's saying to use enough cascades to get the beer to 17 IBU's

I recently used honey malt in a brown and was VERY happy with the sweetness it imparted. I used 1lb in a 5 gal batch for 9.2% of fermentables.

Good luck with the little one! Same thing here. I'm stocking up at least 5 kegs, but made it clear that I am still brewing at least once a month!

I'd say what you need is an English Bitter. These are serious session beers (low ABV) but meant to be malty. They come in 3 styles, differentiated ONLY by ABV: ordinary, special, and extra special bitter(ESB). Loads of recipes out there.

I get it now 17 IBUs at a 60 min. boil...I'm a little slow. I'll check out some English Bitter recipes out there to give me some more perspective. Thanks again for the good info. I plan on brewing next Thursday.

Airborneguy how sweet would you say the brown you brewed with honeymalt was? Was it like a Dundee Honey Brown or sweeter?

I don't want the sweetness to be overpowering but definitely want it present and was thinking of 1lb-1.25lbs of honeymalt in a 10 gallon batch (roughly 5-7%).