question about my next recipe (honey malts)

I am making a simple light colored blond ale. here is the recipe.

3.3 # briess golden light LME
3.3 # briess pilsen light LME
1 # briess pilsen light DME
1 # honey added at 0 min (any suggestions on what kind?)
1 oz hallertau 60 min.
1 oz hallertau 30 min. Should I make this later to reduce bitterness?

safale us-05 yeast.

OG based on my calculations should be 1.062

I have heard that if I steep some honey malt grains it will add some more honey flavor since most of the honey ferments out.

1) how much should I steep to make it taste good but not overpowering?
2) with these ingredients and this yeast any ideas on what a good prediction of FG should be?
3) based on these ingredients does anyone think this will end up a nice smooth beer? I am making this for my wife and she is into smooth malty blonds. (beers not people )

Also If anyone has any other suggestions I am willing to listen.

Thanks all!

I wouldn't really worry about what kind of honey that you use pre-fermentation; you're right in saying that it (and any unique character) will mostly ferment out. I would use specialty honey to prime with, though. You might get more of the flavour.

As for honey malt, my experience is to use is rather sparingly - 1/2# max in a 5 gal. batch. It's a pretty powerful specialty malt when used on its own.

My two bits. Good luck.

Here is a recipe that I had some success with (was supposed to be 3.5 but turned out to be 4 gallons)

6 lbs. Belgian Pils
1 lb. Carabelg (Belgian Caravienne)
.5 lb. honey malt
1 lb. local artisan honey

1 oz. Hallertau Mittlefruh (60 min)
.5 oz. Hallertau Mittlefruh (30 min)
.5 oz. spalt hops (15 min)
.5 oz. dried sweet orange peel (15 min)
.5 oz. dried chammomile (15 min)

Used Wyeast 3864 (the Unibroue strain)

The folks who tasted it really liked it. The nose was honey and slightly floral. I got a small amount of honey on the finish, but it was very dry and very drinkable. I fermented it on the cool side, and got a nice tartness to it without a lot of clove or banana esters.

I think you could probably use .5 lb. of honey malt, and 1 -- 1.5 lb. of anything but generic grocery store honey. I added honey right to the carboy before I dumped in my wort - I did not boil it.

Not sure about how long to steep the honey malt - I mashed mine.

As far as yeast is concerned, I would say something like the Wyeast 3944 which has a nice slightly tart finish, or Wyeast 3522 (Chouffe strain) which has a fairly delicate fruit profile to it.

does anyone think .5 # of honey malt would be too much for this beer? also any ideas what temps and time to steep at?

I've never seeped honey malt, but I did did a mash with .5 lb honey malt in a 5 gallon batch of blonde ale before. I tried the same recipe only upping the honey malt to .75 lb and it is too much. I think .5 lb may have been the perfect amount now.

I was thinking along similar lines. I've been reading these forums for several months. This is my first time posting. I have brewed over a dozen more or less stock extract kits from Midwest and I thought it was time to jump into recipe formation. Here's mine. I'm hoping to brew this week.

Blond Bombshell

6lbs Pilsen Light LME
0.5lbs Honey Malt
0.5lbs Carapils
1lbs Clover Honey
1lbs Light Belgian Candi Sugar
1oz Vanguard (60 min)
0.5oz Vanguard (30 min)
0.5oz Vanguard (15 min)

Safbrew T-58

Recipator puts this at 1.065 and 21 IBU.

I would appreciate any comments. I'm trying to decide when to add the honey and sugar. I know it affects hop utilization a little but otherwise does it matter when I add them?

If you really want Honey flavor then pastuerize the honey and add it to a secondary and rack the beer on top after your FG is reached.