Hunny Bunny Irish "Red" Ale

I popped open my 4th batch of ale today, Irish red ale w/1.5 lbs of clover honey. I started with the Midwest Brewers Irish Red kit, clover honey and WL Irish ale yeast. 3 weeks in primary and one week in the bottle. I decided to pop one today to see how it was coming along. To my surprise it was fully carbonated, with a good bit of residual sweetness (no surprise there). Not sure if I like the sweetness or not, but the ale is still very young. The sweetness hits about halfway through the sip, almost liquor-like.

OG 1.052
FG 1.010
ABV 5.5%

Three days later and the liquor sweetness has disappeared. The flavor is much more even now. Maybe it was just an individual bottle thing, maybe it just needed more time. Frankly, I don't give a crap, I just downed two and am ready for another, that's what counts.

I just did a similar brew only with 2 lbs of clover honey. 4 weeks in the jug and a week in the bottle. Similar experience, but not as much carbonation yet.

Did you desire a sweetness? Honey will absolutely not do that. It is highly fermentable.

There are a few ways to get residual sweetness.

1. High mash temps
2. Turbid mash
3. Add lactose
4. Low attenuating yeast
5. Filter or pasturise yeast prior to it finishing.

Not looking for sweetness, just higher ABV and perhaps a different flavor . I seemed to have accomplished that.

I was looking for flavor as well. So far it the hops are upfront with some sweetness hitting me on the back end. I would do it a bit differently, next time and add the honey at flameout. I read that the heat is also not good for the flavor. Not sure about that because I can definitely taste a bit of honey and it sure smelled like honey during fermentation.