Imperial American Micro Style Honey Pale Ale!

I really couldn't call it that but that's what I guess this is, what do ya'll think about the recipe?

6.6 lbs. Plain Light Malt Extract
12 oz. Crushed Crystal Malt 60L
3 pounds clover honey at flameout
1 1/2 oz. Cascade Hops (Bittering)
1/2 oz cascade (flavor)
1 oz Williamette (flavor) (not too sure about this)
1/2 oz. Willamette Hops (Finishing)
1/2 oz Cascade (finishing)
yeast (whatever comes with the BB kit)

What do you think about the hop schedule?

I am just taking a Brewers Best American Micro Style Pale Ale kit and adding 3# honey, 1 oz cascade, and altering the hop schedule. Will this be good?

Thanks for the critique or input!

This is recipe is shooting for OG of 1.079.... I think it is quiet high for APA.
Your honey is going to dry out the ale..... It would be a nice hoppy ale.. The honey will need time to mellow out. Instead of flavor, you may consider dry hopping to get that nice cascade + willemette aroma.

Thanks!

After more thought I think I'll stick to the kit plus 1.5# honey, that way it won't be so extreme.

I'll probably save some hops from the kit to dry hop with and skip the flavor hops, thanks for that tip undallas. This would give me 1 oz of each hop at 60 and 1/2 of each at 5 minus the pelets I save for dry hopping.

I don't want anything too hoppy/bitter, just some nice flavor and aroma.

Please post your revised recipe... I'll run it through Beersmith to tell you if you are balanced based on IBU and OG..

BTW... Beersmith is worth the money to invest... You can play with it all day long.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a packet of a good dried yeast when you get this and skip the Munton's yeast. I recommend Nottingham or Safale-05. Ferment in the low 60's for at least the first few days to prevent fruity flavors.

cuinrearview said:

Do yourself a favor and pick up a packet of a good dried yeast when you get this and skip the Munton's yeast. I recommend Nottingham or Safale-05. Ferment in the low 60's for at least the first few days to prevent fruity flavors.

Click to expand...

I agree with this too... Nottingham should be around 1.25-2.00... and yes.. fem at low temp.

i did a honey pale with 3,5 lbs dme and 2 lbs honey , used safale 04
i went wimpy with the hops ( 1.5 oz hallertau) as i was trying to please the ol lady...anyway, honey does ferment out really dry, this beer is like coors light! i hate it, so id say next time ill try pitching some honey in the 2nd or at bottling to see what happens.

78kombi said:

i did a honey pale with 3,5 lbs dme and 2 lbs honey , used safale 04
i went wimpy with the hops ( 1.5 oz hallertau) as i was trying to please the ol lady...anyway, honey does ferment out really dry, this beer is like coors light! i hate it, so id say next time ill try pitching some honey in the 2nd or at bottling to see what happens.

Click to expand...

Yeah.. The flavor of honey usually disappears after 60 minutes boil.. I have heard that adding it late (flame out) would help with the flavoring and aroma. If you are after the fermentables for high ABV, don't worry about it... you'll get your high OG for sure.

Here is the revised recipe:

6.6 lbs. Plain Light Malt Extract
12 oz. Crushed Crystal Malt 60L
1.5 pounds clover honey at flameout
1 oz. Cascade Hops (Bittering)
1 oz Williamette (Bittering)
1/2 oz. Willamette Hops (finishing)
1/2 oz Cascade (finishing)
yeast (whatever comes with the BB kit)

Undallas, thanks for running this for me, much appreciated!

Cuinrearview, I'd like to get the better yeast, I'll try to put in an order to AHBS or something, I bought the only Nottingham my LHBS had for some cider a few weeks ago. I have been reading about Nottingham, apparently at low temps (57-60) it ferments very cleanly like a lager, sounds good. I wonder if it is related to pacman yeast; the properties seem similar.

78combi, I'm glad to know that. I've been thinking about making Charlie P's Rocky Raccoon Honey Lager and it is 3.5# DME to 2.5# honey. No coors light for me unless it's free!