Help: Recipe input needed

[bnglcat]

I had someone contact me about wanting to try brewing a Smoked Honey Vanilla beer of some sort. The only requirements were "I like the blue moon honey wheat, and people rave about vanilla honey ice cream, and smoke would probably be outstanding with it too".

So, based on those "very detailed" parameters, I'm trying to toss together a recipe of some sort. I did a real nice smoked beer clone recipe from BYO recently, so I'm thinking of using that as my jump off point and dial back the smoke a good bit. My main "unknown" is the amount of honey to use. I am thinking of using honey malt to get some of that honey flavor and then add in some actual honey to get that local honey flavor/aromatics as well.

The original recipe was ~85% beechwood smoked malt with some crystal 40 and 120 and rye, regular rye, and roasted barley for color. (I will definitely brew that beer again as it tasted like smoked pork pan drippings)

Anyhow, here's what I am thinking....(as listed below, it would come in around 1.052 OG)

39% Maris Otter
20% Honey (Comes out to 1 lb for a 3 gallon batch)
10% Crystal 40
10% Cherry Smoked Malt
7% Crystal 120
7% Flaked Oats
7% Honey Malt
1 or 2 vanilla beans in secondary

Hops I was going to keep simple as to not muddy up the flavors any and go with something noble or maybe a clean hop like target to get to around the 30 ibus of the original recipe (which called for first gold but I believe I used magnum or target due to the shop not having first gold).

I'm thinking I will mash higher like around 156 due to there being so much honey so that it doesn't dry out too too much. Keeping that in mind for the yeast as well to try and finish around the 1.010-1.013 range. I may also consider adding a 1/4 lb or so of lactose to it to help that aspect as well as giving it a bit of a "ice cream" sense.

So, I'm wondering if this is way over shooting the honey usage or not? I'd like to get the some of the nuances of the local honey into the beer and not completely mask them with the smoke and vanilla is why I have it at a full pound right now.

So, any thoughts/comments/input?

 

[jekeane]

I think 20% is a fine amount I would add it all late in the process either around 180° or in the fermenter to try and preserve as much aroma as possible. I would imagine you could overpower the honey fairly easily with the smoke and vanilla.

 

[martyjhuebs]

20% honey is never a bad thing but I don't think you will get the honey flavor from that. Grain would be better to rely on for the flavor. That honey will definitely contribute to the ABV. Plan to use nutrients for fermentation and expect a longer ferment time (assuming you didn't already know that).