Help for Honey Ale Recipe

[Stellanor]

Hi All!

I was hoping to get some advice regarding a recipe I've been compiling. I have tried a couple of different recipes involving honey (all of which have been dry as a bone), and from reading on the forum, a little honey malt can help bump up honey flavor without drying out the final product like whoa. The below is a conglomeration of recipes found from various places. My necessity for advice comes from not having tried enough types of yeast or hops to know what would go well with the following ingredients, but I'm willing to try almost anything. I'm going for a light/blonde, fairly heavy ABV ale, lots of honey aroma and taste, not too insanely dry.

--5 gallon batch--

5# extra light LME
0.5# honey malt
0.5# carapils (maybe 10L?)
1# extra light DME
1# wildflower honey
hops ??
yeast ??

Planning on adding the honey into primary after fermentation slows down, as has been suggested on several forum posts. I've only had experience with Fuggles, Kent Goldings and Cluster hops, and Nottingham and Windsor yeasts. I'm willing to give anything a shot that folks think would go well here. I love hops, but HWMBO and everyone else I brew for can be a little hop-shy. Middle of the road suggestions for type and addition times? Would love to know what you think.

 

[WayFrae]

If I was to brew a honey ale I would just brew the Whitehouse Honey Ale. It has had some good reviews. If you want more honey flavor you could try just adding 0.5 lbs honey malt like you were planning.

 

[Stellanor]

Actually, that was the last batch I made.

Went well, but it was just a tad too dark for me. Ended up very close to an amber, so I was actually using that recipe there as a starting point, just to lighten it up and add different things.

Think the same hops and yeast would work?

 

[WayFrae]

Yeah if you liked the hops taste then stick with them. You could try some Dana hops to add a bit of a lemon or maybe some amarillo. The honey malt is going to make it pretty sweet so I think increasing the bitterness will be good. To make it even lighter colored use all extra light dry extract. Liquid extract tends to darken more than dry extract in my experience. I'm not an expert so don't take my advice as gospel.

Edit:
This sounds good to me:

5 lbs extra light DME
.5 lbs carapils/dextrine malt
.5 lbs honey malt
1 lb honey

10 AAU amarillo for 60 min
15 AAU amarillo for 5 min

Wyeast 1272 has kind of a nutty flavor that might be nice in this beer.

This might be too much hops for what you are looking for though. It might be better to stick with what you had before.