Honey Apple Ale

[valicious]

Time for another recipe! (keepon the pipeline goin')

Honey Apple Ale
Yeast: WLP023 Burton Ale
Weeks in Primary: 1
Weeks in Secondary: 3
Weeks to Keg Condition: 2 (served at minimal PSI- like 7)

Grains:
8lbs Maris Otter
1lb Honey Malt
1lb Golden Naked Oats

Hops:
1oz Czech Saaz (60 min)

Added in the secondary:
3lbs Honey
15'bs Apples (cut up and frozen first to burst the cell walls and add more flavor)


My goal with this is to let the apples and the honey take center stage. Every malt I added is there to assist, lend to, bring out, but ultimately support the apple and honey.

Questions:
Should I use Maris Otter or just use regular 2-row? Other options are Thomas Fawcetts' Optic or Halcyon. I'm still confused as to the difference between the various pale malts. Any help with this?
Should I use more apples? I'm leaning towards saying yes to this one. Apples aren't typically as strong a flavor as other fruits. (blueberries, raspberries, even strawberries) While freezing them will help, I'm leaning towards adding a few more pounds.

Another goal with this beer is to combine the body of light summer ale, the smoothness and sweetness of a mead, and the spices and apple profile of a cider. I believe the Czech Saaz hops will lend a certain amount of spicy character, and the Burton Ale yeast will assist in the fruity notes.

Opinions?

 

[SeamusMac]

Have you thought about using a can of apple concentrate instead of a bunch of fresh apples? It wouldn't be too difficult to figure out how many gravity points this would add to your recipe. You could reduce the amount of honey you use to compensate for high OG that would result from adding AJ concentrate and 3 lbs. of honey, the reason being that the honey will prove to be nearly 100% fermentable and you probably won't be able to notice it in the end produce anyways.

 

[valicious]

Have you thought about using a can of apple concentrate instead of a bunch of fresh apples? It wouldn't be too difficult to figure out how many gravity points this would add to your recipe. You could reduce the amount of honey you use to compensate for high OG that would result from adding AJ concentrate and 3 lbs. of honey, the reason being that the honey will prove to be nearly 100% fermentable and you probably won't be able to notice it in the end produce anyways.

I wanted to use fresh apples (frozen first) if I can because concentrate tends to have a lot of extra sugar. I was gonna wait until the secondary specifiacally so that the honey doesnt get fermented so much.

Or...I may just at the apples at secondary, but wait until right before I keg it to add the honey.