This beer was my third batch. The base is a basic pale ale recipe from the local homebrew shop and I modified it to include some of the Tupelo honey that I had around the house. I think the honey balanced really well with the level of hops in the recipe, and with the light malts. Several folks told me that they really liked this one, but one person didn't care for it due to the honey content. So if you don't like the idea of a hoppy honey beer, this might not be for you. I think it resulted in a very drinkable, light ale with a balance between sweet and spice.
- 2 cans Cooper's light liquid malt extract
- 1 lb 60L crystal malt
- 1/2 lb CaraPils malt
- 1.5 lbs (2 cups) Tupelo honey
- 2 oz Fuggles hops
- 1.5 oz Golding hops
- 1 tablet whirl-floc
- 1 packet of Safale US-05 dry ale yeast
- 3/4 cup dextrose for priming before bottling.
Put the specialty grains in a muslin sock and steep them in 2.5 gal water @ ~150 F for 45 minutes or so. Then sparge by pouring 1/2 gal more water over the muslin sock. Then bring the mash to a boil and add the extracts. Add the hops in the following order:
- 60 min. - 2 oz Fuggle for bittering
- 15 min - whirlfloc
- 2 min - Goldings for aroma
Initial gravity was 1.058 (thanks to the honey)
After giving the wort a little shake in the carboy I directly pitched the dry yeast @ 80 F.
I did a 10 day primary fermentation resulting in a final gravity of 1.016. I then bottled after adding a 3/4 cup dextrose and 1 cup water boiled as primer.
