Hi I'm brewing a honey citra pale. The recipe calls for.. 7LB of Maris Otter .5LB of Munich .5lb of Crystal 60 .5LB of Amber malt .5 LB of Honey at or right before flame out 60 min boil 1/2 oz Citra @ 60 mins 1/2 oz Cascade @ 30 mins 1/2 oz Centennial @ 10 mins 34 IBU I'm a little worried that @ 34 IBU it might be a little boring? Do you think I should do the hops above at a full 1oz for 68 IBU? and up the honey to a full 1LB or to you think the hops would drownout the honey? What would you do if you were me lol
Does bitter equal exciting to you? What are your goals for this beer? What do you want it to taste like?
I've never used honey in a pale ale, but I think the recipe without the honey looks pretty good for a pale ale. I'd probably put a bit of whirlpool or dry hops in it with citra and centennial. Half a pound of honey doesn't sound like it will make much difference.
Where did you get this recipe? The mashbill looks good, but the hopping is kinda weak, and that amount of honey won't do much but up the OG a little. I'd do something like: grain as listed, but switching out amber malt for .25# honey malt 60min- whatever cheap higher AA% hop you have on hand to get to your desired IBU 10min- 1oz Cascade FO/Whirlpool- 1oz Centennial, 1oz Citra 1# honey added at high krausen
Personally for my pales and ipas I only do 60 minute for bittering and whirlpool for everything else. Don’t really see the value in 30 minute and 15 minute addition in terms of flavor and aroma(while also being worse at bittering) I can’t get from whirlpool and dry hopping.
Personal experience. Nothing scientific about it unfortunately. Just seem to get better aroma and therefore flavor when using hops when the heat is off in ipa/ American pales. I still do use 30 and 15 minute additions in other styles where I’m not looking for that hop punch as I still think it’s good for layering hop flavor.
It does look good for a non bitter brew, if you want to pick it up I'd try 1oz cascade @ 60 1 oz centenial @5 and 1 oz citra ar f o. That would be a bit more aggressive, but not over the top
