Please critique my IPA/Braggot recipe.

[BottleItUp]

I am going for an IPA level of hop flavor, but want it to come out rather dry and have honey aroma and at least some flavor apparent. I do not like sweet beer!

6.6lbs Pale LME [boil]
2lbs Vienna Malt [mashed]
1lb Honey Malt [mashed]
3lbs Basswood/Clover Honey [secondary]
Nottingham Ale Yeast
Est. ABV 8.8%

Bittered to 65IBU, flavor and dry hopped. I have not concluded what I'm looking for in hops yet. Maybe 3 ounces of flavor hops and 3 ounces of dry hops?

Would this level of honey be detectable in in the finished product, assuming the drop hops are not overbearing?

If it helps to clarify my goal honey wise, I had a beer with 1lb of honey about 4.5% abv and I really would have liked to have that honey doubled up. And yes I am bent on using honey, it's cheaper than LME for me! and really good........

Thank You!

 

[Ramitt]

I am by no means sure, but I strongly suspect all of the honet flavor and aroma is going to be lost. The flavor and aroma honey adds to a beer is subtle at best and that is not what an IPA is about.

 

[kencarman]

If you're doing 5 gallons I'd do at least 6lbs honey, and that's low from my experience... but you said you don't like it sweet. Honey does get lost easily, taste-wise.

For my IPA braggot I used Cascade and Fuggles. It was perfect, but the hops faded way to fast, IMO.

 

[bobbrews]

Too sweet and malty... and I wouldn't shoot for so high an abv