3rd Batch - Blonde Ale

Alright, I am putting together a recipe for my third brew and I think I have decided to brew up a blonde ale that will be very drinkable on a warm summer day. My plan is to brew sometime around the beginning of May so that it will be drinkable in mid June. Taking some hints from recipes here and other commercial blondes I have come up with the following:

8 oz. Carapils - steep
8 oz. Crystal 10L - steep
3 lbs. Light DME
3 lbs. Extra light DME - late addition

Hops:
0.36 oz. Amarillo 60 min
0.3 oz Citra 30 min
0.5 oz Ahtanum 5 min

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056

Will be a 5.5 gallon batch with an initial boil volume of about 3.5 gallon.

Putting it all in BeerSmith I come up with:
Estimated OG of 1.049
Estimated FG of 1.012
IBU ~20
Color 5.4 SRM
Estimated 4.8% ABV

I am hoping that this will yield a very drinkable, not too bitter, nice summer beer. From what I understand the hops should give a citrusy aroma and flavor. What I am shooting for is a beer that will be great to sit out on the back deck in the sun and enjoy with friends.

Any suggestions on modifications to this or anything that will make this a better brew would be great.

Recipie looks pretty good I love amerillo! I usually do all grain but when I do extract recipes now I always do the "extract late" method which is add about half your malt at the beginning and the rest at the end... imho you end up with a cleaner beer. good luck

Looks good to me. Simplicity is a friend of any blonde ale. I would use some sort of protein helper, irish moss, fining, gelatin, etc. The clearer the beer looks, the better it *seems* to taste, especially with a lighter color/blonde!

Thanks for the help guys. I'll look into the helpers. I definitely have noticed my last two brews were a little cloudy, although not a big deal since they were darker beers. Making this one as clear as possible will help in its presentation.

Looks pretty good. I'd use .5 ounce for each addition and move the Citra up to 10 or 15 minutes to get more hop flavor with a similar bitterness for what you are going for. Also, why wait until May to brew it? I'd do it now and then you have plenty of time to let it condition and you won't be in a rush. Then start your next batch in the meantime!

I was under the impression that the most flavor was given from hops at 30 minutes, please let me know if I am wrong. Have to wait until May to brew because I'll be moving soon, therefore this will be the first brew in the new place.

wjbunton said:

I was under the impression that the most flavor was given from hops at 30 minutes, please let me know if I am wrong. Have to wait until May to brew because I'll be moving soon, therefore this will be the first brew in the new place.

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I borrowed this chart from another HBT member. It helped me learn.

Thanks for the graph I'll hang on to that for future reference. I think I'm going to do a little more research(drink more craft beers) to try to determine what taste I am going for then come up with my final plan.

wjbunton said:

I was under the impression that the most flavor was given from hops at 30 minutes, please let me know if I am wrong. Have to wait until May to brew because I'll be moving soon, therefore this will be the first brew in the new place.

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That graph isn't all that accurate but it gives the gist of hops additions.

30 minute additions are sometimes sort of a waste- they give very little to no flavor, no aroma, but contribute to bitterness a bit. But not as much bitterness as if they are added earlier in the boil.

I use 30 minute additions when I want to use a "round" number of hops and don't want to have the full number of bittering units.

if I want hops flavor I add the hops at 15 minutes left in the boil. For aroma additions, generally I add those at 5 minutes.

Ordered everything for this beer this afternoon, added some whirlfloc tablets so that I can try to get this one clear as possible. Will be brewing on Sunday.

Alright, the brew is going, about 25 min into the boil right now. Looks like it is going to be a little darker than I had planned. After the steep it was much darker than I had figured.

wjbunton said:

Ordered everything for this beer this afternoon, added some whirlfloc tablets so that I can try to get this one clear as possible. Will be brewing on Sunday.

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I see you ordered the ingredients for this recipe last year... how'd it come out? Its nearly summer again and I am in search of a nice session beer for a hot summer afternoon.

This beer turned out great, it took a little while in the bottle to round into shape, but it is definitely a recipe that I will make again. Had very good balance between malt and hops. The attempt to use very citrusy hops came through and worked wonderful. If it ever gets warm out here, I will be wishing I still had some left.

wjbunton said:

This beer turned out great, it took a little while in the bottle to round into shape, but it is definitely a recipe that I will make again. Had very good balance between malt and hops. The attempt to use very citrusy hops came through and worked wonderful. If it ever gets warm out here, I will be wishing I still had some left.

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Sweet, I'm gonna give it a try
and the fact that you dont have any, but wish you did says a LOT!

cheers!

Sounds great.