Modifying a blonde ale ingredient kit

[kickbacknbrew]

So I was recently gifted a blonde ale ingredient kit, but am a bigger fan of hoppier, stronger beers. Does anyone have any recommendations for ways to manipulate this? I know I can add additional finishing or secondary hops, and probably adds some additional malt or grains, but any tips on what to add? Thanks!

 

[chickypad]

If you post the recipe you will get better advice.

 

[kickbacknbrew]

Unfortunately they don't supply the recipe in the kit, just have everything packaged in the right quantities. Theoretically I could just add some additional darker grains, a second round of hops and some malt and have a completely different kind of beer. Just looking for any tips of what to consider

 

[PackerfaninSanDiego]

looks like it's teeth pullin time. Where did you get the kit?

 

[chickypad]

Does it come with any info at all? Like OG, IBU or at least a description of what it's supposed to be? Are any of the ingredients marked, like what kind of extract or hops? Otherwise we're really just shooting in the dark.

 

[agcorry00]

You could try e-mailing the manufacturer for the ingredients.

 

[porky_pine]

I would add more base malt and more hops.

 

[SteveHeff]

Can't go wrong with centennial in a blonde. But without more information concerning what is ALREADY going into the beer, it's hard to say.

 

[agcorry00]

You could brew it in half the water called for and invent the "Imperial Blonde Ale" style.

 

[evrose]

Unfortunately they don't supply the recipe in the kit, just have everything packaged in the right quantities. Theoretically I could just add some additional darker grains, a second round of hops and some malt and have a completely different kind of beer. Just looking for any tips of what to consider

Does the kit have a brand? Who makes it?

 

[incognitum]

I actually just brewed an "Imperial Blonde" Brewers Best kit the other day. They call it Imperial and claim 7- 8% ABV. My OG was 1.064, so I'm just calling it a regular Blonde Ale, though.

I would suggest steeping 1lb of honey malt for 20 minutes and adding a pound or two of light or extra light DME or LME. That will give you a couple more points on the ABV and increase the body and flavor.

 

[BrewMasta]

Have you heard of toasted blonde, it requires lightly toasting your 2row to add flavor. I also buy a 1% ABV booster from Austin Homebrew Supply, as I also like my beer a bit stronger than many. The Brewvint 1%abv booster is a proprietary blend of maltodextrin, and corn sugar I believe. You can buy it online for an extra $2.00 per kit. I add this to most my brews. You could also use some lemon, or orange zest in the last 2-3 min of the boil for some orange flavor, and aroma. I also dry zest for 7 days as well. I have done this with a pale ale. I call it my ZPA, it's awesome with orangey mango flavors and aromas. Use zest of 2-3 oranges for the boil, and zest of 2-3 oranges for the dry zesting in secondary.

 

[kickbacknbrew]

Alright, here is what I've got ingredients: light dry malt extract, wheat dry malt extract, crystal and Vienna malts, malto dextrin, glacier hops for bittering, willamette for flavor.

Starting gravity 1.038-1.054, ending 1.008-1.013
Bitterness: 21 IBUs
Abv 3.8-5.5%

Essentially my favorite beers are IPAs and hoppy Pales.

I'm guessing if I really wanna modify it ill have to buy some darker malts and possibly do a dry hopping in the secondary?

Any tips would be great!

My last kit was an IPA that I took a gallon off of and added grapefruit zest in the secondary. Turned out really well.

 

[chickypad]

That is an unusually large range of OG for an extract kit. It almost seems like there must be an optional booster or something, curious what brand this is. Maybe it includes the option to partial mash the Vienna, is it a big bag of grain?

If you feel like weighing your ingredients we could plug in some numbers and really give you direct advice. But as is, assuming the mid range of that OG, you could add 2 lb more of DME to get into IPA range. I don't know that you'd necessarily want darker malts - I'd probably just leave the steeping grains as is. Then you'll need to up your bittering addition significantly and throw in another ounce or two of hops at flameout plus some dry hop - maybe with something like cascade. Do you know what yeast this is using?

 

[kickbacknbrew]

Hey thanks for the advice. It came with safale us-05 dry ale yeast. It came with about 7.5 ounces of 'specialty' grains and a pretty big bad of dme. Maybe 4-5 lbs. I'm thinking I may need more grain, as the IPA kit I did had alot more grains with it. I have an oz of willamette and an oz of cascade already that I can work with also.

 

[chickypad]

If you're just steeping grains you won't get much in the way of fermentables from it. To boost your gravity you need more DME. Unless you want to turn it into a partial mash, in which case you could get 3-4 lbs of 2 -row and mash it with the other grains it came with, I'd do an hour at 150 degrees.

 

[elreplica]

I cooked a BB imperial Blonde Ale and it came out at 7.4% and was really good beer. It was given to me by my LHBS as they largely do wine on premise and aren't set up for cooking. I gave them a six pack in Grolsch swings and everyone was impressed, even one if their experts who claimed it definitely fit the style and was a good example. Myself and one of the employees who has some experience found it a little over carbed, but an easy fix by reducing the priming sugar. I may keg it in the future, but the price here in Nova Scotia for a short (read 5 USG or 19 liters) batch is diabolical at $57. I don't need a grain bag or crown caps and hence sought a cheaper source. A fellow Brewnoser (enthusiast's club) Dave Gillett, puts together extract/all grain kits without the frills and fancy packaging for about half the price for a tall batch (read 6 USG or 23 liters) and hammers in a couple pounds of steeping grains). I believe he uses Beersmith or a comparable piece of software to customize any recipe you want. Thus far I've tried his Grolsch clone ( ok and overhopped but I didn't lager it and will the next) American Amber Ale (needs a little more time in bottle but quite good), and will be cooking his copy of the BB Imperial Blonde today if the weather permits.


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