Time to make a classic summer beer! For this batch, I wanted to try something different, by mixing techniques used on two previous blonde ales that have turned out well. Firstly, following my Summer Blonde Ale, I elected to keep a simple grain bill. This meant mostly 2-row malt, with a touch of dark Munich malt (somewhere in the 10 to 20 lovibond range). However, I wanted a slightly more complex hops character, so I followed a version of the hopping schedule from my Citra Blonde Ale, in that all of the hops were added in the last 10 minutes of the boil. I had two ounces of the experimental HBC 438, and this seemed like a fine batch in which to highlight those.

New World Blonde Ale

• 9 lbs. 2-row (Great Western Malting Co.)
• 9 oz. Dark Munich malt
• 0.5 oz. HBC 438 hops pellets (16.6% alpha, 6.2% beta, 10 minute boil)
• 0.5 oz. HBC 438 hops pellets (16.6% alpha, 6.2% beta, 5 minute boil)
• 1 oz. HBC 438 hops pellets (16.6% alpha, 6.2% beta, 5 minute whirlpool)
• 1 tsp. Irish moss (10 minute boil)
• 1 pkg. California Ale Yeast (WLP001, White Labs), in 1L starter

Procedure

• 48 hours in advance, I prepared the yeast in a 1L starter
• I mashed in with 3.5 gallons of water at 161º, to hit a mash temperature of 149º. The mash was down to 149º after 40 minutes. After 60 minutes, I added 1.5 gallons of water at 180º, which raised the mash bed to 152º. I vorlaufed and collected the first runnings, and then added another 3.5 gallons of water at 180º, let it sit for 10 minutes, and then collected the remainder of the wort.
• All told, I collected 6.8 gallons of wort at a gravity of 1.040, for 78% efficiency.
• I boiled for 60 minutes, adding the hops and Irish moss per the schedule.
• After flame-out, I chilled the wort down to 75º, transferred to the fermenter, and pitched the yeast slurry.
• The starting gravity was 75º. I brewed this on 15 April 2016, and fermented it at 66º for six days.
• The beer was kegged on 21 April 2016. At this point, it had a final gravity of 1.008, which equates to 4.9% abv.