Tonight I kegged the Summer Blonde Ale that I brewed up on May 10. It has been in the primary for 12 days, with a very vigorous fermentation. Starting gravity was 1.047, with a final gravity of 1.009. This calculates out as 5.0% abv, nearly identical in stats to the first iteration of the recipe. The flavor is clean and lightly malty, at least in its uncarbonated state. Approximately 4.75 gallons of beer went into the keg. I’ll be force carbonating this, with an aim to have it on tap within a few days.
Category Archives: blonde ale
Summer Blonde Ale 1.1
Thanks to a few recent gatherings at which I have served my homebrew, my three kegs all kicked this past week. That means…more brewing! My Pannotia White IPA just came online this weekend (and wow is it tasty!), but I’ve got two taps to fill as soon as possible. So, I’m fulfilling this “obligation” first with a blonde ale and second with a “wild and crazy brew” (more on that one in a subsequent post).
For tonight’s brew, I elected to rebrew a blonde ale that I did last summer. That one turned out pretty nicely, and the warm summer months are approaching, so on we go again! I made a few minor modifications, partly to account for the efficiency of my equipment but also to use up some hops I had on-hand. Also, I switched yeast strains from US-05 to WLP001.
Summer Blonde Ale 1.1
- 9 lbs. 2-row malt (Great Western Malting Co.)
- 8 oz. 15° crystal malt
- 1.10 oz. Willamette hops pellets (5.2% alpha, 3.7% beta), 60 minute boil
- 1 tsp. Irish moss (10 minute boil)
- 1 pkg. California Ale Yeast (WLP001, prepared in 1L starter)
Procedure
- I mashed in with 3.1 gallons of water at 160°. The temperature stabilized at 151°, was down to 148° after 35 minutes, and was down to 147° after 55 minutes.
- After 60 minutes, I added 1.25 gallons of water at 160° to the mash, let the mash sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected 3.3 gallons of wort.
- Then, I added 3.1 gallons of water at 185°, which raised the mash bed to 168°. I let it sit for 10 minutes and vorlaufed.
- All told, I collected 6.6 gallons of wort with a gravity of 1.039. This works out to 74% mash efficiency.
- Once the wort came to a boil, I added the hops and boiled the mixture for 60 minutes. 10 minutes prior to flame-out, I added the Irish moss.
- After removing the kettle from the heat, I chilled the wort down to 70° and transferred all to the fermenter (aerating with the Venturi pump). I pitched the starter (which I had put together five days previous; cold-crashed for two days, and decanted spent wort leaving all but ~0.5 L yeast slurry).
- My starting gravity is 1.047, with 5 gallons of wort into the fermenter. I’ll be fermenting at 65°.
Beer Tasting: Summer Blonde Ale
The summer blonde ale is at its peak, turning out to be a pretty delightful brew. The full specs are below.
Summer Blonde Ale
- I brewed this up on June 28, 2014, and bottled it on July 13. Thus, it has had about a month to condition. The sample I am evaluating here is from a bottle.
- Basics
- Original gravity = 1.046; final gravity = 1.008; abv = 5.0%.
- Appearance
- Clear, straw-colored
- Head is white, fine, and low, with fair retention over the course of the sampling
- Aroma
- Clean and slightly malty
- Taste
- Clean and slightly malty; pleasant
- A subtle hops finish
- Good balance between hops and malt
- Would I brew this again?
- Absolutely! This is perhaps one of the best all-grain beers I’ve done to date, and it is perfect for sipping on warm summer evenings. As near as I can tell, the recipe (and this batch) nails the style quite squarely, and is very much to my taste. I don’t know that there is much, if anything, that I would change; maybe up the malt and hops ever-so-slightly, but that’s about it. Probably a bad idea to mess with a good thing.
- Overall rating: 8/10
Summer Blonde Ale
One of the primary limitations of brewing in southern California is the weather…there is a short window indeed where ambient air temperature–even in a basement–is within the happy zone for ale yeast. You can brew when it’s warmer, of course, but there is more danger of off-flavors developing (well, unless it’s a Belgian…off-flavors are the default there). So, I’ve been mostly limited to brewing between November and March, with maybe a little wiggle room on either end. It also meant I had to get as much brewing as possible during that window, to have a good supply for the long summer months.
Well, those days are now at an end. The parents shipped me a Ranco temperature controller for my birthday, which regulates a fridge or freezer into appropriate fermentation temperatures. I bought a cheap 7 cubic foot chest freezer, hooked it all up, and now I’m ready to go! First up…a good, drinkable summer blonde ale. This recipe is ever-so-slightly modified from one that originally appeared in BYO.
Summer Blonde Ale
- 10 lbs. 2-row pale malt
- 8 oz. 20° crystal malt
- 1 oz. Willamette hops pellets
- 1 tsp. Irish moss
- 1 pkg. (11 g) Safale American US-05 yeast
Steps
- I preheated the mash tun and added the grains with 1 tbs. of 5.2 pH stabilizer.
- I mashed in with 3.25 gallons of water at 165°. I adjusted the water slightly by adding 1 gallon distilled water (and another gallon when I did the sparge).
- The mash temperature stabilized at 152.3°, was down to 151.5° within 30 minutes, and was at 149° after 60 minutes.
- After 60 minutes, I added 1.08 gallons of water at 170°, stirred, and let it sit for 10 minutes. I then decanted ~3.15 gallons of wort.
- I added 3.14 gallons of water at 170°, stirred, and let it sit for 10 minutes. This raised the temperature of the mash to 160°.
- In the end, I collected 6.5 gallons of wort. Pre-boil gravity was 1.040, which works out to around 67.5% mash efficiency.
- After heating the wort to a boil, I added the hops pellets and boiled the wort for 60 minutes. 10 minutes prior to flame-out, I added the Irish moss.
- I cooled the wort down to ~78°, and transferred it to the carboy. Total volume is 5 gallons.
- After rehydrating the yeast in 1 cup of water, I pitched it and sealed up the fermenter.
- In order to gain a clean flavor profile, I’ll be fermenting at ~62°. The plan is to ferment for around a week before bottling. Starting gravity was 1.046.
- The beer was brewed and yeast pitched on Saturday, June 28. By the next morning, visible fermentation had started.
Claremont Summer Ale Bottled
Tonight I bottled the Claremont Summer Ale (with the able assistance of brew pal Brian). The final gravity (after 8 days in the secondary) was 1.014, unchanged from when I transferred it from the primary. Given the starting gravity of 1.052, the estimated ABV is 5.0%. The flavor of the uncarbonated beer is remarkably clean, with a slightly nutty finish; the color is golden. This is going to be a real gem once it matures, I think!
I carbonated with 3/4 cup of corn sugar (plus a few tablespoons). The total bottle yield was 28 12-oz. bottles, 5 16 oz-bottles, and 4 22-oz. bottles.
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