Chris Knight's Blonde Ale

This is a beer that I brew about 3 times a year... I love it!

8 pounds Rhar 2 row (1 BC crush at .039 gap)
2 pounds flaked maize (no crush)
.25 pounds honey malt (1 BC crush at .039 gap)
.25 pounds biscuit malt (1 BC crush at .039 gap)
1 oz. Tettnanger Hops (60 min) (or 1 oz. Willamette Hops (60 min))
1 oz. Mt Hood Hops (10 min)
Wyeast 1056 1000ml starter on a stir plate. Chill, decant, pitch.

MASH AT 148 degrees. 1/2 TBL spoon 5.2 buffer.

Mash with 3.4 gallons STIR STIR STIR
Add 1.3 gallons after mash but before 1st run off at 170 degrees. (grain absorb makeup)STIR MORE
Sparge with 3.1 - 3.5 gallons at 170 degrees.
STIR

All water is RO water.
5 gallon bucket & 3 gallon bucket of RO water to roughly match Mosher’s ideal pale ale water.
5 gallon
.783 teaspoon Epsom Salt mgS04
.308 teaspoon Chalk cac03
.103 canning salt nacl
.265 calcium chl cacl2
2.688 gypsum cas04
3 gallon:
.470 teaspoon Epsom Salt mgS04
.185 teaspoon Chalk cac03
.062 canning salt nacl
.159 calcium chl cacl2
1.608 gypsum cas04

This gives the beer a hop bite, not too strong though.

This next water profile is, well, more mild with this beer:
5 gallons of Moshera ideal mild ale water (From RO water)
Epsom Salt = .5 teaspoon
Baking soda = .54 teaspoon
Calcium Chl = 1.14 teaspoon
Gypsum = .6 teaspoon

3 gallons same
Epsom Salt = .3 teaspoon
Baking soda = .32 teaspoon
Calcium Chl = .6 teaspoon
Gypsum = .38 teaspoon

Watching you brew this recipe on youtube, was what got me interested in brewing in the 1st place and then later allowed me to see step by step what to do in prep for my 1st AG. I've posted your 8 vid series to several peeps on here who were confused about the AG process and it helped them out a lot also.

Thanks so much for the vids man.



You rock :rockin:

Thanks man, & your welcome. I have made a few tweaks to it over time.
Glad I could give a little back to the community.

I have 1 question how do you measure out those water additives?

Is it just kinda by eye or am I missing something.

I also was drawn to all grain from your videos they were fantastic.

I hope you make some more:rockin:

One should really weigh the salts. My scale however burned up. Yes, you just guess & try to get it close. If it says .47 teaspoon, add just less than 1/2. If it says .32, add just a little more than a 1/4 teaspoon. If anyone would like the weight measurements, let me know.

I learned how to do all grain from ur videos too...thanks and im doin this recipe

Cool vids man! I'd like to do this recipe as my first AG, but why do you use RO water and add so many things to it? Couldn't I just use bottled water and still get a good brew out of it? Doing all this to the water my first AG brew is just really confusing.

I must also thank you for your videos. After reading everything I could find about AG brewing, watching your videos, and a bunch of others, brought everything into perspective. My first AG will be this coming weekend using the MW Cream Ale recipe.

Marek said:

Couldn't I just use bottled water and still get a good brew out of it? Doing all this to the water my first AG brew is just really confusing.

Click to expand...

Yes, you can use any water you like. Change it how you see fit. I use RO water because I can taste even a hint of chlorine in anything, & I like to be able to change the water profile. You'll want to have some minerals in the water however, use a good mineral/spring water.
If you have one, use a charcoal filter to get the chlorine out.

I have this beer brewing in my conical right now.

It smells amazing

I started it on Saturday so I'm going to do a dump to collect some yeasties then let it sit for 2 weeks.

I really need to get a larger fridge so I can cold condition in my fermenter.

Cool... I hope it turns out well.
I forgot to mention that because this recipe uses so much corn, one should boil hard with the lid off in order to try & drive off dimethyl sulfides. Also, cool to at least below 140 degrees as quickly as you can after you kill the boil so that the remaining DMS does not dissolve back in the wort. If you have a chiller, drive that thing down to pitching temps, or slightly below.

Also, If I were me, (and I am) I would leave the beer sit in the primary longer than a week so your sure that the yeasts have done their clean up work at the end of fermentation. 10 days - 2 weeks should do it. I do 2 weeks primary exactly. Then 2 weeks secondary.

this beer turned out great it cleared up brilliantly. Its a keeper

I had it in the secondary for like 2 months then bottle conditioned for 3 weeks

Chris,
Your videos are great! A couple of buddies and I have been working on a scheme to make fuel grade ethanol. It all starts with 'beer'. Your videos put us on track to getting this stage complete. Love micro-brews as well... so I'm sure we'll try a batch of your corn-fed blonde eventually!

Yes... you rock!

Blitz

Must give props where they are deserved. Found your 8 part AG vids to be the final push I needed to get me into AG.

THANK YOU SIR!

6

Same here Chris. Your AG and Kegging videos helped me to move into both areas and i have never looked back.

Rob

sorry to ask but i seem to be missing the mash time?

Mashed for an hour..beer finished really well. very nice flavor
great recipe

chrisknight said:

All water is RO water.
5 gallon bucket & 3 gallon bucket of RO water to roughly match Mosher’s ideal pale ale water.
5 gallon
.783 teaspoon Epsom Salt mgS04
.308 teaspoon Chalk cac03
.103 canning salt nacl
.265 calcium chl cacl2
2.688 gypsum cas04

<snip>

This gives the beer a hop bite, not too strong though.

Click to expand...

I was looking for a water profile in ppm for an IPA, as I try to use as much filtered tap water as possible before diluting with distilled / RO and adding salts. So, I calculated out the results of your 5 gallon additions in ppm... I didn't bother with the sparge water, but maybe I'll get around to it later.

.783 teaspoon epsom salt
41 ppm Mg++
105 ppm SO4--

.308 teaspoon chalk
32 ppm Ca++
49 ppm CO3--

.103 teaspoon salt
14 ppm Na+
22 ppm Cl-

.265 teaspoon calcium chloride
25 ppm Ca++
22 ppm Cl--

2.688 teaspoon gypsum
148 ppm Ca++
362 ppm SO4--

Totals

41 ppm Mg++
467 ppm SO4--
180 ppm Ca++
49 ppm CO3--
14 ppm Na+
22 ppm Cl-
22 ppm Cl--

matter said:

Totals

41 ppm Mg++
467 ppm SO4--
180 ppm Ca++
49 ppm CO3--
14 ppm Na+
22 ppm Cl-
22 ppm Cl--

Click to expand...

Bad math... the ppm of Ca++ is actually 205.