Advice on brewing a Belgian blonde ale please.

Hi there,

I’m new to brewing, so I have a few questions about this if anyone could be so good as to fill me in?

I really want to brew a Belgian blonde ale, something like leffe blonde, la trappe blonde, grimbergen blonde, etc, but living in the UK I have yet to find a kit that offers this. Tons of tripel, abbey beer etc but no blonde kits. This recipe looks good to me, so I am shopping for the ingredients at the Hop Shop, where I am buying my equipment from.

As for the recipe, I can’t find everything that is on the list, would someone mind advising me?

3 lbs. Wheat DME
2 lbs. Extra Light DME
Both fairly straight forward, I was planning on using Muntons spray malt. Is this OK? I take it a pound is 454g?
8 oz. Caramel 10°L
What is this? Is there anything on the hopshop site that I could use in its place?
8 oz. Flaked Wheat
Can I use ‘Torrefied Wheat Flakes’ ?
4 oz. Caravienne malt
No sign of this on the site, is there something similar here I could use?
(http://www.hopshopuk.com/shop.php?p=malthops)
1 oz hops (looks like they changed to Glacier from Williamette)
They seem to have Williamette hops, so no probs

Yeast – which would be good here? I was thinking the ‘Belgium Wit - 3944’, does that sound OK?
http://www.hopshopuk.com/cgi-bin/browse-no-frames.cgi?view=group&group=byeast
My other option was to buy and make a Brewferm belgian witbier kit, and then use the yeast cake from that to pitch onto. Does that sound feasible? Would only cost £5 more and I would get a whole load of beer out of it as well as the yeast.

Will I need sugar as well? Is Belgian candy sugar OK? How much would I need?

Sorry for all the questions, any hints, suggestions, extra info would be greatly appreciated!!
Planning primary in a bucket, then secondary in a better bottle before bottling.

Thanks!
G

In America its illegal to slay your swmbo.

I rely on my LHBS or people from this forum for most recipe questions. since no one has answered I will try to answer your question. Cara 10* is a steeping grain with a color index of 10(also called crystal malt) it imparts body, color and promotes head retention. torrified wheat requires a protein rest where flaked wheat does not. normally flaked could be used in place of torrified, I wouldn't recommend using torrified for flake. I checked the site and I'm not sure about the torrifed wheat vs the torrified wheat flakes. Caraveinne malt is a Belgium type crystal malt with color of 20*with slightly less sugar than crystal malt 20*( used in Belgium ales and trippels) Candied sugar will add sweet aroma and head retention. The yeast looks like a good selection with an easy to maintain temp range. Wish I could be of more help, I dont do a lot of wheat beers.

Both fairly straight forward, I was planning on using Muntons spray malt. Is this OK? I take it a pound is 454g?
Right

8 oz. Caramel 10°L
What is this? Is there anything on the hopshop site that I could use in its place?
Tough call: the Carapils is too light (3L) and the British Caramalt too dark (C30L). I'd use 100 gm of the British.

8 oz. Flaked Wheat
Can I use ‘Torrefied Wheat Flakes’ ?
Close enough

4 oz. Caravienne malt
Use their Vienna, listed under Lager malts.

You don't generally use Candi in a Blonde.

I'd buy the wit kit and make both.

Hi guys,

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply to me. I have gone ahead and ordered my equipment and ingredients, I have opted for the british caramalt, will go easy on it as suggested. I'm not too fussed if my blonde beer looks a bit dark, just as long as it tastes like the real deal.

I hope the brewferm witbier yeast will be good for this. I am going to brew the witbier in the primary, then rack to my better bottle after a week or so and then pitch the blonde onto the yeast cake. My question is, how long can I leave the trub in the primary bucket after racking the beer to the secondary, before pitching the next batch (the blonde partial mash) onto it?

I spent a sh*tload on all my equipment and my budget didn't quite stretch to two better bottles, so I am a little short on fermenters. I thought I would try and organise it so that I could bottle my witbier, and then clean the newly freed-up better bottle and rack the blonde to it on the same day.

What do you think? I have bought a mashing bucket to cook everything up in, thought I would chill some bottled water til it was really cold, then use that to bring the temperature down quickly - I don't have a wort chiller (yet). Will this work OK, or should I really be boiling the whole batch in one go?

Sorry for all the questions!

My equipment list below if anyone's interested, hopefully I haven't forgotten anything important.

Thanks again!
G

1 of Better Bottle Fermenter 22.7 litre Complete (Code BBOT002C) @ GBP 39.99
1 of Better Bottle 90° Elbow Adaptor (Code BBOT008) @ GBP 3.29
1 of Crown Caps - Gold (Code CAP003B) @ GBP 1.50
1 of Crown Caps - Blue (Code CAP003C) @ GBP 1.50
1 of Colt Capper (Code CAP002) @ GBP 25.50
1 of Bottle Filling Stick (Code EQ055) @ GBP 3.50
1 of Syphon Tubing - 1/4'' internal diameter per 2 metre length (Code EQ057) @ GBP 1.20
1 of Syphon Tubing - 5/16'' internal diameter per 2 metre length (Code EQ057B) @ GBP 1.20
1 of Hydrometer for Beer with Hydrometer Jar (Code EQ063B) @ GBP 7.75
1 of VWP - 100g (Code CLEAN002) @ GBP 1.65
1 of Brewferm - Tarwebier (White Beer) (Code BKIT009L) @ GBP 8.99
3 of Muntons Malt Extract - Wheat Malt (Code MEX001F) @ GBP 3.75
2 of Muntons Malt Extract - Extra Light (Code MEX001G) @ GBP 3.75
1 of British Caramalt - 500g Crushed (Code MALT051B) @ GBP 1.60
1 of Torrefied Wheat Flakes - 500g (Code MALT038) @ GBP 1.60
1 of Vienna Malt - 500g Crushed (Code MALT010B) @ GBP 1.75
1 of Willamette (USA) - 100g (Code HOP015) @ GBP 7.50
1 of Grommet to fit a Plastic Bin Lid (Code EQ011D) @ GBP 0.60
1 of 30 litre Food Grade Polypropylene Bucket w/lid (Code EQ005) @ GBP 9.00
1 of Bubbler Airlock (Code EQ042) @ GBP 0.60
2 of LCD Thermometer (Code EQ025) @ GBP 1.99
5 of Muslin Hop Bag (Code EQ099) @ GBP 0.20
1 of Long Plastic Spoon (Code EQ087B) @ GBP 3.50
1 of Belgium Candy Sugar Crystals 500g - White (Code SUG005) @ GBP 2.95
1 of Winemaking and Brewing Sugar - 1kg (Code SUG003) @ GBP 1.85
1 of Plastic U Bend - 18'' (Code EQ058B) @ GBP 1.05
1 of Red Syphon Clip (Code EQ060) @ GBP 1.50
1 of Bruheat Boiler (Code EQ098) @ GBP 69.50

Shipping: UK Delivery (charged at cost - minimum £2.00, maximum £4.95)

Order Grand Total: GBP 227.75

dont worry everything will work out. I started with a 6 gallon tamale pot, 1- 6 gallon bucket, a bottling bucket with bottle filler and capper/50 caps. Now I need another room to store all the gadgetry.
without a chiller you might want to do a partial boil(3 gal) then mix in the icecold water(to bring it up to 5 gal)have extra water cold. you dont know how much you will boil off. Stir it really well for aeration before pitching and to prevent it from stratifying.