Honey blonde ale.

I have some ingredients left over from my last batch and thought I would brew something up. I put it into beersmith and it all falls in the green. However I have no idea what I'm doing and I don't even think I have ever tried a blonde ale.

3lb sorghum extract (60min)
1lb rice syrup solid (60min)
4oz candi sugar, amber (60min)
1oz Goldings, East Kent (60min)
Irish moss (10 min)
yeast nutrients (10 min)
2lb Honey (flame out)
Nottingham yeast

Does this look like it could make a decent beer? I also have .5 oz fuggles, and .3 oz chinook, and about 2 lbs of quinoa.

Any help would be great. I'm going to the big city this weekend and I could pick up different ingredients if its going to make it a lot better.

I have just done a German beer using Golding's as the bittering hop, and hallertau hops for flavour. Added the hallertau 15 minutes before the end, on a rolling boil. But I guess you could use the other hops you have instead of the hallertau? Just adds something else to it.

Sounds like a good combination from what I have read on the descriptions. Thanks for the advice. I changed it up a little and I guess I'll wait until monday to brew it up.

3lb sorghum extract (60 min)
1lb rice syrup solid (60 min)
4.8oz candi sugar, amber (60 min)
1oz Goldings, East Kent (60 min)
0.5oz hallertau (15 min)
Irish moss (10 min)
yeast nutrients (10 min)
1lb 12oz Honey (flame out)
Nottingham yeast

No worries, man. I used malted buckwheat and not sorghum as it is VERY hard to find here, But I guess you could use buckwheat honey?

EKG is such a great aroma hop, it seems like using it only for bittering would be a waste. I'd use 0.5 oz fuggles with 0.5 oz EKG for bittering, and then the rest of the EKG for a flavor/aroma addition at 15 minutes. Hallertau will tend to push the beer in a more "German" direction, which is fine if that's what you want, but "blonde" isn't really a German style. It's not really a British style, either, and really either hop choice will be tasty, but if you don't already have hallertau on hand I'd say you don't need to buy it, because you can work with what you got just fine.

The one in the primary is a oatmeal stout with Chinook / fuggel. So I was trying to go in an opposite direction, unfortunately I don't know what I'm doing.

Well, that's the whole fun of brewing. Experimenting with different ingredients getting the taste you want. That's what I do and get some great results. Some not.

Golding's is used as a bittering hop, sometimes as a replacement for fuggles. So I guess once again, it is entirely up to the person brewing as to what they like, and want to do.

So I went with the EKG and Fuggles and it turned out really good. After it aged it seemed to get a lot bitterer. I would say don't age at all. I ran out quick because my non gluten free friends liked it so much. Thanks for all the help. I plan on making it again in the future.

Awesome! Glad to hear it came out tasty, and thanks for coming back to tell us how it went! I believe the reason it seemed to get more bitter with age is because the sweetness of honey can take a while to dry up. I've noticed this in almost every honey beer I've brewed--it seems really sweet at first with tons of honey aromatics, but after a month or two, the honey sweetness dies down quite a bit. I've heard that a lot of the perceived sweetness of honey is actually due to volatile aromatic compounds, and I know those have a tendency to break down in beers over time (hence hop aroma diminishing with time as well), so I think it makes sense.

Aye, it looks cracking, man. Good head on it, good light colour to it, too. Glad we could help you out with your recipe ideas, and thanks for letting us know how it went. Keep it up.

So I decided to brew this also only I decided to double up on the sorghum, and use dark candi. So question:is regular yeast nutrient gluten free?

I didnt have any problems with it and I'm really sensitive. I get a reaction from Redbridge.

Ok this was my final recipie, it's in the furmentor right now. Smelled awesome while I was brewing it. What was you OG and FG? I totally forgot to get the OG on mine.

5 gallons
6.6lb sorghum extract (60 min)
1lb rice syrup solid (60 min)
4.8oz candi sugar, dark (60 min)
1oz US Goldings, East Kent (60 min)
0.5oz US hallertau (15 min)
Irish moss (10 min)
yeast nutrients (10 min)
1lb 12oz Honey (flame out)
Nottingham yeast

OK Mine is in the secondary fermentor, planning on bottling this weekend if it stops bubbling. Its just as cloudy with an orange tint.

I cant remember the original and final gravity. I didn't leave it long enough and it really over carbonated. I think ill make this one again when I get my keg set up. Make sure you cold crash it that t really helped clear up the cloudiness. I did mine with frozen waterbottles.

I have a keezer I use to cold crash so it should not be an issue. Its been fermenting for a loooonnnggg time. I actually had to leave it in the secondary for alittle while longer. Im going to check it today to see if its ready or not. Smelled great when I racked it!

Bottled las night. Tastes really sweet. Needs to age but it smells and tastes like it has great potential.

It looks a little darker than the one I did. I think mine came out to about 6% abv. What did you calculate yours to to be?

Side note: I like the brooks running shoes I have those in blue.

tbskinner said:

It looks a little darker than the one I did. I think mine came out to about 6% abv. What did you calculate yours to to be?

Side note: I like the brooks running shoes I have those in blue.

Click to expand...

I never really calculated mine but I think its going to come out just on 6% still becasue I doubled up on the fermentables. I also used dark candied sugar which would explain the color.

BTW-thoes are my girlfriends shoes. I have Inov-8's hahaha

Done! Although its not carbonating very well. It has been in the bottle for more than a week. I might try raising the temp.

Nice and clear. Hows it taste?

Tastes interesting, kindda like mead...there is a big alcohol kick to it, lots of flavor. Before I bottled it there was a great honey taste, but now its hard to discribe. Im sure the taste is going to change once it carbonates with time. I probably should not have used that dark Candi though.