Fancy Centennial Blonde

This recipe is very similar to the original Centennial Blonde recipe which many of us know and love. I wanted a fuller, richer beer so I bumped the gravity and subbed Marris Otter for the base. Doing this required a similar bump to the IBUs so I modified the timing while maintaining the original totals and the Centennial/Cascade mix. Lastly, I switched to WLP002 after getting comments back from a competition about a tart off flavor I associated with the dry Nottingham (still scored a 40). While largely inspired by the original this is a completely different beer that pushes the top end of the Blonde guidelines.

15 lb Marris Otter
1.25 lb Cara Pils
1 lb C10
1 lb Vienna

.75oz Centennial 60 (10.5%aa)
.25oz Centennial 45 (10.5%aa)
.50oz Cascade 20 (7.2%aa)
.50oz Cascade 5 (7.2%aa)

Mashed at 149*F 70mins

WLP002, this yeast is extremely flocculant. I found it useful to dump the (2) tubes into a flask with unfermented wort and put on the stir plate for a few minutes to separate the clumps of yeast. The attenuation is also relatively low so I used a cooler mash to help with fermentability.

I like to ferment this at 66*f until fermentation is complete, give it a few days and then cold crash it to near freezing before racking to keg. WLP002 seems to takes its time to start off but finishes quickly once started. Typically I have this in keg within two weeks.

Cheers to BierMuncher for the basis of the recipe.

llama_boy said:

.75oz Centennial 60 (10.5%aa)
.25oz Centennial 60 (10.5%aa)
.50oz Cascade 20 (7.2%aa)
.50oz Cascade 5 (7.2%aa)

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Are you sure these hop additions are correct? Should second centennial be around 45?

kluge9 said:

Are you sure these hop additions are correct? Should second centennial be around 45?

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You Sir at correct.