Blonde Ale Centennial Blonde (Simple 4% All Grain, 5 & 10 Gall)

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I just brewed this yesterday, ended up with about 4.8 gallons in the fermenter, OG was 1.048. I also used washed yeast from the last time I made this, and it's already going crazy 12 hrs later.
 
Gonna brew this tomorrow. I read a lot of the posts, but not all 313 ;) BeerSmith seems to be calling for 1 1/2 packages of Nottingham dry yeast, but it looks like everyone's just using 1 package? I'm brewing all grain, but haven't been at it for all that long and want to get this right.
Thanks,

You can use 1, as the gravity isn't that high, and will be plenty of yeast.

I'd skip nottingham though, and use something cleaner like US 05.
 
I use one package of Notty when I make this, ferment at 65 and can go grain to glass in about 10 days. No esters to speak of and it clears nicely after a couple days in the keg.
 
Hawaiibboy said:
For a cheap(er) way to keep your fermentation cool you could use a swamp cooler. The other option is to use a temp-controlled fermentation chamber. I have to deal with constant high temps in Hawaii so I went with a chest freezer off CL.

Your other option is to try out a saison yeast. I have heard of people here in Hawaii fermenting at rather high temps. If you could keep the house/room you are fermenting in at about 75-80 you should be fine. Might get some funky Belgian-ness, but that could turn out good!

Speaking of Belgian-ness, I just had a Schlafly Golden Ale and was inspired to possibly try this recipe with a Belgian yeast. I think this beer would pair well with a belgian yeast. What belgian yeast do you guys think would really shine with this recipe other than a saison yeast?
 
jmcquesten said:
A quick update. After waiting another week or so, the sulfur smell is pretty much gone and the beer is delicious. It was carbonated after a week, decent after 2, but I guess the 3 week rule really does hold true. It's crazy how much of a difference that third week makes.

Status ?
I'm about to keg mine this afternoon
 
Brewed it up Saturday. OG came in low 1.038. Second all grain so I'm still figuring out my system. Still excited!!!!!!
 
I know this has been sufficiently proven but DAMN THIS IS GOOD! It even won over my father in law who is a die hard lager man. I forgot to add any irish moss so it's a bit hazy but it sure does taste good. I didn't tap the keg till it had aged for 6 weeks (was in primary for 3 weeks) and I don't think it will last long. I had 3 after mowing the lawn yesterday. So refreshing and you can still function since its low ABV. Properly good stuff BierMuncher! :mug:
 
Hi guys, i just brewed a five gallon batch of this ale on sunday which was my first attempt at all grain. I hit the temps and hydrometer reading right on the nose and am currently waiting patiently for it to ferment. My question was if anyone had tried this recipe with honey and if so what kind and whether the honey was put into the boil or primary. Thanks for your time!
 
Hi guys, i just brewed a five gallon batch of this ale on sunday which was my first attempt at all grain. I hit the temps and hydrometer reading right on the nose and am currently waiting patiently for it to ferment. My question was if anyone had tried this recipe with honey and if so what kind and whether the honey was put into the boil or primary. Thanks for your time!

If you just want to up the abv you can toss the honey in the end of the boil. It will dry your beer out some with minimal to no taste.

I have heard you can toss the honey in after primary fermentation and it will retain some taste but very little. I'm sure there's plenty of thread about using honey but the recipe really doesn't need anything else. It is essentially liquid perfection.
 
This is a very good brew for such an inexpensive grain list. As soon as I'm finished unpacking, I will make another batch.
 
I am taking a 6-pack of Centennial Blonde to my Uncle this weekend for Memorial Day. He is a die hard Miller Lite drinker and will drink nothing else.

He said he tried "homebrew" before and didn't like it. Let's see if Centennial Blonde can crack this old dog!
 
I am taking a 6-pack of Centennial Blonde to my Uncle this weekend for Memorial Day. He is a die hard Miller Lite drinker and will drink nothing else.

He said he tried "homebrew" before and didn't like it. Let's see if Centennial Blonde can crack this old dog!

If he doesn't appreciate it I surely will.
 
Brewed Saturday, transferred to carboy this evening. OG was 1.041, gravity today was already 1.009 :eek:
 
How long did y'all's take to carb up? Mine has been sitting 3 weeks in bottles with very little to show..
 
They're at 70-75*, spent 2 weeks in primary at 62-66. Primed and bottled with 3/4c of corn sugar.

Edit: I did the extract version with Notty.
 
I was also thinking about:

1 lb Vienna
.5 lb Victory

Just to make sure its not lacking maltiness

I was just about to post a similar thought and found this post in a search. Although the posted recipe does indeed seem like an ideal Blonde that would appeal to the BMC crowd, I think I might want to deepen the flavor profile just slightly for my tastes. Nothing crazy, I was even thinking keep the same hops schedule.

Any other ideas for this? I was even thinking of a little (5-10%) biscuit or wheat malt? All opinions welcome. A little more color wouldn't bother me and is likely with what I'm wanting here.
 
I bottled a batch of Centennial Blonde this Monday. I wanted to re-use the yeast (Nottingham) but there was a ton of hop gunk all over so I racked off the beer and washed the yeast by pouring a gallon of bottled water in, stirring up the trub and letting it sit for 30 minutes. I then poured off a gallon of the suspended liquid, cleaned and sanitized the fermenter, and added the wort and make-up water (extract recipe), then decanted the gallon of suspended yeast back into the fermenter.

Today, less than 48 hours later, the ferment is stone-cold DONE. Gravity is at 1.007 and krausen is completely gone. :eek: That was impressive. I'm amazed I didn't blow out my airlock - it was bubbling furiously Tuesday morning, and there was a ring of krausen gunk just shy of the fermenter lid when I opened it. Ferment was at 63F ambient and the beer tastes just fine, so I think all went well.

I'll have to let this one sit for a while until I empty enough bottles. I'm enjoying my first batch of Centennial now and I am so glad that I decided to brew several back-to-back batches. This is just good beer.
 
I bottled a batch of Centennial Blonde this Monday. I wanted to re-use the yeast (Nottingham) but there was a ton of hop gunk all over so I racked off the beer and washed the yeast by pouring a gallon of bottled water in, stirring up the trub and letting it sit for 30 minutes. I then poured off a gallon of the suspended liquid, cleaned and sanitized the fermenter, and added the wort and make-up water (extract recipe), then decanted the gallon of suspended yeast back into the fermenter.

Today, less than 48 hours later, the ferment is stone-cold DONE. Gravity is at 1.007 and krausen is completely gone. :eek: That was impressive. I'm amazed I didn't blow out my airlock - it was bubbling furiously Tuesday morning, and there was a ring of krausen gunk just shy of the fermenter lid when I opened it. Ferment was at 63F ambient and the beer tastes just fine, so I think all went well.

I'll have to let this one sit for a while until I empty enough bottles. I'm enjoying my first batch of Centennial now and I am so glad that I decided to brew several back-to-back batches. This is just good beer.

Score! Five more days until I keg and I cannot wait.
 
I'm going to dry hop mine this time around. I didn't the first time I brewed it.
 
I bottled a batch of Centennial Blonde this Monday. I wanted to re-use the yeast (Nottingham) but there was a ton of hop gunk all over so I racked off the beer and washed the yeast by pouring a gallon of bottled water in, stirring up the trub and letting it sit for 30 minutes. I then poured off a gallon of the suspended liquid, cleaned and sanitized the fermenter, and added the wort and make-up water (extract recipe), then decanted the gallon of suspended yeast back into the fermenter.

Today, less than 48 hours later, the ferment is stone-cold DONE. Gravity is at 1.007 and krausen is completely gone. :eek: That was impressive. I'm amazed I didn't blow out my airlock - it was bubbling furiously Tuesday morning, and there was a ring of krausen gunk just shy of the fermenter lid when I opened it. Ferment was at 63F ambient and the beer tastes just fine, so I think all went well.

I'll have to let this one sit for a while until I empty enough bottles. I'm enjoying my first batch of Centennial now and I am so glad that I decided to brew several back-to-back batches. This is just good beer.

The last time I brewed this I washed the yeast as well. Use that on this batch, and it's still going after 5 days slowly. I'm in the same situation as you with bottles, I don't have enough, and my IPA is in terciary because of that, then this brew will be dry hopped in secondary, until i can get more bottles. or finally start kegging.
 
Can anyone give me a rough idea of how long they are running in the fermenter before transferring into carboy? It seems as the yeast has finished doing its thing. It was bubbling furiously the next morning.
 
Can anyone give me a rough idea of how long they are running in the fermenter before transferring into carboy? It seems as the yeast has finished doing its thing. It was bubbling furiously the next morning.

Id go 7/7 or more on the Carboy if you like waiting.
 
Can anyone give me a rough idea of how long they are running in the fermenter before transferring into carboy? It seems as the yeast has finished doing its thing. It was bubbling furiously the next morning.

Three days in the fridge :)
 
I've settled into a 3-week cycle where I bottle and brew on the same day, while drinking my first carbed beers from the last batch. 3 weeks in primary, 3 weeks bottle conditioning, 3 weeks to drink 2+ cases of beer. Beer quality is excellent and I am producing beer just about as fast as I can drink/share it.

My cellar is warming up though so my ale-brewing days may be numbered. I might have to do a couple more quick batches to get me through the summer. I'm thinking of switching to US-05 instead of Nottingham for my next batches as I hear it is cleaner in the high 60s temperature range.
 
I've settled into a 3-week cycle where I bottle and brew on the same day, while drinking my first carbed beers from the last batch. 3 weeks in primary, 3 weeks bottle conditioning, 3 weeks to drink 2+ cases of beer. Beer quality is excellent and I am producing beer just about as fast as I can drink/share it.
This is exactly the schedule I've settled into lately. A couple other reasons I like this is that the yeast doesn't have to sit around long if you want to repitch from the batch you are bottling into the one you are brewing. Plus, I've tried shortening my primary schedule to ~2 weeks and while the beer tasted fine, my carbonation levels were too unpredictable (always overcarbed to some degree). I think that extra weeks gives a lot of the dissolved CO2 time to come out of solution, and I know exactly what I'm going to get with a certain amount of priming sugar.

Sorry if too :off:
 
I cracked my oddball bottle of my second batch of Centennial after a measly 4-days in the bottle. Not quite perfectly carbed, but the grapefruit of the Cascade and Centennial was so vivid! It really does taste like someone squeezed a grapefruit in my beer, so amazing.

Another awesome batch! How in the world can a beer taste so good so soon?

Thanks BierMuncher! :mug:
 
Just sampled my first batch today WOW! I thought I was brewing this just for the masses but, I'm going to be enjoying this too!

BM - I think you should get a Kickstarter going and mass produce this. Let's convert more of these BMC's!

Thanks for the great recipe.
 
Just sampled my first batch today WOW! I thought I was brewing this just for the masses but, I'm going to be enjoying this too!

BM - I think you should get a Kickstarter going and mass produce this. Let's convert more of these BMC's!

Thanks for the great recipe.

Agreed.
 
Brewing this tomorrow as well. Anyone used the Whitelabs california ale V as substitute? It is going to be near 100 the next two weeks and I can't keep the house at 65 :(

I brewed it about 2 months ago with that yeast. Room temp was a little warm at 69-72° when fermenting. I'm not sure how this compares to the Nottingham, but I can tell you that this was the first time I got a sulfur smell from an ale yeast. I was concerned about the sulfur smell and taste after a week in the bottles. At 2 weeks, the sulfur was less noticeable, and at 3 it was gone. The beer is really good now, but going quick. I'm brewing another 10 gallons of it sometime over the next week, but I'm going with the Nottingham this time if that says anything. I hope the notty is ok in the low to mid 70s because I can't cool the house more than that. To answer the question, yes, and it will be very drinkable.
 
I just brewed this for the second time today. I decided to make it even more summery and I dropped in 1/2 oz of Ahtanum hops at flame out. I hope it adds a great citrus scent and flavor.
 
Brewed this again yesterday (15 gallon batch) and WOW the krausen has already started subsiding. LHBS messed up my order and and instead of a 10lb bag of crystal 10 it came in as crystal 20. Shouldn't be much of a difference. Used notty this time and have brewed this over 10 times and the notty defiantly finishes faster than US05 but the US05 finishes drier. Two similar great tasting beers for everyone.
 
Good god this one is popular, I can't remember the last time I hit the new posts button and didn't see it in the first 3 pages!
 

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