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

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tre9er said:
I brewed this with CTZ and Cascade as it was what I had on hand. Either I should have FWH the CTZ or I'm finding that hop leaves a real bite that I'm not fond of in lower IBU beers. I'm thinking of doing Nugget and Cascade next time. The beer is good, a little over-hopped and the bite is there. Tastes more like a Pale Ale than a Blonde, which means my wife likes it a little less. Good simple recipe that I'll do again with different hops. Glad I'm learning more about my hops though. I like buying in bulk, but knowing which work best with different styles is key.
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That's interesting to note. I've never used CTZ, but I had to use the "Centennial Type" hops due to the Centennial shortage, and the beer turned out great.
 
JordanThomas said:
That's interesting to note. I've never used CTZ, but I had to use the "Centennial Type" hops due to the Centennial shortage, and the beer turned out great.
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A good high-alpha hop for hoppier pales and IPA's/anything that you need a good, cheap bittering addition. I've noticed the sharpness before, though but it was well-masked in a pale/IPA that's supposed to have some bite.

Cohumulone in CTZ is in the 30's where it's in the 20's for Nugget, my fast-growing favorite for bittering. I'm a believer that cohumulone matters, personally.
 
Thanks for your notes on that, tre9er, I have a bunch of Columbus to use up and it's good to properly anticipate how 'harsh' of a hop it is, or isn't.

Kind of thinking I need to brew 3 or 4 different batches of this recipe, and use a different pair of hops each time, to work on finding the right combo. I'm thinking 1 all-Centennial, 1 Columbus+Centennial, 1 Nugget+Centennial, and dunno what else.
 
I also thought that I might try backing the CTZ off considerably next time if I were forced to use it. As BierMuncher stated though, Centennial and Cascade were the magic combo he found after lots of attempts.
 
The swmbo and i are drinking our extract batch of centennial blonde right now. This one will be a huge hit with the family tomorrow.
 
Decided to try this one base on what I had laying around. Based on beersmith, this is what I'm looking at...

11.5 gallon batch
77% efficiency brew house efficiency
82% mash efficiency (will probably be higher)
Est Original Gravity: 1.046 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.6 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.7 %
Bitterness: 24.1 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 3.8 SRM

15 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 78.9 %
2 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 10.5 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.3 %
1 lbs Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 4 5.3 %
0.33 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 55.0 min Hop 5 2.9 IBUs
0.33 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 55.0 min Hop 6 6.9 IBUs
0.33 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 35.0 min Hop 7 2.5 IBUs
0.33 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 35.0 min Hop 8 5.8 IBUs
0.33 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 9 4.0 IBUs
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 1.7 IBUs
0.33 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 11 0.5 IBUs
2.0 pkg American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272)

Dextrine is a bit high and slightly low on Vienna and caramel, but should be pretty good yeah?
 
Biermuncher, I substituted crystal 20 for your half pound of crystal 10. I realize now i should of used carapils or even crystal 40. Am I screwed or is it just going to be a darker beer? Followed the rest of the recipe to a T.
 
Crystal 20 is closer to the original than the Crystal 40 you speak of. You are correct that Cara-Pils would have been closer to C*10 than C*20 is. But that's still okay. It should come out more or less the same - slightly darker and a little maltier, perhaps.
 
haven't read all 243 pages but thanks for posting recipe and would you advise against dry hopping in secondary?
 
daggers_nz said:
haven't read all 243 pages but thanks for posting recipe and would you advise against dry hopping in secondary?
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I wouldn't expect a true Blonde to have much hop aroma, or not a lot anyways, but if that's what you want, go for it.
 
Hmmm. In the process of racking it to secondary I decided to taste it. I was afraid that I had tainted it somehow since this was my first all grain brew. But I was shocked! It definitely smells like something crappy with the addition of the strong hops. But it's taste is actually quite unique and smooth with hint of hops and hardly any ill after taste. It's aroma smells like something of a poison to me at first but I don't know how to describe it other than that. It's definitely not a "sweet" or "fragrant" smell and actually resembles something along the lines of a store bought lager that has sat in the sun without being chilled. So in this case it will prolly rock and roll once bottled and chilled.

So I am quite excited to try this one out. My OG was 1.038 and it looks like my FG is 1.010 or a tad under. So it looks like my ABV will be about 3.6%

I'm sure it will be much stronger on the next batch now that I think I've ironed out my MLT temp swing problems with a few tips from other members.

I think I may do one more 5 gallon batch before I start moving into the land of "****...that's a LOT of beer!"
 
I'm brewing this recipe on Saturday. Got it shipped for only $22 total, which is awesome.

I have US-05 and California Ale WLP001 on hand. I know either would work, but does anyone have thoughts on one verses the other? I'll be fermenting in the mid to upper 60s.
 
Guidry said:
Just curious...Where did you purchase from at that cost? That price includes all ingredient minus the yeast?
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Brewmaster's Warehouse. My total is $22.39. The discount of $1.71 is using the discount code BNARMY. The $6.99 flat rate shipping is incredible for big orders.


Invoice Detail
Item SKU Qty Price Each Price Total
Blonde Ale 50b4dd9e725af 1 ea $17.11 $17.11
---- Briess 2 Row Carapils 0101442 0.75 lb
---- Briess 2-Row Brewer's Malt 0101475 7 lb
---- Briess 2 Row Caramel 10 0101443 0.5 lb
---- Weyermann Vienna 0101471 0.5 lb
---- Centennial Pellets - Dual Purpose Hop 11.6% AA 0101420 1 oz
---- Cascade Pellets - Aroma/Flavor Hop 5.6% AA 0101419 1 oz

Product Total $17.11
Gift Certificate -$0.00
Discount -$1.71
Subtotal $15.40
Tax $0.00
Shipping $6.99
Invoice Total $22.39
 
It came out to $25.98 for shipping for me. That price kills my LHBS who hit me for $40 plus I had to go pick it up 16 miles away. Thanks for the info!
 
AUEnder said:
I'm brewing this recipe on Saturday. Got it shipped for only $22 total, which is awesome.

I have US-05 and California Ale WLP001 on hand. I know either would work, but does anyone have thoughts on one verses the other? I'll be fermenting in the mid to upper 60s.
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US-05 produced an awesome beer. Not sure about California Ale, but from what I've heard, it's a pretty neutral yeast that should produce similar results as US-05. Personally, I'd skip the liquid yeast for simplicity and go with US-05.
 
RiverBirchBrew said:
If anyone is still having problems finding Centennial, Bells (www.bellsbeer.com) has it both in 1lb and 1 oz bags. The price seems pretty reasonable. I didn't even know they sold ingredients until now. I look forward to trying this recipe.
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Those are Centennial Type hops, not Centennial. Similar, but different.

Centennial Type is a 70/30 mix of Cascade and Columbus
 
I used Wyeast 1332.. haven't used this brand before so not sure how it's going to turn out
 
JordanThomas said:
If anyone has racked this onto fruit, can you provide some details? I'm thinking of doing a strawberry or raspberry version for SWMBO.
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I used the Wyeast 1056 yeast adjustment & racked on top of 40 oz. of raspberries in the secondary. Frozen berries crushed & simply dropped whole in the carboy. I didn't even thaw them, just hit the bags with a rolling pin before I opened them. I kept the beer in the secondary for 10 days but it started to develop some nasties so I quickly racked it directly to the keg, leaving the berries behind. Simply followed Requiem Raspberry's (Link) ideas on fruit beer with BM's wonderful recipe.

It came out FANTASTIC! We threw a party & 5 gallons lasted 4 hours. Great taste, great color, great aroma. Real fruit tastes much better than any extract. This stuff is much better than ANY fruit beer I've bought retail. I'm brewing this again real soon. :rockin:
 
That's hilarious to me for some reason. BeerSmith tells me that my batch of (per BM's recipe) Cent. Blonde comes out to $12.35 for 5 gallons. $3.15 for the base malt (I bought in bulk sacks at $0.45/lb) - around $1.00 in hops - and $5 for my Notty packet - or if I re-use some yeast out of the fridge, I can bring it all the way down to $8.00 for 5 Gallons. I <3 buying in bulk. I might have to start brewing this as my 'charity beer' for sending to events and stuff, at that price point. :D
 
I'm still new at recipes but my question is this. What would it take to make this beer stronger in ABV without comprising taste/flavors too much?
 
NoTrubble said:
I'm still new at recipes but my question is this. What would it take to make this beer stronger in ABV without comprising taste/flavors too much?
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Mine ended up at 5.2%. Partially because I got high efficiency and didn't top off. I think you could just up the 2-row, or boil it down a little further than usual. Both would leave you with higher gravity beer.
 
NoTrubble said:
I'm still new at recipes but my question is this. What would it take to make this beer stronger in ABV without comprising taste/flavors too much?
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I made a batch of this last weekend, my first BIAB all-grain. My local brew supply store recommended I bump up the 2-row by a 1lb and also keep a 1lb of DME on hand in case my efficiency was low. Oh we'll, my efficiency was calculated @ 79% after throwing in the DME into my boil. The ABV is now looking to end up around 6.3%.
 
NoTrubble said:
I'm still new at recipes but my question is this. What would it take to make this beer stronger in ABV without comprising taste/flavors too much?
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Just upping the abv will throw this wonderfully balanced beer out of wack. I would try to keep the BU:GU ratio around the same for the new ABV. Plug this recipe into a program as is, adjust the malts to up the abv to the desired level,(keeping the same percentages) then adjust the hops accordingly. It will be a totally different beer, but most likely a good one.
 
You can increase the amount of grain in the grain bill - but if you do that, you must also increase your hop addition amounts or else you will have a beer that lacks balance.

You should use any kind of brewing software (ProMash, BeerSmith, any Beer Recipe website calculator, etc.) to calculate the increase in gravity and bitterness - and you should try to increase the additions carefully while maintaining the same basic specifications. This is the same thing you should do if you have, for example, hops that are vastly different in A.A.% than what the recipe calls for.

To give you an example, I used a quick calculation on the website http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe .

I inputted BierMuncher's recipe exactly as he wrote it in Post #1 for 5.50 Gallons batch size and using the AA% numbers he stated.
If you increase the Original Gravity from 1.048 to 1.065 - it throws off your bitterness quite drastically - the extra sugars mean that each individual hop addition adds less total IBU to the beer.
BUT, furthermore, increasing the hops to exactly the same IBU won't work, because your Gravity Ratio will still be off-whack.

Here you can see what I'm talking about visually.

1. The original recipe. Pay extra attention to these specs: the OG, the visual depiction on the sweet-vs-bitter graph, the Total IBU, the IBU for each single addition, and the BU:GU ratio.
zBaUV.jpg


2. The original recipe, with 2-Row increased from 7# to 12# - and NO other changes made.
(I'm ignoring the specialty grains for the sake of calculating bitterness. If you want to replicate the flavor profile, the specialty grains should be increased by a small & corresponding amount.)
See how far out of whack the balance of this beer just went by adding all of that extra base malt? And look at the visual depiction meter - It's WAY off on the Malty end.
0tqEp.jpg


3. The new recipe again - but now, I have increased each hop addition slightly to get them back to roughly the same IBU Per Addition.
But do you see how the sweet/bitter graph is still way off of where it was originally even though we added some hops to it?
Simply matching the IBU is not good enough to balance the beer - You really want to find an approximation of the same BU:GU RATIO. This should bring our beer back into balance.
VKnCl.jpg


4. The same 12# recipe, but this time I increased the hop additions even further.
The general ratio of each addition to each other should be the same - so should the general flavor profile of the beer - but the total IBU increased in an effort to bring our BU:GU RATIO back into the right range.
(Remember: It's NOT going to be an exact clone, after all, it's stronger in sugar content! It's an entirely different beer, when you get right down to it! Just one that hopefully mimics Centennial Blonde.)
hxHGp.jpg


Does that make sense? I hope so! Enjoy!
 
Lastly, here is a visual aid to show you a comparison between #1-4 as I described above, using the handy Hop Graph that BierMuncher and other posters frequently use... I dimmed the background so you can see what you're looking at.

gP6cA.jpg


You can see how wildly out-of-whack #2 and #3 are - and how simply correcting the IBUs based on your BU:GU Ratio is such a good & balanced approach (see how 1. and 4. both sit in the same "part" of the green band, if you were to connect them with a line drawn straight through both points?).

That straight line is "good" in terms of trying to match the Big Version of the beer to the original CB.

The last couple posters who said something about high efficiency and their LHBS telling them to add 1# of malt and 1 more # of DME? You guys are not going to have beers that reproduce the same balance as BM's original recipe. It WILL likely be drinkable and probably even a good beer! But know that, if you brew this again, doing it spot-on the recipe should, in both of your cases, give you a more forward hop characteristic and less malt presence.

The more you know! :D
 
Chriso said:
The last couple posters who said something about high efficiency and their LHBS telling them to add 1# of malt and 1 more # of DME? You guys are not going to have beers that reproduce the same balance as BM's original recipe. It WILL likely be drinkable and probably even a good beer! But know that, if you brew this again, doing it spot-on the recipe should, in both of your cases, give you a more forward hop characteristic and less malt presence.
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Chriso - great information in your last two posts, I really appreciate you taking the time to pass on your knowledge to me a newbie to this slippery slope called home-brewing. Here is a link to my recipe that I mentioned in an earlier post: Centennial Blonde Inspired Recipe. The delta between the recipe and notes/calculations taken during the brew, hopville has it down for 1.062 OG, whereas I measured 1.064 OG and could realistically adjust to 1.065 given the fact the wort was around 80 degrees when gravity was measured. Since it was my first mash/sparge i adjusted to a 90 min boil and actually reduced everything to 4 1/2 gal, I only topped it off to 5gal but should have added another 1/2 gal at the end. That would have really helped, a huge mistake on my part.

In a stroke of beginners luck though, I may of compensated my higher gravity with the hop substitution and bumping up of the amount used in the batch. As usual my impatience to get my first AG session underway, led me to go on and just use the hops I had on hand - 2 oz of cascade pellets and a sampling from a pound of wild cluster hops if picked in September. According to hopville my IBUs increased to 32.9. A better balance, more of an exponential curve as you recommended. So I'm crossing my fingers that what I brewed might end up to be a great beer in the long run, it isn't going to be the true Centennial Blonde.

cascadeblondebalance.png


I'm going to look at this as an educational opportunity and brew another batch of BM-Centennial Blonde but this time following the exact recipe/no substitution for a point of comparison with my creation. Focusing on deltas in malt to hops balance.

:mug:
 

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