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

Brizzo said:

I was getting ready to cold crash this as my hydro sample was 1.010. I had some weird flavors, sharp yeast bite and something else that I can,t describe. I brought it upstairs and warmed up to 70. Ferm seemed to take off again so I am wondering if it wasn't quite done yet. I thought 1.010 was pretty low. I will probably end up dry hopping this too in a couple weeks.

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Young yeast and fresh centennial can be a...Ummmm..."flavorful" combination. Give the beer a few more days then prepare to enjoy it in about three weeks.

Brewed this on 12/23 and served tonight. Would have liked to give it another day or two to crash before kegging, but it turned out just fine, even if a but cloudy. Well received tonight.

Brewed this last night. Took 7 hours since I did a 10g batch but had to do the boil inside on the electric range so two separate boils ( 50 min to boil 7.5g on 3kw element). started with almost 15g of wort at 1.037 out of the mash tun. First boil finished at 1.036 (refractometer) and used notty. 2nd boil finished at 1.037 but I decided to check with the hydrometer and it read 1.040. Calibration on both were good so not sure what the deal is there. Pitched the 2nd one with safale 05. Pitched at ~1am and no activity yet

orion7144 said:

Brewed this last night. Took 7 hours since I did a 10g batch but had to do the boil inside on the electric range so two separate boils ( 50 min to boil 7.5g on 3kw element). started with almost 15g of wort at 1.037 out of the mash tun. First boil finished at 1.036 (refractometer) and used notty. 2nd boil finished at 1.037 but I decided to check with the hydrometer and it read 1.040. Calibration on both were good so not sure what the deal is there. Pitched the 2nd one with safale 05. Pitched at ~1am and no activity yet

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Looking forward to hearing your taste testing/comparison of the two. Of three yeasts I've tried, Notty is my least favorite. It's a good beer, but I've liked WLP001 and 1056 better.

Read through a few pages of this thread but didn't see anyone bringing it up...thinking of tossing some strawberries into a secondary with this recipe. Any thoughts?

Probably going to split the batch between two carboys to do a normal and strawberry blonde

jtkratzer said:

Brewed this on 12/23 and served tonight. Would have liked to give it another day or two to crash before kegging, but it turned out just fine, even if a but cloudy. Well received tonight.

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Me too! Parallel brews... Ha!
Nice beer. Clean, fresh and familiar. A typical "beer" beer, but remarkable in a nice quiet way. I guess that's why folks here have brewed so much of it. I fermented in the low 60's the first few days then upped it to mid 70's with fresh S04. Nice! Mines a lil bit of a dirty blonde on account of the ounce or so of roasted barley I tossed in @ vorlauf, but I love it and will definately be brewing it again for sure.

ibrewedit said:

Read through a few pages of this thread but didn't see anyone bringing it up...thinking of tossing some strawberries into a secondary with this recipe. Any thoughts?

Probably going to split the batch between two carboys to do a normal and strawberry blonde

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I'd do it. Good idea for a summer thirst quencher!

what did you toss the Roasted Barley in for just out of curiosity?

bellinmi88 said:

what did you toss the Roasted Barley in for just out of curiosity?

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Yeppers. But I knew what it would do.
I'll take a dirty blonde over a dumb blonde any day I'll try to post a picture tonight after work. Maybe I'll post a pic of all my current brews...

Okay so color me curious. I've only heard of doing that with extract-PM batches. What does that do in an AG batch??

I'd expect, by throwing it in at the start of the sparge, you get the tiniest amount of color, but very little flavor?

Or vice versa??

crushingblackdoom said:

Yeppers. But I knew what it would do.
I'll take a dirty blonde over a dumb blonde any day I'll try to post a picture tonight after work. Maybe I'll post a pic of all my current brews...

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Good answer

Chriso said:

Okay so color me curious. I've only heard of doing that with extract-PM batches. What does that do in an AG batch??

I'd expect, by throwing it in at the start of the sparge, you get the tiniest amount of color, but very little flavor?

Or vice versa??

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Pretty much the same thing I'm guessing. Just a little touch of depth to the gold. No flavor contribution at all with an ounce or two at most in a 10 gallon batch. However, I've never made the recipe true, so, what do I know. For all I know the roasted B did nothing. There's no roast in flavor at all, but it is a lil bit deeper in color than my IPA next to it. That's the dirty blonde on the right, next to "Drop It Like It's Hop" IPA, next to my Cascadian Darkness. Brewin's fun. Just got my Keggle workin' so... You know... It's over

There it is!

just had my first taste of my batch (original recipe + wyeast 1322) after 2 weeks carbonation, it's quite easy to drink (I wouldn't say tasteless or tastes like Corona) and I'm looking forward to trying it another week. thanks again for the recipe you are a machine BM!

Looking forward to bottling this tonight.

I've been messing around with some label designs. Think I'm going with something like the below, either on a necker or on a label. Dunno yet.

Just sampled the 2nd half of my 10g batch
dry hopped 5days with 2oz Belma pellets in a 5g batch. (the first half had no dry hop)
At kegging and a day later I'm getting a solid tropical fruit, pineapple melon orange flavor contribution.
Without a doubt the Belma impacted the flavor in the final beer. I'm happy with it for sure, but surprised. I've never really noticed any flavor contributions from dry hopping in my past brews, but 2 ounces of Belma,5 days @ 65-75*F, turned my great beer into something more like amazing. Thanx BM! Your recipe rules!

Carbing up my newest batch right now!

crushingblackdoom said:

Yeppers. But I knew what it would do.
I'll take a dirty blonde over a dumb blonde any day I'll try to post a picture tonight after work. Maybe I'll post a pic of all my current brews...

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I always take them both!

Brewed this in mid-August (subbed Columbus for Centennial) and have had it in the primary up until about 2 weeks ago. Popped the first bottles tonight and it is fantastic! I'll be making it again for sure.

Just brewed 8.5 gals of this. I used Whirfloc and it precipitated a nice amount of cold break, but I didn't siphon around it. I'm sure it'll be delicious anyways.

nickmv said:

Just brewed 8.5 gals of this. I used Whirfloc and it precipitated a nice amount of cold break, but I didn't siphon around it. I'm sure it'll be delicious anyways.

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I didn't have the time to let my kettle settle so I dumped the whole thing in my fermenter. Bottled today, was surprisingly clear with only half a tablet used on brew day:rockin:

I did cold crash at 45 F for 24 hours though

Been a lil while. Still getting strong pineapple tropical fruit notes from the 2oz Belma dry hop. Not complaining, just sayin'. F'n awesome fruity pale ale. Dry hopping all 10g next time. Try it!

crazy amount of posts for a simple recipe... worth trying I would assume??

^Yep, sampled at just under 3 weeks conditioning, really tasty yet simple beer, great for summer sessions

Time for my 7th or 8th keg of this stuff! I love it. I keep changing it up a little bit. It is consistently the 1st Tap that is kicked at any party.

This time I'm going to try Pacman yeast & dry hop an additional 1.0 oz Cascade & 1.0 oz. Citra on your suggestions. I've never had Pacman. Dry Hop? My taste buds have evolved due to my exposure on this site. The hoppier the better.

My experience:

1) Fresh Raspberries = fantastic

2) Wyeast 1056 = fantastic

3) Nottingham = good

4) Safarel 05 = OK

5) Orange = good

6) Fresh Wet Hops = good

YMMV but that's my take. I had to order the Pacman special from my LHBS. No rush. I'm not a fan of dry yeast.

Now I don't like to drink the same stuff again & again. I try to mix it up, but this is the 1 brew that I can't keep in my keezer. It goes that fast!

I tried some Orange Shock Top at a showing of the Thunderbirds Airshow in July. It was 104* outside. THE BEER WAS THE BEST! I was the only 1 at the booth. The Budweiser booth was jam packed. Then I tried it again a few days later in the cool, and I was underwhelmed.

Any suggestions for the cold winter months? What's Up!?

Thanks Guys! :rockin:

BigPicture said:

...Any suggestions for the cold winter months? What's Up!?

Thanks Guys! :rockin:

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I've brewed a few batches of my Black Pearl Porter and added 6 ounces of fresh ground vanilla coffee beans (Eight O'Clock Brand) to the primary after fermentation for about one week.

Hands down, the favorite dark beer of everyone who's tapped my beers. :rockin:

CityOChampBrew said:

crazy amount of posts for a simple recipe... worth trying I would assume??

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Absolutely. Awesome crowd pleaser that's great for just about anything.

daggers_nz said:

^Yep, sampled at just under 3 weeks conditioning, really tasty yet simple beer, great for summer sessions

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I pitched yeast on this around 10:30 pm on Dec 23rd, kegged on the 27th, and served it at a New Year's Eve party. I should have crashed it for 24 hours and kegged on the 28th or 29th as it was quite cloudy and the first few pulls were definitely yeasty, but the flavor was just fine and well received. If the crowed wasn't primarily a mixed drink group, the keg wouldn't have survived as there wasn't much left anyway.

CityOChampBrew said:

crazy amount of posts for a simple recipe... worth trying I would assume??

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I didn't think this would be any good after sampling the first two weeks. Im actually working on my next to last one right now. It's a shame I don't have any more wating to be bottled.

It really needs to age 3-4 weeks or more to bring it out fully. I added it to my rotation sheet for future brewing.

Just bought my grains for this today. Gonna brew tomorrow as my first foray into AG/BIAB. Hoping it all turns out alright and even my BMC brother enjoys it.

I just made a 2 gallon version of this recipe for my Mr beer as my first all grain recipe. I'm going to buy a larger pot soon so i can do all grain in my 5 gallon fermentation bucket. Hit my OG marks so it should be good to go.

first 10gal all grain batch is almost gone,
grain to glass (Kegged) in 10 days, and VERY tasty!
Just bought everything to make my 2nd batch, $33 for a 10gal batch at my LHBS

Thanks BM for the sweet recipe, I can see this going into the regular rotation!

Do you sparg this at all? I'm thinking of trying this for my first all grain.

I want to try the all bag method on my stove. Should I just get the water to above strike temp, add the grains in a bag slowing and stir them in. Once at strike temp, turn the heat off, cover it up, and put it in the stove at 150 for 60 min(trick i heard on brewing tv)? Then drain the bag using a colander, bring it to a boil, then add the hops according to schedule? Then do I top this off to 10 or 11 gallons in the fermenter to finish the batch?

I went to dry hop Yooper's Dogfishhead 60 clone and accidentally dry hopped BM's Centennial. Oooops. Well, I guess we'll see if it works. I need to label by carboys better.

That's awesome, Rat. Please let us know how it turns out.

Another satisfied customer. 6 days in bottle and already 100% drinkable and fully carbed. Leaves a nice lace on the glass. Will remake it for sure

LabRatBrewer said:

I went to dry hop Yooper's Dogfishhead 60 clone and accidentally dry hopped BM's Centennial. Oooops. Well, I guess we'll see if it works. I need to label by carboys better.

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I dry hopped my last batch and I will be dry hopping every batch in the future. Cascade goes wonderfully into this beer.

sloose said:

I dry hopped my last batch and I will be dry hopping every batch in the future. Cascade goes wonderfully into this beer.

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I did the same and agree whole heartedly. 7 day dryhop in my split batch turned out great!

I made this and it's good! I made it with us05.... What yeast could I use to get a less yeasty flavor? I'm trying to give the beer a little less flavor(stupid I know, but it's for the wife).

cavman22 said:

I made this and it's good! I made it with us05.... What yeast could I use to get a less yeasty flavor? I'm trying to give the beer a little less flavor(stupid I know, but it's for the wife).

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US-05 shouldn't give a yeast flavor. Are you leaving the sediment in the bottle? Ageing it properly? That is complete fermentation (2-3 weeks), and adequate time in bottles (~3 weeks)?

Mojzis said:

US-05 shouldn't give a yeast flavor. Are you leaving the sediment in the bottle? Ageing it properly? That is complete fermentation (2-3 weeks), and adequate time in bottles (~3 weeks)?

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You definitely need 2-3+ weeks with US05 for this beer to be awesome. I have used Wyeast 1056, and it was ready within 3 weeks. In my experience liquid yeast always gets the beer ready to serve little faster.