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

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I brewed a batch of this for my "lite" beer drinker friends, who came over for my daughter's first birthday party. They could not finish the keg so I put it in one of my bridges and totally forgot about it. Due to work and other things, I could not make time to brew in the last few months; and today, my last keg of Haus Pale Ale made that dreadful noise that sent me searching my bridges for something to drink. And I found this half full keg of Centennial Blonde that I put away 6 months ago!

Boys! It tastes soooooo good now. I had a glass of two of this when I served it to my friends in February, but it was like mineral water; now it tastes like coke. I wonder has anyone tried to "age" this brew and got the same result? Mine has been on gas and at 40-42* the whole time.
 
I brewed up the extract version of this last night, hit my numbers dead on at 1.044. I'm dying to try this out!!! How long should I let this sit before moving into secondary for cold-crashing and then kegging?
 
MicahB said:
I brewed up the extract version of this last night, hit my numbers dead on at 1.044. I'm dying to try this out!!! How long should I let this sit before moving into secondary for cold-crashing and then kegging?

I wouldn't secondary honestly. Let it go a few weeks and keg.
 
Brewnoob1 said:
I wouldn't secondary honestly. Let it go a few weeks and keg.

Even for clarity's sake?? Also, what's "a few weeks"? I've read so many different things in this thread, "grain to glass in two weeks," and then "give it a few extra weeks- it only gets better"...
I'm just a little mixed up on what the general consensus is on this? Honestly, the sooner I can be drinking it the better but I'll be a patient little brewer if it's worth the wait.
 
Well, I made two five gallon batches back in March or so. Primaried for two weeks, secondary for a couple weeks, cold crashed for a week, and carbed for about a week. It was light, crisp, and crystal clear.

I made five gallons about q month ago. Two weeks in the primary and a few days to carb. It's good, but different. Too young, perhaps? The hops are much more present. Almost woody. And the beer is very cloudy.

I'd say if your pipeline is low and need something quick, this beer will do it. If you have time to let it do it's thing, it is much better...
 
Dude, BM. Thank you. This recipe is the shiz.

AG, 2 weeks in primary, keg/carb.

So tasty. Cheers, bru. :mug:
 
Brother in law brewed the extract today but had to substitute Chinook for the Centennial at the recommendation of his LHBS. He also used WLP001.

Thoughts on the chinook?
 
I've got a friend asking for me to make him a Coors light or Corona clone and I just can't bring myself to waste that much time on something like that. Will this win him over?
 
theveganbrewer said:
I've got a friend asking for me to make him a Coors light or Corona clone and I just can't bring myself to waste that much time on something like that. Will this win him over?

I brewed 10 gallons of this for myself, and my parents asked me to serve it at their pool party following a wedding reception and it was a smash hit with everyone there. College kids used to drinking the stuff squeezed out of a bar rag, adults into craft beers, some folks from the UK, everyone loved this beer.

It won't have the rice/corn flavor and it will have more hop flavor, but it's nowhere close to an IPA. It's a crowd pleaser. If he doesn't like it, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
 
theveganbrewer said:
I've got a friend asking for me to make him a Coors light or Corona clone and I just can't bring myself to waste that much time on something like that. Will this win him over?

I haven't shared it with anyone who didn't love it. It's kind of close to a BMC type beer but much better.
 
This hobby is FANTASTIC! :rockin:

I was at a club meeting & had a newbie with a $10,000 setup. I'm bargain basement. Everybody is happy!
 
Brewed BierMunchers recipe yesterday for my first all grain brew and my first BIAB. The Wort tasted a little off and smelled odd. Was my first though so am excited as hell. Hit O.G. of 1.050 and pitched rehydrated nottingham no activity at 12 hours but nottingham has been slow for me before. I cant wait to try this. Thanks to the OP.
 
I can't do a 5 gallon batch yet, so I was going to do a 2.5 gallon extract batch. If I was doing 2.5 batch I'd half the ingredients. Steep grains for 30 mins at 160f. Add dme boil and add hops at the times listed. Correct? Also is centennial type hops the same as centennial? All I can find is centennial type. Thanks
 
Good LORD! 222 pages. I obviously did not read them all. My dad and uncle are comeing to visit in a month and I am slowly briging them around from the BMC type beers. I'm thinking this will be the prefect beer to brew. However, I have tons of Citra and Sterling hops in the freezer and no Cascade or Centennial. I realize this beer will be completely different by using one or two of these substitutions but does anyone have any experience with this grain bill and Citra or Sterling hops? It would be easy enough to sub the Centennial for Citra and Cascade for Sterling but Sterling is a much cleaner hop that Cascade...I think. And am just not sure if it will cut it. I guess the only way to know is to brew it.
 
steinsato - I recommend you also take a look at BM's Sterling Gold recipe, which is linked in his Recipe Drop-Down. It's a fantastic beer, he sent me a bottle once. Mmmmm.

Your best bet might be to combine the Sterling Gold recipe and this recipe, producing a modified version between the two beers.

In short, Sterling is a very "mild" and interesting hop to work with - while Citra is a very hi-power citrusy Pale Ale-type hop - but there's no reason they can't be combined to come up with a pretty delicious combination - it just won't be an exact replication of Cascade + Centennial.
 
This was my first all grain. I went with BIAB and was really worried about getting my mash right. Brewed and put in primary sunday 8-19-12 hit O.G. almost spot on at 1.052 five days later it is already at 1.005 and taste great. If it wasnt for wanting to clear it a bit I think it could be bottled and carbed immediatly. This is amazing. I think I may have just found the perfect beer to convert my BMC friends to homebrew and my perfect "Lawnmower" beer once i get the ABV down some. Thanks to the OP.
 
Been trying to get a reply from BM on his recipe.. maybe others can help. There seems to be a slight difference in the ratios of Cara-Pils from the 10G batch to the 5G batch.. I'm wanting to do a 2.5G batch and was wondering if the C-P or any other item would change in ratio. Are both recipes correct or is one a mis-type or ??

Heck.. maybe the difference is negligible. I'm hoping to buy the ingredients to do this after I brew Yooper's Pale Ale.

I'm going to say the difference is negligible, but his math is off on his 11g v s 5.5g batch. He has 1.25lb on the 11g batch which works out to .11lb per gallon. His 5.5gal batch should be .61lb of Carapils, but in reality we're talking about 9.76oz vs 12oz

I took the liberty of throwing his 11g recipe into Beersmith and then scaled it own to 2.5gal for you (I'd still suggest a minimum of a 5.5gal batch, it's a tasty brew). You can ignore the boil sizes as it's based on my equipment profile.

Code:
Recipe: BM Centennial HBT
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Blonde Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 5.40 gal
Post Boil Volume: 3.90 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 2.50 gal   
Bottling Volume: 2.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.039 SG
Estimated Color: 3.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 20.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 105.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
2 lbs 13.4 oz         Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)           Grain         1        72.1 %        
10.4 oz               Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)    Grain         2        16.4 %        
4.0 oz                Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)             Grain         3        6.4 %         
3.2 oz                Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)                    Grain         4        5.1 %         
0.14 oz               Centennial [9.50 %] - Boil 55.0 min      Hop           5        8.3 IBUs      
0.14 oz               Centennial [9.50 %] - Boil 35.0 min      Hop           6        7.0 IBUs      
0.14 oz               Cascade [7.80 %] - Boil 20.0 min         Hop           7        4.2 IBUs      
0.14 oz               Cascade [7.80 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           8        1.4 IBUs
 
Thanks for the help. I want a bottling volume of 2.5 G. I'm not positive what my boil off will be with this recipe... I've discussed this in the past and it seems mine is very little. So, I'm going to TOTALLY leave the lid off this time and get a continuous good boil going.. per Yooper. So, I'll figure 3/4 G boil off plus some for the grain plus some for the trub. I'll have to work that part out.. but, hope those numbers for ingredients work out.. or do I have to scale them back up a bit for the extra 1/2 gallon..?

This part is all new to me as it is my first AG. I'll be keeping a close watch on the numbers this time so I can start to develop an equipment profile for myself.. :)

Probably the best way to figure it out is to either, do some brews and see or do a 'dry run' with just water. Don't forget you'll lose some volume to shrinkage when cooling, and some gets left behind in the fermenter when racking to keg or bottling bucket.

The nice thing about using software like beersmith is that once you get it dialed in, it tracks boiloff & absorption rates & deadspace in your equipment profile so you only have to do moderate seasonal adjustments for boiloff differences in summer/winter/fall/spring etc.

That recipe above was geared towards 2.5gal into the fermenter If you aren't comfortable that you'll the numbers dead on you could always add a bit more base 2 row which will end up with either A) on target OG is your need to produce more volume B) slightly higher OG if those numbers are on track.

For me 4% ABV is already on the low end, and I don't usually go lower than 4.5% even for a lawnmower beer. I personally have tuned BM's recipe closer to 5.1% ABV. But that's the awesome thing about this hobby, so many different ways to do things and still end up with tasty beer. :mug:
 
Agreed - Citra is very citrusy & I think it would be excellent...but not the same beer. I've brewed this & it's very mild - from the malt bill to the hops. Citra will bring a more bitter, fruity profile which I think would be nice, just different than intended. Really depends on your audience's tolerance for hops. If you backed off on the Citra, you may be ok. I'm intrigued myself so if you brew it with Citra, please post the results!
 
this was my first all grain. transfered to secondary today (needed another fermenter). IT tasted good! Cant wait to keg it.
 
Just transferred this to the secondary to crash last night, the hydro sample I pulled was seriously the best I've ever tasted! I'm so excited to get this on tap!
 
Last week I felt the need to experiment with some MO and Amarillo hops as substitues, so I could get an idea of how those would change the brew. It was good, but I enjoyed the original. So today I decided to jump into the my first AG brews after a trip to MoreBeer. I had a couple of hiccups along the way dealing with my set-up, but it went rather smoothly I just say. I batch sparged and figured I might come up a little shy on my OG, but I overshoot it by 4 points. I'll take that. I am looking forward to kegging this up for a work BBQ in two weeks. Thanks, again BM.
 
I just brewed the extract version of this today and it is happily percolating away in my primary. Funny thing is that I found this recipe on thebeerbarrel.net while searching for a simple blonde recipe. I only found this thread after brewing the beer.
Thanks BM, if my gravity sample is any indication, this is going to be a very delicious beer that I will have trouble keeping in the fridge for any amount of time.
Cheers!
 
HOLY EFFING ****!
Sorry, had to get that out first. But seriously, I racked this into the keg yesterday after a three week primary and a one week secondary(I'm anal about clarity) to get it carbed up for a family get together next weekend. But last night impatience got the better of me so I pulled of a glass to share with SWMBO and all I can say is that this is by far the best beer I've ever brewed and possibly even tasted!!! It is ridiculously good! It's light, crisp and even SWMBO said it was the best I've ever made and stole the glass from me. My question is, is that there is a distinct citrusy-note to it but not in a bad, off-flavor way(stringent temp control) is this from the hop-profile? Either way, thanks to BM- you sir have made this world a better place!
 
I picked up most of the ingredients today! Shop didn't have any Centennial hops so I went with 7 C's. Going to brew tomorrow and hope to have it ready on Sunday September 16th for a work party. 4 days primary. 3 days secondary. 4 days on gas in keg. Love me BM recipes!
 
I have brewed this 4 times now.. the last three times i used the wlp001 yeast. I have to say, the first batch was epic, but the last 3 were better due to the change of yeast. I actually have half a keg left of the last batch of this and i got weird and used a teaspoon of bitter orange peel for the last 10 minutes and have had crazy reviews from all my friends! By far the best batch using this recipe so far! The 001 and orange peel add such a crispy summerish twist on this beer that its hard to not guzzle every glass! Ill definetly keep this one on tap at all times in my house!! Cheers!!
 
I think this is my new house ale. The best part was when I took a sip and the angel trumpets sounded as the unicorns and I danced in the wild flower meadow with the 72 virgins in the warm sunshine. True Story.
 
I have brewed this 4 times now.. the last three times i used the wlp001 yeast. I have to say, the first batch was epic, but the last 3 were better due to the change of yeast. I actually have half a keg left of the last batch of this and i got weird and used a teaspoon of bitter orange peel for the last 10 minutes and have had crazy reviews from all my friends! By far the best batch using this recipe so far! The 001 and orange peel add such a crispy summerish twist on this beer that its hard to not guzzle every glass! Ill definetly keep this one on tap at all times in my house!! Cheers!!

Orange Peel? I gotta try that! :ban:

Now I have 8 lbs of fresh Cascade hops & 8 lbs of fresh Centennial arriving tomorrow, but help me out, I've been told I need to use more fresh hops than pellets. What's the scoop? :confused:

BM for President, 2x!
 
It just seems like alot more because the pellets are so condensed and the whole are so fluffy. Its still the same ounce to ounce, just need a bigger bowl to measure out the whole leaf.

The orange peel does somethung amazing to the finish of this blonde! Just use a tsp tho, easy to over do it with this stuff!!
 
Slyko said:
Orange Peel? I gotta try that! :ban:

Now I have 8 lbs of fresh Cascade hops & 8 lbs of fresh Centennial arriving tomorrow, but help me out, I've been told I need to use more fresh hops than pellets. What's the scoop? :confused:

BM for President, 2x!

I have been wanting to do this all summer! A buddy has Cascade growing in this backyard and has been wanting me to brew something with them. He didn't have much of a crop this year and I have been too busy to squeeze something into the rotation, so I'll be interested to hear how yours turns out.
Remember that the pellets (and normal leaf) hops are dried, and the fresh hops still contain quite a bit of water. I think most say you need to use 5-6 times the weight if you are using fresh (wet) hops, but don't take my word for it. I'm sure you can find the info on the site, or someone will chime in if I am mistaken. Good luck and keep us updated.
 
chemdoc said:
I have been wanting to do this all summer! A buddy has Cascade growing in this backyard and has been wanting me to brew something with them. He didn't have much of a crop this year and I have been too busy to squeeze something into the rotation, so I'll be interested to hear how yours turns out.
Remember that the pellets (and normal leaf) hops are dried, and the fresh hops still contain quite a bit of water. I think most say you need to use 5-6 times the weight if you are using fresh (wet) hops, but don't take my word for it. I'm sure you can find the info on the site, or someone will chime in if I am mistaken. Good luck and keep us updated.

Sorry, maybe I misunderstood. Are you using whole leaf or fresh(wet) hops? If just whole leaf, use as normal. If wet, you need to account for the water. Regardless, good luck.
 
I have no fing clue. My LHBS was jumping up & down about these fresh hops just off the vine. I have no idea what they are, I guess they're just the blossoms picked off the vine. He's telling me to use them immediately cuz they're super FRESH! My beer is gonna be KICK ASS!

Now what about using the rind off fresh oranges????

I guess I'll have to brew a lot of beer with 16 lbs of hops! :drunk:
 
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