Thoughts or critique on a belgian blonde

Thinking of brewing a blonde soon and was looking for some feedback on this before I put it down.

5 gallon brew.

Grain:
3.50kg Pilsner Malt
1.50kg Vienna Malt
0.30kg Melanoidin Malt
0.60kg Cara-Pils

Hops:
20g Styrian Goldings @Mash
30g Saaz @Mash
30g Styrian Goldings @60min
20g Saaz @10min

Yeast:
Wyeast Belgian Abbey Ale II 1762

What do people think of this and if you think something needs to be changed what would you change to improve this beer?

I think most people will tell you to add some simple sugar to dry things out, especially when adding some specialty grains. I don't know the conversion to standard weights off the top of my head, but you might also want to reduce your hop character a bit. Blondes tend to be pretty simple, with yeast and pils driving the flavor. I like the idea of a little character malt though.

You also might do some reading about your yeast. I haven't used 1762 but I do remember reading that its prone to fusels. So check on the proper temp and make sure to pitch a healthy amount.

Thanks for the input. I was planning on using corn sugars for carb, dumping the sugar into a bottling bucket.

Should I use some sugars in the mash as well?

The yeast likes a temp around 22 degrees which I think I can achieve easy enough. Do you think there is any special attention that I need to pay to this yeast strain? I was planning on pitching 3packets with no starter as I don't have time to do a starter.

Punch your volume and specific gravity into this calc and it will tell you the proper amount:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/

As for fusels, you can check out this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/wyeast-1762-fusel-alcohol-323599/

Although dont let it get you too worried. There are lots of people who really like the strain. You just have to be careful to ot let it get too hot. Remember that your beer temp can get 5-10 degrees F hotter than the ambient temp due to the heat of fermentation.

In general, pitch rate and temp are the big fusel predictors. If you pay attention to those you should be good to go.

If you already have the yeast, then ok. Try to swamp-cool your temps to around 20 the first couple days; you can let it free-rise after that. But if you haven't bought it yet, I would advise you to switch to WY3522/WLP550 or WY3787/WLP530. Those yeasts are more high-temp friendly and, to my palate, much tastier. The rest of the recipe looks fine.

kingwood-kid said:

If you already have the yeast, then ok. Try to swamp-cool your temps to around 20 the first couple days; you can let it free-rise after that. But if you haven't bought it yet, I would advise you to switch to WY3522/WLP550 or WY3787/WLP530. Those yeasts are more high-temp friendly and, to my palate, much tastier. The rest of the recipe looks fine.

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I don't have the yeast yet, but I think I will look into your advice! Thank you.

Sorry Newb question what do you mean by swamp cool?

Swamp cooling is putting your fermenter inside a larger container of water and adding some frozen water bottles. If you change the bottles a couple times a day, you can easily keep your wort 10 degrees cooler than the room. Even without the ice bottles, the water will serve as a heat sink to absorb the extra heat created by the yeast during fermentation, which can easily raise the temps by 5 degrees. There's also a method involving a wet t-shirt and a fan that I have never tried. If you use the search function, you can get detailed descriptions of both these methods.

If you can get a big plastic tub, you can submerge your carboy/bucket in water. This helps maintain steady temps as the water absorbs heat better than air. Then if you put a t-shirt over it and aim a fan at it, the water will wick up the t-shirt and evaporate. The evaporation cools your carboy. You can also add bottles of ice water if needed.

As for the sugar, a lot of belgian recipes replace some base malt with simple sugar. Since sugar ferments out completely, it dries out the beer, giving it a lighter body. This mostly applies to high ABV beers that can end up too sweet. If your sg is below 1.060 you can probably brew the recipe as is.

So if I have built a heat controlled fermentation chamber that mean I would not have to swamp cool the fermenter is that right?

So just running the numbers the OG works out to be 1.073 so you think you should add some corn sugar or just normal table sugar? How much should I add? And do I add it at the mash? The boil? Or direct into primary?

This is from Jamil's recent article on belgian blondes in BYO...

Belgian blond has a medium body and a dry finish. All-grain brewers should target a mash temperature around 150 °F (66 °C), which strikes a nice balance between fermentable and non-fermentable sugars. Simple sugar (table sugar) is a common ingredient in this style. Around 10% is a good starting point. Fermenting simple sugar does produce a different character than more complex sugars, and that is part of the style

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I would tend to go a little lower, maybe 5-7%, but he is the man. As for the chamber, if its a converted fridge with a thermostat, you'll be fine.

The whole BYO article is here: http://***********/component/k2/item/2827-belgian-blond-style-profile

LittleBroBrews said:

So if I have built a heat controlled fermentation chamber that mean I would not have to swamp cool the fermenter is that right?

So just running the numbers the OG works out to be 1.073 so you think you should add some corn sugar or just normal table sugar? How much should I add? And do I add it at the mash? The boil? Or direct into primary?

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If you are going to add sugars it should be done toward the end of the boil. Maybe last 5-10 minutes, or flame out. Just long enough so the sugar will dissolve. This will bump up your post boil gravity so take that into account.

If you want to dry it out, I'd just drop the carapils. It adds more body than I think you'll want for this.

kingwood-kid said:

If you want to dry it out, I'd just drop the carapils. It adds more body than I think you'll want for this.

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The carapils is there to improve the head retention I think at only 6% of the grain bill it will not give that much of an impact to the body of the beer to make it become undesirable. I think that it would add to it rather than take away.

I modified this a little what do you all think of this? Any flaws for the Belgium blonde style? Or pretty bang on?

Belgian Blonde Ale

Est Boil Size 25L
Batch Volume 20.5L
Boil Time 90mins
Mash @ 65Degrees C -60mins
Add Styrian Goldings & Saaz @Mash
Sparge @ 65Degrees C - 20 mins
Primary Fermentation 20 Days @ 18 Degrees.
No finnings

Grain:
4.00kg Pilsner Malt
0.80kg Vienna Malt
0.60kg Cara-Pils
0.50kg Belgium Candi- Sugar

Hops:
20g Styrian Goldings @Mash
30g Saaz @Mash
30g Styrian Goldings @60min
20g Saaz @10min

Yeast:
Wyeast Belgian Abbey Ale II 1762
Or
Belgian Ardennes 3522

I haven't purchased yet still at the planning so can make modifications if need be.

Looks pretty solid. The mash hops are interesting. You'll have to report back and let us know what flavor impact they had. Good luck!

I just used the 3522 Ardennes a few weeks ago. Had a taste of the gravity sample I pulled over the weekend. I really liked it a lot. Good Esters of banana, pear and clove. It has a very slight sourness or tartness to it. I can't wait for it to get in the bottle and age for a bit.

DrunkenNightsPodcast said:

I just used the 3522 Ardennes a few weeks ago. Had a taste of the gravity sample I pulled over the weekend. I really liked it a lot. Good Esters of banana, pear and clove. It has a very slight sourness or tartness to it. I can't wait for it to get in the bottle and age for a bit.

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Thanks for the feedback on 3522 Ardennes this might be the winner for the yeast