Lemon Blonde Recipe

I'm going into the experimentation phase of my brewing and will be going for a lemon blonde ale next. Below is what I was thinking. What do you all think?

9 lbs. pale malt
1.25 lbs crystal 40

1 oz Summit @ 60
2 lemons of zest @ 15
2 sticks lemon grass @ 15
0.5 oz Summit @ 5
0.5 oz Summit @ flameout

Safale S-04 Ale Yeast

Ferment @ 65 for 10 days
Rack with 2 lemons of zest in secondary for 7 days


I had a suggestion to use Crystal 10, but I want to get more of the complex flavors from the 40 that you don't find in 10. I also had a suggestion to use Sorachi Ace as the hops, but my LHBS does not carry it. They showed me Summit and I love the smell and think it will tie in nicely.

I hate to do this, but does anyone have any feedback on my design? This is my first real experimentation so any feedback would be helpful. Thanks!

Well, you should leave your lemony additions until 5m or later, otherwise you're going to boil off all the nice aromatic oils you want. Also, a beer with 20oz of C40 isn't going to be anywhere near blonde (9-10 SRM), not to mention very sweet. You'd be hard pressed to use any crystal at all, but C10 or carapils would be the ones to use, say half a pound.

Replace. C40 isn't going to give you a more complex flavor than C10, just a different one and a darker color. Carapils adds a tiny bit of sweetness but not much flavor, a bit of body and adds head retention. If you're using any crystal, you usually don't need carapils.

Looks like I gotta stop listening to those guys at my LHBS!

I ended up choosing crystal 40 as it did the best under my smell test. I don't think I even looked at the carapils. So essentially it is not going to be a blonde? What is it going to end up being?

Ok, so I need to adjust my grain bill, what about my hop choice and yeast? Also does the fermentation schedule look good?

The zest, lemongrass and late summit don't need to be boiled, just steeped. Add them after the boil, when your temp is under 200, and let them steep for 5-10 minutes, the same way you would if you were making tea. If you already bought the grain, I would resign yourself to a dirty blonde. You might mash on the low side if you have over a lb of crystal. Hops and fermentation schedule seem fine, although I have no experience with S-04.

What would you consider the low side of a mash temp? 145 or even lower? How long should I mash it for, still 60 minutes?

Yeast is great. Definitely rehydrate and I would do my best to keep it between 60-65 ambient temp. S-04 can definitely get a "bubble gum-y" as you get closer to 70.

Mash for 60 minutes, and keep it lower so you get more fermentable sugars verses flavor/mouthfeel contributors (at 2lbs you will still get plenty of that).

145-148 for around an hour should be good. You won't need to move your beer to secondary, just add your zest after a week or so and let it sit for another week or two. You should find some method of zest sanitation, however. You can either heat it to 160+ in a little water, or soak in vodka for a few days. The alcohol in the vodka should help dissolve the oils you're after.

Would throwing the lemons and the zester in some Star San prior zesting work? I don't drink any alcohol other than beer so I don't have any vodka in the house.

Also, it looks like I need a resource that tells you exactly what each specialty grain does. Is there a good book or site that just lists all grains and what exactly each grain brings to the table?

There is such a page on this very site: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malts_Chart
Some of the descriptions are better than others. Browsing the MidwestSupplies.com and NorthernBrewer.com catalogs is also informative. Most of the malting companies have decent descriptions of their products.

If you don't have vodka, then I would just heat the zest with a little water to around 180 and let it steep for a few minutes. I don't drink vodka either; I just use it in my airlock.

So wow, i just did some calculations with the Summit hops in my hopping schedule. I had no idea that the Alpha Acid level on those hops was so crazy high. Based on my hopping schedule I would be looking at IBU's around 70. I was actually looking for something much milder like around 20's or low 30's. I'd have to run out and get more hops if I wanted a new bittering hop, but I will not be able to do so for a week and I wanted to get this started. Is there any way I can adjust my hopping schedule with what I have to bring it down or should I just scrap the Summit as bittering entirly.

Just use less. If it's your late addition, toss whatever you don't use in at flameout for zero IBU and some more aroma.

So it would be feasable to use a quarter of an ounce of the summit at 60?

So a schedule of:

0.25 oz Summit @ 60
0.5 oz Summit @ 5
1.25 oz Summit @ flameout

Sure, whatever gives you the IBU's you need.

If it were me, I'd use this grain bill for a pale ale or maybe an amber and buy new grains for your lemon blond. I'd use 2 row and 1/2-3/4 lb carapils, and that's it.

Well I ended up brewing what I had. Fermentation is going strong and it smells really good, I just hope I'm not losing my aromatics though. It is defiantly a dirty blonde with the crystal 40.

I've seen several people saying to use the carapils for color and sweetness instead of any crystal, but according to the malts chart it only adds body and head retention and with an SRM of 2 I can't imagine the end product being anything but a pale ale, not blonde.

Bozman said:

I've seen several people saying to use the carapils for color and sweetness instead of any crystal, but according to the malts chart it only adds body and head retention and with an SRM of 2 I can't imagine the end product being anything but a pale ale, not blonde.

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Carapils is a crystal malt, just very light, which is what you want in a blonde since a pale ale is normally darker.

Sorry, had a typo, I meant, pale lager color not pale ale.

According to the chart I have blonde ale is at SRM 6. If you just use pale 2 row and carapils it will put you at a 2 or am I wrong in my thinking.

Bozman said:

Sorry, had a typo, I meant, pale lager color not pale ale.

According to the chart I have blonde ale is at SRM 6. If you just use pale 2 row and carapils it will put you at a 2 or am I wrong in my thinking.

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I don't have a chart and don't use one. The reason i suggested not using your original grain bill is the caramel flavors from the C40 is going to take away from the lemon flavor you're trying to add.

Yeah, as I'm still new I'm trying to follow the "rules" I guess you could say. Hopefully throwing some lemon zest in the fermentor after primary fermentation is done will allow some lemon flavor to come through.