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

IrishBrewer74 said:

Just tapped into this tonight. It's "lighter" than I expected. I'm gonna make this a few times before I change anything up. But so far I think a little biscuit malt might be delightful.

Click to expand...

I'm curious how some MO would work replacing some of the 2-row.

Here they are in the secondaries after one week. The one on the right used nottingham and on the left 1056. The notty seemed to be finished after only 3 days in primary so thats why it looks clearer. SG was 1.047 and they were both at 1.004 when they went into the secondary. Can't wait to get tjese in the kegs!

I'm thinking about making a 10 gallon extract version of this brew using 12 1/2 lbs. of LME instead of the recommended 10 lbs of DME. Would this work out? LME is cheaper.

Yes.

1 lb grain = .75 lb LME = .6 lb DME

10 lbs DME = 12.5 lbs LME

I'm planning on brewing this next but I'm kind of new still to brewing and was hoping to get some advice on this. I can't find any centennial hops where I am, currently in South Korea, and was wondering whether it would be better to substitute chinook, galena, or challenger for the centennial. I just made a brown with challenger for buttering and cascade for aroma and I really liked it. What do you think?

ben3060 said:

I'm planning on brewing this next but I'm kind of new still to brewing and was hoping to get some advice on this. I can't find any centennial hops where I am, currently in South Korea, and was wondering whether it would be better to substitute chinook, galena, or challenger for the centennial. I just made a brown with challenger for buttering and cascade for aroma and I really liked it. What do you think?

Click to expand...

There's a shortage on Centennial hops everywhere this year. A 70/30 mix of Cascade and Columbus is supposed to be very similar.

If that is secondary, damn, what did your primary look like in terms of volume?

BoostedF150 said:

Here they are in the secondaries after one week. The one on the right used nottingham and on the left 1056. The notty seemed to be finished after only 3 days in primary so thats why it looks clearer. SG was 1.047 and they were both at 1.004 when they went into the secondary. Can't wait to get tjese in the kegs!

Click to expand...

Heres the primaries, they were 6 gallon carboys. The secondaries are 5 gallon.

How long should this beer age? Kegged it tonight, its nowhere close to fully carbed but at this point i really dont see what is so great about this beer. But i only had it in primary for 1 week and secondary for 5 days.

BoostedF150 said:

How long should this beer age? Kegged it tonight, its nowhere close to fully carbed but at this point i really dont see what is so great about this beer. But i only had it in primary for 1 week and secondary for 5 days.

Click to expand...

I might be misinterpreting but are you saying that it is not fully carbed after kegging it for one day?

BoostedF150 said:

Heres the primaries, they were 6 gallon carboys. The secondaries are 5 gallon.

View attachment 66774

Click to expand...

ahh, 5 gallon caryboys makes more sense, the pic looked like 6 or 6.5 gallon secondary fermenters.

Yes , not even one day, an hour. I said its not even close , which may have alot to do with it. I just took a sample from what i kegged. I dont know i guess i was just expecting something different.

Is this the first batch you've ever kegged? One week at serving pressure will get your beer properly carbed. Even after it is carbed It'll still be young (2 weeks and 5 days). Be patient let it age some.

Agreed, give it some more time. Also, this is a very sessionable beer, easy to put these down too fast. Most of the time I enjoy a beer or two on weeknights but with this one on tap it's been hard to have less than 3.

I brewed on 5/26 and kegged around 6/19 or so. That's plenty of time in primary that it's ready to drink as soon as it's carbed.

Just bought the ingredients for this today. Brew day is tomorrow. I have an out of town trip starting on the 18th and don't want to leave the AC blasting while I'm away, so bottling day will be the 17th. This will be the first brew that I haven't left in primary for 4 weeks. Hopefully it turns out ok. Maybe I'll give it 4 weeks in the bottle (instead of my usual 3) to clean up a bit.

You'll be fine Nulli. I've done this one from grain to glass (kegged) in that timeframe.

I just brewed this again this morning. Followed things to a T because of how well it turns out. I pitched 3 hours ago, and I'm already pushing bubbles out the airlock.

aristurtle said:

There's a shortage on Centennial hops everywhere this year. A 70/30 mix of Cascade and Columbus is supposed to be very similar.

Click to expand...

Thanks, however I can't get Columbus hops here either. I do have Galena, Chinook, and Challenger. Which of those would be the best to replace the Centennial?

Will be making this recipe for the third time on the 4th. I wanted to get some suggestions about altering this recipe by adding Amarillo and Citra hops. I have a 1/2 oz of each from a left over recipe and I would like to use them up on this brew. In addition to the original hops, I was thinking of adding Amarillo sometime during the boil and dry hopping with the citra. Any thought to quantities and times in which you would make additions to create a tasty libation?

Very good. Lighter then my normal brews but great with the temps around 110. The first drinks as good as the 3rd and the 6th..... Wife loves it with a twist of lemon.

Color is very light and very clear. Could use a little more mouth feel.

Well made this last night with the neighbor, smooth brew session except the fact that we drank to much, swmbo is quite mad at me this morning, but hey the neighbor gave me a 20 lb CO2 tank for the keg setup so ummm it's all good.

Brewed this up today. Came in on target can't wait to taste. Gonna add rasberrys to the secondary.

I've made this with both Pacman and Nottingham yeast now. Both turned out great but slightly different. The Pacman was very clear and very clean tasting. Almost no fruity esters with a very clean finish. The Nottingham is much more fruity but a little cloudy. It accentuates the hops better and has a very lemony finish. If I didn't know better I would think the Nottingham version had lemon rind in the boil. Both are very crisp and drinkable, but I think I like the Nottingham version a little better. It's a great recipe either way.

****10-Gallon Batch****
Batch Size: 11.00 gal
Boil Size: 13.69 gal
Estimated OG: 1.039 SG
Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
14.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
0.50 oz Centennial [9.50%] (55 min)
0.50 oz Centennial [9.50%] (35 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [7.80%] (20 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [7.80%] (5 min)
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) (Hydrated)


Mash at 150 degrees for 60 minutes.

So I'm brewing this as we speak (extract version) and just added the first Centennial hops and realized my LHBS idiot employee totally blew the hop measurements. I just added .9 oz instead of the .25. The next Centennial addition he gave me .6 instead of .25. I'm not sure if I should add it all or not. Will this beer be overly bitter now? I'm sure it'll be good, but I wish I would've noticed before adding. Ugh. Oh well.

Welcome to HBT. Sorry you didn't get a quicker response. It'll be a totally different beer than intended. It will be pretty bitter and pretty thin at such a low starting gravity. You can let it go and take a sample after it is done and then decide what to do. If you don't want to wait you could add a couple more pounds of DME to boost the gravity and add a little more body to balance the bitterness. Good luck.

Thanks for the reply

I ended up adding .3 oz on the second addition, and the remaining .3oz at 5 minutes. Should be interesting. If it sucks, I'll just have to start over!

http://www.brewersfriend.com/ibu-calculator/ Fill in the info on this page and you'll know where you are as far as bitterness. BM's recipe is designed for about 17-21 ibu. I've made Northern Brewer's Extra Pale ale recipe which calls for 2 oz of Cascade at 60 minutes and has a starting gravity of 1.045. Depending on how strong the Cascade are you end up between 40-65 ibu. It was a good beer.

In other words you just made an American Pale Ale instead of a Blonde Ale. It will be delicious. If you don't think so I'll PM you my address and you can mail it all to me.

I brewed this recipe substituting Nugget for Centennial (LHBS was out of centennial). Haven't used dry yeast in a half year, so I was pleased to find it very much alive. Came out a very nice blindfish color and I'm very excited.

Now I jut got to come up with a way to tweak it just enough so it's my own recipe

I just poured one of my last bottles of this brew. I bottled it 8-18-11. Still tastes as good as it did 1 month after bottling. This was the second beer i ever made and it was my first all grain. Can't believe it is still good this long after bottling. I have another batch of this that i am bottling on sunday. Hope it comes out as good. I changed up the hop additions a little on this one and increased amounts as well.

One of the interesting things about this was the fact that I had to top it up to hit 1.047. Post boil I was at 1.060, but 4.6gallons or thereabouts. I would have sparged longer and with more, but I hit 1.01 and didn't want to draw off tannins....


On the upside, pretty pleased with a nearly 90% BH efficiency. But I wonder if others did the same with the top-up.

going to get this brewed monday evening hopefully, actually looking forward to an easy drinking session recipe...thought I had some c10 left but was wrong, used about 1/2 lb of c40, according to beersmith, that makes it keep the same color.

Anyone dry hop this? or is not needed I was thinking about 1/2 oz. of cascade and cent....

Edit: those of you that dry hopped...opinions?

I made 2 extract batches of this, one for myself and one for my parents. One per recipe, the other I dry hopped with 1oz Cascade pellets for 1 week. Personally I loved the dry hopped version as it added a little more nose/flavor but my parents liked the non-dry as it was simple and what they like.

Brewing this again today with Wyeast 1272 -- Am. Ale II, alongside an ordinary bitter. I'll be adding strawberries and banana to the secondary for the blonde. :rockin:

Just finished brewing this recipe at 5 gallon size.

Used exact grain bill, held mash at 150 for 75min. Ended up getting 6.75gal @ 1.035 BG (75.1% mash efficiency per Beersmith)

Boiled per recipe for 60min with prescribed hop additions. Added 1 tab of whirlfloc at 15min left.

OG ended up at 1.040 (corrected). Looks like it should clear up nicely. The particulates were dropping out in the measurement tube.

Transferred 5gal into primary fermenter and pitched a small yeast starter of nottingham which I started last night (used 1pt of water with 1/2 cup of DME)

markb17042 said:

I made 2 extract batches of this, one for myself and one for my parents. One per recipe, the other I dry hopped with 1oz Cascade pellets for 1 week. Personally I loved the dry hopped version as it added a little more nose/flavor but my parents liked the non-dry as it was simple and what they like.

Click to expand...

Looks like ill try dry hopping half of my 10 gallon batch then...thanks for the response

I brewed up a batch BIAB last weekend. OG ended up at 1.048 and FG 1.009 'ish after 4 days. Got it cold crashing at the the moment. It's a bit cloudy but it tastes great. Going to rack it to a second corney and see if I can get it to clear up a little more. Used Irish moss in the boil but I didn't whirlpool or try to separate the trub before kegging it.

Counter pressure racked it to the serving keg. Grain to glass in 8 days, some tasty stuff. This is going to be a regular on tap.

Ok so a question for this brew.

I posted the other day about a small hop mishap. Wrong amounts from my LHBS and I didn't double check before the first addition. Other than the hops, I followed the extract recipe. Here is what ended up being my hop schedule.

.9 oz Cent. (45 m)
.3 oz Cent (20 m)
.25 oz Casc (10 m)
.3 oz Cent (5 m)
.25 oz Cent (5 m)

Here are my questions:

1) I brewed on 7/5. What are the odds of having it ready by 7/29? I normally like to try and do two weeks in primary, two weeks in secondary, 11-14 days in bottles before cracking any open. But from what I'm reading (and seeing), this beer fermented fast! I plan to take a gravity reading on Tuesday and Wednesday and see what I get. If I can rack over after one week, that gives me about a week in secondary, and 11 days in the bottle to carbonate. Am I pushing my luck?

2) I'm considering adding some lemon (or orange) zest to secondary. I figured I may as well get adventurous considering the hop bill was already eff'd. Any thoughts on this? I'm thinking for more of an aromatic than a flavor. Something subtle. If I do it, I'd be sure to only get zest and no pith, and I'd soak in vodka overnight.

Thanks!

If you're looking to have ready by 7/29, you do not have time for secondary. Nor is it necessary IMO. Soak the zest in some vodka & chuck it in for a few days max. You need to bottle it by this weekend at the latest to meet that timeframe.

I brewed this on JUNE [EDIT] 23, had it in the keg on July 1, and my friends and I drank it all at my July 4th BBQ. From grain to glass to empty keg in less than 12 days! Great recipe if you need beer fast, thanks.