Blonde Ale Squeeze My Lemon Summer Blonde

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2 things
can i secondary condition this in the keg? or do i need to do it in a fermenter.
after the 1month brewing time is it ready to drink or should it be left to age?
 
2 things
can i secondary condition this in the keg? or do i need to do it in a fermenter.
after the 1month brewing time is it ready to drink or should it be left to age?

I don't see anything wrong with keg conditioning this.

This was one of the first brews I kegged after building my keezer so I was in a bit of a hurry to give it a try. After 4 weeks in primary I kegged and force carbed. 48 hours at 30 psi then down to serving pressure at about 10 psi. After two days at 10psi I started drinking... Even young it was great. It did get a little better after a couple weeks but I don't think most people would have noticed.
 
good to hear. i have 1 month till a weekend party and plan on brewing this tomorrow to bring down.
 
Just got done making this batch. It turned out great. Good lemon flavor, but not overdone. Planning on making this for next summer now.
 
My batch was not good.

I dumped it.

I think I may have had a contamination problem. The beer had a horrible chemical taste. I used commercial lemons with the zesting technique. I think I may have leached out some sort of chemical treatment they do to the skin or some pesticide residue or something. I also managed to scorch some grain during the mash. So overall, I think this goes down as my worst executed beer. I think I will have to try it again. I don't think my experience make any real reflection on the recipe, but I might consider buying organic lemons or finding some that are homegrown.

I did save one beer that I can post a picture of. It is absolutely beautiful. Just tastes like a laboratory.

Good Luck

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We used the dried lemon peel my LBS was selling instead of fresh zest. It worked great and may address any contamination risks.

We're brewing an IPA this weekend, then doing the Lemon Blonde right after in time for late spring.

--Dave
 
I just brewed this yesterday and am a little concerned about how bitter it tastes when I took my OG reading. I used a cheese grater to get the lemon peel, which was a pain in the ass. I had a lot of juice in the bowl with the peel, and maybe took off a little too much of the white part.
 
I just brewed this yesterday and am a little concerned about how bitter it tastes when I took my OG reading. I used a cheese grater to get the lemon peel, which was a pain in the ass. I had a lot of juice in the bowl with the peel, and maybe took off a little too much of the white part.

I've often noted a very bitter flavor in my samples of this too. However, it has always smothed out a tasted great once it was finished. This is one of the most difficult beers for me to keep around. Once my friends, family and neighbors find out it's on tap the keg gets drained super quick. Now they like to buy the ingredients for it and help brew just so it's on tap more often. :mug:
 
Brewing this sometime this week. In reading through the thread, I plan on zesting, actually zesting, 3 to 6 lemons, whatever will get me 2oz. I will be boiling that for about 5 minutes is all. IMO, that should release all the flavor that I want.

I usually don't secondary beers but I plan on using a secondary for this, maybe even a tertiary to really REALLY clear this beer up.

I will post pics of the brewday and once the brew is complete.

happy brewing!
 
Since there has been some confusion about how to zest the lemons, I did 3 lemons and zested them finely and got exactly 1 oz. Will add them at 5 min and will keep you all informed. I'm actually brewing this RIGHT now.

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*edit* i also made sure to wash them before zesting. dont want no pesticides in my beer!
 
hit the OG right on the nose. this beer looks awesome and smells great. i cant wait!

I really want this beer to be very clear so although I usually dont secondary, I think I am going to this time, unless someone has done this that says otherwise.
 
Thanks for the updates. Let us know how it goes. I bottle my American IPA this Sunday and this beer is next. I made it last year and loved it.
 
I did this as a 2.5 gallon batch a week ago and zested 2 lemons, it's finishing now at about
1.008 but testing the hydro sample I did not get much of a lemon taste. Maybe next time I will try the thin peel method.
 
did you zest them finely like i did or what did you do?

i zested 3 lemons and got exactly 1oz of much more potent zest as the surface area is increased
 
This beer looks awesome! I am going to brew a ten gallon batch tomorrow following the original recipe using a microplaner. I plan on serving this beer for my Fourth of July block party in two weeks. I will keep everyone updated.
 
by the way, this beer is fantastic however i wholeheartedly suggest that anyone zesting lemons use only 1 oz for a subtle lemon flavor and USE ORGANIC LEMONS. although i scrubbed the hell out of the lemons i used, it seems like there was still a bit of pesticide on them which leads into a slight lemonfresh-dawn-dish-detergent flavor.
 
The brew was a hit at my 4th of July party. 10 gallons of beer was gone in 5 hours and everyone was talking about it. I only used 1 oz of lemon zest (6 average size lemons) and the flavor was subtle yet very pleasent. I cleaned my lemons and soaked them in water for a hour to wash any pesticide left behind. Great Brew!
 
Brewing this with a buddy this weekend... he hasn't brewed in a long time but when i sent him this link he all the sudden couldn't wait! Thanks for the recipe! I can't wait to try this!
 
Just brewed this lastnight! Smells amazing, can't wait to try it in a few weeks.
On a side not we reversed the hop order On accident, but we are thinking it should be fine.
 
Hi folks,

I just want to thank BlindLemonLars for this recipe. I have brewed this recipe 11 times! I've fiddled with it a few times, experimenting with one thing or another and keep coming back around to the original recipe which is just perfect. The only thing I recommend changing is to Kolsch yeast.

Zest: This should be obvious, but only use organic lemons. I've had the best luck using one average size lemon and freshly grating just the *very* outside of the thing...just the yellow part.

I like making it with Kolsch yeast and fermenting at about 58 degrees. On one batch, I put it in a secondary at about 52 degrees for a couple months and it was amazing that way.

If you are wondering at all if you should brew this recipe, the answer is YES. And don't change a thing (except the yeast)!
 
Hi folks,

I just want to thank BlindLemonLars for this recipe. I have brewed this recipe 11 times! I've fiddled with it a few times, experimenting with one thing or another and keep coming back around to the original recipe which is just perfect. The only thing I recommend changing is to Kolsch yeast.

Zest: This should be obvious, but only use organic lemons. I've had the best luck using one average size lemon and freshly grating just the *very* outside of the thing...just the yellow part.

I like making it with Kolsch yeast and fermenting at about 58 degrees. On one batch, I put it in a secondary at about 52 degrees for a couple months and it was amazing that way.

If you are wondering at all if you should brew this recipe, the answer is YES. And don't change a thing (except the yeast)!

Sounds like a good idea... then again i use kolsch yeast 2565 on everything :D

I think the batch my buddy and i did turned out pretty good.. crystal clear and the lemon flavor stuck with the beer until the end. Next time i'll probably use kolsch yeast too.
 
I brewed this the other day and am very excited to try it. I did make a couple of changes to it which were as follows:
-increased base malt to 7lbs of 2 row.
-used 1/2oz. of Amarillo and 1oz. of Centennial
-S04 Yeast (thought I had a pack of US-05...)
-added 2g of Paradise seed
I'll report back with my results in a bit. The smell coming out of the airlock is just incredible...
Thanks very much for posting the recipe BlindLemonLars!
 
Just put a Lemon Coriander Weiss in the primary this past Sunday, now this looks good. The Kolsch yeast sounds like it would work, although it's tough for me to get my temp down that low right now.

I'm wondering how this would be with Saison or Witbier yeast, I'm leaning more towards Saison. Might have o start looking into ingredients to make this in a few weeks.
 
I was looking for a light summer beer, something like a Summer Shandy. I am going to try this one, thanks for the recipe. I will let you know how this works out!
 
I moved my lemon coriander Weiss to the secondary last night after 2 weeks in the primary. Put 1.6 oz lemon zest from 3 lemons soaked in vodka into the secondary and racked on top of it. I tasted it and the clove is there but very mellow which I was hoping for, not much banana thankfully, I think that's because o kept my germ temps in the upper 60's.

I plan to let it sit for a week and ill taste a sample, if I want more lemon aroma/taste I plan to let it sit for an additional week. If its good I'm going to bottle it and let it condition for a coulple weeks and then enjoy :)
 
Chilling down 5.5 gallons of this right now. I used 7 lbs of 2-row to compensate for the low efficiency of my system and 2.25 oz of lemon zest because that's what I got from 5 lemons. Also gonna ferment with a 1L starter of 1056 around 60 F to highlight the hops and lemon. It's looks and smells good so far.
 
Oh man, I forgot about making this. I bottled it two weeks ago, I tried one last night and holy smokes this might be my favorite beer! I of course made a few changes to the recipe...

For starters I used 7lbs of 2row
2lbs flaked corn
1lb cara-pils
and half pound of caramel 60

I then did a 60 min boil and used a full "hopshot" never used it before but it turned out wonderful,
1on cascade at 15 and flame out!

thank you for this recipe!
 
Today I did this recipe. It's my firs AG, and it was a lot of fun for me. It was also the first brew I did by myself. I normally brew with a buddy, but he had to work, so it was on me if we wanted this beer by summer. I'll let you guys know how this turns out for me, not like it matters, we'll drink it good bad or ugly...
 
Just made a 10 gallon batch yesterday. Had about one ounce of lemon, and had to substitute Columbus for the centennial... It tastes great in the samples, hit an OG of 1.044. Can't wait to try this, should be drinkable before the cool weather arrives...
 
Great recipe! I had one small problem though, I did a ten gallon batch and used the zest off 7 lemons and after carbing it for the last two days I get a very slight lemon taste at the end but I was expecting more. I'm going to try and dry hop with another ounce of zest in vodka and see how that turns out.
 
Awesome recipe! I upped the 2-row a little with what I had laying around and it turned out great. Just a hint of citrus. SWMBO has requested a second batch, with an ounce of Citra Dry Hop! Going to be working this one in the coming weeks!
 
Brewed a batch last night using pretty much exact recepie as posted. Zested three large lemons with a potato peeler. Got just over 2oz of zest. This is my fifth brew ever. In less than 2 months I have been a brewing fool.

It is currently Fermenting in the primary at 62ish degrees. I can't wait to try it!

Thanks to Lars for the original post and all the comments who gave suggestions along the way.

:mug:
 
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