Buckwheat Blonde Ale - Suggestions?

Hello all - I'd like to post a recipe I've cobbled together for a blonde ale and would love some feedback on it. I first tried brewing beer to little success about a year ago and switched over to wine. But lately I've been craving a nice easy drinking ale. So I started doing a little research and came up with this. Let me know what you think!

5 gal batch, 60 min boil
3 lb brown rice syrup
1 lb turbinado sugar
2 lb sorghum syrup (added at flameout)
8 oz buckwheat honey (added at flameout)

.75 oz cascade hops (AA = 5.0%) at 60 mins
.5 oz saaz hops (AA = 4.9%) at 30 mins
.5 oz cascade hops at 15 mins
1 oz saaz hops at 0 mins

8 oz maltodextrin for body
US-05 yeast

I'm looking for a nice easy drinking ale - not too hoppy with some malt flavor. I haven't worked with the buckwheat honey before. Does this seem like a good amount for that?

Any advice you can give would be great!

Thanks,
-Jason

I wish some of the more experienced guys would chime in on our beginner posts!

That said, I'm very much a beginner too but I'll give you my first thoughts.

That seems like a lot of hops if you don't want it very hoppy (based on the couple recipes I've made). Maybe also swap out the turbinado for Belgian Candi Syrup. Seems like the GF brewers swear by it and it was an ingredient in both brews I made. The first one was great and the second I just bottled.

If you wanted to keep it simple, the Brewer's Best Gluten Free Pale Ale ingredient kit (my first brew) was very good. Sorghum base, no buckwheat or anything plus Belgian syrup (amber), maltodextrine, cascade hops. It was a little hoppy and little citrus-y. Very easy drinker. You could use more or less hops and it would still be good.

I've made similar brews. Cascade is pretty citrusy and can really add to the sorghum twang. However, you're only using 2lbs of sorghum plus the honey might take it down. It looks fairly tasty what you have! I'd recommend d45 or golden syrup instead of turbinado, unless you make a syrup yourself. Good luck!

Thanks for both the suggestions! I had used that brewtoad website and the hops came in at 25 IBU's. I didn't think that was crazy considering some of the IPA's I've seen are upwards of 40-60. I might skip that last hops addition or reduce it. It doesn't affect the IBU's but might be a bit much.

I'm definitely trying to get rid of the sorghum. I know last year when I was looking people recommended adding it at flameout and limiting to no more than half the fermentables. So that's what I was aiming for here. I hadn't used buckwheat honey but I know people have said it can help with some of that malty taste.

As for the sugar I definitely could try the D45. I've never used candi sugar before so that'll be interesting. I'm assuming it'll just get added at the start of the boil?

Also, I've looked at the kits and seriously thought about them. The bard's kit is definitely intriguing for having malted sorghum. I guess right now I'm still looking at smaller batches and not the big ones like a kit would make.

Yes I believe the candi syrups are usually added at the beginning of the boil.

I agree with reducing the Sorghum.. I just opened a bottle of (Igliashon's recipe) Oatmeal Stout after only 2 days in the bottle to get a feel for where it was going. It's heavy on that sorghum twang this early on. That taste is driving me insane. The last 2 times I drank New Planet I could hardly stand it.

I'm working on a recipe too, and I just decided to cut the sorghum in half and replace the rest with rice syrup solids.

Let us know how this goes and I'll do the same. Maybe we can do a swap!

Bottling rule: let it ride! They say 3 weeks it'll be ready but I've learned to wait an extra week. Sorghum mellows a bit, hops comes into balance and the head stays forever. Make sure not to mistake candi sugar and candi syrup!

Well I ordered all my stuff online this morning. I did order the D45 candi syrup too. Hopefully I'll have it all to brew by the middle of next week. I decided to just do a full batch. Hopefully it'll be good and then I don't have to worry about saving half containers of syrup (am I lazy or what??).

I did order a 5 oz pack of corn sugar for bottling. We'll see how that goes this time around. In the past I've waited up to 3 months and it never really carbed up. It did a little - enough to give a pfft when you open and see a few bubbles after you pour. But not the nice refreshing carbonation I think of with most beer.

I might play around with the hops a little too, depending on what I have on hand. I might be getting low on the cascade and saaz. I think I had previously bought some cluster and fuggles so those might make it in the mix too.

Not sure why your past brew never carbonated. May have become contaminated or something. I stick mine on the fridge. Fuggles, cascade and Chinook are a great trio and I see you're using cascade and Fuggles. You should have something a little citrusy and sweet with the honey. Should be good

Well I brewed this recipe this afternoon with some tweaks. The final recipe is as follows:

3 gallon batch
1.5 lbs Brown Rice Syrup (at 60 mins)
6 oz D-45 Candi Syrup (at 60 mins)
1.5 lbs Sorghum Syrup (at flameout)
5 oz Buckwheat Honey (at flameout)
4 oz Maltodextrin (at flameout)

0.25 oz Cluster hops (6.8%) at 60 mins
0.2 oz Cluster hops (6.8%) at 30 mins
0.3 oz Fuggles hops (4.2%) at 15 mins
0.3 oz Fuggles hops (4.2%) at 5 mins

Brewtoad says the ABV should be 4.1% with 23 IBU. Hopefully it's what I'm going for. My OG was spot on to the brewtoad estimate at 1.045 so we'll see what the FG is.

I think you've got something that'll be tasty, albeit a little zingy, however Im never bothered by the sorghum twang as long as its coupled with something else. I've never used cluster hops, lemme know what it turns out to be!

So yeah...not sure this is one I'd recommend. It's been nearly 2 weeks and the taste isn't very good. It's pretty sweet but doesn't taste sugary. The FG ended up around 1.01 so it's not like it should be crazy sweet.

There's virtually no hop flavor in it either. I haven't bottled it yet but I'm not sure I should. I'm considering dry hopping now to see if it'll change the flavor for the better. Any thoughts on that so late in the game?

EvanLouis said:

Bottling rule: let it ride! They say 3 weeks it'll be ready but I've learned to wait an extra week. Sorghum mellows a bit, hops comes into balance and the head stays forever. Make sure not to mistake candi sugar and candi syrup!

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My LHBS has Belgian Candi Sugar but not syrup. Can't I use that?

I wouldn't. You can always make your own. Equal parts sugar and water and out it on the stove in a sauce pan. I've done this twice with very decent results.

'Put', not 'out'!

EvanLouis said:

I wouldn't. You can always make your own. Equal parts sugar and water and out it on the stove in a sauce pan. I've done this twice with very decent results.

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Plain old table sugar?

You can find information on this forum and elsewhere on making BCS and some tips frome experience.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/how-do-you-invert-sugar-276785/

http://homebrewinghobby.blogspot.com/2007/04/making-invert-and-belgian-candi-sugar.html