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

BierMuncher said:

Yepper...

Decided to go to the trouble of freezing the bottles this time around when bottling and made a huge difference.

Next time you're in town...I'll give the beer I serve you the same consideration...

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BM, rookie question. What effect does freezing the bottles have? How does it improve the Beer? Thanks.

I think it cuts down on foam when bottling from a keg using a beer gun.

Been away for awhile, however my SWMBO and her friends really enjoy this beer! Very good recipe, can't wait for it to warm up once and for all to enjoy after work on the deck or before and after the yard work. Very drinkable with a nice flavor / hop presence not to mention the golden straw like appearance.

Brewed this last weekend, took a reading today and got a decent smell of the beer. Think I might have some off flavors unfortunately.

Anyone try and FWH the 20min Cascade addition? Just wondering.

racetech said:

Brewed this last weekend, took a reading today and got a decent smell of the beer. Think I might have some off flavors unfortunately.

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It's highly unlikely that you'll be able to tell off flavors from a simple primary sniff. Fermenting beer wreaks with a strong carbonic acid smell and tingles of the nose hairs. Just leave it alone for 2-3 weeks and bottle/keg it. Taste the gravity sample if you want, but warm or even cold flat beer doesn't taste all that great. This beer will start to come into its own after about three weeks in the bottle and gets really good after about five weeks.

RDWAHAHB

pvtschultz said:

It's highly unlikely that you'll be able to tell off flavors from a simple primary sniff. Fermenting beer wreaks with a strong carbonic acid smell and tingles of the nose hairs. Just leave it alone for 2-3 weeks and bottle/keg it. Taste the gravity sample if you want, but warm or even cold flat beer doesn't taste all that great. This beer will start to come into its own after about three weeks in the bottle and gets really good after about five weeks.

RDWAHAHB

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Thanks for the info. I have it sitting at about 72 degrees still in primary. Hit 1.008 and it's still going, been over a week since it first started.

One week in primary and one in secondary for this brew? If you were to add fruit when would you put it in?

Charlieatthedisco said:

One week in primary and one in secondary for this brew? If you were to add fruit when would you put it in?

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I just put it on ~4.5lbs of mulberries after a 3-4 week primary. Will keep it on the fruit for about the same time. It is my standard protocol for any fruit beer.

Sounds good. Do you re rack again before bottling/kegging or just leave the fruit in there? What do you think about raspberries?

gritmaster said:

Anyone try and FWH the 20min Cascade addition? Just wondering.

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I don't think I'll FWH this (although I do almost all my other beers) b/c the higher bittering is dangerous in such a mild beer.

(Also, FWIW, I haven't really found that FWH gives me a 20min flavor bump as conventional wisdom says it does... just smoother and slightly higher bittering.)

hogwash said:

I'm going to wait another couple weeks before I drink anymore as I think it will smooth out.

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This x1000!!! I love this beer & drank my 5gal pretty fast... but saved a few bottles. Now they're 6 mo.s old and I'm crying b/c it's so smooth, slightly sweet on the finish... and gone

Charlieatthedisco said:

Sounds good. Do you re rack again before bottling/kegging or just leave the fruit in there? What do you think about raspberries?

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I do rack off of fruit for priming or kegging. Too much gunk. I did a raspberry wheat awhile back and used 5lb on 5gals IIRC. Nice aroma and mild to medium flavor that was balanced enough to still be beer.

I have been enjoying this for the past week out of the keg. Initially showed a slight banana aroma, but that blew off in two days later. Not sure if that is common with Notty yeast or residual from possible higher ferment temp. (66-68F) Either way, it is a deliciously refreshing brew. Slight chill haze as seen, but color is lighter than pic. Thanks for a great recipe, BM. Looking forward to going all grain with this one for my first attempt very soon.

Dcmpres said:

I have been enjoying this for the past week out of the keg. Initially showed a slight banana aroma, but that blew off in two days later. Not sure if that is common with Notty yeast or residual from possible higher ferment temp. (66-68F) Either way, it is a deliciously refreshing brew. Slight chill haze as seen, but color is lighter than pic. Thanks for a great recipe, BM. Looking forward to going all grain with this one for my first attempt very soon.

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Nice, looks good! Are you controlling the fermentation temp? If it got too high you might get the banana aroma or flavor...

I'm brewing this in a couple days. This will be my 4th time so obviously it's a favorite of mine.
Some tweaks I'm trying this time are water additions to get my mash pH lower.
I'm also going to first wort hop all the cascade.
Lastly, I'm going to use Nottingham yeast; I've used WLP001 in the past.

Seatbelt - I pitched at 62 F and immersed the carboy in 20 gallon of water where ambient temp never got above 65 F, but obviously it spiked during initial fermentation. I need to get a Thermowell to accurately control the temp. Just something else to buy in the name of great beer. :rockin:

Wow, almost 200 pages. I'm going to make a version of this soon, and was wondering if anyone had any insight/experience

2 Row- 45.71%
Wheat- 45.71%
Vienna- 5.71%
Honey Malt- 2.86%

OG- 1.037
SRM- 4.6

Centennial (9.9%)- 0.5oz (60min)
Amarillo (10.3%)- 0.75oz (10min)
Centennial (9.9%)- 0.25oz (5min)
Amarillo (10.3%)- 0.5oz (flame out)
IBU's- 24

I'm going to ferment this with Kolsh yeast, and dry hop it with 1oz blend of Amarillo & Centennial (0.75/0.25)

This recipe of BierMuncher's is a lot closer to what you are trying to do.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/kona-fire-rock-pale-ale-ag-clone-52220/

Paddle_Head said:

Wow, almost 200 pages. I'm going to make a version of this soon, and was wondering if anyone had any insight/experience

2 Row- 45.71%
Wheat- 45.71%
Vienna- 5.71%
Honey Malt- 2.86%

OG- 1.037
SRM- 4.6

Centennial (9.9%)- 0.5oz (60min)
Amarillo (10.3%)- 0.75oz (10min)
Centennial (9.9%)- 0.25oz (5min)
Amarillo (10.3%)- 0.5oz (flame out)
IBU's- 24

I'm going to ferment this with Kolsh yeast, and dry hop it with 1oz blend of Amarillo & Centennial (0.75/0.25)

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Thanks man. I actually made that a few weeks back, came out great. It was BM's overall fondness for honey malt that's motivating me to try swapping it for crystal in this case. I'm trying the wheat and Kolsch yeast as I think it will help making it a good brew for August drinking.

Brewed this yesterday. As this was our first 10G batch it may have suffered slightly from the strangeness of the new process. We ended up with a much higher OG than what is specified in the recipe (1.046 vs. 1.038) and I'm baffled to explain it. The only thing that we varied (not intentionally) was mashing at a slightly higher temp (154 vs. 150). Could that account for an extra 8 points?

It's humming away nicely in one of the two carboys this morning. As this was our first split carboy batch we didn't think through the process completely and ended up with one carboy of 4G and one with 5.5G and slightly different OG's between them. I'm sure it will be great beer regardless.

mattyg said:

Brewed this yesterday. As this was our first 10G batch it may have suffered slightly from the strangeness of the new process. We ended up with a much higher OG than what is specified in the recipe (1.046 vs. 1.038) and I'm baffled to explain it. The only thing that we varied (not intentionally) was mashing at a slightly higher temp (154 vs. 150). Could that account for an extra 8 points?

It's humming away nicely in one of the two carboys this morning. As this was our first split carboy batch we didn't think through the process completely and ended up with one carboy of 4G and one with 5.5G and slightly different OG's between them. I'm sure it will be great beer regardless.

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Looks to me like you might have been a little low on water--that'd account for the higher OG.

Piratwolf said:

Looks to me like you might have been a little low on water--that'd account for the higher OG.

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Hmm, we sparged to a pre boil volume of 12.7G, which we brought down to 11G in 60 min. Actually lost about 1/2G when we had a tubing fail to the chiller & I guess the hops absorbed the rest.

Brewed this three weeks ago and fermented it in a sanke. Two weeks later, I chilled it and divided into corny kegs. By the third week it tastes great. Wonderful summer beer! Liked it so much, I brewed another batch on week three because i know it won't last long. Friends and family really enjoyed it.

I'm experimenting with second batch by reusing yeast cake...I kept the sanke with yeast at 40 degrees in converted chest freezer used for fermenting. It started to ferment within an hour after wort was added. Will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Thanks for the recipe!

I brought 5 gallons of this to Southern California Homebrew Fest last weekend. It was loved. It kicked on Thursday. It never saw the fest, proper. Thanks for the recipe!

mattyg said:

Hmm, we sparged to a pre boil volume of 12.7G, which we brought down to 11G in 60 min. Actually lost about 1/2G when we had a tubing fail to the chiller & I guess the hops absorbed the rest.

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My bad--losing the water that way shouldn't affect your OG. Interesting. Should be a tasty beer nonetheless

BM-what is your recommended fermentation temp for this brew w notty?

Just brewed it today. Thought I read fermentation times and temps when I printed the recipe, but now I can't find that info. Thought I read 68.

Thanks for the recipe!

Just built a hop back and I am anxious to try out some other changes to my system. I am planning on brewing BM's blonde pretty close to the way BM intended with the beer passing through 2 oz of cascade in the hopback before entering the chiller. I will keep the beer fairly balanced with a light malt schedule an low IBUs but it will be hop blasted with flavor and aroma from the lot hops addition. Any thoughts, suggestions, or opinions?

I did the Centennial Blond but figured I'd try my hand at a Yeast Starter using a different liquid yeast. No biggie........ I thought. I used White Labs 1056 American Ale. :fro:

What a mistake.............. I thought later on.

Fermenting it didn't take off! The 3rd day in the primary it started and worked hard until day 5.

Kegged it on time & let it carb up. Gave it an extra week.

It tasted terrible. It tasted like soap suds. It didn't have any head either. I thought, oh sucks, I guess didn't rinse my keg good enough. Oh well, it was only my 3rd batch. My 1st all-grain. I was all bummed I'd have to trash it. Lesson learned.

But being the lazy guy I am..................... I just left it. 3 weeks later, it's FANTASTIC! It's the best beer I have in the Quad-Keezer. I love it! Variety is the spice of life! My son is drinking it like it's going out of style. :rockin:

Oh ****! Just kicked the keg tonight. And I didn't get a chance to bottle a few. ****. Guess I'll just have to brew some more!

Thanks BM!

Gotta try this! I need a few quick turn around batches!

I had my first glass of the batch I made a month ago. My god this is fantastic. Light refreshing and great citrus notes from the centennial. I haven't tried the strawberry batch I split off, but I already want to start a new 10g batch of this tonight.

Brewed this last week. Hit all gravities fine but when I pitched the Nottingham it went right to the bottom and has had zero activity and it's been 7 days... Temp is about 65... Any suggestions?

Charlieatthedisco said:

Brewed this last week. Hit all gravities fine but when I pitched the Nottingham it went right to the bottom and has had zero activity and it's been 7 days... Temp is about 65... Any suggestions?

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Pitch new yeast. 7 days is long enough that if it hasn't done anything it isn't likely to. Either te rot was to warm or you had an old/bum packet. I know people say they pitch dry without problems, but I'd rehydrate according to mfg directions and maybe add in a little nutrient.

Charlieatthedisco said:

Brewed this last week. Hit all gravities fine but when I pitched the Nottingham it went right to the bottom and has had zero activity and it's been 7 days... Temp is about 65... Any suggestions?

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Did you take a hydrometer reading?

Made this 5 weeks ago with a small single nugget addition instead of centennial and it is excellent. It is a big hit with everyone who has tried it ~ 10 people. Thanks BM!

Kicked the keg yesterday

Guess I'll be making more

Took my Amarillo Blonde to the homebrew club meeting last night & gave it to about 8 people, including 2 pro brewers. Everyone loved it! Thanks again, BM!

Brewed up an extract batch of this on Wednesday and it's fermenting away happily (and vigorously!). Looking forward to it, and it should be ready just in time to replace the Franziskaner clone I currently have on tap.

I brewed this three weeks ago as my first AG BIAB and kegged it yesterday morning. Despite the rave reviews, I have been a little worried because it tasted a little too sweet in the middle and a little too dry at the finish when I checked the specific gravity. This is a good reminder to withhold judgment until a beer is cold and carbonated. I just had to try a little taste this afternoon (all in the interest of science of course) and wow, this is going to be good. It's going to go fast once fully carbonated so I am already thinking of getting another batch brewed up - maybe 10 gallons this time. Thanks BM for a great recipe and to everyone else on this site for sharing their knowledge.

Has anybody tasted this at 5% abv? Brewed this for the wife (hop wimp) last night with Willamette for the late additions. Brew day was smooth except I used my new mill and fresh grain for the first time..94% efficiency, oops. I have been hitting 80 to 84% I didn't want to knock her out, just get her buzzed a bit. But it may be fine, I don't know. The batch would last longer with more kick but I have some apa and ipa to get that job done.

I have room in the fermentor to add a hop tea to water it down but i've never tried that. So, relax or start meddling?