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

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I have made this a few times and it is great every time. It is balanced and simple, and is great for parties where you have a mixed crowd of BMC drinkers. Thanks for sharing the recipie.
 
I tried it once with raspberries and another time with watermelon.

With the raspberries, I used around 2 pounds of frozen fruit that I tossed in primary after the initial fermentation was beginning to subside. I let it ferment again for another 1-2 weeks I think. It was very nice, but I'm thinking the next time I like to add some nonfermentable sugar. Perhaps a little lactose in the boil.

For the other, I added a medium size seedless watermelon that was scooped out and pureed. That had just a hint of watermelon flavor and it was very nice. I may add a little extract next time.

I also have some homemade limoncello in gallon jugs. As a matter of course, with any light beer such as this, I'll add an imperial pint of that in late primary, which will fire up again for a few days. Nice light lemon flavor. I can't drink it straight, it's too sweet.
 
Brewed this on Sunday and still no fermentation. Hit 1.040 on the nose and it is still there now. Probably bad yeast? I've never had this happen before, although I haven't used dry yeast since my first (this is my ninth brew). If it's still stuck tomorrow I will go buy more yeast but should I switch it up? I used a dry packet of Nottingham (rehydrated).
 
abrooks450 said:
Brewed this on Sunday and still no fermentation. Hit 1.040 on the nose and it is still there now. Probably bad yeast? I've never had this happen before, although I haven't used dry yeast since my first (this is my ninth brew). If it's still stuck tomorrow I will go buy more yeast but should I switch it up? I used a dry packet of Nottingham (rehydrated).
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Do you have a bucket and are going by airlock activity or is it in a clear carboy? If it's in a bucket, lift the lid and I bet it has a krausen on it.
 
I have one bubbling away now with rehydrated nottingham, which I have done several times. I usually keep nottingham at the very low end of its temperature range, and sometimes it causes a slow start. What temp are you using? Maybe you can try rousing it a bit as well.

EDIT: after your latest post, I would set it to around 67* and pitch a new pack of rehydrated nottingham.
 
YeastMode said:
I have one bubbling away now with rehydrated nottingham, which I have done several times. I usually keep nottingham at the very low end of its temperature range, and sometimes it causes a slow start. What temp are you using? Maybe you can try rousing it a bit as well.
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It is at 62 right now, been there for three days now. I gave it a rigorous stir yesterday
 
YeastMode said:
I have one bubbling away now with rehydrated nottingham, which I have done several times. I usually keep nottingham at the very low end of its temperature range, and sometimes it causes a slow start. What temp are you using? Maybe you can try rousing it a bit as well.

EDIT: after your latest post, I would set it to around 67* and pitch a new pack of rehydrated nottingham.
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Thanks!!
 
abrooks450 said:
It is at 62 right now, been there for three days now. I gave it a rigorous stir yesterday
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Ya I have used it in the high 50*'s before, but it can be a bit sluggish there if it doesn't get a good 70* start. My general rule is that if there is no activity after 72 hours, I repitch. So, my suggestion for you at this point would be to warm it up a bit, maybe to 65*-67*, rehydrate well as per the instructions, and toss it in. Worst case, you pitched two packets, which is not a big deal at this point.
 
YeastMode said:
Ya I have used it in the high 50*'s before, but it can be a bit sluggish there if it doesn't get a good 70* start. My general rule is that if there is no activity after 72 hours, I repitch. So, my suggestion for you at this point would be to warm it up a bit, maybe to 65*-67*, rehydrate well as per the instructions, and toss it in. Worst case, you pitched two packets, which is not a big deal at this point.
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It's bubbling away already! Thanks for your help. I think bringing it back to ~68* may have gotten it going, since when I opened the lid to add the new yeast I noticed some krausen. I added the second packet anyways since I had already rehydrated it.
 
bondra76 said:
agree with this - already bready

I used colorado malting company's pale malt in mine. Good stuff.
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Yep I think this may be the brew I keep on tap at all times. I don't know what kind of 2 row the store has. I'm sure it's the cheap stuff at $1.25/lb.
 
abrooks450 said:
It is at 62 right now, been there for three days now. I gave it a rigorous stir yesterday
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YeastMode said:
Ya I have used it in the high 50*'s before, but it can be a bit sluggish there if it doesn't get a good 70* start. My general rule is that if there is no activity after 72 hours, I repitch. So, my suggestion for you at this point would be to warm it up a bit, maybe to 65*-67*, rehydrate well as per the instructions, and toss it in. Worst case, you pitched two packets, which is not a big deal at this point.
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This goes along with my first & only experience with Notty - I brewed the extract version of this Blonde, and I got my wort down to 60° F or so, pitched my hydrated yeast (which was around 70° F) and nothing happened for almost 2 days. I stopped putting ice-bottles in the fermenting chamber and as soon as the wort got above 63°, krausen began to form. 6 days later, and my brew has finally dropped below 65° and krausen has disappeared completely. I'm pretty sure it's done, but I will let it sit a bit longer to make sure before taking a gravity reading.
 
My grain is sitting in the 150* BIAB pot at the moment... life is good. I just opened and measured the hops doses...centennial smells ? cascade smells Awesome...
thanks BM!
 
Anyone played with the hops. I was looking at maybe doing a galaxy, amarillo, mosiac blonde. It seems this grain bill is a winner.

I was planning to dry hop though to ensure aroma.
 
Im planning doing this recipe tomorrow morn if rain stops,but my LHBS didnt have any Centennial so i grabbed Cascade and Tettnanger oz each.
Has anyone did it with Tett?
If so hop times?
Thanks
 
madscientistbrewNq said:
Anyone played with the hops. I was looking at maybe doing a galaxy, amarillo, mosiac blonde. It seems this grain bill is a winner.

I was planning to dry hop though to ensure aroma.
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I'd like to try something like that. I do like this brew as is but I wouldn't mind having more of a hop flavor. It's a malt bomb IMO. I don't know if it's the vienna or what.

I was thinking around an ounce of hops at the flameout or in the last addition.
 
I'm making this one for my aunt and uncle's 25 anniversary party seemed to be a good match for their requirements
• not too strong
• not to hoppy
• something everyone can enjoy

I'll post back when I have feedback
 
Well, just checked my Centennial Blonde - FG reading of 1.010 corrected, est. was 1.012. It hasn't done anything for a week but sit there (cleaning up) so I stuck it in the fridge to cold-crash for three days. I will bottle her on Tuesday. Final ABV is 6.3% (a little high for a blonde), est. SRM was 4, but it's extract mostly, so it came out a little darker, not sure how to measure it though. IBUs are supposed to be 16.

I tasted it, and it tasted pretty good, like flat beer. Can't wait to see how it crisps up with some clearing and some carbonation!
 
slym2none said:
Well, just checked my Centennial Blonde - FG reading of 1.010 corrected, est. was 1.012. It hasn't done anything for a week but sit there (cleaning up) so I stuck it in the fridge to cold-crash for three days. I will bottle her on Tuesday. Final ABV is 6.3% (a little high for a blonde), est. SRM was 4, but it's extract mostly, so it came out a little darker, not sure how to measure it though. IBUs are supposed to be 16.

I tasted it, and it tasted pretty good, like flat beer. Can't wait to see how it crisps up with some clearing and some carbonation!
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How is your abv that high? What recipe did you use? SG?
 
Just kegged this today. Did a few modifications (1 oz Centennial, 2 oz of Cascade, added lemongrass to the end of the boil). OG was 1.050, FG was 1.010, ABV 5.3%. Color was great (SRM 4.6), tasted crisp (even flat, IBU of 55.6 which is higher than original recipe). This only spent a week in the primary, a cold crash, I know I probably could've let it sit a while longer, but I was too antsy. Just bought the kegerator and all the goods, couldn't have it sitting unused without drinkable beer in it right? :eek: Green beer or not, it will be drank soon!
 
I made a slight mod to the extract recipe for my second batch. Added 1 oz of sweet orange peel at flameout, and 1 oz of Magic Hop Dust at 10 min. Just pulled a sample since primary is complete and it has a little more punch than the original which is exactly what I am going for. Hope the final product turns out as good as I think it will be.
 
BrewDoc1518 said:
Just kegged this today. Did a few modifications (1 oz Centennial, 2 oz of Cascade, added lemongrass to the end of the boil). OG was 1.050, FG was 1.010, ABV 5.3%. Color was great (SRM 4.6), tasted crisp (even flat, IBU of 55.6 which is higher than original recipe). This only spent a week in the primary, a cold crash, I know I probably could've let it sit a while longer, but I was too antsy. Just bought the kegerator and all the goods, couldn't have it sitting unused without drinkable beer in it right? :eek: Green beer or not, it will be drank soon!
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Let's hear how the lemongrass works out as well as your process. It seems elusive.
 
brewprint said:
How is your abv that high? What recipe did you use? SG?
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Too much DME by accident. SG was 1.058 - it was this recipe, converted to extract and for a 2.5 gallon batch, and then I only got 2.4 gallons of wort. I knew it would be a little high, then I remembered I used the entire 3-pound bag of DME instead of leaving some.
 
slym2none said:
Too much DME by accident. SG was 1.058 - it was this recipe, converted to extract and for a 2.5 gallon batch, and then I only got 2.4 gallons of wort. I knew it would be a little high, then I remembered I used the entire 3-pound bag of DME instead of leaving some.
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Okay. I just wasn't sure how that could happen with extract but now I see.
 
Brewed this yesterday for a work function at the end of the month. First time using leaf hops, too. It was so nice to not have a huge mess of hop trub at the end of the boil.

Looking forward to this one.
 
I love this recipe, easily my most brewed since it is so easy (my last online order was to make sure I could do 20 or so gallons of it :D ). The only thing I had to say is that it plays havoc with my process, somehow my efficiency is higher on every batch of this, hit 85%, a good 5 points higher than my usual... oops :cross:
 
I brewed this yesterday...had a bit of a mishap in that I brew 2 gallon batches and after I scaled this recipe down, I got distracted and wrote the original hop additions from the 5 gallon recipe on my brew sheet and didn't realize I had put in nearly triple the amount of hops for my batch size until i tasted the finished wort! Whoops! Not to mention I overshot the gravity by a good 10 points...So I guess it is now a Double Imperial Centennial Blonde?
 
zackattack784 said:
Brewed this today and got crazy good efficiency. I ended up with a half gallon more than planned and was still 2 points over my expected gravity. All that means is more beer for me! [emoji16]. I'll give an update in a month or so when it's fermented, bottled, and carbed!
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Its spent just about 2 weeks in the bottle and I couldn't wait any longer to try one. It's a great lawnmower beer! In my notes the only thing I wrote down was to dry hop with a little cascade and/or centennial when I brew it again. And I'll definitely be brewing it again!
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1435896924.220853.jpg
 
zackattack784 said:
Its spent just about 2 weeks in the bottle and I couldn't wait any longer to try one. It's a great lawnmower beer! In my notes the only thing I wrote down was to dry hop with a little cascade and/or centennial when I brew it again. And I'll definitely be brewing it again!
View attachment 288054
Click to expand...

That's a good idea. I bet 1/2 or 1/4 oz dry hop would be plenty.
 

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