Blonde Ale Recipe

So I made this Blonde Ale last Sunday. It fermented out really quickly, which was good. Started at 1.049 and finished at 1.011. It has a nice color and I am itherwise pleased with it. I transferred to the secondary yesterday and added 5 lbs of pureed strawberries.

So, my question is , this beer has no noticable flavor! It tastes like a bud light! No hop flavor, no maltiness. I am hoping the strawberries will save this, but it's not for me anyway. I am making it for my wife who generally likes stonger beers like me. We are both Sam Adams fans. I created this recipe in Beersmith using the BCJP for Blonde Ales. Will this beer gain some flavor?

7 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 73.7 %
2 lbs 8.0 oz Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 26.3 %
0.50 oz Centennial [10.00%] (60 min) Hops 18.7 IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [5.50%] (0 min) Hops -
5.00 lb Frozen Strawberries (Secondary 2.0 weeks) Misc
1 Pkgs American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) Yeast-Ale

By simply looking at the recipe... where would the flavor come from? It finished quite dry, so obviously there is no maltiness.

It will taste like strawberries, but not much else I presume. I did a similar beer with raspberries. It is almost all pale malt, and very few hops... Id expect it to be very BMC'ish

I think you ended up with what you brewed...a strawberry blonde.

Don't sell it short. When it comes to your friends (of the female persuasion) it'll probably be a big hit.

Thanks for your input. Who am I kiding, It's beer and I'm gonna drink it. I was just suprised how tasteless it was!

Here is my $.02 on this.
It will be fine....

But I have been doing different things with my Strawberry wheat trying to get it right.
My latest find is that the more time on the berries the better.
I have brewed it twice now (10 gallon batches) the first I did it 2 weeks in the primary, then 18 days on the berries (1 pound per gallon). It was good but there was an odd off flavor.
I was thinking it had spent to much time on the berries thus giving me the off flavor.
So I brewed it again. But this time I let 5 gallons of it only sit on the berries for 10 days and the other 5 gallons I let sit for 28 days.
The first 5 gallons had so much strawberry aroma and flavor it was almost sicking sweet and I could not drink much of it at a time.
The other half is amazing. The berries are strong but not so over powering and the extended contact time I think pulled some of the bitterness and really helped balance the beer.

So consider that when making yours.

Sounds like a plan; three weeks on the berries. I'd be interested in seeing your recipe if you want to share. Do you use whole berries or puree them in a blender like I did. Do you start with a light base like a mentioned or do you use more "robust" beer to start with?

That's very close to a blonde that I recently brewed, I used an extra # of 2 row, 1# wheat and 1# 40l crystal. Mine has a very rich, almost buttery flavor that I have been assured is a characteristic of the AAII yeast strain. My OG and FG were the same as yours.
What was your mash temp? I shot for 154 deg. and hit around 149.

luvmy40 said:

What was your mash temp? I shot for 154 deg. and hit around 149.

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I went for 158 and hit it after some stiring. I doughed in at 174 and it was still a little hot so I stired for a minute or two and brought it down to 158. I would rather be hot and stir then try to bring it up.

I'm glad to hear you liked yours. I'm sure it will be fine, just didn't expect it. I didn't think homebrew could ever be as bad as BMC!!

luvmy40 said:

I used an extra # of 2 row, 1# wheat and 1# 40l crystal.

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I just added what you said to my recipe in beersmith. Can that be right? I think you only got 50% brewhouse efficiency with all that grain in a 5 gallon batch. Did you use a 5 gallon batch?

Sounds very similar to what I brewed today. 2.25 gallon batch...
4lbs pale malt 2-row
.75lbs carapils
0.2 oz Magnum 60 minutes
Us-05

SG was around 1.045

I will be adding about 2.5 lbs of blackberries during secondary. I was trying to go for a very light beer with little bitterness to let the blackberries shine through. Hoping it will be the first beer I've brewed that SWMBO likes.

Posted by chri5: Hoping it will be the first beer I've brewed that SWMBO likes.

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She should. Also, you should give BM's Sterling Gold a shot. My wife loves it and it's ready to drink in two weeks if you keg.

Anyone want to trade wives? Actually could someone take mine off my hands? She doesn't drink anything except for vodka, and that's maybe once or twice a year. My HBC had a crawfish boil this weekend, she didn't touch a bier one nor a single crawfish! Though I guess I should be happy she's not drinking my bier and eating my spicy food!

Okay that's enough of my rant. The leave it on for 4 weeks is good advice, I hear that 6 is even better.

Schlante,
Phillip

mciaio said:

I just added what you said to my recipe in beersmith. Can that be right? I think you only got 50% brewhouse efficiency with all that grain in a 5 gallon batch. Did you use a 5 gallon batch?

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This was one of my first (it may have been the first) AG brews. My efficiency sucked! I have since hit as high as 75% but still fluctuate primarily between 65-72% as calculated in Beer Smith.

luvmy40 said:

This was one of my first (it may have been the first) AG brews. My efficiency sucked! I have since hit as high as 75% but still fluctuate primarily between 65-72% as calculated in Beer Smith.

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OK, that makes sense. This Blonde was my first AG and I ended up with 70% efficiency, but I had a problem with my steel braid getting clogged and I didn't know it. I just kept adding sparge water. I did 3 sparges and left a whole ton of water in the tun. Haha! I imagine I will get better efficiencies next time. If I get 75% I'll be happy.