"Valley Girl" Jasmine Blonde

It's hot as balls here in Oakland, so I'm gonna brew up another summery ale. The jasmine is blooming all over the place here, and I've been wanting to brew with it for quite some time, so I put this recipe together:

3 gallon batch
[Edited 5/11/12 to reflect what I actually brewed]

Grain bill:
1.5 lbs rice syrup solids, at start of boil
1.5 lbs orange blossom honey, at 10 minutes
2 lb millet, soaked and lightly toasted, then cracked and cooked into a porridge
2 lb bananas, pureed
0.5 lbs rice hulls

Hop schedule:
0.2 oz Palisades (7.8% AA) at 60 min
0.4 oz Palisades at 15 min
0.4 oz Palisades at 5 min
1 oz dried elder flowers in the mash
2 oz dried rose petals at flameout
2 oz jasmine pearl tea, soaked in clear corn whisky, added to secondary for 7 days

Step-mash bananas and millet: 30 min at 90°F, 30 min at 122°F, 60 min at 150°F. Add elder flowers, sparge into kettle with 180°F water to make up ~3.5 gallons. Proceed to boil.

US-05 American Ale yeast

IBU's: 27.2
Measured OG: 1.042 (Target was 1.053)
Target FG: 1.014
Likely ABV: 3.7%

I may add a few oz of vanilla extract at bottling, probably to just half the batch, as I know it's the secret ingredient in Anderson Valley's "Cerveza Crema" (which was my FAVORITE summer ale). I'm going for something light and floral (hence the Palisades hops), with some rose and jasmine aroma but solid beer flavor. Wish me luck!

Cheers for posting this recipe, I was looking at it in your signature and I was intrigued.

Have used palisades before in a single hop ipa. I found them to be very "beery" and plan on using small amounts of them in a pale ale as a support hop.

Some slight modifications to the recipe as of today, after herb shopping:

Replace jasmine flowers with 2 oz jasmine pearl green tea. More expensive, but better aroma, the jasmine flowers I found around here did not have the scent I was looking for. Add only the roses at flameout, and soak the jasmine pearls in some clear corn whisky or maybe light rum and add to secondary. Hoping to avoid the tannins that way. Also, decided adding 1 oz elderflowers to the mash would be a good idea, after smelling them. Want a bit of their flavor, not so much their aroma.

Brewed it up today. Did not get any conversion on the millet with the bananas. OG came out a measley 1.042. Did my best to filter out the trub after the mash, but I do suspect some serious trub loss on this one. Also, the rose may be too much; I may end up opting not to add the jasmine, and just letting it be a rose blonde.

When I read the title of your thread I misread as "James Bond"...just wanted to give you that idea in case you label your beers and do eventually make your "Jasmine Blonde".

The beer sounds really interesting...I wish I were your neighbor.

Big fan of using local, natural food stuffs in cooking and brewing so kudos to you.


Hmmmm, I need to make a huckleberry ale now.

Checked the gravity today...holy carp, it's down 1.006! Clear as crystal, too...guess my half-assed attempts at decanting off the trub post-mash but pre-boil were worth the effort! Never had a beer get this clear in but a single week of primary! Guess I'll be bottling it soon.

The taste so far: very nice, very mild. The rose comes through quite strongly, though I expect it to diminish with time and carbonation. Not gonna add the jasmine--can you believe it? ME actually showing some restraint? Anyway, not getting much flavor from the millet nor the banana in this sample, it's mostly rose and honey at this point. However, it's still very, very young, and I don't want to judge it until it's been in the bottle for a few weeks. I'm hoping that in time, the honey and rose soften a bit and give some hints of the millet and the hops.

Cracked one today after about 2 weeks in bottles. Fully carbed! Not a great beer, though; too much rose! Would halve the amount if I brewed again. Also, the grain bill was a flop. The mouthfeel is a bit...astringent. It's really weird. Dry, but not thirst-quenching. That might be because of the rose, IDK...probably not worth repeating/tweaking.

That's too bad. Seemed like a nice recipe.

Here's how I would mod it if I was hell-bent on brewing another rose beer:

3 gallon batch

Grain bill:
2.5 lbs Briess Rice Syrup at start of boil
0.5 lbs star thistle honey, at 10 minutes
2 lb very ripe bananas, peeled, pureed, and steeped at 150°F for 30 minutes (enzymes optional)
2 oz maltodextrin at 60 minutes

Hop schedule:
0.15 oz Columbus Hops at 60 min
0.5 oz Palisades at 15 min
0.5 oz Palisades at 5 min
1/2 oz dried rose petals at flameout
1/2 oz rose geranium tea
1 tsp coriander

Some kind of fruity yeast, like T-58, or maybe a lager yeast at ale temps?