rtstrider
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- Dec 12, 2016
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Hi rstrider,
While I respect that you think the IBUs may be a little high, this beer, even at 25 IBUs is definitely not a Pale Ale, and nowhere near an IPA. Depending on your tastes, if it's a little too hoppy, you may want to consider changing the hop schedule so you can adjust the bitterness, flavor, and/or aroma additions. For me, I substitute the final Centennial addition with Ahtanum, which is a little milder. Just for reference, the BJCP IBU scale for a Blonde Ale is 11-28; Pale Ale is 30-50; and an IPA is 40-70. So in terms of style, Centennial Blonde is right where it's supposed to be. The wonderful thing about brewing your own, is you can tweak to suit your tastes, and I think backing off to 0.20 oz is one way. The other might be adjusting the schedule to accentuate the bittering, flavor, or aroma as desired. Cheers!
Ed
Right what I'm getting at is if I were to pick this up blindly without knowing any details a blonde ale would not be my first choice of classification. In a blonde ale I'm looking for something balanced to malt forward and not hoppy. This is not that imo. It is pretty hop forward with the original recipe. When I think of blonde ale I think of something in the ballpark of a craft take on macro brew. Yes that teeters in the cream ale category for sure. However, this is not that. While it may match the BJCP classification on paper if I was judging this in a comp it would definitely get dinged for bitterness. I'm not a BJCP judge but I'm lucky enough to know an active one as well as very accomplished brewers that would tend to agree. Where I'm located (FL Panhandle) a good craft blonde would be Gulf Coast Brewery blonde ale or the Props brewery Blonde Bomber. I think if I took this brew to an event with patrons looking for macro brew they would appreciate the free beer but would tend to agree this is a tad much on the bitterness. I'm not arguing that this is not a good brew, as it really is and is enjoyable at that, I'm just stating this would not be my first choice of classification when it comes to a blonde ale. My other concern is the grain bill. Why have such a busy bill if the hops cover it up? With something that busy I'd want it to stand out more and that's just going to be tough to do at 25 ibus. I would shoot for mid to lower ibus to let that grain bill shine. Yes I've already dropped the IBUs for the next go around. As in all recipes they are a baseline for us to follow/tweak to our tastes.