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

I have to say this is my most "played" with beer recipes. I've played with it so much I couldn't even tell you what the original recipe was!! There's been Dirty Blond, Dirty Blond Mosaic a Dirty Blond Citra and the latest incarnation was a Dirty Blond on Steroids where I amped it up a little more than usual. My first blond ale of this season will be back to the original recipe to refresh my memory! Never had so much fun with a recipe before! I've probably brewed at least 10 batches from this recipe in 5 or 6 versions.

I've been looking at this for the lighter tap on my kegerator, looks like a winner! What do you guys think about 1032 for the yeast?

allentwnguy said:

I have to say this is my most "played" with beer recipes. I've played with it so much I couldn't even tell you what the original recipe was!! There's been Dirty Blond, Dirty Blond Mosaic a Dirty Blond Citra and the latest incarnation was a Dirty Blond on Steroids where I amped it up a little more than usual. My first blond ale of this season will be back to the original recipe to refresh my memory! Never had so much fun with a recipe before! I've probably brewed at least 10 batches from this recipe in 5 or 6 versions.

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Do you happen to have the hop schedule for the Dirty Blonde Citra and Mosaic? I have close to a lb of both and planned on using them this weekend.

thadeus_d3 said:

Do you happen to have the hop schedule for the Dirty Blonde Citra and Mosaic? I have close to a lb of both and planned on using them this weekend.

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By the time I made the Citra version I had pumped it up a little. I used 7.5 pounds of 2row and 1 of Carapils. I left the 10L and vienna stand. And kicked it up with 1.5 lb DME (don't know why I didn't use grains but I probably didn't want to throw off the malt profile that much, who knows, I was playing)

Hops I used Citra and Amarillo
.25 Citra 60
.25 Citra 25
.25 Amarillo 20
.25 Amarillo 5
.25 Amarillo 1

And I dry hopped with .5 of each.

I basically pushed up the OG to 1.053 and ABV but color (a hair darker) and IBU's stay in balance. On this recipe I lost my notes... the computer dumped them for some reason. But I remember the keg being emptied fairly quickly!

Hey guys, new brewer here. brewed this up (my third brew ever) on the 8th for a bday party on the 28th. That gives me twenty days total. I made a starter with the notty and pitched the slurry. It took off like a rocket and was bubbling like crazy, airlock acitivity slowed to a crawl two days later though!?? Brewed it sunday pitched around 6:30pm. Fermentation set at 68 degrees.By tuesday airlock activity was slow. Almost all krausen has completly receded now on the wed 11th. What's up with that? Crazy!

If I give it 10 days in the primary, then cold crash the primary for two more, and give it 8 days in the keg I should be good to go? Or should I give it longer in the primary and shorten the keg time??

Also I was thinking of hitting it at 30 psi for a day then setting it at 12 psi for 7 days up until the party. Sound about right??

Your plan sounds great. Notty is fast. You could take a gravity sample to make sure though. 30 psi for a day or two. Burp the keg, then set at serving pressure.

BigGoat said:

Your plan sounds great. Notty is fast. You could take a gravity sample to make sure though. 30 psi for a day or two. Burp the keg, then set at serving pressure.

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Right on! Really pumped. I have this and an APA that I'll be taking. First time I've shared with a group of people.

Thanks for the input

Hi, newbie here. Brew the original recipe yesterday. That was my first brew ever, many lessons learned.
I ended up with only 4.5 gal and the OG was 1.051. Lost 2 gallons on the boil, guess I will need to low down that burner!

Lets see how it will turn out.

Cheers!

allentwnguy said:

By the time I made the Citra version I had pumped it up a little. I used 7.5 pounds of 2row and 1 of Carapils. I left the 10L and vienna stand. And kicked it up with 1.5 lb DME (don't know why I didn't use grains but I probably didn't want to throw off the malt profile that much, who knows, I was playing)

Hops I used Citra and Amarillo
.25 Citra 60
.25 Citra 25
.25 Amarillo 20
.25 Amarillo 5
.25 Amarillo 1

And I dry hopped with .5 of each.

I basically pushed up the OG to 1.053 and ABV but color (a hair darker) and IBU's stay in balance. On this recipe I lost my notes... the computer dumped them for some reason. But I remember the keg being emptied fairly quickly!

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Perfect, thank you. I'll make a 10g batch of this recipe this weekend.

thadeus_d3 said:

Perfect, thank you. I'll make a 10g batch of this recipe this weekend.

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Nice! I'll be looking forward to hear how it is. Always good to get some feedback. I've been looking for fellow brewers here in Buffalo but even with one a few houses away it is hard to get feedback.

HiImBrian said:

What the heck happened here!? I just went to check my gravity and this beer turned out super cloudy. The taste and aroma are spot on, but man this beer is ugly! Here's a comparison between the last time I brewed this, and the most recent time. I thought this brew was one of my most successful yet as far as hitting my numbers went.

Another note: I remember this beer looking just about as cloudy coming out of my plate chiller and into the fermentor. I hoped it'd clear up a bit, but it looks like it might be a lost cause

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So if you flip back a couple pages you'll see how cloudy this beer was. Honestly I have been so busy I haven't had a chance to keg this yet and when I finally got around to it last night the beer was super clear! I used 2 packs of Nottingham in this batch and I think that had a large role in the cloudiness and I just had to give the little guys a bit more time to settle out. Super glad this beer is saved! Tastes even better than the last batch!

p.s. why do all my pictures show up sideways!?

Just tapped the keg on my first batch of this.

Made it specifically for March Madness. Really tasty.

Appropriately named it "Buzzer Beater"

corycorycory09 said:

Just tapped the keg on my first batch of this.



Made it specifically for March Madness. Really tasty.



Appropriately named it "Buzzer Beater"

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So, how is it?

phyllobeddo said:

I bottled this today and got 21 12 oz bottles. The hydro sample tasted excellent, even though I didn't follow the original recipe like I wanted. FG was 1008. Can't wait to taste this one cold and carbed.

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I just finished one of these. Even though I borked the hop additions and ended up at 46 IBU according to Beersmith, this is a really good beer. I'm very happy with it! I will brew this again using the original recipe to compare with what I ended up with. I really like the Centennial and Cascade hops in this one, a lot. Nice. If my screw up is better than the original at least I have my notes to recreate it. haha

BrianMac said:

So, how is it?

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Really good. Light, crisp, very drinkable.

Kegged the 5 I pitched notty on, been in gas for 2 days, I just had to sneak a taste. Good, light beer low in hop and malt, let's the water and yeast shine.
I've got 5 more I pitched US-05 on and I'm thinking of dry hopping with cascade for 5 days.

After a a terrible brew day with a stuck sparge that required moving a 11g batch into several separate vessels. My hydro sample 2 weeks later is at 1.006 and is very good. Will keg half of it tonight likely.

I do have 3lbs of strawberries I was thinking about racking the other half on. Seems like there are mixed opinion about the strawberry blonde though... anyone want to push me over the edge either way?

Do it!

strawberry blonde w/ this beers works great.
use fresh/frozen, not the artificial flavoring.

I brewed 2 batches of this For a party i had yesterday. One batch was done exactly how beirmuncher intended it to be, the other was followed with the exception of the late hops being upped a little and citra and ammarillo for dry hopping in the keg.

The beer crowd was mostly bmc drinkers so I figured they would take to the original recipe and they did........ For a while At least. Then someone pulled a draft of the dry hopped version.. Tis now empty and I'm now dry hopping the original recipe today.

I think I just converted 15 bmc drinkers to craft beer.

5g for a keg and 5g for Strawberries (3lb)

You can see a large difference in sediment between the fermenters the first carboy got no hot break while the second got all of the hot break. They both finished at .006 but the the one with the break feels a bit more malty and is definitely clearer out of the fermenter. I almost skipped the strawberries so I could do a trubby / non-trubby taste and clarity experiment.

Did a spilt batch 5 on Notty and 5 on US-05 with a oz of cascade dry hopped for 5 days.
Had 4 of the US-05 tonight with one of my best buds (no pun intended) and what a great beer, great simple session brews.

jekeane said:

5g for a keg and 5g for Strawberries (3lb)

You can see a large difference in sediment between the fermenters the first carboy got no hot break while the second got all of the hot break. They both finished at .006 but the the one with the break feels a bit more malty and is definitely clearer out of the fermenter. I almost skipped the strawberries so I could do a trubby / non-trubby taste and clarity experiment.

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Did you fill the first or the second first? I recently filled two carboys and was suprised by the difference in the amount of trub between the two carboys. The first carboy had more trub which surprised me as I did a pretty long whirlpool and I figured that the 2nd one would be dirtier.

Muchacho said:

Did you fill the first or the second first? I recently filled two carboys and was suprised by the difference in the amount of trub between the two carboys. The first carboy had more trub which surprised me as I did a pretty long whirlpool and I figured that the 2nd one would be dirtier.

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In my case I filled the trubby one second. Do you have a dip tube? I don't because the keggles i got of craigslist were terribly welded... All of that cold break in there was below the valve line so I got it when I tipped the kettle to get the wort out. I had some volume issue after a terrible sparge otherwise I would / should have left all that cold break out. The two samples tasted noticeably different. The less trubby one is kegged right now waiting on gas and tastes very clean. The trubby one is on the berries and will get kegged this weekend. It tasted more malty and muddled when i sampled it not bad but definately a little different.

Just put about my 10th batch in my fernentation fridge. My bicycle club requires me to bring a keg to all of our Time Trial Picnics.

Around these parts, it is called Time Trial Beer, and is very loved. No changes to the original 10gal recipe.

I brewed this again a month or so ago and put in an extra oz of Chinook hops I had lying around. Came out great.

I've brewed this 4 times now and everyone loves it.

Just kegged the half I racked on 3lbs of freshly frozen strawberries for 1 week. Smells like a ripe strawberry and tastes very good. My wife tried the hydo sample and immediately asked "how long till this is ready?"

Brewed this recipe yesterday for the first time, with some variations to adapt for what I had on hand:

12.68gal into fermenter
1.040 OG
20.5 IBU
4 SRM

Ingredients:
------------
Pilsen Malt (Agraria - Brazil) 46.7%
Pale Malt (Weyermann) 29.9%
Carafoam 5.4%
Wheat Malt (Weyermann) 2.9%
0.78oz Centennial [8.50%] (95 min FWH)
0.88oz Cascade [7.80%] (20 min)
0.85oz Cascade [7.80%] (5 min)
US-05 + Nottingham Slurry from a previous batch

Mashed at 153 for 90min

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Just pitched the slurry at 64


Actually there is a lot of differences I guess haha, but hoping it ends up similarly good
My brother wasn't too fond of the 1.040 OG, and I'm a bit sceptical as well but also curious as to how it'll turn out. Thanks for the recipe!

sub

I brewed the Centennial Blonde, all grain, original recipe on first page. Ten gallon batch with a RIMS system. Hit the numbers mostly right on. FG went a little low, 1.005. One package of re-hydrated yeast in each 6 gallon fermenter. Two week ferment with secondary. Kegged and on co2 for a week. I get a "Corona" beer smell. Not very pleasant to me. Is this smell typical for this beer?

I brewed the Centennial Blonde, all grain, original recipe on first page. Ten gallon batch with a RIMS system. Hit the numbers mostly right on. FG went a little low, 1.005. One package of re-hydrated yeast in each 6 gallon fermenter. Two week ferment with secondary. Kegged and on co2 for a week. I get a "Corona" beer smell. Not very pleasant to me. Is this smell typical for this beer?

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I am in San Diego and we are having a major drought, maybe it is where the public utilities are getting the water from ?

I just bottled this a couple days ago. Was the cloudiest beer I have ever brewed. I didn't smell a whole lot of the hops but that may be normal as there really isn't a lot. The taste was very white wine ish. Hopefully a few weeks in the bottle will make me forget about the above.

Baldy246 said:

I just bottled this a couple days ago. Was the cloudiest beer I have ever brewed. I didn't smell a whole lot of the hops but that may be normal as there really isn't a lot. The taste was very white wine ish. Hopefully a few weeks in the bottle will make me forget about the above.

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I don't have much for hops nose/flavor in mine. It is just an clean BMC type beer with more overall flavor imo. My batch was pretty cloudy into the keg but 7-10 days later it is very clear.

Kegged up 10 gallons this afternoon. Finished a little higher than I would have liked, but that's terrible temp control (2 weeks before the chamber) and stalling out for ya. Oh well. Sample tasted great, the whole room smelled of that Centennial Cascade blend when I opened the lid up to start racking.

Probably going to give in and dry hop the second keg as it goes into the keezer.

Getting ready to brew this recipe for the first time, and it is my first BIAB batch to so that is exciting.

I was looking at my Danstar yeast package and it talk about rehydrating the yeast

Can someone give me a readers digest version of how to do this?

BigRedFan said:

Getting ready to brew this recipe for the first time, and it is my first BIAB batch to so that is exciting.

I was looking at my Danstar yeast package and it talk about rehydrating the yeast

Can someone give me a readers digest version of how to do this?

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Add to a cup of 90° water for 15ish minutes. You can test it's viability by adding some sugar or a bit of DME. It should foam after 30 minutes. Personally I usually use liquid yeast and just make a good starter.

Good Luck!

BTW, you from the Cornhusker state as well?

kirbcheck said:

Add to a cup of 90° water for 15ish minutes. You can test it's viability by adding some sugar or a bit of DME. It should foam after 30 minutes. Personally I usually use liquid yeast and just make a good starter.

Good Luck!

BTW, you from the Cornhusker state as well?

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You already have the Reader's Digest version, but here's a link to Danstar's explanation if you want to take a couple of minutes to read it.

http://www.danstaryeast.com/about/frequently-asked-questions

kirbcheck said:

Add to a cup of 90° water for 15ish minutes. You can test it's viability by adding some sugar or a bit of DME. It should foam after 30 minutes. Personally I usually use liquid yeast and just make a good starter.

Good Luck!

BTW, you from the Cornhusker state as well?

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I am. Omaha area

What about you?

I live in Kearney.

been mashing for about 45 min. Just checked mash temp and it was 154. Really hoping I don't screw this recipe up by mashing too high. I was trying to maintain 150...