Summer Blonde Recipe

Hey guys,

Looking for a nice easy to drink Summer Blonde recipe now that the weather's getting warmer. If any of you guys could help me out that would be great.

Not sure if this is up your alley, but I was going to try it for the summer....

This a plain and simple great lawnmower beer for those thirst quenching hot summer days.

OG: 1.041 – 1.045
FG: 1.008 – 1.012
ABV: 4.4%
IBU: 22

INGREDIENTS FOR 5 GALLONS

5.0 lbs. Light DME
0.5 lbs. Crystal 15oL
1.0 oz. Cascade Hop Pellets (5% AA) – 60 min.
0.5 oz. Cascade Hop Pellets (5% AA) – 2 min.
1 vial Wyeast 1056 American Ale / WLP001
1 tablet Whirfloc
4.9 oz. Corn Sugar (priming) – bottling

1. Add 3 gal. H2O to kettle and raise to 150F.
2. Add 1/2 DME + grains (in nylon grain bag) and step for 30 min.
3. Rinse grains with 1 gal. H2O @ 170F and squeeze out excess H2O from grains.
4. Add 3 gal. H2O, remaining DME and bring to a boil.
5. Add boiling hops.
6. At 45 min. add whirfloc and wort chiller.
7. At 58 min. add aroma hops.
8. At 60 min. turn off flames and turn on chiller.
9. Rack to fermentor and pitch yeast starter.
10. Primary ferment until finished.
11. Secondary for 1 week.
12. Add corn sugar at bottleing and condition for 2 weeks at room temp.
13. Enjoy!!

Thanks for the suggestion. You aren't too far from my hometown of Clifton Park. Anyways, looks good. Also looks like a nice simple base that you could add a little bit of fruit too for a nice SWMBO beer. I'll try it out!

Cool....I am going to make that one soon too

Yep Clifton Park is about 25-30 min from us

Anyone else got any ideas for a nice, simple Blonde? My local brewpub did a Summer Blonde last summer that they aren't going to repeat this year and I'm really looking to try and recreate it. Any help is appreciated!

I would say that a blonde ale is mostly an American pale ale that is light in color and low in bitterness for the style. Beyond that, the details could vary. If you have made an APA that you especially liked, you could tweak that recipe toward lighter color (less crystal and/or lighter crystal) and lower bitterness.

Look in my recipes for my Bombshell Blonde. Its an absolutely killer blonde for hot weather drinking

<-------------------------

cweston said:

I would say that a blonde ale is mostly an American pale ale that is light in color and low in bitterness for the style. Beyond that, the details could vary. If you have made an APA that you especially liked, you could tweak that recipe toward lighter color (less crystal and/or lighter crystal) and lower bitterness.

Click to expand...

That helps a lot. Below is my absolute favorite brew, which happens to be an APA. What would I tweak to make it more of a 'blonde ale'?

6.6 Pounds Light LME
12 oz Crystal Malt
1.5 Oz Northern Brewers Hops (bittering)
1.5 Oz Willamette Hops (finishing)
Nottingham Brewing Yeast

definitely go wit extra light DME, your going to want the body to be as light as possible. I haven't used extract in forever, so Im pretty sure its called extra light. Ill double check for you


*edit

ok its Ultralight LME.

b3 sells it


http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=18465

Chimone said:

definitely go wit extra light DME, your going to want the body to be as light as possible. I haven't used extract in forever, so Im pretty sure its called extra light. Ill double check for you

Click to expand...

Yeah, they have coopers extra light DME. They also have a golden LME, which would you go with?

Should I change the hops? Cut down on the crystal? I'll probably go with liquid yeast this time.

keep your bitterness in the 20-24 ish range. depending on what you want out of this beer. So I would definitely cut the hops down in your previously posted recipe.

maybe 1 oz bittering

1 oz at 10 minutes

Here is the one I cooked up last year while trying to imitate A-B's Beach Bum.

It came out way better than Beach Bum...light and hoppy aroma.

Bathwater Blonde
Type: Extract
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Ingredients
3.50 lb Extra Light Dry Extract
4.00 lb Pale Liquid Extract
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L
0.33 oz Mt. Hood [6.00%] (60 min)
0.33 ozCascade [5.50%] (60 min)
0.33 ozHallertauer [4.80%] (60 min)
0.33 ozMt. Hood [6.00%] (20 min)
0.33 ozCascade [5.50%] (20 min)
0.33 ozHallertauer [4.80%] (20 min)
0.33 ozMt. Hood [6.00%] (5 min)
0.33 ozCascade [5.50%] (5 min)
0.33 ozHallertauer [4.80%] (5 min)
1.00 itemsWhirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min)
American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) [Starter 3 qt]

0.33 ozCascade [5.50%] (Dry Hop 10 days)
0.33 ozHallertauer [4.80%] (Dry Hop 10 days)
0.33 ozMt. Hood [6.00%] (Dry Hop 10 days)

-Todd

Thanks for the help guys. This is what I ended up brewing:

6 Pounds Extra Light DME
8 oz Crystal Malt 10L
1 Oz Northern Brewers Hops (60 min)
1 Oz Willamette Hops (5 min)
Wyeast American Ale Yeast

Alright, made it, bottled it, it's been 5 days so I cracked one open to try it and it is fantastic. I'll wait another week to try it again but even at 5 days it's incredibly good.

So I'm psyched.

Next batch I'm thinking of adding a little bit of a lemon aftertaste ala Sam Summer, though not nearly as predominant. How would I go about doing this?