Recipe suggestions - Blonde Ale

I brewed 2 very simple beers recently. They were pretty much the same except for the base malt.

10 lb 2-row in one, 10 lb German Pilsner in the other
1 lb wheat
1 lb flaked oats

Hallertau at 60, 10, and 7 day dry hop

Safeale - 05

Bottled last week... tasted both for the first time today.

The 2-row version is biscuity. The Pilsner version is a bit wheat forward (the better of the two). Both are very balanced and will be easy enough to drink, but I'm looking for a couple of additions - recipe tweaks.

any suggestions?

When you say you're looking for additions, what direction do you have in mind? What is in your "ideal" vision of the beer that is not in these 2 examples?

When I make one, I have to first decide if I'm going to make it more lager-like (pilsner malt, noble hops, etc) or more ale like (pale ale malt, maybe Mt. Hood, Liberty, Willamette, etc) and then I go from there. I typically add a little C10 or C20 to my blondes and if I want it more lager-like, I might also use some Munich or Vienna and all of that (along with the pilsner and nobles) is pushing it towards a decidedly German recipe. This is a wide-open style so it's tough to know what to suggest. Also, my experience with US-05... *yawn*... is a little boring. It's not bad yeast but I prefer 1056, 1272 or WLP001 because I think it has better depth of flavor. Cheers.

The first thing I'd do is take out the oats. They are "slick" and oily, and sort of weird in a blonde. I'm surprised that you don't pick it up in the mouthfeel. I would not like it, but maybe you do so that's just my opinion.

If you want more head retention, use some carapils. It would be the same function as the wheat, but with greater clarity.

I'd consider some light crystal malt (20L) for the "tweak" to replace both the oats and the wheat. That would be really nice, in about a 1 pound addition. This would make a blonde ale.

If you want to go lighter in body and flavor, you could replace the wheat and oats with flaked corn or rice. That would make a cream ale, and it would be really nice fermented cool with an ale yeast like Wyeast 1007.

Would also be a nice base if you want to add fruit. I agree, I'd leave out the oats though. Just changing up the yeast could be a good experiment - you could go with an English strain, Kolsch, etc.

Thanks... good advice.

I added the oats simply because I was mashing wheat. That's an example of over-complicating things I suppose.

I have to say that I like the wheat in the pilsner version. The wheat really came through. Can't say that I know what the style should be... EXACTLY. Brew Target allowed me to create the recipe according to style.

Safeale 05, simply because it's summer in Milton, FL. The options are dry yeast - Safeale, or dead yeast - Wyeast killed during shipment.

How about....

10 lb Pilsner
2 lb wheat
8 oz Caramel 10L
1 lb rice hulls

I'm not set up to lager beer.... so I'll need to brew with ale yeast.

Hops... I'm really into Hallitau... any suggestions otherwise?