Blonde Ale Kona Big Wave Golden Ale clone

My recipe looks very similar except I use 10L crystal and I also add about a pound of Weyermann wheat malt. It adds a little more body and mouthfeel. Color is spot on. I also backload my hop additions.

40oz said:

Out of curiosity, what were your gravity readings? I just tried your batch, getting ready to dry hop it

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Just looked at my notes and OG was 1.041, FG was 1.007. I mashed at 151-150F and used a pack of US-05.

I just had to chime in: this blonde ale is quite delicious, even when fermented with Safale K-97. Great body and mouthfeel, perfect use of Citra hops. A simple, refreshing summer brew.

I'm looking at this beer and I may brew it very soon (despite Fall being on it's way). One question though... what does the Galaxy add? I have lots of Galaxy hops but I was curious if the small amount and boil time is still enough to be noticeable...

acarlotto said:

This stuff is so tasty and been my summer go to. I have made 4 batches and this is the recipe I feel that got the closest to real thing.

7 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US
1 lbs 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L
0.25 oz Galaxy hops [14.00 %] Boil 60 min.
1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)
0.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 15 min
0.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 5 min
Us-05 Yeast.

Mash at 150 to 152.


Dry hopped 1.5 to 2oz of citra hops ----mmmmm

Enjoy!!

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I am new to brewing and am starting with an all grain 1 gallon BIAB no sparge. Any chance someone can re-calculate this recipe for 1 gallon full volume no sparge?

I don’t have crystal 20. If I were to use crystal 40, how much should I use for a 6 gal batch (roughly). Was gonna go with .75 lbs

Brewing this beer tonight. Subbed caravienne for the c-20. Just starting the boil. Also going all-citra cause I got no galaxy. Will report back once she’s in the keg.

OG was a bit low- 1.044. Using S-05 for yeast. Hoping the citra bitterness comes through after the sugars are gone. Looking forward to dry-hopping this and tasting if it’s done after two weeks.

eelgerg said:

Also going all-citra cause I got no galaxy. Will report back once she’s in the keg.

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Galaxy is kinda hard to find at the moment. Please let us know how it turns out all Citra. I want to brew this, ideally with Galaxy but if the Citra version turns out great, I will do it as well!

16 hours in and very little activity. Heading out for the night and will check back at bed time. Fingers crossed....

Edit

22 hours and we have liftoff! Can’t wait to see how this turns out.

View attachment 572173

And at 48 hours the top blew off...

Been working away for 5 days now. Still lotsa Krausen. Should I wait till that drops off to start the dry-hop? Or just go ahead and add the citra into primary.

well no opinions so I'mma goin ahead to dry-hop today. I am hesitant to use 1.5-2 oz cause I want it to have the aroma, but just not be grassy, so I'm thinking of sticking to 1 oz to start, see how it smells, and add another 0.5-1 oz later if needed.

Brewed this over the weekend, first batch of beer in over a year so to say I was a bit rusty is a understatement! Messed up my mash and ended up mashing really high, still looks to have made beer though lol. I used oyl-200 to ferment as I had planned on a different beer. Gonna check og after a week and see where I'm at then keg.

Mine turned out really good! Citra certainly has a bite to it. I also bought the original and will post a side by side comparison soon.

I am 2 days into the dry hopping, 3 away from transferring to the brite tank. I went with all Citra as the Galaxy is not available right now in my area.

The end product. I did a side by side with the original and it is pretty damn close. Original is a bit crisper. Mine has a slightly different maltiness to it. A truly amazing beer though. This is definitely a summer regular in my tap rotation.

Both photos are my recipe.

Ok... Noob here. Can someone break down the dry hop phase to me? I'm 1 week into primary fermentation in a carboy. I will be dry hopping with pellets and will be kegging. I guess what I'm asking is how far into the process do I start the dry hopping phase and also, how long until I keg?

rockriver74 said:

Ok... Noob here. Can someone break down the dry hop phase to me? I'm 1 week into primary fermentation in a carboy. I will be dry hopping with pellets and will be kegging. I guess what I'm asking is how far into the process do I start the dry hopping phase and also, how long until I keg?

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I wait until one week after the krausen drops to keg. I add dry hops in the keg and leave them there until the keg kicks. Put the hops in a bag of some sort (muslin, paint strainer, cloth hop bag, etc.)

alestateyall said:

I wait until one week after the krausen drops to keg. I add dry hops in the keg and leave them there until the keg kicks. Put the hops in a bag of some sort (muslin, paint strainer, cloth hop bag, etc.)

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Thank you so much!

I am planning a Golden Ale after my wheat beer tomorrow.

Brewers notes
BITTERNESS. 21 IBU
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME. 4.4%
ORIGINAL GRAVITY. 10.3° P
MALTS. Pale 2 Row Premium, Caramel 20
HOPS. Galaxy, Citra

10 lb 2 row
1 lb C20

Galaxy 7.5 IBU(s) @ 45 min
Citra 6 IBU(s) @ 30 min
Citra 7.5 IBU(s) @ 10 min

Nottingham yeast

brewbama said:

I am planning a Golden Ale after my wheat beer tomorrow.

Brewers notes
BITTERNESS. 21 IBU
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME. 4.4%
ORIGINAL GRAVITY. 10.3° P
MALTS. Pale 2 Row Premium, Caramel 20
HOPS. Galaxy, Citra

10 lb 2 row
1 lb C20

Galaxy 7.5 IBU(s) @ 45 min
Citra 6 IBU(s) @ 30 min
Citra 7.5 IBU(s) @ 10 min

Nottingham yeast

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Sounds good.

I brewed this about two years ago and it was a solid brew. Just curious why one would use Galaxy at 60 min and such a small quantity. I cant believe Kona uses Galaxy that early.
Anyway, I'll probably be brewing this again later this year but will make some changes.
I plan on reducing the 2Row and adding some munich and white wheat.
I may also change the crystal to 40 just to darken it up a bit.
Hop schedule will be warrior to bitter and 2:1 Citra/Galaxy all in late additions (10 min and under) plus some dry hops.

Can anyone suggest a water profile for this? I brew using RO water. Thanks so much!

Uhthoff said:

Can anyone suggest a water profile for this? I brew using RO water. Thanks so much!

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I would start with Yellow Balanced from Bru’n Water.

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Ok, so I finally got a chance to taste this and oh boy, it was awesome. My only deviation from the original recipe was that I substituted Carared for the Crystal malt. It's a little cloudier than I expected, but I think I syphoned to much trub into the keg. The only way I can describe this beer is as a fresher version of Big Wave with a little more hop flavor on the back end. Such a good beer. Cheers!

fI am definetly a fan of Kona and for sure am trying this recipe, could be a good one to have in the rotation, it might have to replace that is very similar, 9 lbs 2-row, 1 lb carmel 40, and all citra with 2 oz dry hoppin

This has inspired me. But I am going to do a quite a bit subbing in the grain bill based on current inventory. No 2-row but have Pilsner, no c-20 but do have quite a bit of Vienna and C-15. No us-05 but have us-04. Any thoughts and concerns?

This is one of my favorite beers from Kona but I also wonder about the 60 minute galaxy addition. Seems like you could get your IBUs from a cheaper hop like columbus, warrior or magnum and not lose anything.

I do a mosiac 60 min addition. I know it's not much cheaper than galaxy but I like it in my version of this recipe. Will use warrior when my mosaic runs out

Centennial would be a good sub also

Basically made my own beer. Used Pilsner 7.5#, C-15 1.5#, Mosiac (fwh .25 & dry hopped 1 oz with 1 oz Citra) instead of galaxy but used Citra as called for in OP & s-04 instead of S05. Side by side with Big Wave mine has a lot more body and more fruit notes but Kona is much clearer than my hazyish beer. Defitnely a crusher

This will be my next batch. Thanks for the recipe!

Brewed this today. Looking forward to it ! Thanks for the recipe !

Cracked open my first bottle of this today. Absolutely lovely. The only thing I changed was I subbed the Galaxy with Mosaic. (Because that's what I had on hand)

Will definitely brew this again. Thanks for the recipe!!

Made with the original recipe and tasted after 1 week in bottle
almost no carbonation but the taste was spot on already, this is going to be damn nice summer beer! Cheers Acarlotto.

By far the best session blonde ale I've brewwed to date

Question the beer is great but definitely a hot summer ale beer. If I love the flavor but want to bump up the abv without adding sugar