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

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I have seen it asked a few times but haven't seen an answer. What is the water profile for this beer? I am using RO myself so just need a ballpark.
 
Brewfat said:
I considered more hops before I brewed this batch but decided to leave it alone. I should probably get more opinions first. No sense messing with a good thing.
This is the first batch I kegged so I'm expecting it to go fast. Working on my pipeline.
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I upped my additions to like .65-.7 because I was brewing 7 gallons and topping off with 3.5 (of boiled and cooled wort, not water). Only have a 7.5 gallon pot.

Anyway, it came out mega-hoppy for some reason. Everyone I know that tried it said they didn't like it because it was "too strong". Everyone said that. "Too strong". It's a ****ing Centennial Blond! Anyway, I know they just meant it tasted strong. They probably thought it was the alcohol, but it was the hops. I even had a hard time drinking it. It didn't really match the beer.

Its been sitting for 4-6 months now and the hops are finally fading a bit. It's much better now than it was before, just because it's not so hoppy.

Now before you go judging me on my opinion of this, I pretty much brew nothing but IIPA's and (I)IIPA/Barleywines, so I like a hoppy beer. More hops just don't work with this. My advice would be to not do it.
 
BierMuncher said:
I’ve been tweaking a house ale recipe for a few months now and this is it. This is the recipe that will be a permanent fixture at my house. I’ve brewed it twice, served the first 10 gallons to friends, families and “curious on-lookers”, and just finished the second 10 gallon batch with identical results.

Light and crisp. The IBU’s are on the low side, but there is a nice sweet/spicy balance to the beer. The great fresh taste of a craft ale with an extremely clean finish. This reminds me of what a local craft brewery might come out of the gates with to win over a new market. Very drinkable with wide appeal. I’ve yet to have anyone, even BMC drinkers not say it’s one of the best beers they’ve tasted….period. The secret lies in the name. I moved through Northern Brewer, Nugget and Pearle hops, all in combination with Cascade. Even went with a strict Cascade hop bill, but was just a bit on the tart side for this lighter grain bill.

Once I matched up Centennial as the bittering hop and Cascade as a flavor/aroma hop…that’s when the magic happened.

This is also a simple, hard to screw up recipe. At just around 4%, this is a quaffer. Due to the lighter grain bill…this is easily a beer that can go from grain to glass in 2 weeks (if you keg).

View attachment 3114


****10-Gallon Batch****
Batch Size: 11.00 gal
Boil Size: 13.69 gal
Estimated OG: 1.039 SG
Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
14.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
0.50 oz Centennial [9.50%] (55 min)
0.50 oz Centennial [9.50%] (35 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [7.80%] (20 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [7.80%] (5 min)
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) (Hydrated)



****5 Gallon Batch****

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.57 gal
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount
7.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (55 min)
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (35 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (20 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (5 min)
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) (Hydrated)


Mash at 150 degrees for 60 minutes.
Click to expand...

BierMuncher - had this on draft yesterday for our BBQ. People loved it and it sure went down easy (the keg was dusted). I had some issues with my fermenting temp so I want to try it again, see if the results are the same. The beer turned out very dry with a touch of sour along side the flavors as you described. Neither bad things but Id love to have a touch more sweet. I had little to no head, so I may step up the cara-pils as well.

Thanks for the recipe.
 
Nottingham is a bit of a dry yeast beast and tends to attenuate pretty hard. Personally, I always use S-04 for this recipe; it keeps FG slightly higher than normal and adds some awesome esters.

However, you mentioned wanting to add cara-pils to aid in head retention as well. You can just up the crystal, which will add more body and improves head retention. Simple solution ^_^
 
reeyawd said:
I had little to no head, so I may step up the cara-pils as well.
Click to expand...
I did the recipe as written and head formation and retention was excellent. This one even stuck around long enough for me to find my camera and tripod.

39917_419728868516_96175053516_4941063_3791948_n.jpg

Do you have head retention issues with other beers, or just this one? Were you serving into glass or plastic cups? I wonder if that makes a difference? Will there be more questions in this paragraph? Who knows.

-Joe
 
So, I made a 5 gallon batch and it turned out great. I substituted Wheat fo the Vienna...I like it.

So it mine a wheat beer now?
 
jbair1 said:
So, I made a 5 gallon batch and it turned out great. I substituted Wheat fo the Vienna...I like it.

So it mine a wheat beer now?
Click to expand...

In a wheat beer, 50% - 70% of the grain bill is wheat malt. So for this recipe, subbing .5 lbs (or 1 lb) of a 10lb grain bill is nowhere close to that percentage.

Maybe it's a Frosted Mini-Wheat =)

Hey now there is a good idea for the name of a brew...
 
out of all the stuff I've brewed since I started, 8 months or less, this is always the best, at least the 45 gallons I've brewed and drank. Good Times!
 
nostalgia said:
I did the recipe as written and head formation and retention was excellent. This one even stuck around long enough for me to find my camera and tripod.



Do you have head retention issues with other beers, or just this one? Were you serving into glass or plastic cups? I wonder if that makes a difference? Will there be more questions in this paragraph? Who knows.

-Joe
Click to expand...

I don't usually have any retention issues. I think I'm going to give it another shot as is...and see if it straightens itself out.

-R
 
Gonna be brewing this tomorrow as my first all grain. Picked it because with so many great reviews and a not to complicated grain/ hop bill I can hopefully have an easy introduction to all grain. Doesn't hurt that it is something my wife will hopefully like.
 
Everything went pretty smooth. Hit an OG post boil of 1.040 First time all grain and my temps were a bit low in the 148 range but other than that it went well.
 
Here she is about 24 hours after pitching. Got almost a solid stream of bubbles and she looks like a washing machine right now in there.

beer005.jpg
 
Have done two 10-gal batches of this with only some minor mods. Great summer sipper. The second batch we split and racked half over 5.5lbs strawberries for a week. Suuuuper fresh strawberry taste and aroma. We actually found mixing it half and half with the regular blonde made a really light strawberry taste with some maltiness and hop aroma.
 
Two questions, I read farther back that you recommend leaving this in the fermentor for about 2 weeks to improve flavor and then a few more days in secondary if I read correctly to clear. Is this the case? Also it may be in the thread somewhere but would you advise cold crashing before bottling this one? I have not cold crashed before and I am not kegging but have read that it is fine to do, just may take a little longer to carb and will result in a much clearer beer.
 
AHS converted this recipe to a partial mash for me, and I'll be brewing it in the next few days. I'm planning on a 3 week primary, then straight to bottles. I can't wait!
 
BM if your reading this I'd love some input from the master but any advice will do. I want this beer as clear as possible so does this sound like a decent plan?

~Leave it in primary for 10-14 days.

~Transfer to a secondary with gelatin and crash to the mid 30's for about 4-7 days.

~Prime and bottle to condition in the high 60's.
 
Made this again last night. Advice: Don't drink Sam Adams 9.5% double bock while brewing. Last thing I remember was putting the wort chiller in the pot. Next thing I know its 5am and I am waking up naked on the guest bed. Went out and it seems I managed to rack to the fermenter and put in the chamber, which is impressive cause its a 13 gallon fermenter with 11 gallons of wort, HEAVY. Problem is I know I had star san in the fermenter... so I hope emptied that before I racked. Oh yeah and I broke my hydrometer so I dunno what the OG is. We will see how it turns out.
 
I plan on brewing this for the first time tomorrow with a couple small changes. My LHBS doesn't carry vienna, so they subbed for munich, and I order my hops from hops direct and I can't see spending the $4 per oz for centennial. So I am using all cascade. Unless you guys would suggest using goldings or northern brewer.
 
bigred said:
I plan on brewing this for the first time tomorrow with a couple small changes. My LHBS doesn't carry vienna, so they subbed for munich, and I order my hops from hops direct and I can't see spending the $4 per oz for centennial. So I am using all cascade. Unless you guys would suggest using goldings or northern brewer.
Click to expand...

You might want to look into ordering your Hops from Chi company who advertises on this site. he sells his hops for $1.00 an oz. i have been ordering them 8 oz at a time. If you order enough it off sets his reasonable charge for shipping.I buy my grain dirt cheap from my local brew store which I walk over to at lunch break from work, but they sell their hops for $2.50 an oz, so i buy my Hops and nottingham yeast from Chi. that keeps my brew costs down. .
 
Took this recipe exactly and added:

2 Hot Red Chili's & 4 Med Red Chili's Secondary 1 week.

5 Anaheim Green Chili's from Walmart *Roasted on the grill & Split down the middle* added to secondary for 7 days.

Kegged and Carbed.

BOS in the 2010 NM Stair Fair Amateur!
 
Brewing this tomorrow:rockin:. SWMBO wants to do a brew day, so I picked this to round out the keezer for our Oktoberfest party... So either we'll have wort or a divorce at the end of the day:drunk:
 
racked this to a secondary today with some gelatin, took a gravity reading and it's 1.010 and tasting pretty good so I'm looking forward to the end result.
 
Brewed this today and had a question for those that have bottled this. How long did you keep it in the primary and then how long in the bottles before it was good to go?
 
I don't plan on doing a secondary so I guess I will just check it at one week and then possibly bottle it.
 
It turns out that I have 15 extra 22oz bottles laying around after bottling my pumpkin and christmas ales. What to do? 1/2 batch of this Centennial. Oh yea.
 
I made this as an extract. Added a pound of honey (cause that's how I roll) and let it ferment at a steady 68 degrees for 5 days. I switched to a secondary, let it sit for 7 days at 42 degrees.

Carb'd it today:

img4193j.jpg



Pretty damn good!
 
Just bottled this after 2 weeks in primary and a week in secondary on gelatin. Was pretty darn clear and tasted good although it was hard to tell considering my brew partner and I were drinking Alpine Pure Hoppiness through the bottling session so our taste buds weren't up for anything light lol. My wife took a sip and said she liked it so that's something. Gonna enter it in the Pacific Brewers Cup since the entry deadline is next Saturday, by the judging day it will have 3 weeks in the bottle so it should be good to go.
 
I just ordered some grains from AHS a day before I stumbled on this recipe. The pics have me thirsty. :) I think I can come up with something close with what I have on hand but will just need to make the volume larger I think. Let me know what you think...based on what I have. The Pale and Munich will be mixed in the same bag so I am stuck with the 8:2 ratio

8 lbs Pale
2 lbs Munich (suitable replacement for Vienna?)
.5 lb Crystal 10

I have .5oz Centennial and 2oz Cascade in the freezer. I have no carapils though. The only other grain on hand is biscuit, which probably wouldn't fit here. Right?

Do you think the above grain bill will still make a similiar enough brew, until I can order more exact ingredients? I'm at work now but figure I could just alter the volume and up the hops slightly to keep the target IBU and OG.
 
sparging 5 gallons of this now. i'm using a London ESB starter i made 2 days ago, probably will finish up primary fermentation in a day or two.
 
I brewed this one this morning and I have to say...things could not have gone more smoothly. I hit my mash temp right on the nose. I hit my boil voume right on the nose. Only thing that did not come out spot on was my OG which was 1.048 (but I'm not going to complain about that). I did have to substitute Safale 05 for the Nottingham...my LHBS didn't have it.

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 80.00 %
0.75 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 8.57 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 5.71 %
0.50 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 5.71 %
0.25 oz Centennial [9.00 %] (55 min) Hops 7.9 IBU
0.25 oz Centennial [9.00 %] (35 min) Hops 6.7 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [7.20 %] (20 min) Hops 3.9 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [7.20 %] (5 min) Hops 1.3 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1.00 tbsp PH 5.2 Stabilizer (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Nottingham Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP039) [Starter 35 ml] Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.040 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.048 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 0.000 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.07 %
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.00 %
Bitterness: 19.8 IBU
Calories: 0 cal/pint
Est Color: 3.9 SRM

Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Total Grain Weight: 8.75 lb
Sparge Water: 5.06 gal
Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F
TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE
Mash PH: 5.2 PH

Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 10.94 qt of water at 161.4 F 150.0 F
 
i hit 1.044 but only have about 5.1 gallons in the primary. i'm guessing i'm at or around the efficiency the recipe was designed for.

will update after primary fermentation.
 

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