GF American Blonde Ale Recipe

[jmitchell3]

hey crew!

I've decided to brew my third GF all grain batch in June, this time an American Blonde Ale.

Here's the proposed recipe:

6 gallons post boil
OG 1.046
FG 1.010
IBU 17
SRM 4.2

Assuming 60% mash efficiency, 90 minute boil

7 lb Grouse Pale Millet Malt
3 lb Flaked Corn
3 lb Flaked Oats
1 lb Grouse CaraMillet Malt

1 oz Willamette at 60 minutes

US-05, 22 g rehydrated​

For the mash, my first batch achieved 65% efficiency by mashing in around 163F then dropping the temp to 150F for the conversion and adding enzyme there. For the second batch, a stout, I did a step mash,

122F->140F->158F->168F​

but only achieved 55% efficiency. Both of those batches I had to add candi syrup and sucrose to shore up the gravities. I imagine the difference in mash efficiency was likely solely due to the better gelatinization of starches in the first batch with an initial rest at 163F. So I'm probably going to try the same, dough in 165F or so (15 minutes?), then drop temp to 152F and mash 120 minutes there.

As far as recipe goes, my first batch did well and was enjoyed by all but I'm trying to nail down the aroma / flavor contributions of each of these specialty malts. So, I'm going to try to do several identical batches just changing the specialty malts so I can get a grip on what each is contributing. This recipe I'm using the adjuncts for body (oats) and starches (corn) and will keep those in each subsequent iteration. I've eliminated the buckwheat component; it will be treated as a "specialty malt" in a subsequent batch. Here are malts I intend to test in this manner:

• Grouse CaraMillet
• Grouse Caramel / Crystal Millet
• Grouse Light Roast Millet
• Grouse Munich Millet
• Buckwheat Malt
• Eckert Biscuit Rice Malt
• Eckert Dark Rice Malt
• Eckert James Brown Rice Malt
• Eckert Crystal Rice Malt
• Eckert Gas Hog Rice Malt

These are the specialty malts I have on hand. I may pull out the mash tun and do smaller batches just to save on the high price of pale millet. Then again, maybe not. Should have my brewing cut out for the rest of the year!

Any feedback on this recipe or mashing or testing would be appreciated, including any experience and perceptions you all have had with these malts!

 

[glutarded-chris]

I like the systematic approach. I did something similar to test the taste of yeasts. for my test I pitched 3 different yeast on one batch of wart split in 3. Used tame hop additions so the yeast flavor would come out. Your test is MUCH more ambitious as you have to brew multiple AG batches!

Have you used that high a percentage of oats and corn before? Most recipes I have seen seem to max out at 10 or 12% corn or oats.

Look forward to the results.

 

[jmitchell3]

No i havnt used that much adjunct. I figure since im adding amylase anyway it should convert readily. I like the idea of integrating grain adjunct rather than sugar to help with body and a higher FG than using sucrose type sugars, and im confident with their characteristics having used them in barley based beers....and they are cheaper than malted millet! Just used 15% oats in an oatmeal stout (w clarity ferm of course) and didnt have any issues with lautering or conversion (just 2row base for the enzymes). I did use 4oz of rice hulls, however.

What frustrated me about the first two batches was perceiving aromas and flavors where i could not pin a cause / origin, along with the same type of feedback from judges in comp. figure this will help.

 

[glutarded-chris]

Look forward to your results. I am guessing you are going to bottle so you can try them head to head.

My guess is that the Buckwheat base malt will be invisible. You might consider eliminating that one or moving it to the end. I don't see Vienna millet in your rotation. Have a selfish reason for mentioning that as I purchased some Grouse Vienna and Munich. I used them both in different batches but too many variables were changing to get a feel of the contribution.

I think you may find that the roasted rice gives you roasted character that is closer to what you get from your barley experience than the millet will give you (because rice has husk and millet basically does not). Let direct comparison prove or disprove!

 

[jmitchell3]

Brewed it up Friday. Hit my pre-boil gravity but the lauter took forever. Added 1/4 lb of rice hulls, probably need a whole pound. Double crushed the millet though my mill at 0.010". Seemed to give a good crush. I hit 60% efficiency but I'm pretty sure a better lauter rate for the RIMS mash would increase efficiency. Possibly I need fresher enzyme. Used White Labs OptiMash product at 163F for 20 minutes, then reduced temp to 152F and added prescribed amounts of Diatase enzyme (liquid) and BSG Amylase blend (powder). I was very tired of waiting for the mash to finish so I failed to do a mash out step. I imagine that may have added a gravity point or two.

Pitched 2 packs of rehydrated US05 yeast friday around 8pm. OG was 1.041 SG (5 pts low from what I anticipated...thinking maybe my program was wrong for some reason), today it just hit 1.008 SG (est FG was 1.011) and it looks like it may finish around 1.007. I'll upload some pics from my brewometer and brewday in the next post...

 

[jmitchell3]

Millet crush View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464102662.293249.jpg
Combined grist View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464102692.675245.jpg
After the kettle whirlpool and runoff View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464102719.577528.jpg
Current fermentation stats View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464102746.363463.jpg
Fermentation profile (actual) View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464102778.631973.jpg

 

[hipturn]

This looks great. I've been brewing with 100% Eckert base and adjuncts. I recently started adding flaked corn to the bill. I'm using optimash at 170-175 for 2 hours then amylase from EC Kraus. Getting great efficiency but tons of trub. Surprised by kettle pic with hardly any trub. Must be protein from the rice. Might add a rest at 122 of so. Thx for this info.

 

[jmitchell3]

This looks great. I've been brewing with 100% Eckert base and adjuncts. I recently started adding flaked corn to the bill. I'm using optimash at 170-175 for 2 hours then amylase from EC Kraus. Getting great efficiency but tons of trub. Surprised by kettle pic with hardly any trub. Must be protein from the rice. Might add a rest at 122 of so. Thx for this info.

Wow, what's your mash efficiency been? Mine's been right at 60%. May try optimash at that higher temp (170+) next time.

UDPATE: The beer attenuated out to 1.004 in 5 days. Ramped the temp to 70 from 64 yesterday (day 6) to let it clean up a bit before kegging this weekend. Quite a bit dryer than I had anticipated. Guess that diatase did its thing?!

 

[Legume]

To control fermentability when using distase, you might rebrew a similar recipe and do the second rest for half the time (60 min) or less.
Once you get a feel for the Diastase, you will be able to control how dry your beer gets by how long that second rest (with Diastase) is.

I use Termamyl L, but have done the same...I now have a feel for how to dial in my attenuation by adjusting the time of my second rest.

In my experience, gains in efficiency all come from my first, higher temp (A amylase) rest...fermentability is controled by the second (B amylase) rest.

 

[jmitchell3]

Interesting so what you're saying is that the higher temperature rest say 170 with white labs optimash would be longer for better mash efficiency, then the second lower temp rest (150-160 with diatase) would be for fermentability and would be typically less than 60 mins?

 

[jmitchell3]

Out of the fermenter: View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1464630382.499436.jpg

 

[Legume]

Interesting so what you're saying is that the higher temperature rest say 170 with white labs optimash would be longer for better mash efficiency, then the second lower temp rest (150-160 with diatase) would be for fermentability and would be typically less than 60 mins?

You got it.

I have not used diatase, so I can not recomend a specific ammount of time for that 150 rest; but the longer you mash(at 150 to 160) with that enzyme the more fermentable your wort will be.

you can experiment to find an amount of time(and concentration) that gives you the results you are looking for.

 

[DRV]

Quick question with mashing at such a high temperature are the natural enzymes present from the Millet denatured? and if so are you solely depending the on the enzymes you are adding to handle the denatured beta and alpha amalyze?

 

[jmitchell3]

Quick question with mashing at such a high temperature are the natural enzymes present from the Millet denatured? and if so are you solely depending the on the enzymes you are adding to handle the denatured beta and alpha amalyze?

So beta surely is denatured pretty quick at 163-165. Alpha will take longer to denature at that temp, but I don't know how fast. I've heard Lagunitas mashes for their IPA at 160F, sooo...

But yeah, mash efficiency and fermentability are greatly improved with the use of additional enzymes.

 

[Legume]

Quick question with mashing at such a high temperature are the natural enzymes present from the Millet denatured? and if so are you solely depending the on the enzymes you are adding to handle the denatured beta and alpha amalyze?

Yes, the high temp rest probably does denature the enzymes in the millet malt.

Millet starch does not fully gelatinize at normal mash temps (some of it will), so efficiency suffers without a rest at temperatures high enough to start denaturing the enzymes in the malt.
It is possible to make great beer with gluten free malts (without adding enzymes), but you have to straddle a very fine line between efficiency and denaturing your enzymes.

 

[Legume]

Quick question with mashing at such a high temperature are the natural enzymes present from the Millet denatured? and if so are you solely depending the on the enzymes you are adding to handle the denatured beta and alpha amalyze?

Yes, the high temp rest probably does denature the enzymes in the millet malt.

Millet starch does not fully gelatinize at normal mash temps (some of it will), so efficiency suffers without a rest at temperatures high enough to start denaturing the enzymes in the malt.
It is possible to make great beer with gluten free malts (without adding enzymes), but you have to straddle a very fine line between efficiency and denaturing your enzymes.

 

[DRV]

Yes, the high temp rest probably does denature the enzymes in the millet malt.

Millet starch does not fully gelatinize at normal mash temps (some of it will), so efficiency suffers without a rest at temperatures high enough to start denaturing the enzymes in the malt.
It is possible to make great beer with gluten free malts (without adding enzymes), but you have to straddle a very fine line between efficiency and denaturing your enzymes.

Does anyone know what temperature is needed to gelatinize Grouse Millet? I was searching google for this and found temperatures of other types of Millet in the range of 140f to 178f. I emailed Grouse to ask them what the ideal gelatinzation temperature is. I know for their step mash they have 30min rest at 140f, 60min at 156f and 30min at 163f.

 

[jmitchell3]

Here's a shot of the final product. Came out reeally well. I'm quite pleased. Very light, crisp, refreshing. Just the right amount of citrus hops supporting the grainy sweet millet malt profile. Light bodied, nice foamy white head (dissipates pretty quickly to lacing). Very nice.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1465241511.943494.jpg

 

[glutarded-chris]

Nice!
Did you stay with the Willamette hops on bittering and eliminate late hop additions?

 

[jmitchell3]

Nice!
Did you stay with the Willamette hops on bittering and eliminate late hop additions?

Haha actually i went with centennial (8.1% AA). 1/2 oz first wort hopped then an additional 1/2 oz added at the end of the boil and a 30 minute whirlpool at 176F.

 

[DRV]

Making me think of warmer weather with that tasty libation. Did you keg it or bottle?

 

[jmitchell3]

Keg.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1465346756.411303.jpg

 

[jmitchell3]

Hey all, just an update on this Blond Ale. I entered it for review on The Brewing Network's Dr. Homebrew show, you can hear all about it and get non-gluten-free drinker's takes in episode #78. Cheers!

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/category/shows/drhomebrew/

 

[WillV]

I just finished listening to it now, sounds like a good review. I just got diagnosed 8 months ago with Celiac and used to brew way back then and stopped. Now I am back to the scene because just like you a lot of beers out there pale in comparison. I want to try this recipe out on my picobrew zymatic which only does 2.5 gallon batches so I got to scale that. By the way milk stout was a problem for me pre-diagnosis so I can imagine a gluten free version will be a problem. So are you looking to do a longer high 150's range mash with alpha and then bring it down to 154 with a beta amylase for a little more time? how long are you planning on doing that mash for total?

 

[jmitchell3]

I just finished listening to it now, sounds like a good review. I just got diagnosed 8 months ago with Celiac and used to brew way back then and stopped. Now I am back to the scene because just like you a lot of beers out there pale in comparison. I want to try this recipe out on my picobrew zymatic which only does 2.5 gallon batches so I got to scale that. By the way milk stout was a problem for me pre-diagnosis so I can imagine a gluten free version will be a problem. So are you looking to do a longer high 150's range mash with alpha and then bring it down to 154 with a beta amylase for a little more time? how long are you planning on doing that mash for total?

actually if you can get above 163F for the first phase of the mash, that's gonna be pretty good. Then low 150s for the remainder. I'd say plan on at least 2 hours maybe 3 total. This beer had crazy high attenuation (finished 1.004) so I'd suggest making the second mash step shorter, say 30-45 mins total and see what your fermentability ends up being.