I'm trying to come up with a cherry blossom-themed blonde ale: mostly pilsner malt, 5% ABV, 25 IBUs... something light and clean. The yeast is a generic saccharomyces cerevisiae.
The twist is that it has to have a cherry blossom theme, so hop selection is important. I could go either cherry (fruity) or blossom (floral) or both. It doesn't actually need to taste or smell like cherries or flowers. It just needs to give off a "OK, cherry blossom, I could see that" vibe.
Here's what I've got on hand:
Amarillo
EKG
Hallertauer MF
Hallertauer Tradition
Hersbrucker
Magnum
Mandarina Bavaria
Merkur
Mosaic
Motueka
Northern Brewer
Perle
Saaz
Strisselspalt
Tettnanger
and here's what's available to me:
Calypso
Cascade
Centennial
Chinook
Citra
Cluster
CTZ
Falconer's Flight
Fuggles
Nugget
Simcoe
Sorachi
Sterling
Willamette
I could either do boil additions for bittering, flavor and aroma, or go the FWH plus hopstand route.
Any suggestions?
The twist is that it has to have a cherry blossom theme, so hop selection is important. I could go either cherry (fruity) or blossom (floral) or both. It doesn't actually need to taste or smell like cherries or flowers. It just needs to give off a "OK, cherry blossom, I could see that" vibe.
Here's what I've got on hand:
Amarillo
EKG
Hallertauer MF
Hallertauer Tradition
Hersbrucker
Magnum
Mandarina Bavaria
Merkur
Mosaic
Motueka
Northern Brewer
Perle
Saaz
Strisselspalt
Tettnanger
and here's what's available to me:
Calypso
Cascade
Centennial
Chinook
Citra
Cluster
CTZ
Falconer's Flight
Fuggles
Nugget
Simcoe
Sorachi
Sterling
Willamette
I could either do boil additions for bittering, flavor and aroma, or go the FWH plus hopstand route.
Any suggestions?