Help with my Blonde Ale recipe

I'm trying to brew a simple Blonde Ale. I want it to be an easy drinker but not too light.

11.5lb US 2 row malt
.5 Crystal 15

Boil for 60 min

.33oz Citra Pellet @60
.33oz Citra Pellet @25
.33oz Citra Pellet @10


How does this look? I cant decide if I should add the whole oz of Citra at the beginning of the boil or if I should break it up like above.

Thanks

 

I wouldn't use the Citra for bittering, I'd save it for flavor (15 minute addition), aroma (flame-out steep), and dry hopping, and find something else for your 60 minute addition...

Cheers!

 

I will second not using Citra for bittering.

 

Thanks! What would be a good pair with the Citra? How about 1 oz Willamette @ 60? Then .5 oz Citra at flameout?

 

I plugged that into beer alchemy and the IBU is only 13. I was shooting for around 20. Any suggestions?

 

1oz of cascade of about 5% AA @60min will get you around 23 IBU's.

 

I recommend using a high quality pilsner malt rather than domestic 2 row. In a beer like this you have nothing else to make up for the lack of malt character.

 

you didnt mention anything about the most important part of the whole thing...

the yeast and the fermentation.

what are you planning to use? The recipe looks fine, as long as it's brewed cleanly and fermented well. It should be a nice basic beer.

 

A FWH with Mt. Hood, Liberty, or Saaz works really well. 2row and munich can be plenty for a blonde. Best combo I have tried so far is percentages around 66, 22, 11; of 2row, Pilsner, and Munich

 

Add some Vienna or Munich, say a pound.

 

I will be using 2 packs of White Labs California Ale

 

Why not use 1 pack, and make a starter instead?

 

I usually make starters but decided to brew last minute kinda.

I brewed to day. Northern Brewer in Milwaukee didnt have Crystal 15 but they gave me a substitute. This is what I went with...

11.5 lbs 2 row
.25 lbs Caramel 10
.25 lbs Caramel 20

1 oz Cascade at 60 min
.25 oz Citra at Flameout

2 packs Wyeast 1056.

Beer Alchemy gave me an ABV of 5.2 with 23 IBU.

Thanks for the tips everyone!

 

Nice! You ended up going with the Cascade!

 

How awesomely convenient. I was just conspiring to do a blonde with all citra and just stumbled on this thread. I'll take this advice and use something different for bittering and just use citra for aroma & dry hopping.

Don't want to hijack this thread, but this was what I was thinking:

3.3 lbs Briess Golden Light LME
2 lbs Crisp Maris Otter
1 lbs Breiss White Wheat
4 oz Gambrinus Honey Malt
3 oz Crystal77L

1oz Cascade @ 60 mins
.25 oz Citra @ 15 mins
.5 oz Citra Dry

Safale S-04

I'm aiming for a light beer that's going to be drinkable relatively quickly, kind of sweet & fruity/floral. Makes you think of spring despite the fact it's nasty cold outside.

 

Did you see this Centennial Blonde recipe? I have made this many times and it is always well received.

 

I can only do partials now so I'd have to knock the 2-row down to 2.75lb and substitute a couple pounds of LME...other than that, I think that's exactly what I'm looking for. I even have some Nottingham handy. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

This BM's reply for an extract version

This should get you a very similar beer:

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.57 gal
Estimated OG: 1.044 SG
Estimated Color: 3.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 16.8 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 83.3 %
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 16.7 %
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (45 min) Hops 7.8 IBU
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (20 min) Hops 5.1 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (10 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (5 min) Hops 1.4 IBU
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale
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