- Recipe Type
- All Grain
- Yeast
- 1056 (or many other ale yeast)
- Yeast Starter
- yes
- Batch Size (Gallons)
- 6.5
- Original Gravity
- 1.045
- Final Gravity
- 1.011
- Boiling Time (Minutes)
- 60
- IBU
- 20
- Color
- 3.8 SRM
- Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
- 12 days, free rise from 65-70
- Tasting Notes
- Just a really nice, basic, easy drinking blonde ale. Great on a hot day or when you want something simple. Also, an automatic favorite for the BMC drinkers.
This beer serves two purposes for me.
1.) It is just a great beer to have on tap. Easy drinking, low ABV., and a crowd favorite.
2.) I use this beer to "make yeast." I generally run yeast through many beers, and I use this beer as a low hopped, low gravity way to generate a lot of yeast for other beers. There are no dry hops, low kettle hop, I let the trub settle out in kettle as much as possible - and as a result I end up with nice, clean yeast a the end of fermentation. After racking it to keg, I leave a quart or more of beer behind and swirl the yeast up into suspension and pour it off into sanitized pint mason jars. I can generally get 4-6 pint jars of slurry. Store them in the fridge and then pull them out and make a starter when I need one. I usually make another blonde ale with the 6th jar, and collect another 6 jars of yeast. I can routinely brew 15-20 beers pretty easily off of one pack of yeast.
Grain Bill:
I will include % of grain bill and amounts I use for 6.5 gallons.
Shoot for approximately 1.040-1.045 OG
Looking for 3.9-4.2% ABV or so
45% Rahr 2 Row (4.5 lbs)
45% Golden Promise (4.5 lbs)
4% Wheat (.5lbs)
4% Flaked Barley (.5lbs)
2% Honey Malt or Cara 20 (.25 lbs)
Mash @ 155 for 60 minutes.
** You could probably simplify this grain bill to all 2 row or all Golden Promise for the base (or pilsner).
Hops:
1 ounce of Liberty @ 30 minutes
1 ounce of Liberty @ Flameout
Water:
Use 100% RO Water for mash and sparge.
Shoot for around 50/50/50 on Calcium/Chloride/Sulfate
I add .3 grams/gallon gypsum and .3 grams/gallon CaCl to mash and sparge water.
I add .5 ml of Lactic Acid per gallon of mash water
I add .1 ml of Lactic Acid per gallon of sparge water
B'run Water Numbers for me:
Ca: 48
Mg:0
Na:8
Sulfate:45
Chloride:55
Bicarbonate:16
pH:5.30
Water - the simple version:
*Use 100% RO water
*Per 5 gallons of mash water and per 5 gallons of sparge water.
*Use a 1/4 tsp. for measuring.
*Add a heaping 1/4 tsp of both gypsum and CaCl to both mash and sparge.... This is approximately 1.5 grams of both gypsum and CaCl to both mash and sparge.
*Add lactic acid as listed above (or, add 2-3 ounces acidulated malt to grain bill.)
*That will basically get you right in the ball park
Yeast/Fermenation:
I use a lot of different yeasts with this beer - basically any yeast I want to build up to use in multiple beers. However, for the beer itself - I think 1056 works best.
That said, other yeasts I have use in this on a regular basis are: Conan, 1968 and 1318.
I generally start it around 65 and let it free rise to 68-72.
I usually keg it around day 12 or so.
Other Notes:
I started brewing this purely to make yeast - but, it is probably the second most "popular" beer I brew among my basement regulars. Anyone will like this beer from strict BMC drinkers to more seasoned craft beer drinkers.
1.) It is just a great beer to have on tap. Easy drinking, low ABV., and a crowd favorite.
2.) I use this beer to "make yeast." I generally run yeast through many beers, and I use this beer as a low hopped, low gravity way to generate a lot of yeast for other beers. There are no dry hops, low kettle hop, I let the trub settle out in kettle as much as possible - and as a result I end up with nice, clean yeast a the end of fermentation. After racking it to keg, I leave a quart or more of beer behind and swirl the yeast up into suspension and pour it off into sanitized pint mason jars. I can generally get 4-6 pint jars of slurry. Store them in the fridge and then pull them out and make a starter when I need one. I usually make another blonde ale with the 6th jar, and collect another 6 jars of yeast. I can routinely brew 15-20 beers pretty easily off of one pack of yeast.
Grain Bill:
I will include % of grain bill and amounts I use for 6.5 gallons.
Shoot for approximately 1.040-1.045 OG
Looking for 3.9-4.2% ABV or so
45% Rahr 2 Row (4.5 lbs)
45% Golden Promise (4.5 lbs)
4% Wheat (.5lbs)
4% Flaked Barley (.5lbs)
2% Honey Malt or Cara 20 (.25 lbs)
Mash @ 155 for 60 minutes.
** You could probably simplify this grain bill to all 2 row or all Golden Promise for the base (or pilsner).
Hops:
1 ounce of Liberty @ 30 minutes
1 ounce of Liberty @ Flameout
Water:
Use 100% RO Water for mash and sparge.
Shoot for around 50/50/50 on Calcium/Chloride/Sulfate
I add .3 grams/gallon gypsum and .3 grams/gallon CaCl to mash and sparge water.
I add .5 ml of Lactic Acid per gallon of mash water
I add .1 ml of Lactic Acid per gallon of sparge water
B'run Water Numbers for me:
Ca: 48
Mg:0
Na:8
Sulfate:45
Chloride:55
Bicarbonate:16
pH:5.30
Water - the simple version:
*Use 100% RO water
*Per 5 gallons of mash water and per 5 gallons of sparge water.
*Use a 1/4 tsp. for measuring.
*Add a heaping 1/4 tsp of both gypsum and CaCl to both mash and sparge.... This is approximately 1.5 grams of both gypsum and CaCl to both mash and sparge.
*Add lactic acid as listed above (or, add 2-3 ounces acidulated malt to grain bill.)
*That will basically get you right in the ball park
Yeast/Fermenation:
I use a lot of different yeasts with this beer - basically any yeast I want to build up to use in multiple beers. However, for the beer itself - I think 1056 works best.
That said, other yeasts I have use in this on a regular basis are: Conan, 1968 and 1318.
I generally start it around 65 and let it free rise to 68-72.
I usually keg it around day 12 or so.
Other Notes:
I started brewing this purely to make yeast - but, it is probably the second most "popular" beer I brew among my basement regulars. Anyone will like this beer from strict BMC drinkers to more seasoned craft beer drinkers.
