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

[mew]

I've heard mixed reviews about S-23. I want to get my hands on the new W-34/70, apparently it's the same strain as used in many german breweries.

 

[kjones]

I’m not a big fan of yeasty taste either.

Here’s a typical routine I have to clear the beer quicker and get a cleaner tasting product:

• Use a hop bag to contain your hops during the boil.
• Make sure you get a really good, hard, rolling boil. Breaking up those proteins is key to clear beer.
• Use Whirlfloc (1 tablet per 5-gallons) during the last 15 minutes of your boil.
• Cool your wort as quickly as possible. Cold break is every bit as important as hot break.
• Pitch adequate amounts of a high flocculating yeast. I usually use Safale-05 or Notty.
• Give your beer at least two weeks in a primary. If it’s bigger than 1.050, go for three.
• Rack to a secondary using gelatin and give the secondary 7-10 days. (you’ll see a lot of sediment fall out quickly using gelatin).
• Rack to a keg and crash chill it down to around 37 degrees.
• Get it on the gas and you should have crystal clear beer in about 10-15 days.

I also shorten my dip tubes in the keg by bending them a bit sharper. Getting that tube off of the very bottom of the keg will go a long way to leaving residual sediment in the keg and not in your glass.

I just bought some gelatin today, mine says to add to cold water let set then boil. Do i just do that then add it right away after it cools?

 

[sdhucks7]

Doing my first 10gal today, and this is the recipe I am going to try. LHBS was out of Centennial so they gave me Amarilllo. Any thoughts on if I should change the hop schedule because of this or keep it the same? Thanks for any help.




SD

 

[kornbread]

Doing my first 10gal today, and this is the recipe I am going to try. LHBS was out of Centennial so they gave me Amarilllo. Any thoughts on if I should change the hop schedule because of this or keep it the same? Thanks for any help.




SD

I did the same thing with my version of this recipe. My best beer so far by the way. (Thanks biermuncher for the recipe!) The Amarillo had a lower AA% than the recipe called for. I wish I'd had added a little more for bittering because it is a tad on the sweet side. But, it still came out great.

Good Luck

 

[mew]

Anyone had the Terminal Gravity ESG? My slightly higher gravity version of the Centennial Blonde tasted very very similar to the ESG.

 

[BierMuncher]

I just bought some gelatin today, mine says to add to cold water let set then boil. Do i just do that then add it right away after it cools?

Don't bring the gelatin to a boil. Get it to about 180 degrees. Only heat it enough that it dissolves clear. Boiling will break down the gelatins effectiveness.

 

[dontman]

I just had the premiere of this beer yesterday for the Eagles game. In fact I had a tasting with 5 beers. This was unanimously chosen as the hit of the party. ( 4 weeks in bottle.)

 

[uncleozzy]

I'm going to do a partial mash of this recipe and maybe add just a little lime extract at bottling for the BMC crowd at a party next month. Since I'm still using some extract, though, I'm a little worried about getting it to attenuate fully. If I have both US-05 and Nottingham available, would either of them give me (slightly) better attenuation, or would it not matter?

 

[dontman]

I'm going to do a partial mash of this recipe and maybe add just a little lime extract at bottling for the BMC crowd at a party next month. Since I'm still using some extract, though, I'm a little worried about getting it to attenuate fully. If I have both US-05 and Nottingham available, would either of them give me (slightly) better attenuation, or would it not matter?

Both attentuate well and fully so why not stick with Notty.

Lime? Are you sure? This beer is already that perfect easy drinking beer that should have appeal for the BMC crowd while still wowing the beer aficionados. I would think the lime would only appeal to the Corona crowd. It might be just me but I hate lime in my beer.

 

[uncleozzy]

Both attentuate well and fully so why not stick with Notty.

Lime? Are you sure? This beer is already that perfect easy drinking beer that should have appeal for the BMC crowd while still wowing the beer aficionados. I would think the lime would only appeal to the Corona crowd. It might be just me but I hate lime in my beer.

Yeah, I'm not 100% sure on the lime yet. I might bottle half, or 2/3 of the batch, and mix a little lime into the rest. SWMBO really loves Bud Light Lime (... but also SN Celebration, go figure), so I thought I'd give it a shot.

 

[TimBrewz]

Its been kegged and carbed for a week now: it is exactly what I wanted. The Notty yeast is super clean with just a little "zing". I fermented close to 60f and it has definite lager characteristics. Most tasters think it is a lager, which I take as a good thing...the ale drinkers appreciate the detectable cascade aroma and centennial taste.

Thanks again!

 

[uncleozzy]

Brewed up my partial mash batch this weekend; went great, smelled great, can't wait to drink it. If the "head" retention in the post-aeration sample I took is any indication, this thing is going to have a monstrous, never-ending head.

 

[kjones]

here is mine that i brewed up. I said before it wasnt that clear but the last gallon has cleared up pretty nice even though this pic doesn't really justify it... anyway here it is

 

[BierMuncher]

That is purty...

What's that you're surfing in the background?

 

[jcdillin]

I'm just waiting for my ingredients to arrive and I will be making another batch of this. I had to restrain myself from making a 10 gal batch

thanks again BM awesome stuff

 

[kornbread]

Hey BierMuncher,

I served this at a Christmas gathering tonight and it was very well received by everyone who tried it. (Two Coors Light drinkers and a couple of Bud Light folks.) Everybody wanted seconds.

How cool is that?



Thanks.

 

[BierMuncher]

Hey BierMuncher,

I served this at a Christmas gathering tonight and it was very well received by everyone who tried it. (Two Coors Light drinkers and a couple of Bud Light folks.) Everybody wanted seconds.

How cool is that?



Thanks.

Excellent. More Homebrew converts.

 

[gallagherman]

This looks great and is next to be brewed here. I do have two questions:

1. I have a nottingham yeast cake from a porter that is in the primary. Can I rack the CB right on top? Do people use dry yeast yeast cakes?

2. May be off topic, but my recipe software (Beer Alchemy) makes a difference between 2-row and pale malt. there are two entries. The CB recipe calls for "Pale Malt (2-row)". Which base malt should I get, regular 2-row or pale malt?

 

[FSR402]

This looks great and is next to be brewed here. I do have two questions:

1. I have a nottingham yeast cake from a porter that is in the primary. Can I rack the CB right on top? Do people use dry yeast yeast cakes?

2. May be off topic, but my recipe software (Beer Alchemy) makes a difference between 2-row and pale malt. there are two entries. The CB recipe calls for "Pale Malt (2-row)". Which base malt should I get, regular 2-row or pale malt?

1. Never rack a light beer onto a dark beer yeast cake (unless you want the light beer to be darker)

2. They "should be" one in the same but there are many different "pale malts" so go with the one that says "2-row".

 

[mew]

2. May be off topic, but my recipe software (Beer Alchemy) makes a difference between 2-row and pale malt. there are two entries. The CB recipe calls for "Pale Malt (2-row)". Which base malt should I get, regular 2-row or pale malt?

2-row describes the subspecies of barley used (there's either 2-row or 6-row). That 2-row can be malted in a variety of ways; pale malt is a generic term used for the product of the malting process, but different maltsters will malt and kiln their pale malt differently. If it is a british maltster, the pale malt will tend to be 3.5-5 degrees Lovibond, whereas American 2-row is generally 2.5 L. Some American 2-row is kilned a bit darker than the usual for American 2-row, but you'll just have to check on that in each case.

For the Centennial Blonde, I've used American Pale malt that is 3.5 L. The slightly darker kiln gives it a slightly more forward malt flavor that is more more toasty (hard to explain) than 2.5 L. It'll be fine whichever basemalt you use, but if you're going for appeal to the masses and extreme drinkability go with 2.5 L. If you are okay with slightly more aggressive malt flavor and maybe a tiny bit less appeal to the masses go with a darker kiln.

Hope that helps.

 

[Chriso]

Instead of racking onto a dark beer yeast cake, though, you COULD wash the yeast inorder to re-use it.

Boil up about a half-gallon of water to sanitize it, and let it cool (covered, to keep it clean!) to room temperature. Pour the cooled water into the yeast cake in the bottom of the fermenter, and shake vigorously.

Then, take a sanitized plastic bottle (I use 1L tonic water bottles that I've sanitized with StarSan) and collect as much liquidy yeasty sediment goop as you can into the bottle.

If you let the bottle sit in the fridge for about an hour, it should start to seperate. After about three hours, you should easily be able to pour off the liquid on top without losing the yeast on the bottom.

Voila, yeast cake without the color.

(Plus, you don't need to pitch such a large quantity of yeast, like a full yeast cake, with a recipe like CB. Overpitching causes off flavors too.)

 

[uncleozzy]

Wow! Just took a hydro sample after 9 days in primary, and this beer is already clear enough to read through. I don't think it's going to dry out as much as I'd like (it's been at 1.013 for at least 2 days), but it tastes and looks great already.

 

[Doog_Si_Reeb]

I'm brewing this one in just a few minutes. I figure 5 stars and 30 pages of posts speaks pretty well for this recipe.

I just got some centennial leaf hops last week so I'm set. I'll only be deviating a little bit by using US-05 instead of Nottingham. I'm looking forward to this one. I figure 14 days in the primary and then straight to the keg.

 

[Revvy]

I'm going to do this one again, I've got the stuff and was planning to do it today, but I've only had 3 hours sleep.

But I was going to try it this with saflager yeast and ghetto lager it in my tiny storage locker in my loft buildin'g garage. It's in the low 50's in there...

 

[Chello]

Finally brewing this up today. It's long overdue on my "to-brew" list.

 

[kcinpdx]

I am doing this one Thurs or Fri with the following mods:
10% more of each grain (I'll either fix poor efficiency or have a slightly stronger beer)

replace 1st cascade addition with Centennial, second with Amarillo

use 1056 vs dry and use a starter. I'll post the results in a few weeks.

 

[Deacon1856]

Brewed this one on Saturday. Hit all my numbers. Smoothest brew to date. Hydro sample was divine...clear enough to read through even with hops floating around in it! Cannot WAIT to get this on tap!

 

[uncleozzy]

Call me a cradle-robber, but I just cracked one of these only a week after bottling (hey, the plastic soda bottle was firm!), and it's incredible. I doubled both Cascade additions, so it's probably a tiny bit hoppier than the original. Light, crisp, with a little Cascade aroma and a touch of grainy malt developing as it warms. This is going to be a killer when it's mature. I'm almost wishing I'd chilled more than one.

Thanks, BM!

 

[dutchboy62]

im about to make this one today. It seems like a nice easy second brew. Hope it comes out as good as everyone says.

 

[bkov]

can someone post the beersmith data or whatever program they use data, for the 5gal recipe by tommorow? this is going to be my first AG but not sure on the water amounts and strike temperatures