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

[drunkatuw]

When transferring to a keg, I ended up with a little extra, so I filled two 22 oz bottles. I still haven't made room in my kegerator yet, but I drank the first bottle last night and boy was it good! It wasn't very clear, but that doesn't surprise me considering that I poured the last inch or two of beer out of the carboy into the bottling bucket and I'm sure I got a lot of trub into the bottling bucket and I didn't take the time to let it settle back out.

But if this is any indication of what the 2 kegs are going to taste like, I can't wait! Thanks for the awesome and quick recipe!

 

[rod]

mine has only been bottled for 10 days but i tried one bottle at 7 days and it
wins hands down as the best i have made so far even though i couldn't find centennial and used all cascade.
thanks bm!
this will always be in the rotation from now on.

 

[BierMuncher]

mine has only been bottled for 10 days but i tried one bottle at 7 days and it
wins hands down as the best i have made so far even though i couldn't find centennial and used all cascade.
thanks bm!
this will always be in the rotation from now on.

The chicks will be all over you.

 

[webbie99]

My LHBS only had northern brewer and willamette. Do you think 1/2 oz of NB @ 60 and willamette for the other additions would be horrid? I hate this "shortage".

Webbie

 

[BierMuncher]

My LHBS only had northern brewer and willamette. Do you think 1/2 oz of NB @ 60 and willamette for the other additions would be horrid? I hate this "shortage".

Webbie

Funny you mention that. About my third batch of this I wanted to mix things up and did a Northern Brewer Blonde. It was every bit as popular. The NB lends a bit more minty tone to it and it's nice and crisp. I love Willamette and they'd be just fine.

If you're doing a 5-gallon batch, do 1/4 oz of NB at 60 and 30, then 1/4 Oz of Willamette at 20 and 5.

If you have Beersmith or another program, plug those AAU's in and try to maintain a 17-20 IBU level.

It will taste good with those hops.

 

[webbie99]

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I will give it a shot.

 

[webbie99]

Didn't get to brew last weekend, but this will be put on tonight. Could you give some direction on mash and sparge water? Is 1.33 qt/lb about right? Thanks.

 

[BierMuncher]

Didn't get to brew last weekend, but this will be put on tonight. Could you give some direction on mash and sparge water? Is 1.33 qt/lb about right? Thanks.

I'm not overly exact on water/grain ratio, but keeping it within that 1.25-1.35 area will be fine.

I like to mash this on the lower side to get a cleaner, drier finish. If you can hold this between 149-152, that would do it.

 

[webbie99]

Thanks, I will keep my strike water a little lower and see what I get.

 

[Jolly McStanson]

I tried making this beer. I'm new to all gain so I think I screwed it up. I know it was green when I tried it, but the tannin taste was beyond believe. I don't even think ageing would have fixed it. I still drank the whole thing. After the 4th glass the taste was tolerable.

I have high PH water at my house and I think it could have extracted too many tannins in the mash. I made another all grain 2 weeks ago using spring water and didn't get that beyond believe tannin taste.

I cant wait to try this recipe again after I get more experience.

 

[strohs]

This recipe looks good, I think I just found my next brew

 

[landhoney]

I'm thinking of brewing this one, but add some lambic/sour blend to make a sour-blonde. Maybe mash a bit higher to add some more unfermentables for the bigs to eat. Russian Rivers base beer for Temptation is a Blonde Ale, so its not without precident.

 

[solbergg]

I want to try the extract version of this recipe, but the biggest boil size I can do is 3.25 gallons. Would I be ruining the taste by doing a partial boil?

 

[BierMuncher]

I want to try the extract version of this recipe, but the biggest boil size I can do is 3.25 gallons. Would I be ruining the taste by doing a partial boil?

No problem. A light grain bill like this wold be well suited for a partial boil. You may want to extend the boil times on your hops additions since your wort will be more concentrated and your utilization will go down.

 

[solbergg]

No problem. A light grain bill like this wold be well suited for a partial boil. You may want to extend the boil times on your hops additions since your wort will be more concentrated and your utilization will go down.

Great! Any scientific method I can follow, such as half the boil means double the hop time or something along those lines?

Update: Just checked up on tastybrew.com Putting the first centennial at 60 minutes and the second one for 45 minutes and doubling the cascade times will get the bitterness to 16 IBU on a 3.25 boil, if anyone else is in a similar situation as mine. I'll let you know how it turns out!

 

[solbergg]

Ok, so brew day is tonight. Is there any specific time/temp conditions for the grain steeping or will 160 degrees for half an hour be enough?

 

[drunkatuw]

I brewed this back in November and just made room in my kegerator last week and it's been on gas for almost a week and I tried it yesterday (while I was brewing your helles belles) and it was excellent. I loved the citrusy combination of the centennial and cascade. I drank 4-5 pints over the course of the day. Everytime my glass would be empty, the kegerator would be calling my name. Glad I made 10 gallons of this and I'll definitely brew it again!

 

[SuperiorBrew]

A good week + in a chilled keg and the chill haze will also go away.

Cheers...

Tastes great but the haze never went away, I cant figure it out. I did a 10G batch fermented all in the same fermenter and then after about 3 weeks I put it in 2 cornys. One had been at 48-50º and one at 36-38º they both have the same haze. I have never had any haze before.

 

[BierMuncher]

Ok, so brew day is tonight. Is there any specific time/temp conditions for the grain steeping or will 160 degrees for half an hour be enough?

Since it's only the cara that you're steeping, 1/2 hour should be fine. Longer wouldn't hurt though.

 

[solbergg]

Well, brew day went pretty smoothly. It took about 16 hours before the airlock started bubbling, but it's doing it pretty consistently now. The wort looked pretty dark when I sealed up the fermenter - does it lighten up during fermentation?

 

[BierMuncher]

...does it lighten up during fermentation?

It will certainly lighten up from where it is now. Never judge a beer color during the fermentation/conditioning process.

Only once you have the yeast drop and the beer has conditioned, can you draw a hydrometer sample and get a close idea as to the color.

Since you did an extract version, it will be darker than an all grain. That's just a fact of homebrewing. Nevertheless, it should taste fantastic.

 

[Jolly McStanson]

I'm going to try and brew this one again today. I could only get Cascade hops. I'm wondering if its going to change the flavor much. Il post again when I find out.

 

[BierMuncher]

I'm going to try and brew this one again today. I could only get Cascade hops. I'm wondering if its going to change the flavor much. Il post again when I find out.

These days you take what you can get...

The nice thing about htis recipe, is you can really sub out a number of different hops. SO long as you keep it drinkable and not overly hoppy.

I've subbed in Northern Brewer and tettnang before. Just make sure to adjust your IBU's for higher/lower alphas.

 

[Jolly McStanson]

Oh wait a minute, I do have Centennial hops. So much for using all Cascade, ha ha. Oh and the first time I made this beer, I messed up. I used 2 ounces of hops instead of one ounce. No wonder the taste was very astringent, and tannin like.

Iv also been using 5.2 stabilizer, and it works wonders with my water. I had a big tannin problem, but no more.

If my Bud Light Brother of mine likes this batch, it will be a good thing.

 

[mawa]

Hello BM! I'm very positive your recipe will be the next i try. I gotta question, do you have the recipe for Partial Mash?

I still cannot do full boils so all grain is out of the question for now.

Thanks in advance,
Mawa

 

[BierMuncher]

Hello BM! I'm very positive your recipe will be the next i try. I gotta question, do you have the recipe for Partial Mash?

I still cannot do full boils so all grain is out of the question for now.

Thanks in advance,
Mawa

Here's an Extract/Steeped Grain version.

 

[auto]

Just kegged this beer on Wednesday, wow, this is going to be great. I think the BMC crowd will suck this stuff down. THinking about adding a little more on the finishing hops next time.

 

[isac777]

Just brewed your centennial blonde for the first time with my all-grain setup! It was a great experience with the OG coming out @ 1040 . The color looked real good too. My buddy was brewing what he called a real beer( b/c of the 4%) but I'm sure he'll have to eat/drink his words when this bad boy turns out. Thanks for the recipe and the informative posts.

 

[Fingers]

Tapped my first keg of this yesterday. It's one of those brews that you can drink all day long without getting mung mouth. I'll move that recipe into my 'keepers' folder.

 

[BeavBrew]

I'm brewing this next weekend. It is going to be my first AG. I can't wait!!!