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

[nostalgia]

I took a bottle over to a friend's house, who is also a homebrewer. His wife doesn't like much of what he or I make.

I went upstairs with a glass full of the Centennial Blonde and offered her a taste. She put down her Coors Light and took a sip.

A few minutes later I was handed back an empty glass

-Joe

 

[Captain_Bigelow]

I am making Edwort's Haus pale ale with the Notty yeast soon, could I just put this recipe straight on top of the yeast cake from that?

 

[DavidSteel]

I am making Edwort's Haus pale ale with the Notty yeast soon, could I just put this recipe straight on top of the yeast cake from that?

You could.... but it'd be a little much. It'd probably give off flavors due to an extreme amount of yeast. Just harvest and wash some of the yeast and use that instead. I'm not against using yeast cakes, but only for similar styles or higher gravity beer that have a similar or higher SRM than the last batch. Save yourself the effort and spent the 2 dollars for another packet of Notty. It's pretty much the cheapest yeast around anyway...

 

[jarod7736]

I've made three batches of this brew. No hint of bread with any. Would be suspect of your yeast but thats just my guess.

Maybe my taster's broken due to hopheadedness.

 

[MikeP]

I brewed this recipie, but added a twist of lemon the last few minutes of the brew, and also a little lemon zest to the secondary for a few days. Once it matured in the bottles, it has real nice lemon scent and hint in the flavor. Turned out real well.

good recipie.

 

[Brewfat]

Made this as a partial mash, stuck to recipe. Spent 3 weeks in primary, 1.5 weeks in keg. It's very good, great color but has kind of a "malty" taste. Not bad, just not expected. Were my expectations wrong or did I goof somewhere? OG 1.040, FG 1.007.

 

[EricT]

Brewfat,

Both batches I have made seem malty to me as well. I upped the hops just a tad on my last batch and the maltyness was still there but in my opinion more balanced. It did seem to mellow out a bit over time. As always, the last pour I got from my keg was the best

 

[nostalgia]

I'm brewing this right now! https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f20/brewcasting-right-now-189730/

-Joe

 

[DavidSteel]

Made this as a partial mash, stuck to recipe. Spent 3 weeks in primary, 1.5 weeks in keg. It's very good, great color but has kind of a "malty" taste. Not bad, just not expected. Were my expectations wrong or did I goof somewhere? OG 1.040, FG 1.007.

My batch turned out at 5% (or something like 4.98%) and tasted pretty malty. I can mostly taste the caramel malt and cascade hops. But maltier than expected. Pretty sure my mash temp was like 148-150.

 

[Brewfat]

Brewfat,

Both batches I have made seem malty to me as well. I upped the hops just a tad on my last batch and the maltyness was still there but in my opinion more balanced. It did seem to mellow out a bit over time. As always, the last pour I got from my keg was the best

I considered more hops before I brewed this batch but decided to leave it alone. I should probably get more opinions first. No sense messing with a good thing.
This is the first batch I kegged so I'm expecting it to go fast. Working on my pipeline.

 

[Paramecium]

I have seen it asked a few times but haven't seen an answer. What is the water profile for this beer? I am using RO myself so just need a ballpark.

 

[DavidSteel]

I considered more hops before I brewed this batch but decided to leave it alone. I should probably get more opinions first. No sense messing with a good thing.
This is the first batch I kegged so I'm expecting it to go fast. Working on my pipeline.

I upped my additions to like .65-.7 because I was brewing 7 gallons and topping off with 3.5 (of boiled and cooled wort, not water). Only have a 7.5 gallon pot.

Anyway, it came out mega-hoppy for some reason. Everyone I know that tried it said they didn't like it because it was "too strong". Everyone said that. "Too strong". It's a ****ing Centennial Blond! Anyway, I know they just meant it tasted strong. They probably thought it was the alcohol, but it was the hops. I even had a hard time drinking it. It didn't really match the beer.

Its been sitting for 4-6 months now and the hops are finally fading a bit. It's much better now than it was before, just because it's not so hoppy.

Now before you go judging me on my opinion of this, I pretty much brew nothing but IIPA's and (I)IIPA/Barleywines, so I like a hoppy beer. More hops just don't work with this. My advice would be to not do it.

 

[reeyawd]

I’ve been tweaking a house ale recipe for a few months now and this is it. This is the recipe that will be a permanent fixture at my house. I’ve brewed it twice, served the first 10 gallons to friends, families and “curious on-lookers”, and just finished the second 10 gallon batch with identical results.

Light and crisp. The IBU’s are on the low side, but there is a nice sweet/spicy balance to the beer. The great fresh taste of a craft ale with an extremely clean finish. This reminds me of what a local craft brewery might come out of the gates with to win over a new market. Very drinkable with wide appeal. I’ve yet to have anyone, even BMC drinkers not say it’s one of the best beers they’ve tasted….period. The secret lies in the name. I moved through Northern Brewer, Nugget and Pearle hops, all in combination with Cascade. Even went with a strict Cascade hop bill, but was just a bit on the tart side for this lighter grain bill.

Once I matched up Centennial as the bittering hop and Cascade as a flavor/aroma hop…that’s when the magic happened.

This is also a simple, hard to screw up recipe. At just around 4%, this is a quaffer. Due to the lighter grain bill…this is easily a beer that can go from grain to glass in 2 weeks (if you keg).

View attachment 3114


****10-Gallon Batch****
Batch Size: 11.00 gal
Boil Size: 13.69 gal
Estimated OG: 1.039 SG
Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.6 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
14.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1.25 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
0.50 oz Centennial [9.50%] (55 min)
0.50 oz Centennial [9.50%] (35 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [7.80%] (20 min)
0.50 oz Cascade [7.80%] (5 min)
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) (Hydrated)



****5 Gallon Batch****

Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.57 gal
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 3.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount
7.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
0.75 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
0.50 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM)
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (55 min)
0.25 oz Centennial [9.50%] (35 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (20 min)
0.25 oz Cascade [7.80%] (5 min)
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) (Hydrated)


Mash at 150 degrees for 60 minutes.

BierMuncher - had this on draft yesterday for our BBQ. People loved it and it sure went down easy (the keg was dusted). I had some issues with my fermenting temp so I want to try it again, see if the results are the same. The beer turned out very dry with a touch of sour along side the flavors as you described. Neither bad things but Id love to have a touch more sweet. I had little to no head, so I may step up the cara-pils as well.

Thanks for the recipe.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Nottingham is a bit of a dry yeast beast and tends to attenuate pretty hard. Personally, I always use S-04 for this recipe; it keeps FG slightly higher than normal and adds some awesome esters.

However, you mentioned wanting to add cara-pils to aid in head retention as well. You can just up the crystal, which will add more body and improves head retention. Simple solution ^_^

 

[nostalgia]

I had little to no head, so I may step up the cara-pils as well.

I did the recipe as written and head formation and retention was excellent. This one even stuck around long enough for me to find my camera and tripod.



Do you have head retention issues with other beers, or just this one? Were you serving into glass or plastic cups? I wonder if that makes a difference? Will there be more questions in this paragraph? Who knows.

-Joe

 

[jbair1]

So, I made a 5 gallon batch and it turned out great. I substituted Wheat fo the Vienna...I like it.

So it mine a wheat beer now?

 

[WilliamstonBrew]

So, I made a 5 gallon batch and it turned out great. I substituted Wheat fo the Vienna...I like it.

So it mine a wheat beer now?

In a wheat beer, 50% - 70% of the grain bill is wheat malt. So for this recipe, subbing .5 lbs (or 1 lb) of a 10lb grain bill is nowhere close to that percentage.

Maybe it's a Frosted Mini-Wheat =)

Hey now there is a good idea for the name of a brew...

 

[jbair1]

Maybe it's a Frosted Mini-Wheat =)

Good one!

 

[Fourtytwo]

out of all the stuff I've brewed since I started, 8 months or less, this is always the best, at least the 45 gallons I've brewed and drank. Good Times!

 

[reeyawd]

I did the recipe as written and head formation and retention was excellent. This one even stuck around long enough for me to find my camera and tripod.



Do you have head retention issues with other beers, or just this one? Were you serving into glass or plastic cups? I wonder if that makes a difference? Will there be more questions in this paragraph? Who knows.

-Joe

I don't usually have any retention issues. I think I'm going to give it another shot as is...and see if it straightens itself out.

-R

 

[Paramecium]

Gonna be brewing this tomorrow as my first all grain. Picked it because with so many great reviews and a not to complicated grain/ hop bill I can hopefully have an easy introduction to all grain. Doesn't hurt that it is something my wife will hopefully like.

 

[Paramecium]

Everything went pretty smooth. Hit an OG post boil of 1.040 First time all grain and my temps were a bit low in the 148 range but other than that it went well.

 

[BierMuncher]

Everything went pretty smooth. Hit an OG post boil of 1.040 First time all grain and my temps were a bit low in the 148 range but other than that it went well.

148 will give you a very clean, crisp beer.

 

[Paramecium]

It's bubbling away like crazy right now, smells good in the fermentation freezer =)

 

[Paramecium]

Here she is about 24 hours after pitching. Got almost a solid stream of bubbles and she looks like a washing machine right now in there.

 

[midcalbrew]

Have done two 10-gal batches of this with only some minor mods. Great summer sipper. The second batch we split and racked half over 5.5lbs strawberries for a week. Suuuuper fresh strawberry taste and aroma. We actually found mixing it half and half with the regular blonde made a really light strawberry taste with some maltiness and hop aroma.

 

[Paramecium]

Two questions, I read farther back that you recommend leaving this in the fermentor for about 2 weeks to improve flavor and then a few more days in secondary if I read correctly to clear. Is this the case? Also it may be in the thread somewhere but would you advise cold crashing before bottling this one? I have not cold crashed before and I am not kegging but have read that it is fine to do, just may take a little longer to carb and will result in a much clearer beer.

 

[MyNameIsPaul]

AHS converted this recipe to a partial mash for me, and I'll be brewing it in the next few days. I'm planning on a 3 week primary, then straight to bottles. I can't wait!

 

[Paramecium]

BM if your reading this I'd love some input from the master but any advice will do. I want this beer as clear as possible so does this sound like a decent plan?

~Leave it in primary for 10-14 days.

~Transfer to a secondary with gelatin and crash to the mid 30's for about 4-7 days.

~Prime and bottle to condition in the high 60's.

 

[ErieShores]

If you were doing this with Maris Otter, wouldn't you leave out the vienna and crystal? I'm thinking it will already have enough malt backbone right?

How did this turn out with the MO Bobby? I was considering a batch with it.