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

[j1n]

The third batch of this is fermenting right now. Anytime i ask what beer i should make and i'm out of this blonde ale, the answer is blonde ale.

 

[sirquack]

Biermuncher you rock man! I just kegged 5 gallons of Centennial Blonde about a week ago, and just finished my carbing (36hr 30psi and a day of 11psi) of the Cream of the Crop. Both are excellent man! Thanks and Cheers!

and a plug for the Android app Wort Brewing Calculator, my All Grain brews above came in right on the money to Biermunchers specs....!

 

[blackonblack]

this will be my next brew but I have some questions

For the 2 row Pale malt do I need a PALE labeled malt or will any 2 row base malt work?

Rahr 2 row is 1.9L
http://morebeer.com/products/rahr-2row-malt.html

And Pale Malt is 3L
http://morebeer.com/products/great-western-american-pale-malt.html

 

[pfgonzo]

Each will make a slightly different brew. The Pale Malt is closer in flavor to a British malt, per MB's website. If you're buying from them, you can also go with Great Western 2-row, which is my standard base malt. I don't use Rahr personally.

 

[Peruvian802]

I've used US05 several times for this and love the light flavor. It's accessible enough for BMC drinkers for sure.

I'm thinking of adding some orange zest (vodka tincture) to the secondary of my next batch for a great late summer beer.

 

[ballsy]

Gonna brew this again as an easy quick turn around summer beer. Instead of my lemon, I'm thinking some fresh blueberries since in season...again, just enough to taste but not overwhelming. Thinking of maybe a cup of them in the food processor and toss it all in at 10 min left of boil.

 

[JohnSand]

Let us know how it works out. I put a touch of apricot in some of my last batch. I'll be tasting them soon.

 

[ballsy]

Let us know how it works out. I put a touch of apricot in some of my last batch. I'll be tasting them soon.

Will do. I think you can't go wrong with any fruit of choice in this beer. Its so light and crisp that it brings out the flavor really easily. Last one I only used 3/4 of a lemon, processed into a "mush" and added and it was a perfect amt of lemon taste to final product. There is a brewery back home in VB that does a pineapple wheat beer, I may try that next in this beer too!

 

[tmartin110]

1st BIAB using this recipe. Thanks

 

[Peruvian802]

Overshot my OG to 1.044 BIAB this afternoon but after starter and a little topper I'm sure it will be fine!

I'm going to dry hop with .75oz Amarillo and orange tincture in the secondary.

 

[JohnSand]

Cool!

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Just bottled this up for 2.4 volumes, fg was 1.011. Had a half bottle, was delicious. Can't wait to try it once it's carbed up.

High fg probably due to mashing temp troubles, and not hydrating properly. It sat for around 16 days or so before bottling, 8 @ 68, the rest at 64.

 

[NickAus]

This recipe looks delicious, thanks for sharing BM.

I'm new to AG and really keen to brew some beers that dispel the homebrew old wives tales that people seem to have heard!

this beer is planned as my third brew but might jump the queue.. Will keep you posted. Only thing is I currently have simcoe, galaxy and nelson Sauvin, all a lot too hoppy for this recipe, so I'd better go buy some hops!

 

[normonster]

Man, thank you for this recipe. I jumped into brewing having skipped extract and went with this recipe first. I've brewed it not with little tweaks 3 times and I love it.....and it does please the wife, which is always a good thing.

Thank you Sir. I'm making it again this weekend as a matter of fact. I can't keep it around long!!!

 

[jlflorance]

I brewed this last night and it was a very interesting brew day to say the least.

I added an extra 8oz of 2-row because I have been having poor efficiency. The extra 8oz with a very slow drain and extra sparge water, landed me with an O.G. of 1.050. No big deal really.

I cooled the wort to what I thought was 67, when in actuality it was 87 (too many dirt wolfs while brewing). I rehydrated the Nottingham and pitched at 87ish. This was at 7pm. This morning I checked and no krausen and no apparent activity.

Am I screwed here? Should I give it more time (its been 12 hours)? Re-pitch?

 

[J-Wood]

You're probably fine to just wait. I've had yeast take over 24 hours to begin working. Give it a day or so. As long as it's in the fermenter and air locked, it should be safe.

 

[V1king]

I brewed this recipe because of the massive number of views and comments. I had to know what the hype was about. All I can say is this is a simple yet delicious brew that should please many kinds of drinkers. Thanks for sharing.

 

[BigFloppy]

brewed this about a month ago, got it kegged Monday night. The wife got a taste today (Thursday) over lunch and she loved it... definitely a keeper - Thanks BM

 

[ballsy]

Brewing this again this weekend and using blueberries this time...probably my final summer brew before starting on some good fall beers!

 

[mdbrewer1]

Brewing this again this weekend and using blueberries this time...probably my final summer brew before starting on some good fall beers!

Sorry, double post. Mod, please delete.

 

[mdbrewer1]

Brewing this again this weekend and using blueberries this time...probably my final summer brew before starting on some good fall beers!

How are you planning on doing the blueberries? I'd like to do the same for half of the batch I have fermenting.

 

[ballsy]

How are you planning on doing the blueberries? I'd like to do the same for half of the batch I have fermenting.

Just finished brewing this today. Went well, nailed OG (1.037 @ 81F which corrects to 1.040). I minced up 2 pints (how they measure them...haha go figure) in food processor and added with 10 min left in boil. This is what I did with lemon version of this same recipe, but minced up 1 full lemon and it turned out perfect. Just a nice light hint of lemon which really complimented this style. I totally winged it with that (we only had one lemon in the house at the time) just like I did the blueberries re: quantity. It looked like a decent amt of blueberries c/w amt of lemon I used but obviously blueberries are much less potent so I used more. It smelled good, and the color was pretty cool. Should be really interesting to see the final product. Will post pics in couple weeks after it's kegged up. I don't do fruit additions in ferment bucket.

 

[teleplucker]

Just tried a bottle from my second time brewing this recipe. It's just as delicious as everyone says! Very simple, very clean, ridiculously easy to drink (dangerously so ).

The first time was a PM/extract attempt that turned out too bitter (lesson learned on SG of boiling wort and hop utilization). This time I did AG and the results are very pleasing. 2 weeks primary - 2 weeks bottle conditioned/carbed - 2 days in the fridge.

 

[dbeer22]

Am I reading this right? only 1 pkg of dry yeast for 10 gal batch?

 

[shadows69]

1 pkg of dry yeast per 5 gal. I believe.

 

[shadows69]

Brewed this yesterday:

Centennial Blonde - Blonde Ale
Batch Size 4.612 gal
Boil Size 5.862 gal
Boil Time 60.000 min
Efficiency 75%
OG 1.039
FG 1.010
ABV 3.8%
Bitterness 21.5 IBU (Tinseth)
Color 4.4 srm (Morey)
Calories (per 12 oz.) 130

Fermentables
Total grain: 8.750 lb
Simpsons - Maris Otter Grain 7.500 lb
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L Grain 8.000 oz
Cara-Pils/Dextrine Grain 8.000 oz
Vienna Malt Grain 4.000 oz

Hops
Centennial 9.7% 0.250 oz Boil 55.000 min Pellet
Centennial 9.7% 0.300 oz Boil 35.000 min Pellet
Cascade 7.5% 0.350 oz Boil 20.000 min Pellet
Cascade 7.5% 0.350 oz Boil 5.000 min Pellet

Yeast
Name Type Form Amount Stage
WLP001

 

[mdbrewer1]

Well, the search function on this thread isn't working very well for me this morning, so I figured I'd just add my question here.

What's the highest FG people have seen with this brew? I did my typical two week wait and was planning on bottling last night, but my hydro sample read 1.016. I know they aren't great indicators, but the krausen had fallen over a week ago and I haven't had any airlock activity since then.

My OG was 1.045 since I tossed in a little extra DME to finish off the bag I had on hand. I left the better bottle upstairs today to see if the warmer temperature does anything. I made a 2.5 gallon batch at my old house and it finished at 1.010. The only thing I can think of is that the better bottle was filled almost to the top with foam when I pitched the Notty, and it looked like a fair bit didn't make it down into the wort, but I figured the yeast that made it down in there would reproduce enough to chew through everything.

Anyone have any thoughts on this other than take samples the next couple days and see if anything changes?

 

[pfgonzo]

Mine finished like your previous batch did, at 1.010. Yeast are organic, and getting an on-the-nose consistency can't be expected. Your O2 might have been different, the DME batch could have had a different fermentability, temperature could have been slightly off. Who knows?

 

[mdbrewer1]

Mine finished like your previous batch did, at 1.010. Yeast are organic, and getting an on-the-nose consistency can't be expected. Your O2 might have been different, the DME batch could have had a different fermentability, temperature could have been slightly off. Who knows?

Thanks. I realize that there are a lot of variables that go into brewing. This is the first batch I've done more than once, so I'm hoping to work on my consistency and was curious if anyone else has had a similar experience.

That part about O2 jogged my memory. I forgot to oxygenate the wort right away on this batch. I don't have my brew log in front of me so I don't remember the exact time, but I believe it wasn't until the following morning that I remembered to do it. That definitely couldn't have helped. Combined with a number of the yeasties getting caught up in the foam, they probably weren't functioning at full power.

The hydro sample tasted good and similar to what I remember from last summer, so I'm sure it will be just fine. Just trying to do a little detective work.

 

[pfgonzo]

Meaning you added the yeast, but didn't add O2 until the next day? That may have an impact, sure. I'm sure it'll be tasty. Brew it a third time and see what happens

And don't let anyone tell you that you oxidized your beer by adding O2 the next day. The yeast gobble it up pretty quick, within 30m I think I read somewhere. Chris White (White Labs) in his book Yeast actually recommends doing a second O2 hit 12 hours after the first for big beers to ensure strong yeast growth. You don't want to oxygenate a fully fermented beer of course, but your next day shot of O2 didn't hurt anything.