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

[MrDustpan]

I brewed this recipe about a month ago and it has been on tap for a couple of weeks. The beer tastes good, but it tastes a little "grainy". I'm thinking it could be astringency?

I'm pretty new to all grain (this was my 5th batch I think) and I didn't do anything to treat the mash pH. This is definitely the palest all grain batch I've brewed, maybe my mash pH was a little too high?

Anyway, thanks for the great recipe BierMuncher! :rockin:

 

[cyberbrew]

Just finished brewing this one. I'm very happy with the flavors coming out of the kettle...now I'm waiting on Nottingham to do its job. Looking forward to the finished product! Thanks for the recipe!

 

[ickmund]

Just had my first glass of this one. Great beer, pretty stoked! Didn't hit all my numbers, so still room for improvement!

What I actually brewed was this:
4kg 2-row
250gr Cara-pils
250gr Crystal 10
250gr Munich

10gr Centennial at 55 for 10 IBU
10gr Centennial at 35 for 9 IBU
10gr Cascade at 20 for 3 IBU
10gr Cascade at 5 for 1 IBU

Mashed at 65.5 for almost 90 minutes because I had problems getting my sparge water up to temp (forgot to start heating in time).

Pitched a single S-05, which was almost 10% underpitched.

OG at 1.046, stopped at 1.013. Had expected it to go lower.

 

[RunDadRun]

Long story short...on my first all grain BIAB...I managed to get a little lost in the process and doubled all of the hops additions. Needless to say the IBU's are much higher than expected (47). Any thoughts on making the best of this situation?

Dry hop a bit and treat it like a very light color/body IPA? Just roll with the bitterness? The flavor isn't bad...just not great.

Sorry if this has been asked before, but hundreds of pages of commentary is a bit too much to sift through.

 

[cyberbrew]

Long story short...on my first all grain BIAB...I managed to get a little lost in the process and doubled all of the hops additions. Needless to say the IBU's are much higher than expected (47). Any thoughts on making the best of this situation?

Dry hop a bit and treat it like a very light color/body IPA? Just roll with the bitterness? The flavor isn't bad...just not great.

Sorry if this has been asked before, but hundreds of pages of commentary is a bit too much to sift through.

So when I brew and make "mistakes" (which happens to us all!!), I generally just roll with it. The worst that can happen is you make something that you weren't aiming for and isn't your taste (lesson learned). Although, honestly in most of the cases where I thought I've really screwed up my batch, it ends up all good. Yeah, it may not be the product I was planning on, but it's always mine and I enjoy sharing it with others. There's always the next batch...

 

[rythmabduction]

Agree with ^

 

[bford]

Long story short...on my first all grain BIAB...I managed to get a little lost in the process and doubled all of the hops additions. Needless to say the IBU's are much higher than expected (47). Any thoughts on making the best of this situation?

Dry hop a bit and treat it like a very light color/body IPA? Just roll with the bitterness? The flavor isn't bad...just not great.

Sorry if this has been asked before, but hundreds of pages of commentary is a bit too much to sift through.

Just think of it as a Pale Ale instead of a blonde.... I wouldn't dry hop... just let it go.... I'd let it sit in primary for three weeks at least... will also get some of the hops out that way.... if you bottle instead of keg.. theres another three weeks...

I bet it turns out to be a nice pale ale.

 

[Psylocide]

I've got a question about this recipe, I recently did a similar extract version of this using 6 lbs Golden Light DME and 1 lb Carapils (steeped @ 160° for ~20 mins), same hop timing but just a tad more to make up for the extra DME.

Coming in at 5.5% on this.

The taste out of the fermenter is warm Budweiser. Warm, flat Budweiser... is this what the original recipe tastes like? Is it basically a BMC clone? Or did I overdo the malt and mess up the balance that was originally intended?

Either way, I'll be happy with the end result. Definitely going to be a "conversion" beer.

 

[BrewerE]

The taste out of the fermenter is warm Budweiser. Warm, flat Budweiser... is this what the original recipe tastes like? Is it basically a BMC clone?

Not in my opinion, BUT...

I did the ORIGINAL extract version for a fishing trip because I knew this would be light enough for my BMC family members who aren't too keen on the hoppy pales/IPAs.

Needless to say, if they weren't drinking Michelob Golden Light on the boat, they were crushing this at the cabin.

 

[Chug]

Have had great success with this one in the past. Today I'm giving it a shot substituting 2 row with some Fawcett Pearl! First time using Pearl as well.

 

[dokken5]

Im still a little new to this. Isnt 150 a little cool to mash at? Why the lower temp??

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Im still a little new to this. Isnt 150 a little cool to mash at? Why the lower temp??

Makes for a nice, dry, thinner bodied beer. Closer to a BMC. Makes it very drinkable.

 

[dokken5]

So if I am after a more full bodied beer, then I would raise the temps?

Makes for a nice, dry, thinner bodied beer. Closer to a BMC. Makes it very drinkable.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

So if I am after a more full bodied beer, then I would raise the temps?

Yep, that's the idea!

Approximate temps are 148*-151* for thin bodied, 152*-155* for medium, 156*-160* for full bodied. Any higher or lower than those ranges and you might find yourself with some efficiency problems.

This is just a rough explanation though. There are volumes written on mash temperatures...

 

[pfgonzo]

This is from an older version of Palmer's book, but it's a great dumbed-down version of the impact of mash temp.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter14-5.html

 

[carlk47]

So I tried something different with this recipe(at least different to me). I brewed it as a 20 minute boil hop-burst extract recipe. Less than 2 hours from start to finish! Here's what I did..

2.75 batch size

0.50# Carapils
0.25# C10
2.5# Pilsen Light DME
.25 Cent @ 20 min
.25 Cent @ 15 min
.25 Casc @ 10 min
.25 Casc @ 5 min
Pitched a packet of Nottingham straight into the fermenter

The OG ended up at 1.045 and the color seemed spot on to the last AG batch that I brewed. Hydro sample seemed spot on as well..

Should be interesting to see how this turns out after 2-3 primary and a couple weeks carbing in a keg. Will report back!

 

[Wny_Greg]

I brewed the all grain version 3 weeks ago but used bry 97 because i have had good luck with it in the past getting to a low final gravity,i missed my mash temp and ended up too cool at 147,was low on original gravity 1.038, and the final gravity came in way too low at 1.004 the hydro sample was dry, will report back in a few weeks to update.
Hope it turns out ok,only my 2nd all grain batch still trying to get a feel for my set up

 

[Oxbow]

This was my first all grain beer. Worked out very well and was a big hit.

 

[jlawrence]

Anyone have any tips on adding fruit to this beer? I have about 8 lbs of blueberries and I'm looking for something to do with them

 

[BigPicture]

I've had very good results when adding fruit to this beer. I'll rip this off here, and that off there. This was the FIRST all grain brew I ever made. I've been brewing over 3 years now and this base recipe is the most I've brewed to date & I've got over 50+ batches under my belt.

Here's the hint! https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f75/requiem-raspberry-56285/

 

[spartan21]

I brewed a 5.5 gal batch of this a couple weeks ago. My mash efficiency was higher than expected and came in at 1.043 post boil. Having brewed this recipe several times with US-05 I wanted to try using a starter for the first time. I used 1056 with a 500ml starter. This thing went off like crazy and after it was all said and done it finished at 1.007. I am curious to taste the final product but this one may end up a bit too dry.

 

[Opiate42]

Going to be doing my first 5 gallon of this (and first fiver ever!!) tomorrow. Have done a couple 1 gallon testers so far that turned out lovely!

Now not kegging and wondering should I transfer to a secondary or bottle straight from the primary after a couple weeks?

Also no idea how much honey or sugar to use!

My lhbs didn't have notty on hand so I have some S-04 handy, anyone have any experience with it in this recipe?

 

[FatsSchindee]

Going to be doing my first 5 gallon of this (and first fiver ever!!) tomorrow. Have done a couple 1 gallon testers so far that turned out lovely!

Now not kegging and wondering should I transfer to a secondary or bottle straight from the primary after a couple weeks?

Also no idea how much honey or sugar to use!

My lhbs didn't have notty on hand so I have some S-04 handy, anyone have any experience with it in this recipe?

I wouldn't secondary - just bottle out of primary.
Here's a great site for figuring out how much honey or sugar (or many other fermentables) to use when bottle priming:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

Just remember to use the final volume after transferring off the trub into the bottling bucket (I usually lose anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 gallon to trub, depending), not the original volume (5 gal, presumably) into the fermentor.

 

[Opiate42]

Thanks Fats!!! Much obliged!!!!

 

[BigPicture]

I just brewed 10 gallons of this winner. Split the brew into 2 different carboys and added different yeast to each.

White Labs 001, California Ale = Much more Malty. I tasted more hops too.

Wyeast 1056, American Ale = Cleaner, brighter, easier drinking.

YMMV.

 

[phyllobeddo]

I brewed a 2.5 gallon batch of this Monday, but I screwed up my hop additions. It'll be beer, but I really wanted to go by the original recipe. I was busy with two contractors and two kids at the house. It was a very busy morning. Right now fermentation is going crazy. It started at 61 degrees and is up to 66.

4 lb 2 row
6 oz cara pils
4 oz caramel crystal 10L
4 oz Vienna
7 g Centennial FWH
7 g Cascade (65 min)
7 g Centennial (35 min)
7 g Cascade (5 min)
5.5 g of rehydrated Notty
Mash @ 150 for 60 min (BIAB)
OG 1047

 

[HiImBrian]

I'm thinking about brewing this again for a competition. Anybody got any clever names?

So far I've got:
Blonde Muncher
Centennial Bust
Bimbo Spectacle
South Denver Blonde

 

[Psylocide]

I'd like to retract my previous statement of this tasting like a BMC with more hop/malt character.

After this ages for about 3 weeks it is absolute deliciousness. The balance of this brew is just so spot-on, nice malt on the front and the hops just shine so brightly on the back end... I'm really impressed and will put this into regular rotation.

Just an awesome beer that EVERYONE loves... I haven't had one person say anything negative about it. Killed 5 gallons in a little over 2 weeks.

 

[carlk47]

I have plenty of Maris Otter on hand and looking to make another batch of CB.. can't decide if I should omit the Vienna and C10 from the recipe if I were to use all MO as the base malt?

 

[midfielder5]

I have plenty of Maris Otter on hand and looking to make another batch of CB.. can't decide if I should omit the Vienna and C10 from the recipe if I were to use all MO as the base malt?

see post 20-21