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

[rtstrider]

Well looks like I may be taking stab 2 at this over the weekend. I tried previously with us-05 but got phenols (ended up being a ***** bucket fermenter aka infections). I'm going to try this as posted. My question is I see it says you fermented Nottingham at 68F. Is that what you would recommend for this brew? I've never used Nottingham before but I've heard that yeast is a beast lol

 

[RedlegEd]

Well looks like I may be taking stab 2 at this over the weekend. I tried previously with us-05 but got phenols (ended up being a poopyE bucket fermenter aka infections). I'm going to try this as posted. My question is I see it says you fermented Nottingham at 68F. Is that what you would recommend for this brew? I've never used Nottingham before but I've heard that yeast is a beast lol

Hi. Yes, 66°-68°F is a good temp for Notty. You've heard correctly, it can be a beast and rather vigorous, so make sure you leave yourself some headspace (or have a blow off tube handy!) Good luck on this brew.
Ed

 

[Saunassa]

Well looks like I may be taking stab 2 at this over the weekend. I tried previously with us-05 but got phenols (ended up being a poopyE bucket fermenter aka infections). I'm going to try this as posted. My question is I see it says you fermented Nottingham at 68F. Is that what you would recommend for this brew? I've never used Nottingham before but I've heard that yeast is a beast lol

I fermented mine at 66. Got back and my wife said she could hear it blowing bubbles fast from the tube the second day.

 

[Immocles]

I've been putting this brew on the back burner for far too long. I whipped up a 4 gallon batch this morning. Good numbers, mashed a little higher than I had planned, but it'll do. Repitched some slurry from cream ale. Hoping to reharvest again to pitch onto a stout and a small batch porter next month sometime.

 

[rtstrider]

Hi. Yes, 66°-68°F is a good temp for Notty. You've heard correctly, it can be a beast and rather vigorous, so make sure you leave yourself some headspace (or have a blow off tube handy!) Good luck on this brew.
Ed

Well alright! I'll set the ferment fridge to 66f with a 2 degree offset so it'll stay 66-68

 

[rtstrider]

I ended up brewing a lite ale when I got off work yesterday. But I put in the grain order for this brew and will be picking it up tomorrow. Can't wait to give this a shot! Hey Biermuncher did you do any water adjustments on this? We have relatively soft water where I'm at (minus tons of chlorine) so I'm thinking it would play nice with this blonde. I have a ton of campden tablets and was thinking about just using filtered water from the fridge (charcoal filter) then tossing a crushed campden tablet in that to fully treat 10 gallons worth.

 

[skidoofus]

Brewed it last Saturday on my Anvil foundry 10.5. Cut boil to 50 minutes with extra half pound of 2 row and full pound of carapils since my efficiency is a bit low All .25 oz like the original, did 45, 30, 20, and 5 minute additions and used 05 since I had it on hand. OG 1.043. Slow starter @64 degrees but man did she build a nice tight white krausen about 3 inches thick! Will keg as soon as I have an empty! Thanks everyone especially BM!

 

[KookyBrewsky]

Just wrote this brew down in my new leather journal to keep track of this adventure. Already ordered the ingredients. It'll be the first all-grain I do, seems to be pretty well liked

 

[Jeff...]

Going to brew the 5 gallon version (5.5 batch) next weekend. I'll try to brew the exact recipe as posted in the first post. My efficiency floats in-between 78 ~ 80 % though.

 

[RedlegEd]

Hi Jeff,
That is absolutely the very best way to approach this brew. Once you see what the original recipe should taste like, then it's perfectly normal to venture off into your own tweaks. It seems your efficiency is good, so you'll wind up with a slightly stronger brew. I've brewed this recipe many (at least six) times, two as originally posted my Biermuncher, and the others tweaked to accommodate what I had available, or just for giggles to try something new. In every case, the beer came out wonderful. A little different maybe, but always easy to drink. Good luck on your brew. Please let us know how it turns out.
Ed

 

[Jeff...]

Hi Jeff,
That is absolutely the very best way to approach this brew. Once you see what the original recipe should taste like, then it's perfectly normal to venture off into your own tweaks. It seems your efficiency is good, so you'll wind up with a slightly stronger brew. I've brewed this recipe many (at least six) times, two as originally posted my Biermuncher, and the others tweaked to accommodate what I had available, or just for giggles to try something new. In every case, the beer came out wonderful. A little different maybe, but always easy to drink. Good luck on your brew. Please let us know how it turns out.
Ed

Thanks for the reply Ed.

My "city" water is limestone sourced and hard as nails. It works really well, for lighter colored SRM brews and expecially with Nottingham yeast. I have to filter through a charcoal RV filter and add a campden tablet (potassium metabisulfite) to neutralize the chloramine. I'm already expecting this brew will need 2 to 3 weeks in the primary. From all the replies, this looks like one popular brew

 

[jpm92]

Hello guys, third attempt at this recipe and this time I missed the OG big time.

For this batch, I used BeerSmith and changed things a bit to match my malts. I scaled up to a 6.5L batch (1,72gal) which is the maximum I can have in the fermenter. Also I changed the mashing so that I used a thicker infusion (2,61L for 1,32kg) giving me more space for sparging (~4L). Unfortunately my pot is only 5L , so my idea was to have a very concentrated wort after boil and then dilute it to the estimated 1,044 topping up to the 6,5L in the fermenter. I meassured 1,030 instead

Is there any obvious mistake I'm making here? Am I not reading the hydrometer properly? (I shook the fermenter vigorously before drawing the sample taking also a lot of trub, I don't know if that changes anything...).
In the other batches I missed a lot of other stuff, but the OG was kinda right...

Thanks for your time!
J.

 

[RedlegEd]

Hi J.,
Seems to me your mash was too thick and you didn't get the conversion as you planned. Assuming you have a good crush on your grain, my recommendation next time is use the Brew In A Bag (BIAB) approach in your 5L pot (ideally, you should get a 10L pot and use the full amount you intend to boil.) If you are stuck with a 5L pot, mash using as much water as you can in the pot with the grain & bag, pull the bag and squeeze it like it owes you money, then slowly sparge over the spent grains into the pot until you reach your max limit. That should improve your efficiency. Good luck on your next brew.
Ed

 

[jpm92]

Hi J.,
Seems to me your mash was too thick and you didn't get the conversion as you planned. Assuming you have a good crush on your grain, my recommendation next time is use the Brew In A Bag (BIAB) approach in your 5L pot (ideally, you should get a 10L pot and use the full amount you intend to boil.) If you are stuck with a 5L pot, mash using as much water as you can in the pot with the grain & bag, pull the bag and squeeze it like it owes you money, then slowly sparge over the spent grains into the pot until you reach your max limit. That should improve your efficiency. Good luck on your next brew.
Ed

Thanks for the reply Ed! I don't think the crushing is alright, actually it's the mashing the factor that I modifed. I thought having less infusion water and more sparge water would increase the efficiency, but apparently it's not the case. I will stick to a 1.5:1 wtq ratio and will use whatever left water I have to sparge till I top up the 5L. This method was working fine with me before.
With the lockdown and everything going on right now I can't acquire new equipment, but I was curious about the BIAB before. I'll maybe give it a try if I find a 10L pot that fits in my stove.

Thanks again! I'll make good use of this 2.4% ABV batch anyway

 

[RedlegEd]

Thanks again! I'll make good use of this 2.4% ABV batch anyway

Just drink twice as much!!!!

Ed

 

[NitrogenWidget]

Thanks for the reply Ed! Actually it's the mashing that I changed. I thought having less infusion water and more sparge water would increase the efficiency, but apparently it's not the case. I will stick to a 1.5:1 wtq ratio and will use whatever left water I have to sparge till I top up the 5L. This method was working fine with me before.
With the lockdown and everything going on right now I can't acquire new equipment, but I was curious about the BIAB before. I'll maybe give it a try if I find a 10L pot that fits in my stove.

Thanks again! I'll make good use of this 2.4% ABV batch anyway

I've had this happen with 10 gallons of the beer.
my mill wing nuts worked themselves loose without me noticing so my efficiency went down.
however, I also use reclaimed yeast and this stuff fermented down to 1.004!
which got me to ~4%.
could of been my mash temp was lower than I thought?

anyway, I dry-hopped with some cascade because it seemed overly malty and it went down SOOOOOO easy in the pool on a hot day.

i'd just go with it.
i've made some 3% beers trying to make lower ABV for the summer.
I drink them while working outside and that way when it comes time to grill for the kids and setup the projector for movie night....I can. HA!

 

[rtstrider]

Just pitched Nottingham. It's my first time using this yeast so I'm letting it ride between 64f and 66f to keep any potential esters down. I'm hoping this is a VERY quick turnaround brew If not no biggie! Either way it will be beer right? lol

 

[Jeff...]

Just pitched Nottingham. It's my first time using this yeast so I'm letting it ride between 64f and 66f to keep any potential esters down. I'm hoping this is a VERY quick turnaround brew If not no biggie! Either way it will be beer right? lol

I really like Nottingham or maybe I should say Nottingham really likes me.

My son in law, also uses it to ferment ciders in the higher 60's.

 

[rtstrider]

Well Nottingham is definitely a beast! It was fermenting within 6 hours of rehydration!

 

[Jeff...]

Well Nottingham is definitely a beast! It was fermenting within 6 hours of rehydration!

Yep that sounds about right, It has a short lag. Based on my personal experience, it doesn't krauesen that high either, only about 3"

I like to ferment it in the lower to mid 50's and treat it like a lager yeast. Which it's obviously not, but it does produce some lager characteristics fermented at lower temps.

It looks like this recipe is calling for fermention temp of 68 degrees for more fruity and estery aromas, which Notty will surely produce at that temperature and munch through the maltose pretty quick.

My grain bill from Ritebrew should be here tomorrow for this brew, I'll most likely brew it Sunday. So I'll be right behind you.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

Well Nottingham is definitely a beast! It was fermenting within 6 hours of rehydration!

I found the Jar time forgot in the back of my fridge the other day.
it was harvested Notty.
I warmed it up and fed it some DME.
It came back to life!

 

[skidoofus]

Brewed it last Saturday on my Anvil foundry 10.5. Cut boil to 50 minutes with extra half pound of 2 row and full pound of carapils since my efficiency is a bit low All .25 oz like the original, did 45, 30, 20, and 5 minute additions and used 05 since I had it on hand. OG 1.043. Slow starter @64 degrees but man did she build a nice tight white krausen about 3 inches thick! Will keg as soon as I have an empty! Thanks everyone especially BM!

Hit 1.006 for 4.8 ish abv, cold crashing and kegging tonight. Hop to have a taste by Easter Sunday! Hydro sample was pretty smoothe

 

[Smudgey]

Nottingham - fastest yeast I've used! I pitched late sunday night, it was cranking by morning. A few wobbles with a skewiff reading and a big sunbeam hitting the gf conical and making the lid red hot yesterday afternoon, but you can follow the drop in gravity. I was a little quick with the counter-flow & pitched when the temp hit 18°C / ~64°f on the GF temp probe, cooling with glycol, so its interesting to see the temp gradient even out initially over a few hours. At the top where the tilt is reading its initially 23°. I guess I could wobble swirl it to even this out sooner... and then pitch but it doesn't seem to slow the yeast (just hydrated) down!

 

[Jeff...]

View attachment 674931 Nottingham - fastest yeast I've used! I pitched late sunday night, it was cranking by morning. A few wobbles with a skewiff reading and a big sunbeam hitting the gf conical and making the lid red hot yesterday afternoon, but you can follow the drop in gravity. I was a little quick with the counter-flow & pitched when the temp hit 18°C / ~64°f on the GF temp probe, cooling with glycol, so its interesting to see the temp gradient even out initially over a few hours. At the top where the tilt is reading its initially 23°. I guess I could wobble swirl it to even this out sooner... and then pitch but it doesn't seem to slow the yeast (just hydrated) down!

That is a super interesting graph thanks for posting it. I'm more of a set the temp, pitch and forget for a while kind of guy. But your right... Based on my experience, Notty plows through wort like a freight train. I've never had a lag issue or fermention issue with notty.

 

[Jeff...]

I hope this wort looks familiar. I increased the batch size to 6 gallons (pre-boil 7.5 gallons), but I still got 1.043 OG or 83% efficiency. That's a new record for me

 

[JLeuck64]

Man this recipe is so forgiving! I brewed a 10gal batch the last week in March. It was one of those brew days that I was doing a really good job of mucking up everything! Haven't had an off day like that in years LOL! Added TOO much water to mash, I figured that out when it all got into the boil kettle. Oh well, just planned on boiling it down longer... Got distracted before the boil broke through, and had a great big boil over! It still turned out great in the end and a solid 5%ABV! I have been using Imperial House yeast (or Wyeast 1098) for several batches in a row and REALLY like the results ( ;

 

[Jeff...]

I hope this wort looks familiar. I increased the batch size to 6 gallons (pre-boil 7.5 gallons), but I still got 1.043 OG or 83% efficiency. That's a new record for me
View attachment 675069

Well it's day 1 of fermention. I'm fermenting at room temperature ~ 65F.

As expected notty is plowing through the wort like a freight train. I took a sniff of the air lock, it smells like straight up buttered grapefruit. Can't say I've ever smelled a beer brewing like that before. Now It's peaked my interest, to see how it's going to taste, once it's completed primary.

 

[Jeff...]

Does anyone have a good CO2 volumes for this beer? Thinking maybe around 2.3?

Thanks

 

[Chituma]

Man this recipe is so forgiving! I brewed a 10gal batch the last week in March. It was one of those brew days that I was doing a really good job of mucking up everything! Haven't had an off day like that in years LOL! Added TOO much water to mash, I figured that out when it all got into the boil kettle. Oh well, just planned on boiling it down longer... Got distracted before the boil broke through, and had a great big boil over! It still turned out great in the end and a solid 5%ABV! I have been using Imperial House yeast (or Wyeast 1098) for several batches in a row and REALLY like the results ( ;

View attachment 675087

Hello there. Where is the last version of this recipe? Or which recipe are you using?

Regards from Argentina

 

[rtstrider]

Mine's done with main fermentation! I fermented with Nottingham at 64F and honestly the yeast dropped out after 3 days. This is the fastest yeast I've ever used. Now I have gotten a good bit of sulfur but figure that'll clean itself up. The fermenter temp is bumped up to 68F to help clean up for a few days. Won't be bottling this till next week (around 14 days or so in primary) so it SHOULD be cleaned up by then

Edit: Well fermentation is done at 5 days in! Pulled a sample right after I posted this and sulfur is gone. I do taste some tartness but I attribute that to the yeast. The rehydrated yeast had a similar tartness to it. It is now cold crashing down to 34f. Going to let it sit there for 48 hours or so then hit it with gelatin to help it clear up nice. Don't plan on bottling this till next Wednesday/Thursday anyways so it definitely has some time to cold condition.