I think this 15-Minute Blonde experiment is a bust

[dkevinb]

I tried a 1-gallon extract recipe based on something I saw on Basic Brewing. It was 1 lb. amber DME and 3/8 oz. of Cascade boiled for 15 minutes. I pitched a full packet of US-05 dry because I'm lazy. Fermentation went well. At 2 weeks I hydro'd it and it looked good - 1.012. The sample tasted pretty promising, your basic Cascady light colored ale. I decided to cold crash it because it was still looking pretty turbid.

Tonight I bottled it. It was still quite cloudy and the sample tasted pretty blech. Not infected or anything, just blech. Maybe it's because I'd been drinking my SN APA clone that I like a lot, but I couldn't really taste much of any hops in the blonde. I know a blonde isn't supposed to be hoppy, but a Bud Light would have tasted better.

Anyway, the last piece of the experiment is to see if it will bottle carb after cold crashing without adding yeast. This is the first time I've cold crashed. I just added sugar to each bottle, since I didn't want to stir up the big trub cake in an already cloudy beer. I bottled it cold and am letting it come up to room temperature at, well, room temperature.

The good thing is that if this experiment is a complete bust I only have to dump 5 pints instead of 5 gallons.

 

[atoughram]

I think it takes longer the 15 minutes of boil time to isomerize the alpha acids in the hops, so in effect, you have no bitterring going on. You might have some taste and efinetly have some aroma but not a lot, if any, bittering.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Also while I don't entirely know the range of accepted amounts of yeast but using 5x the usual amount of yeast sounds like some serious over pitching.

 

[adiochiro3]

I would make up the label with the theme "busty blonde." rather than dumping it, I would consider using it for a blend with another brew. nothing really to lose...

Sent from my brewery while sitting on the John.

 

[mhurst111]

I think it takes longer the 15 minutes of boil time to isomerize the alpha acids in the hops, so in effect, you have no bitterring going on. You might have some taste and efinetly have some aroma but not a lot, if any, bittering.

You can make a very drinkable pale ale in 15 minutes of boil. I typically will do this recipe (2.5 gal) instead of making a starter.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/15-minute-cascade-pale-ale-210253/

Probably be hard to get a blonde using this method, but 15 minutes of boil can produce bittering, just have to up the hops amount.

 

[C-Rider]

No need to add extra yeast after cold crashing. I do it all the time and bottle cold. Three weeks later and it's ready to go.

 

[troy2000]

No need to add extra yeast after cold crashing. I do it all the time and bottle cold. Three weeks later and it's ready to go.

Ditto.

I cold-crash the living daylights out of my saisons that are about 20% wheat, to get rid of the haze - several days to a week. They bottle condition with no problem anyway....

 

[dkevinb]

Thanks for the replies. I'm pretty sure the 15 minute boil wasn't a problem in itself. I've seen it done before. You just have to increase the hop amount. Plus it didn't taste too bad after primary. Maybe it just tasted blech compared to the APA I had in my hand. I'll try it again in a couple of weeks and see how it's going.

 

[dkevinb]

OK, I take it all back. I tried a couple of bottles of this last night and it was great! I guess it just need a couple of weeks in the bottle. This is definitely a keeper.

 

[Paradigm]

With that amount of yeast in it, at the very least, it would be a handy starter in a bottle