• Please visit and share your knowledge at our sister communities:
  • If you have not, please join our official Homebrewing Facebook Group!

    Homebrewing Facebook Group

Blonde Ale Kona Big Wave Golden Ale clone

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
IMG_1900.jpg
 
Been working away for 5 days now. Still lotsa Krausen. Should I wait till that drops off to start the dry-hop? Or just go ahead and add the citra into primary.
 
well no opinions so I'mma goin ahead to dry-hop today. I am hesitant to use 1.5-2 oz cause I want it to have the aroma, but just not be grassy, so I'm thinking of sticking to 1 oz to start, see how it smells, and add another 0.5-1 oz later if needed.
 
Brewed this over the weekend, first batch of beer in over a year so to say I was a bit rusty is a understatement! Messed up my mash and ended up mashing really high, still looks to have made beer though lol. I used oyl-200 to ferment as I had planned on a different beer. Gonna check og after a week and see where I'm at then keg.
 
Mine turned out really good! Citra certainly has a bite to it. I also bought the original and will post a side by side comparison soon.
 
I am 2 days into the dry hopping, 3 away from transferring to the brite tank. I went with all Citra as the Galaxy is not available right now in my area.
 
The end product. I did a side by side with the original and it is pretty damn close. Original is a bit crisper. Mine has a slightly different maltiness to it. A truly amazing beer though. This is definitely a summer regular in my tap rotation.

Both photos are my recipe.
IMG_2227.jpg

IMG_2217.jpg
 
Ok... Noob here. Can someone break down the dry hop phase to me? I'm 1 week into primary fermentation in a carboy. I will be dry hopping with pellets and will be kegging. I guess what I'm asking is how far into the process do I start the dry hopping phase and also, how long until I keg?
 
Ok... Noob here. Can someone break down the dry hop phase to me? I'm 1 week into primary fermentation in a carboy. I will be dry hopping with pellets and will be kegging. I guess what I'm asking is how far into the process do I start the dry hopping phase and also, how long until I keg?

I wait until one week after the krausen drops to keg. I add dry hops in the keg and leave them there until the keg kicks. Put the hops in a bag of some sort (muslin, paint strainer, cloth hop bag, etc.)
 
I am planning a Golden Ale after my wheat beer tomorrow.

Brewers notes
BITTERNESS. 21 IBU
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME. 4.4%
ORIGINAL GRAVITY. 10.3° P
MALTS. Pale 2 Row Premium, Caramel 20
HOPS. Galaxy, Citra

10 lb 2 row
1 lb C20

Galaxy 7.5 IBU(s) @ 45 min
Citra 6 IBU(s) @ 30 min
Citra 7.5 IBU(s) @ 10 min

Nottingham yeast
 
Last edited:
I am planning a Golden Ale after my wheat beer tomorrow.

Brewers notes
BITTERNESS. 21 IBU
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME. 4.4%
ORIGINAL GRAVITY. 10.3° P
MALTS. Pale 2 Row Premium, Caramel 20
HOPS. Galaxy, Citra

10 lb 2 row
1 lb C20

Galaxy 7.5 IBU(s) @ 45 min
Citra 6 IBU(s) @ 30 min
Citra 7.5 IBU(s) @ 10 min

Nottingham yeast

Sounds good.
 
I brewed this about two years ago and it was a solid brew. Just curious why one would use Galaxy at 60 min and such a small quantity. I cant believe Kona uses Galaxy that early.
Anyway, I'll probably be brewing this again later this year but will make some changes.
I plan on reducing the 2Row and adding some munich and white wheat.
I may also change the crystal to 40 just to darken it up a bit.
Hop schedule will be warrior to bitter and 2:1 Citra/Galaxy all in late additions (10 min and under) plus some dry hops.
 
Can anyone suggest a water profile for this? I brew using RO water. Thanks so much!
 
Ok, so I finally got a chance to taste this and oh boy, it was awesome. My only deviation from the original recipe was that I substituted Carared for the Crystal malt. It's a little cloudier than I expected, but I think I syphoned to much trub into the keg. The only way I can describe this beer is as a fresher version of Big Wave with a little more hop flavor on the back end. Such a good beer. Cheers!
 
fI am definetly a fan of Kona and for sure am trying this recipe, could be a good one to have in the rotation, it might have to replace that is very similar, 9 lbs 2-row, 1 lb carmel 40, and all citra with 2 oz dry hoppin
 
This has inspired me. But I am going to do a quite a bit subbing in the grain bill based on current inventory. No 2-row but have Pilsner, no c-20 but do have quite a bit of Vienna and C-15. No us-05 but have us-04. Any thoughts and concerns?
 
This is one of my favorite beers from Kona but I also wonder about the 60 minute galaxy addition. Seems like you could get your IBUs from a cheaper hop like columbus, warrior or magnum and not lose anything.
 
I do a mosiac 60 min addition. I know it's not much cheaper than galaxy but I like it in my version of this recipe. Will use warrior when my mosaic runs out
 
Basically made my own beer. Used Pilsner 7.5#, C-15 1.5#, Mosiac (fwh .25 & dry hopped 1 oz with 1 oz Citra) instead of galaxy but used Citra as called for in OP & s-04 instead of S05. Side by side with Big Wave mine has a lot more body and more fruit notes but Kona is much clearer than my hazyish beer. Defitnely a crusher
 
Cracked open my first bottle of this today. Absolutely lovely. The only thing I changed was I subbed the Galaxy with Mosaic. (Because that's what I had on hand)

Will definitely brew this again. Thanks for the recipe!!
result_1584565047308.jpeg
 
Made with the original recipe and tasted after 1 week in bottle :ghostly:
almost no carbonation but the taste was spot on already, this is going to be damn nice summer beer! Cheers Acarlotto.
 
By far the best session blonde ale I've brewwed to date
 

Attachments

  • 15894892766437709053260453025420.jpg
    15894892766437709053260453025420.jpg
    1.5 MB
Question the beer is great but definitely a hot summer ale beer. If I love the flavor but want to bump up the abv without adding sugar
 
Back
Top