Need some help on a honey/mexican vanilla blonde ale recipe (Feisty Blonde)

[Semicole]

There is a small brewery here in Texas that makes a honey blonde with Mexican vanilla added and it is probably one of my top 3 beers - it's called Feisty Blonde. It is surprisingly heavy for it being a blonde with its 8.27% ABV. I'm a new brewer and don't know much in the way of developing a recipe, so I'll put what I know about it below and hopefully you guys can help me form a recipe.

Description from their site:

ABV: 8.27% | IBU: 16.6 | OG: 1.062| SRM: 6.3

This bronze/golden ale combines deeply aromatic orange blossom honey with a touch of pure Mexican Vanilla and raw brown sugar to round out its smooth finish. Brewed with 4 grains and 2 varieties of hops for balance but unpasteurized and unfiltered to allow the natural essence of the citrus blossom to shine.

Any ideas?

 

[BLL]

Without ever actually tasting the beer no one's going to be able to give you an idea of what those 4 grain varieties are or 2 hop varieties, but at around 6 SRM you can probably expect that the brown sugar is making a slight color contribution assuming it was used to help get that ABV so high.

That said, I'll tell you how I would do it and hopefully you'll get further feedback to compare it against:

Two-Row ~60%
Vienna ~15%
White Wheat ~15%
Rolled Oats ~5%
Brown Sugar (as late boil addition) ~2.5%
Orange Blossom Honey (as knockout addition) ~2.5%

Rest at 149*F

Magnum @60m for 15 IBUs
Pekko @10m for 1.6 IBUs

Shoot for OG of 19*P
Expect TG of around 4.5*P

Add Mexican vanilla beans (scraped) post fermentation and let the beer sit on them 3 to 7 days.

This will put you at the following:

OG @ 19*P and TG @ 4.5*P = 8.46% ABV (approximately)

SRM: 6.2

16.2 IBUs

I should note that if you're a beginner brewer it might be difficult to replicate a recipe until you have some more experience under your belt. Being a high ABV beer it'll be easier for fermentation to go awry without careful attention to yeast and temperature control. Best of luck.

EDIT: By the way, I'm from Texas. I no longer live there, but I visit occasionally to see family. What brewery is it and where are they? I'll give them a try assuming it's not on the opposite side of the state from me haha.

 

[Semicole]

Without ever actually tasting the beer no one's going to be able to give you an idea of what those 4 grain varieties are or 2 hop varieties, but at around 6 SRM you can probably expect that the brown sugar is making a slight color contribution assuming it was used to help get that ABV so high.

That said, I'll tell you how I would do it and hopefully you'll get further feedback to compare it against:

Two-Row ~60%
Vienna ~15%
White Wheat ~15%
Rolled Oats ~5%
Brown Sugar (as late boil addition) ~2.5%
Orange Blossom Honey (as knockout addition) ~2.5%

Rest at 149*F

Magnum @60m for 15 IBUs
Pekko @10m for 1.6 IBUs

Shoot for OG of 19*P
Expect TG of around 4.5*P

Add Mexican vanilla beans (scraped) post fermentation and let the beer sit on them 3 to 7 days.

This will put you at the following:

OG @ 19*P and TG @ 4.5*P = 8.46% ABV (approximately)

SRM: 6.2

16.2 IBUs

I should note that if you're a beginner brewer it might be difficult to replicate a recipe until you have some more experience under your belt. Being a high ABV beer it'll be easier for fermentation to go awry without careful attention to yeast and temperature control. Best of luck.

EDIT: By the way, I'm from Texas. I no longer live there, but I visit occasionally to see family. What brewery is it and where are they? I'll give them a try assuming it's not on the opposite side of the state from me haha.

Awesome, thanks for the recipe start! When you say rest at 149F, I'm assuming that's the mash temp I should aim for yeah?

It's from Hopfusion AleWorks over in Ft. Worth - I think they recently started canning last year, so they're fairly new, but you can find their cans at most bottle shops around here.

 

[BLL]

Awesome, thanks for the recipe start! When you say rest at 149F, I'm assuming that's the mash temp I should aim for yeah?

It's from Hopfusion AleWorks over in Ft. Worth - I think they recently started canning last year, so they're fairly new, but you can find their cans at most bottle shops around here.

That's correct.

I used to be in Fort Worth all the time. I'll have to check them out next time I'm there.

Be sure to revisit this thread to let me (and whoever else chimes in) know what you end up doing and how it turns out!

 

[brian1983]

There is a small brewery here in Texas that makes a honey blonde with Mexican vanilla added and it is probably one of my top 3 beers - it's called Feisty Blonde. It is surprisingly heavy for it being a blonde with its 8.27% ABV. I'm a new brewer and don't know much in the way of developing a recipe, so I'll put what I know about it below and hopefully you guys can help me form a recipe.

Description from their site:

ABV: 8.27% | IBU: 16.6 | OG: 1.062| SRM: 6.3

This bronze/golden ale combines deeply aromatic orange blossom honey with a touch of pure Mexican Vanilla and raw brown sugar to round out its smooth finish. Brewed with 4 grains and 2 varieties of hops for balance but unpasteurized and unfiltered to allow the natural essence of the citrus blossom to shine.

Any ideas?

This directly from taphunter
The amounts are not listed obviously. But now you'll know the exact grains and hops.

Hops: Fuggle, Crystal

Grains/Adjuncts: Pale Malt 2-row, Crystal Malt 20L, Vienna Malt, Flaked Oats, orange blossum honey, Dark Brown Sugar(the can says piloncillo surgar. Which is just Mexican brown sugar.)

Yeast: 1272

 

[Semicole]

This directly from taphunter
The amounts are not listed obviously. But now you'll know the exact grains and hops.

Hops: Fuggle, Crystal

Grains/Adjuncts: Pale Malt 2-row, Crystal Malt 20L, Vienna Malt, Flaked Oats, orange blossum honey, Dark Brown Sugar(the can says piloncillo surgar. Which is just Mexican brown sugar.)

Yeast: 1272

Awesome man! I haven't checked this thread in a while, so sorry for the late reply. I will definitely give this a shot in the near future. Do you have any recommendation on what amounts I should start with as far as the hop schedule and the brown sugar and honey?

Also, I found it on Taphunter, but don't see any hops or grains loses for it, where do you find that info? I've never used Taphunter before, so maybe it's there and I just don't know where to look for it.

 

[brian1983]

Awesome man! I haven't checked this thread in a while, so sorry for the late reply. I will definitely give this a shot in the near future. Do you have any recommendation on what amounts I should start with as far as the hop schedule and the brown sugar and honey?

Also, I found it on Taphunter, but don't see any hops or grains loses for it, where do you find that info? I've never used Taphunter before, so maybe it's there and I just don't know where to look for it.

https://www.taphunter.com/beer/hopfusion-feisty-blonde/5091124891090944