Recipe for an English Golden or Blonde Ale

[oxonbrew]

Hi,

I'm looking for a recipe for an English golden or blonde ale. I've tried a couple of unsuccessful attempts and so thought I'd ask for advice.
I'd like to produce something like Wye Valley HPA, Bath Ales Wild Hare, Adnams Explorer, Wychwood scarecrow, Arkells Wiltshire Gold.

Any help would be much appreciated!

I've included my last recipe below. I found that this wasn't floral enough and was too bitter. I'm after sweet and floral

Cheers!

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 19.0
Total Grain (kg): 3.050
Total Hops (g): 42.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.035 (°P): 8.8
Final Gravity (FG): 1.003 (°P): 1.5
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.2 %
Colour (SRM): 3.8 (EBC): 7.4
Bitterness (IBU): 17.0 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 71
Boil Time (Minutes): 70

Grain Bill
----------------
2.000 kg Golden Promise Malt (65.57%)
0.750 kg Wheat Malt (24.59%)
0.100 kg Caramalt (3.28%)
0.100 kg Munich I (3.28%)
0.100 kg Rice Hulls (3.28%)

Hop Bill
----------------
7.0 g First Gold Leaf (8.2% Alpha) @ 70 Minutes (Boil) (0.4 g/L)
6.0 g Cascade Leaf (8.2% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.3 g/L)
18.0 g East Kent Golding Leaf (6.2% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil) (0.9 g/L)
11.0 g East Kent Golding Leaf (6.2% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (0.6 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
5.0 g Irish Moss @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 67°C for 80 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with Safale US-05


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

 

[bierhaus15]

UK style Golden Ales are not very popular over here and I doubt most American home brewers are familiar with the ones found in the UK. With that said, I really enjoy making them and my go-to recipe is either Golden Promise or Maris Otter with around 5-8% torrified wheat and rarely 3-4% caramalt, if I want a bit more malt character. First gold, challenger, EKG, are what I normally use for hops. One of my favorite beers is all First Gold with an emphasis on late hopping.

I'll usually add one bittering hop and then add a sizable amount of hops at 10 or 15 min, saving the largest hop addition for the flameout, where I'll let it sit in the whirpool for 30 min or so. This provides a big, punchy hop flavor and aroma, but not a lot of bitterness. For a 1.045 beer, I try to keep the IBU below 30.

While I have not brewed or tried this beer, a lot of people have had success with the Crouch Vale Brewers Gold recipe. It is 100% lager malt with Brewers Gold hops, all added at 15min. Here is a link. Good luck!

http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=77535&start=15#p725775

 

[oxonbrew]

Many thanks for the reply. I found it very useful. I've formulated something (below), any thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers!

summer 2 (Blonde Ale)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.039 (°P): 9.8
Final Gravity (FG): 1.008 (°P): 2.1
Alcohol (ABV): 4.09 %
Colour (SRM): 3.8 (EBC): 7.5
Bitterness (IBU): 16.2 (Average)

31.25% Golden Promise Malt
31.25% Maris Otter Malt
31.25% Pilsner
3.12% Caramalt
3.12% Wheat Malt

0.3 g/L Cascade (8.2% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
0.3 g/L First Gold (8.2% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
0.3 g/L East Kent Golding (6.2% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
0.4 g/L Styrian Golding (5.2% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes (Boil)
3.3 g/L East Kent Golding (6.2% Alpha) @ 3 Minutes (Boil)

0.3 g/L Irish Moss @ 15 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 67°C for 80 Minutes. Boil for 80 Minutes

Fermented at 20°C with Danstar Nottingham


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

 

[mjohnson]

I'd suggest trying your original recipe but with a less attenuative yeast. Maybe the Nottingham will be better. If you can get your hands on some of the liquid strains, it might be nice. I wonder if the US-05 is too clean. It probably didn't give you an esther profile you'd like.

 

[oxonbrew]

Thanks. I might reconsider trying the first. I think the thing that killed the first recipie was water treatment and/or fermenting at too high temperature (we had an unexpected heat wave and it hit 28C ~82F at times).

The finished beer has a "hard" or slightly mineral taste/smell.

Its the first all grain that I consider to have failed (I think I've brewed about 10 all grain batches now).

Thanks for the input!

 

[mjohnson]

Yeah, if you put too many salts in the water, it can really accentuate the bitterness. Some hops are harsher than others too. I'm not sure about First Gold - I've never used it.

I generally start with very soft water and just add CaCl to get CA up to 50-100ppm. This skews things towards rounder flavors. I balance that with CaSO4 (gypsum) if I want the hops to pop more. I've never brewed bad beer with soft water (perhaps some could have been even better with different treatment, though). I've brewed and tasted bad beer with water treated with too much crap. I generally keep it simple to start.

good luck!