Southern Hemisphere Blonde Ale Critique/Pointers

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rtstrider

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Hey all! I'm currently toying around with brewing a blonde ale based solely on Southern Hemisphere hops. I already have WLP001 cultured up, mostly, from the freezer so that's why that strain is listed in the recipe. I'm not well versed on the blonde ale style and wanted something that was plain on the grain bill yet interesting on the hop side. That's where the very light addition of dry hops come in. The grain order will be placed Friday so was wanting to see if there may be any pointers at all for this recipe? I've never used any of these hops so am essentially going in blind. Any help or input would be greatly appreciated!

Title: Southern hemi Blonde Ale

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: Blonde Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size: 6.5 gallons
Boil Gravity: 1.040
Efficiency: 70% (brew house)

Hop Utilization Multiplier: 1

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.047
Final Gravity: 1.010
ABV (standard): 4.9%
IBU (tinseth): 20.89
SRM (morey): 4.43
Mash pH: 5.85

FERMENTABLES:
8 lb - Brewers Malt 2-Row (80%)
1 lb - Wheat Malt, White (10%)
1 lb - Caramel Malt - 10L (10%)

HOPS:
0.5 oz - Wakatu, Type: Pellet, AA: 7.5, Use: First Wort, IBU: 15.61
1 oz - Motueka, Type: Pellet, AA: 7, Use: Boil for 5 min, IBU: 5.28
1 oz - Wai-iti, Type: Pellet, AA: 3, Use: Dry Hop for 5 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Strike, Temp: 150 F, Time: 60 min, Amount: 3.75 gal

YEAST:
White Labs - California Ale Yeast WLP001
 
I think that mash pH may be a little high. Full disclosure, I primarily brew lagers. But with a lighter colored beer, I like to be in the 5.2 range.
Agreed! I was going to go with the balanced bruin water profile and adjust the ph with lactic acid.
 
I think that mash pH may be a little high. Full disclosure, I primarily brew lagers. But with a lighter colored beer, I like to be in the 5.2 range.
Actually I'm going to try using cold tap water, campden, and shoot for a 5.25-5.4 mash ph. I pulled out the TDS meter on our unfiltered, plain jane, water and it was in the mid to low 30's. One of the breweries here uses that water and has been winning some comps so curious to see how it turns out.
 
I think it looks great. It’s simple with clear direction. My only critique, or question, is why three different hops at those specific times? The quantities and timing looks good, just curious about variety choices.
 
I think it looks great. It’s simple with clear direction. My only critique, or question, is why three different hops at those specific times? The quantities and timing looks good, just curious about variety choices.
Honestly I know nothing about either of the three hops and figured why not do something simple to learn them? So my line of thinking was that Wakatu is a dual purpose hop. So figured why not use that first wort? Looked at Motueka and that had lower AA's and is more of a flavor hop. 5 minutes in the aroma area, but, it's easy and cutting open a 1oz pack of hops to throw in at 5 min makes for a nice lazy brew day. Looked at Wai-iti hops and due to the low aa's I figured well that would be the best of the three to dry hop with. WLP001 is being used because the freezer bank was getting a bit of age so it needed to be revived and re-banked. Now to be transparent I ripped off this beer kit recipe for this idea and hop addition times lol

https://www.morebeer.com/products/hop-blonde-grain-beer-brewing-kit-5-gallons.html
 
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