tips for blonde ale

[philhead1]

I'm going to brew my first blonde ale in about a week and was look for some tips to help keep it a good blonde color, is it all in the temp control? I've made one kolsch that turn out tasting good but wasn't exactly a blonde. I'm sure I caramelized it a little. any help would be helpful.

 

[Pommy]

so your wanting it to be more lightly coloured?

 

[Pommy]

If you do then adding some honey (id say up to 1lb) would work, if you want it a bit of a deeper colour then light crystal malt (again up to 1lb) would be my suggestion.

 

[philhead1]

I'm wanting to get a good golden yellow color, but thinking if a caramelize some of the sugars that it will turn it a more reddish color. going to try for a very low boil and add malts to the end of boil, hoping that will help.

 

[elkdog]

Boil as high a volume as you can, on as low a heat as you can get away with while still maintaining a real boil, and do the late extract addition (I'm assuming you're talking extract when you mention that). Steep your grains as usual- boiling those is bad news and tannin extraction. You're always going to get something a little darker than an AG brewer doing a full boil would, but you should be able to minimize that effect and make an excellent blonde ale. Make sure you're using extra light extract, and maybe some crystal 10 to steep. Blonde ales should be simple and clean. Sounds like you know what you're doing with this one.

 

[philhead1]

ok thanks, now its time to brew.

 

[NuclearRich]

I had great results when I did a blonde this past fall...



And the beer I made went well too! haha. Never gets old! Seriously, tho, a full boil and being careful not to scorch the malt worked very well for me.

 

[bwible]

My most recent blonde ale is very good, especially after the keg has been cold in my kegerator for a couple weeks. I used pilsener malt as the base and added about 10% munich 10L malt. Hopped with Hallertauer Mittelfruher for bittering with Saaz for flavor and aroma. I used Wyeast 1968 on this one and I like it. My Tilt says it fermented at 73 degrees. It’s really clean. If anything, I would increase both the light munich and the late Saaz additions on my next batch. I am going for a psuedo lager.

If you want a hoppier blonde, there’s a recipe for one that uses all citra.

 

[Alphadawg]

To keep the color lighter, add only 25% of the extract initially. I think it is needed to help the hops do their thing. Add the rest just before flameout. Late extract addition seems to keep the color more blonde

 

[VikeMan]

OP was "Last seen Dec 8, 2013" and may have already brewed his blonde ale.