What to do with a Blonde (beer)

[BitterSweetBrews]

A local brewery is hosting a wort transformation challenge. The challenge is to make a base wort into something different and special. There are about 160 entries.

I am getting the maximum of 2 - 5 gallon portions of the base wort, a blonde (2 entries). It is 95% pilsner, 5% carapils with Sterling bittering and Liberty flavor hops (about 28 IBUs total). I have a couple ideas and want some opinions.

I plan to split it into thirds and enter the best two.

1/3, I'll probably ferment as is with some S-04.

1/3 I want to re-mash/re-boil with some flaked oats, some white wheat, a little 2-row and a boatload of juicy hops to make an NEIPA (el Dorado and Citra - at 10 min, in the whirlpool and dry hopped later).

The final 1/3 I am not really sure. Part of me wants to re-mash & boil with some Vienna or Marris Otter, add some more german hops, ferment it with a Belgian yeas then rack it on some dark cherries to do a cherry blonde. I may even add some vanilla beans.

What do you think? Am I on the right track with the NEIPA? Has anyone ever tried any of these?



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[gunhaus]

I just turned a blonde ale into pee!!!!

Sorry - couldn't help it. You mention Belgian Yeast - How about something Saison like?

 

[TurnipGreen]

I’d say keep it subtle and simple.

For the cherry blonde. Skip the added hops and malts. Just ferment with your preferred yeast and rack on a small amount of cherries. Blondes are nice and light. Why not keep it that way?
I did a super simple blonde a few years ago and added a small tincture of wild ginger and it turned out great. So you could consider additions after fermentation too.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Rose hips - spring is coming.

 

[Lefou]

A blonde ale recipe can cover a wide range of potential styles.
It's a pretty flexible beer and you can do a lot of variations, but it's usually best kept simple with some minor flavor or aroma additions.
One of my best ales was a WLP001 blonde done with 70/20/10 Pilsner, Vienna, and white wheat around OG 1.046. I mashed it low, between 145F-152F and used a Whirlfloc.
Turned out a beautiful bright gold, great foam persistence, slightly hopped a bit with Citra and Cascade, but the malt was very evident. Bottle-aged at about two months it was a very nice, dry beer around 1.004 FG.
Excellent table beer with food or by itself. A change in hops will change the character of the beer. Next time I am thinking of a single hop brew using Amarillo or noble hops just to see the difference.

 

[mrdauber64]

Try adding 3-4 lbs cucumbers and a 1/2 pound of honey to the secondary. I made a cucumber blonde last year that was awesome!

 

[Lefou]

Try adding 3-4 lbs cucumbers and a 1/2 pound of honey to the secondary. I made a cucumber blonde last year that was awesome!

Great idea! Cucumber water would add a nice, mild essence and the honey would make the brew more fermentable, drying it out.

 

[mrdauber64]

Great idea! Cucumber water would add a nice, mild essence and the honey would make the brew more fermentable, drying it out.

When I did it, I added the cucumbers chopped up just like a dry hop directly in the primary. It worked really well.

 

[MVKTR2]

WLP 550, 530, or 500 fermented at a high temp would make a great beer and you could add any number of interesting sugars from dk candy to date to table to molasses.

 

[pm5k00]

Re boiling and re mashing seems like it would probably be against the rules of the competition seeing that they already gave you the base wort.

This is just my guess but I think they're just looking for you ferment with whatever your yeast of choice is and maybe do something crazy in secondary.

You could make a very potent hop tea to add in to give you a IPA Style Beer.

 

[BitterSweetBrews]

Re boiling and re mashing seems like it would probably be against the rules of the competition seeing that they already gave you the base wort.

This is just my guess but I think they're just looking for you ferment with whatever your yeast of choice is and maybe do something crazy in secondary.

You could make a very potent hop tea to add in to give you a IPA Style Beer.

The only rule is that anything you turn in has to have at least 80% of the original wort as its' base. Other than that, there are no rules. Re-mashing the wort with additional grains, re-boiling with different hops etc. are all acceptable transformations. I have done all of these in the past. Last year I turned a Swartzbier into a Belgian Strong and a Barleywine. The turn-in categories are: Traditional, Fruit/Spice, Experimental and Hoppy. I was thinking of the Cherry Blonde as a fruit, a NEIPA for hoppy and Just fermenting for traditional. If I split the wort into 3 or 4, I can take the best two.

 

[dyqik]

Add 1.5 to 2lb of honey to a gallon of wort, ferment as a Bray's One Month Mead.

That should just about get you past the 80% rule, and won't even be beer!