Blondster Belgian Blonde Ale - modified

General Homebrew Discussion
1

Hi,

I brewed “The Blondster Belgian Blonde Ale” from the AHA website as a starting point, with a couple of modifications:

  • Used SafAle BE-256 instead of Wyeast 3787 for primary fermentation.
  • Added the 1.25 lb brown sugar at about 2/3 attenuation, per the recipe.
  • Did not add the EC-1118 or the additional 5 oz brown sugar at kegging. Instead, I force carbonated in a Corny keg.

Fermentation was healthy and finished very dry (Tilt indicated about 1.000). During active fermentation there was a noticeable sulfur aroma coming from the airlock, but that disappeared before packaging.

The beer has now been in the keg for about 3 weeks. It looks good, is mostly clear with only a slight haze, and the flavor is good. However, the aroma is still not where I’d like it to be. Some people who’ve tasted it describe the aroma as “yeasty,” while I initially thought it was sulfurous. One taster described it as a little “alcoholy.” I’ve vented the keg headspace several times, but the aroma hasn’t changed much.

Questions:

  1. Is this likely to continue improving with additional time in the keg?
  2. Has anyone used BE-256 in a Belgian Blonde and noticed a similar young-beer aroma?
  3. Since I skipped the recipe’s natural conditioning step, is there any benefit at this point to adding the EC-1118 and 5 oz of brown sugar and letting the keg condition warm for a month or two, or would you leave it as-is?

Thanks for any suggestions.

— Alex

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2
  1. Unless it is infected, every beer will get better if it is sitting in a refrigerated keg.
  2. I haven’t used BE-256.
  3. I would leave as is. I haven’t noticed any difference between naturally carbed or force carbed keg beer.
3

I would leave it as is.