Last year I brewed a blonde ale and I felt it was missing something. So this year I’m thinking that I’m going to do some experimentation to find a great blonde ale to my palette.
My basic recipe that I’m working on is
1 gallon
1.75 lbs 2 row
.2 lbs crystal 20
And about 18 ibus of centennial hops at 45 min.
I plan on substituting vienna malt for 1 batch
And munich for another
Just brew a great kolsch instead.
Brew it with a lager yeast.
Seriously though, what do you want your Blonde to taste like? There is such a large variety in this style. Breweries market all kinds of light colored beers as “blondes.”
From your recipe, I take it you don’t want hop flavor or aroma. Why a 45 minute addition and why use a flavor/aroma hop since at 45 min you want get much if any flavor or aroma?
You have a lot of caramel malt at 10%. Even with Munich, 10% would be a lot. My favorite “blondes” are light, crisp, and clean. That would mean 5% or less caramel. I would also go with C-10 or no caramel at all. Only add caramel if you like a hint of caramel flavor, which can be nice.
I like a bit of hop flavor and aroma. I would save a bit of the centennial hops for a 0 minute addition. For 1 gallon I would say 0.1-0.2 oz. I don’t like to turn a blonde into a pale ale.
I like Patagonia Extra Pale malt. It is very light, tasty, and has a slightly sweet taste even with low FG.
Mash at 148-150 to finish dry and ferment with a clean yeast like 1056/001/US-05.
Try FWH. I like 85/10/5 - 2row/Munich/Dextine. Mash around 153-154 and ferment low at 62 with Chico
Try this link: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=23074.msg294811#msg294811
I brewed this last year for our RV trip spanning 12 days of driving, thinking it would be a nice end to each day of driving and get us through all 11 states on our trip having 2-4 per night. The 2 cases did not last through the whole trip, details are in the thread. SWMBO and I loved this brew, and it was my first blonde, many thanks again to IMperry. Need to brew it again, I did however sub in Safale 05 rather than his yeast as that was what I had on hand, turned out great
I would completely cut the crystal. Agree that Chico/US-05 will work. Also kolsch yeast - makes fantastic beer but closer to lager than ale. My favourite blonde recipe is Seymour Citra Gold on jimsbeerkit. 97% Maris Otter, 3% oats, US-05, Citra hops + some citrus zest. Centennial Blonde on HBT is good but a bit too bland and under hopped.