blonde ale #1

Blonde ales are the style I've brewed the most. I really like the simplicity of them and the challenge. There's nowhere for flaws to hide. They're also a good beer for non-craft beer drinkers obviously and the majority of the beer I brew is consumed by other people. That's the case for this one which is going to a party. 

The hardest part for me about making blonde ales is the urge to throw some extra hops in or try a little bit of some character malt etc. Restraint isn't easy when you have the freedom of homebrewing but it pays off for this style. The simpler ones are usually the better ones. This one is on the complex side because the majority of ones I've brewed were literally just 2 row and crystal 10 with basically just a bittering charge, so i wanted to switch it u a bit. It's a nice 'reset' beer to brew regularly to make sure your process and ingredients are up to par.

10% crystal malt may seem like a lot for a blonde ale but it works really well as long as it's a very light lovibond crystal. Any crystal malt with a higher lovibond would knock it out of style really quick at this percentage of the grain bill. If you mash low and add some type of highly fermentable sugar, then the fg won't end up too high. The crystal malt really adds a lot of malt character to this beer which needs it, especially if it's all 2 row. You still want a low fg though to make sure it stays drinkable which to me is the hallmark of this style and pretty much most the styles I brew. It's something that is often overlooked for a lot of american craft beer in my opinion. 

I didn't have enough 2 row so that's why I thought I would try it with some golden promise as well. Feel free to go all 2 row. I think 100% golden promise would definitely be too much, especially with the crystal. I used 40% for this and I would probably cut it down next time to under 30%. It adds a nice sweet malt character to balance the graininess form the 2 row but I would like a little more of the 2 row to shine through. 

Instead of the usual cane sugar, I tried some flaked rice to dry it out a bit. I've used flaked rice in the past and liked it but it's been a while. There's no real flavor contribution especially at 5% so feel free to use good ol' white sugar or whatever you have. Jaggery or some other less refined sugar may add a little too much flavor in this style but if you want to try it just cut back on the crystal and maybe raise the mash temp. Anyway, the flaked rice got the job done and added that little bit of crispness I was looking for. 

For hops, you can really just go with a single bittering charge and be fine. I usually target about 15 ibus which is just enough. Anything more for me and it starts to feel more like a pale ale, especially with the simple grist. For this beer and for a lot of my low hopped beers, I steer clear of the high alpha acid hops for bittering just because at like 15% alpha acids, it's easy to overshoot the bitterness with just a couple grams on a 5 gallon scale. The margin of error is much higher with lower alpha acid hops. In terms of what hops work well, I stick to the milder ones that tend towards the earthy/floral/spicy side of things as opposed to the 'brash' american c hops. Centennial is one of the more popular ones though and works well but you do have to be careful not to go overboard. Besides the bittering I usually do a light 10 min addition. In this case I also added some crystal hops (not malt lol) to the whirlpool and steeped it for 5 min. I've never tried crystal before so I wanted to get sense of what it's like. I know it sounds crazy but drinking this beer almost exactly one month after it was brewed, the hops are a little too much. There's still a month before the party so they should drop out a little and be perfect by then.

Ah the yeast, the most obvious choice for most is cal ale/us-05 which works great and I've used it many times. I really like the Scottish ale yeast for this though because it floccs a lot better, doesn't attenuate as much, let's the malt and the hops come through and adds just a touch of soft fruitiness. It's a generally clean yeast but does have a little more character than the super neutral cal ale/us-05. I ferment it on the cooler side but not too cool because I do want a little yeast character which really helps make it interesting. 66f seems to work well for me. Welp there it is, a beer that's simple but doesn't have to be boring to drink or brew. You won't impress your craft beer drinking friends with this one, but you will impress your homebrewing friends. Remember restraint.

• og - 1.040
• fg - 1.012
• 3.7% abv
• 14 ibu
• 3.8 srm

Recipe

• 48% golden promise (simpsons)
• 38% 2-row (great western)
• 10% crystal 10
• 5% flaked rice
• wlp028 edinburgh ale 1 liter starter from slurry

• fwh - .75 oz willamette - 12 ibu
• 10m - .25 oz willamette - 1.7 ibu
• whirlpool 5m - .5 oz crystal - 0.6 ibu

Water Profile
ca 49 ppm | mg 7 ppm | na 0 ppm | s04 63 ppm | cl 59 ppm

Brew Day 8/22/17
- mashed at 152f for 60m
- boiled for 60m
- pitched and fermented at 66 raised to 68 after 3 days

Tasting notes 9/23/17
appearance: clear, yellow to light golden, thin white head a little bit of lacing
aroma: minimal. clean slightly bready malts, slight fruitiness from the yeast and little earthy/floral notes form the hops
taste: sweet grainy malts, low bitterness, subtle spicy hops, crisp clean finish

Next time
Cut the percentage of golden promise down to under 30% and delete the whirlpool addition. Overall though really clean and drinkable.