Posts Tagged ‘blonde’
AG#127 – Belgian Extra Blonde
Posted on: September 14, 2014
Belgian Extra Blonde – A mix of Pale (didn’t have any Lager malt), Carapils, Dextrose (partly sugar as I didn’t have enough of either), Oat malt & Wheat malt.
Hops are a tiny amount of Magnum to bitter then a subtle amount of Mittlefruh in the last 5 minutes and about half the coriander you’d expect to add to a Wit.
I’m fermenting with WLP757 which I revived from a 2 year old Whitelabs tube.
The Malts, mashed at 69°c for about 90mins:
The 9g of bittering hops!
The Coriander:
Second sparge running to copper:
Hit 3 points over my target so liquored back to 1047:
I’m hoping for just a hint of coriander and a light coloured, light bodied beer with enough but not overpowering Belgianiness! I’ve used sugars for part of the bill to keep the strength at 5% ish without adding too much colour.
*16th Sep ’14 – Yeast spewing all over the garage floor this morning, the ambient temp is about 19c and the FV is a fairly steady 22c, the WLP575 is smelling quite sulphurous, this could just be the yeast or I could be encouraging the sulphur because of my Sulphate additions (Calcium Sulphate & Magnesium Sulphate) all of which should dissipate as fermentation completes.
*Kegged 20th Sep ’14 – its about time i used my cornies!
*30 Sep ’14 – taster from keg, quite a soft carbonation, has Duvel-like properties some of the Sulphur is going but some of it could be the Coriander thats confusing me. I let the keg for 24 hours at 20psi and 24 hours at 30psi then left it until now, Ive put 30psi on it again and will test it again tomorrow.
AG#117 – Waimea Amarillo Ahtanum
Posted on: March 22, 2014
- In: Brewing
- 3 Comments
Waimea Amarillo Ahtanum – I’ll think up a better name than this! This is my brew for the bar at Saltaire Brewery / NCB Competition, I’ve gone for Flaked Oats & Barley in there and the water profile is for a Mild to try and keep some good body. I plan to dry hop this brew in the FV and probably a light dry hop in the cask too. Oh, btw… its a ‘Hoppy Blonde’ 😉
Fermentables:
Pale Malt – 71.3%
Munich Malt – 9.6%
Flaked Barley – 6.5%
Caramalt – 4.8%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 4.8%
Flaked Oats – 3.1%
Hops:
Cluster Pellet 7.9 % @ 60 mins – 3g (FWH)
Waimea Pellet 14.9 % @ 15 mins – 22g
Amarillo Whole 10.1 % @ 15 mins – 22g
Ahtanum Pellet 5.2 % @ 15 mins – 16g
Waimea Pellet 14.9 % 0 mins – 40g
Amarillo Whole 10.1 % @ 0 mins – 40g
Ahtanum Pellet 5.2 % @ 0 mins – 20g
Cluster Pellet 7.9 % @ 0 mins – 6g (Just ‘cos 6g isn’t worth keeping)
Final Volume: 25 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.041
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 4% ABV
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 29 EBU
Colour: 9 EBC
Yeast: Safale us-05
Mash: 68°c for 90mins
Liquor Treatment: THBF Mild profile
The Malts:
A Massive 3 whole grams of bittering hops:
The Waimea Turd, smelled great and were really sticky:
Running off the mash and heating the copper:
In go the 15min hops:
Flameout hops for a 20minute Copper stand:
Ended up with an OG of 1049 so liquored back to 1041 giving me 26.22L in the FV, using a fair amount of hop pellets in the boil has stopped hop absorption in comparison to whole hops, this should leave plenty of beer to fill a cask and get some bottles 🙂
*26th Mar ’14 – Gravity at 1010.5 so Dry Hopped with Amarillo 32g, Ahtanum 34g & Waimea 39g so round about 4g/litre
*Cask & Bottled 3rd Apr ’14 – Tasting good, decided not to dry hop the cask.
*12th Apr ’14 – This won the show of hands for ‘Best Cask Ale’ at the Northern Craft Brewers Competition at Saltaire Brewery 🙂
*26th Apr ’14 – Having a bottle of this now and its rather blooming good, its quite dry but a lovely flavour, more of a 4% IPA.
Mittlefruh Junga Blonde – Another easy drinker which might just be ready in time for over Christmas, this time using German Mittlefruh & Polish Junga, I’ve tweaked the malt bill a tiny bit from my last brew loosing 2% Carapils and making sure I hit my 69°c mash temp.
I’m hoping the addition of Junga will add a spice-character, I’ve also increased the bitterness just a touch to try emphasize this.
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 82%
Vienna Malt – 10%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 8%
Hops:
Junga – 12.3 % @ 60 mins – 11g
Hallertauer Mittlefruh – 4.9 % @ 60 mins – 10g
Junga – 12.3 % @ 5 mins – 24g
Hallertauer Mittlefruh – 4.9 % @ 5 mins – 24g
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.037
Final Gravity: 1.009
Alcohol Content: 3.6% ABV
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 25 EBU
Colour: 4 EBC
Mash: 60mins @ 69°c
Yeast: Safale us-05
The malts:
Recirculating the first few jugs of wort and a tiny amount of FWH:
These Junga are smelling particularly nice:
Running off to FV:
Gave my FV a thorough clean/sanitise as the last thing that was in here was my Kraftwort smoked beer and it still had a slight taint to it.
Left it cooling really slowly while we went out, got back and it was at 12°c (oops) and I’d hot-liquored back on the FV with 2 litres from the HLT so only had 620ml to liquorback in the FV so no chance to warm things up with that, its now in the Fermentation Fridge set to 20°c so should warm up pretty soon.
*Bottled 30th Dec ’13 – with 127g of sugar
*8th Jan ’14 – Early-ish taster, this is rather good, a little bit of sweetness, a nice amount of body with subtle tasty hops. (I’ll taste again when my cold has gone, but I reckon this is a good one)
AG#108 – Vienna Blonde
Posted on: November 24, 2013
- In: Brewing
- 4 Comments
Vienna Blonde – fair enough, this is not a Vienna lager recipe but I’m after an easy drinking beer for Christmas which anyone can drink. All German hops and done with subtlety, used the Mild Water profile from THBF Liquor Treatment Calculator to give it a healthy dose of Chloride.
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 80%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 10%
Vienna Malt – 10%
Hops:
Magnum – 12.7 % @ 60 mins – 13g (FWH)
Hallertauer Hersbrucker – 3.0 % @ 5 mins – 23g
Tettnang – 3.8 % @ 5 mins – 23g
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.037
Final Gravity: 1.009
Alcohol Content: 3.6% ABV
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 20 EBU
Colour: 4 EBC
Mash: 60mins, Aimed for 69°c and got 68°c
Yeast: Safale us-05
The tiny amount of First wort hops:
This was the Mash pH:
A restrained amount of late hops:
The OG pre-liquorback:
After liquoring back I had around 24 litres, which will probably escape the FV once things start fermenting!
*30th Nov ’13 – Gravity at 1011.5, tasting those lageresque flavours with hints of honey, not bad at all its a nice little hop combo.
*Bottled 8th Dec ’13 – with 127g White sugar, hopefully be nice and crisp once its carbonated up.
*14th Dec ’13 – Early taster, a bready nose with some sweetness, woody with some floral in the mouth, a subtle decaying woodiness goes nicely with the smooth balanced bitterness, carbonation is a nice full pallet tingle, body is enough, just a hint of greenness. Maybe a slightly hotter mash and a lower percentage of Carapils.
AG#87 – Chinook Blonde
Posted on: August 12, 2012
- In: Brewing
- 7 Comments
Chinook Blonde – This is vaguely based on the Centennial Blonde beer I brewed before, its not meant to be too hoppy or too bitter and a nice easy drinking ABV, I’d be happy if it comes somewhere close to Goose Eye Brewery’s Chinook.
Its got about 16% cara-esque malts and some Flaked oats for body building and UK Cascade hops for the bittering with a restrained hit of Chinook at the end of boil.
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 74%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 9.9%
Cara Belge (Weyermann) – 6.3%
Wheat Malt – 4.9%
Flaked Oats – 4.9%
Hops:
UK Cascade – 5.7 % @ 60 mins – 30g (FWH)
UK Cascade – 5.7 % @ 30 mins – 30g
Chinook – 12.5 % @ 0 mins – 30g (Flameout Steep)
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.037
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 3.5% ABV
Total Liquor: 30.3 Litres
Mash Liquor: 9.5 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 30 EBU
Colour: 6 EBC
Yeast: Skimmed us-05 from previous brew
Mash: 90mins at 68°c
Liquor: GW Calc ‘Sweet Pale Ale’
The usual shot of a bucket full of malts:
Salts and FWHs:
Homebrewer’s implements:
Doing a full, two-way clean / sanitise of the Plate Chiller:
Recirculating via the heat exchanger:
Mostly an easy brewday, one slight glitch near the end was setting cooling to about 21°c with flow rates while recirculating in the copper, the swapped to filling the FV at which point the syphon effect and gravity take hold and the temperature goes up. So pitched the yeast a bit warm (Fridge probe saying 25-26°c) and bunged it straight in the fermentation fridge to chill it down to 20°c, the yeast I pitched was 130g of thick skimmed slurry from Ta Moko, fingers crossed it will be OK. I liquored back a couple of litres to OG at the end, should have been 3 litres but the FV was looking a bit full as it was!
The Plate Chiller is loads quicker but I’d have preferred the Immersion cooler on this occasion, I need to add a restriction valve to the outlet from the plate chiller to throttle back the pump / gravity syphon effect (When I bought the plate chiller and stainless fittings I also purchased a stainless ballvalve so its an easy mod).
*13th Aug ’12 – Messy yeasty fridge! Think this will be done fermenting very soon.
*18th Aug ’12 – Gravity at 1008 and tastes just how I wanted it, happy thus far 🙂
*Bottled 19th Aug ’12 – with 80g of white sugar, as I said above, tasting good 🙂
AG#86 – Ta Moko II
Posted on: August 4, 2012
- In: Brewing
- 9 Comments
Ta Moko II – A re-brew with minor tweaks for hop Alphas and added 5% Flaked Oats. The last version of this beer is here. If this beer is as good as the last brew it won’t last long and is as good a reason as any to think about investing in a bigger copper boiler / 50 Litre Keg-boiler 😉
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 75%
Carapils (Weyermann) – 10%
Wheat Malt – 8%
Flaked Oats – 5%
Cara Munich Type III (Weyermann) – 2%
Hops:
Pacific Gem – 17 % @ 60 mins – 15g
Pacific Gem – 17 % @ 15 mins – 10g
Nelson Sauvin – 12.1 % @ 10 mins – 41g
Nelson Sauvin – 12.1 % @ 0 mins – 51g
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.040
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 3.9% ABV
Total Liquor: 31.5 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10.1 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 52 EBU
Colour: 8 EBC
Mash: 60-90mins @ 67°c
Boil: 60mins
Liquor Treatment: as previous Ta Moko Brew / GW Calc ‘General Purpose’.
Yeast: Safale US-05
Malts are, Lager, Carapils, Wheat, CaraMunich III, and Flaked Oats, I put the Gypsum in the mash and the other salts went in the boil:
Hops from @TheMaltMiller:
Fairly reserved on the hopping, all but 15g of FWH are in the last 15mins of the boil:
Filling the Mash Tun with hot Liquor, I use about 83°c and leave it to pre-heat the tun allowing it to cool down to my Strike Temperature before mashing in, I mashed in at 74°c:
Full copper heating with the FWH:
Half a protafloc tablet into a 23L brew @ 5mins left:
The 50g of 80°c Steep hops:
I liquored back 1.6 litres to get OG 1040 and near as damn it to my required volume:
This is FV1 full of Ta Moko wort with US-05 dry sprinkled, I may skim and re-pitch for next weekends Chinook Blonde Brew:
Mashed in just after 8am and finished before 2pm with a brief trip to town to get a strip-light for the kitchen, 2nd breakfast was had in-between batch sparges and lunch while running wort to the FV 🙂
*Bottled 18th Aug ’12 – with 80g of white sugar
- In: Brewing
- 2 Comments
Revolutions Brewery Comp Entry – Revolutions Brewery in Castleford are holding a Brewing competition, the beer has to be brewed with European hops.
I’ve just brewed my entry, fingers crossed! I know I’ll like it ‘cos I’ve brewed something like it before 
Here’s the ambiguous recipe 
Fermentables:
Lager Malt
Wheat Malt
Caramalt
Hops:
‘Some European Hops’
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity: 1.011
Alcohol Content: 4.5% ABV
Total Liquor: 33 Litres
Mash Liquor: 11.3 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 41 EBU
Colour: 6 EBC
Yeast: Safale us-05
Mashed at 66-67c for at least an hour.
Mash efficiency was 92.5% apparently!
Boiled for 60 minutes with hop additions along the way, ‘some hops’ were steeped for 20mins
No photos as I did this after an early shift at work, tired head and feeling groggy! Hydrometer says I was a couple of points low but the Refractometer says I was bang on! I’ll clean up tomorrow.
*Bottled 18th Feb ’12 with 55g White Sugar, I’m not sure this is tasting as good as it should which is probably due to me not bottling it about 10 days ago, I’m sure almost 3 weeks in the fermenter can’t be good. Bottling can be such a pain in the ass. Probably won’t be entering this unless it bucks up in the next week, which I doubt.
When this had just hit FG this was tasting lovely, should have got my finger out!!!
*Update 29th Feb ’12, I didn’t enter it… I can do better be it my process or additional bittering that didn’t go well with the noble hop.
The actual recipe is here:
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 65%
Wheat Malt – 30%
Caramalt – 5%
Hops:
Magnum – 14.5 % @ 60 mins – 20g (First Wort Hop)
Tettnang – 3.8 % @ 30 mins – 30g
Tettnang – 3.8 % @ 10 mins – 20g
Tettnang – 3.8 % @ 0 mins – 50g
And was based on a previous brew of Kolsch Wit which was very classic Lager-a-like flavour and didn’t last long once it was bottled 🙂
AG#66 – Centennial Blonde
Posted on: October 9, 2011
- In: Brewing
- 3 Comments
Centennial Blonde – A blonde ale made with mostly lager malt, hopefully I’ll get somewhere close to www.drinkmallinsons.co.uk ‘Centennial’, at least hop Flavour-wise.
Fermentables:
Lager Malt – 79.1%
Wheat Malt – 7.9%
Oat Malt – 7.8% (using up a part bag, should add some fake body)
CaraHell (Weyermann) – 5.3%
Hops:
Centennial Whole 11.5 % @ 60 mins – 25g – (FWH)
Centennial Whole 11.5 % @ 10 mins – 20g
Centennial Whole 11.5 % @ 0 mins – 30g – (20 minute Copper Stand with the boil just cooled a little)
Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.036 (I actually got about 1038-1040)
Final Gravity: 1.009
Alcohol Content: 3.5% ABV
Total Liquor: 32.1 Litres
Mash Liquor: 9.1 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 36 EBU – I’ve set the hop utilisation in BeerEngine to 25% for this to see if things turn out a bit more realistic.
Colour: 5 EBC
Liquor Treatment: Gypsum 6.3g, Calcium Choride 6.3g, Epsom Salts 3.3g
Blended malts:
The garage brewery Corner, I thought I’d add a bit of an overview of my setup:
A few Centennial Hops, bag-ends from work are handy though this will last me for ages:
The Mash, lost 2°c over about 70mins:
Another view of the Brewery Corner, the other side of the garage is rather less tidy:
First sparge running into the copper onto the First Wort Hops, Just over 77% Mash efficiency:
Flameout hops going in:
The Money shot, hydrometer says a bit above what the Refractometer said:
All done and cleaned up in about 5 hours, Mashed in at 8.30am for 60mins, Batch Sparged, boiled for 60mins, Hop steep for 20mins, cooled, stood for 20mins then ran to fermenter and pitched Safale us-05 at 20°c
*Bottled 22nd Oct ’11 with 75g White Sugar – FG 1008 @ 18°c, tasting pretty good.
*Early taster was very nice last night, 27th Oct ’11, bitterness is much more believable with the 25% Hop utilisation figure and could maybe be set to 30% for subsequent brews. Though maybe one more brew at 25% with different hops and a higher IBU to double check.
Probably Due To Network Congestion 
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