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Centennial Blonde Ale 1.0 Some time ago, when searching for some good recipes, I found a Centennial Blonde Ale recipe that had been voted the top recipe by visitors to HomeBrewTalk.com. I've wanted to brew it for a while, and finally got around to doing it today. Ingredients 3 pounds 2-row Pale Ale Malt 5 ounces Cara-Pils/Dextrine Malt 3.5 ounces Caramel/Crystal 10L Malt 3.5 ounces Swaen Vienna Malt 0.10 ounces Centennial hops pellets @ 10.8% AA (55 min.) 0.15 ounces Centennial hops pellets @ 10.8% AA (35 min.) 0.15 ounces Cascade hops pellets @ 6.9% AA (20 min.) 0.15 ounces Cascade hops pellets @ 6.9% AA (5 min.) 1/2 vial White Labs Clarity Ferm 1 packet Lallemand Nottingham Ale Yeast 3 gallons of starting water in keg For a mash schedule, I've modified the High-Efficiency Mash Schedule in the Zymatic Recipe Crafter to hold the mash at 150F for 90 minutes, followed by 30 minutes at 154F, leaving the rest the same. Boil schedule will be: 60 minutes:   N...

Last year, I created a blonde ale recipe intended to showcase Mandarina Bavaria hops and Orange Blossom Honey. To my surprise, the finished beer took second place (silver medal) at the 2017 Ohio State Fair's homebrewing competition.  When I tried to re-brew that beer using the Picobrew Zymatic, despite their software claiming it would have a fairly low bitterness level, it actually came out so bitter that I entered it this year as a Pale Ale rather than a Blonde Ale. I decided to try again today, scaling the bitterness back to what I hope will match the original 1.0 brew, but using the Zymatic instead of The Grainfather. Ingredients 3 pounds 2-row Pale Ale Malt 1.25 pounds Munich Malt 3 ounces Carapils/Dextrine Malt 1 ounce Caramel 60L Malt 0.10 ounces Mandarina Bavaria hops @ 9.2% AA (60 min.) 0.20 ounces Mandarina Bavaria hops @ 9.2% AA (15 min.) 0.50 ounces Sweet Orange Peel (10 min.) 1/2 tsp. Irish Moss (10 min.) 1/4 tsp. White Labs Yeast Nutrient (10 min.) 0.35 o...

A little over a year ago, I came up with a blonde ale recipe based on little more than the fact that one of the home brewing shops online had Mandarina Bavaria hops on sale. I'd never had a beer made with the hops, but their reported mandarin orange flavor sounded like it might make a great beer. I decided to pair it with some orange blossom honey I'd purchased as well as some dried orange peel. I combined all this into a blonde ale recipe and hoped it wouldn't be too much orange. It wasn't.  That beer took second place at the 2017 Ohio State Fair Home Brewing Competition in the fruit beer category.  It's been popular with friends and family, too. I decided to brew a new batch this year, maybe for competition, or maybe for consumption only.  At brewing time, I realized I did not have Bitter Orange Peel or Orange Blossom Honey, so I substituted Sweet Orange Peel and "generic" (natural) honey. Ingredients 3 pounds 2-row Pale Ale Malt 1 pound ...

The finished beer, poured a little too hard Earlier this year, I built from scratch a recipe designed to be a vehicle to deliver orange flavor in a beer. I created a blonde ale recipe, adding sweet and bitter orange peel, orange blossom honey, and hopping with Mandarina Bavaria hops - known to impart a mandarin orange flavor.  That beer took second place in the 2017 Ohio State Fair's Fruit Beer category.  The judge mentioned in the notes that the base beer probably tasted great, too.  I decided to find that out. I stripped the recipe down to the malts, hops, water, and yeast, then scaled it to a 1.2 gallon batch for the Zymatic. At right, you see a glass of the finished beer. It's a slightly hazy gold color with thick, white, long-lasting head that leaves behind tiny clouds of lacing. Aroma is mildly hoppy. The flavor is malty with a moderate bitterness with hints of orange and grapefruit. Ingredients 1 pound plus 14 ounces of 2-row Brewer's Malt 9 ounces of...

The beer prior to cold conditioning A while ago, I read something about Mandarina Bavaria hops. One of the brewing sites had them on sale at the time. They said the hops can impart a mandarin orange aroma and flavor to a beer. I had no idea what I would do with them, but I bought some anyway. After doing some thinking about it, I thought they sounded like they might go well in a blonde ale. I thought a nice malty blonde ale with some added bitter orange peel and sweet orange peel, combined with a couple of healthy later additions of Mandarina Bavaria hops would create a very nice spring or summer beer. Not having a ton of faith in my recipe creation skills, I decided to do a 3-gallon batch for this one (or 3.9 gallons before shrinkage, trub, and other losses). I also wanted to see if The Grainfather boiled a batch any harder if it was a smaller size, and if this impacted chill haze. Update 06/04/2017:  This beer took second place in the fruit beer category at the Ohio St...

Some time ago, I received the book Modern Homebrew Recipes  by Gordon Strong as a gift.  As I browsed through it, I found Strong's recipe for a Classic Blonde Ale.  Strong says this is one of his go-to summer beers and that he doesn't like to make it overly aggressive or strong.  His recipe meets the BJCP guidelines for the style and sounded good.  I decided to make it. A local homebrew shop provided all the necessary ingredients, but did substitute one as noted below. Strong's Classic Blonde Ale Recipe 3.5 pounds of 2-row Brewer's Malt (US) 2 pounds, 10 ounces of German Pilsen Malt 2 pounds of Munich Malt I 8 ounces of CaraRed Malt (which was substituted for Carahell in Strong's recipe) 1 ounce Centennial hops pellets (instead of an ounce of whole hops in Strong's recipe) 0.15 ounces of Citra pellets (instead of whole Citra hops in Strong's recipe) 0.35 ounces of Citra pellets (instead of whole Citra hops in Strong's recipe) 1 Whirlfloc tab...