Brewing Recipe: Blonde Ale

Try this beer out on your non-beer drinking friends. It’s fairly light (not lite!) and not too bitter. The recipe was published in the January 2008 edition of BYO magazine, and it’s featured in Brewing Classic Styles as well. As usual, I made a couple of changes to suit my equipment and the ingredients that I had on hand. The original recipe called for Willamette hops. With only 1 bittering addition at 60 minutes you can feel free to experiment, or these days, use whatever is available as I have done here. Just be sure to keep the IBUs in range with no (or very little) late flavor hop addition. I happened to have some Crystal 10L on hand, so I used that instead of the 15L in the original recipe. Anything in the 10-20L range should be ok and you only need about a half pound. Also, I happened to have a nice big jar of Wyeast 1272 from the fermenter of the Rye IPA brew, so I reused that and fermented at 62°. You could also use the popular Wyeast 1056 or White Labs WLP001 and ferment at 67-68°.

I also have a couple of additional techniques for you to go along with this recipe. The first is for you all grain batch-spargers. As I previously mentioned, I was having trouble with getting a nice clear wort and consequently finished beer. I discovered on this brew that I was not recirculating my mash tun run off nearly enough. I had always read previously to recirculate the first 1-2 quarts of run off so that there would be no husk material in the kettle. This time, I recirculated 2-3 gallons, or until the wort ran very clear. For my cooler-based mash tun, this simply means catching the run off in a 2 quart container and slowly adding it back into the top of the mash tun, so as not to disturb the grain bed. Previously, I would do this 1-2 times. This time, I repeated the process 5-6 times or until I could read text through the run off tube from the mash tun. I did this for all of my sparge water additions and ended up with an exceptionally clear wort in the kettle.

The second technique is applicable for everyone. It’s a more traditional way of priming the beer to carbonate it either in the keg or bottle. You might have heard it called Krausening, or priming with gyle or spiese. They’ve very similar techniques, the main difference being whether or not you add additional yeast. When you’re done brewing, before you pitch the yeast (you need unfermented wort) siphon off 1.5-2 quarts of wort into a sanitized container. I used a mason jar, but anything you can freeze will work ok. The freezer will keep anything from growing in it until it’s time to prime your bottles or keg. You will later use this unfermented wort in place of your priming sugar/dme or CO2 to carbonate the beer. There are some additional details and calculations to go along with it, which I’ll have for you in an article dedicated to this technique.

Blonde Ale

Brew Type: All Grain	Date: 1/27/2008
Style: Blonde Ale	Brewer: Jimmy
Batch Size: 6.00 gal	Assistant Brewer:
Boil Volume: 8.53 gal	Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %	Equipment: Brew Pot (10 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal)
Actual Efficiency: 68.82 %

Taste Rating (50 possible points): 35.0

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
12.00 lb	Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)	Grain	96.00 %
0.50 lb	Caramel/Crystal Malt – 10L (CaraHell) (10.0 SRM)	Grain	4.00 %
2.00 oz	Styrian Goldings [3.50 %] (60 min)	Hops	26.1 IBU
1 Pkgs	American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) [Starter 2000 ml]	Yeast-Ale

Estimated Original Gravity: 1.053 SG (1.038-1.054 SG)	Measured Original Gravity: 1.052 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.013 SG (1.008-1.013 SG)	Measured Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Color: 4.4 SRM (3.0-6.0 SRM)	Color [Color]
Bitterness: 26.1 IBU (15.0-28.0 IBU)	Alpha Acid Units: 7.0 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 5.17 % (3.80-5.50 %)	Actual Alcohol by Volume: 5.08 %
Actual Calories: 231 cal/pint

Name: Single Infusion, Light Body	Mash Tun Weight: 9.00 lb
Mash Grain Weight: 12.50 lb	Mash PH: 5.4 PH
Grain Temperature: 72.0 F	Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F
Sparge Water: 3.87 gal	Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE

Name	Description	Step Temp	Step Time
Mash In	Add 15.63 qt of water at 167.7 F	152.0 F	60 min
Mash Out	Add 10.00 qt of water at 198.6 F	168.0 F	10 min

Carbonation Type: Kegged (Forced CO2)	Carbonation Volumes: 2.6 (2.4-2.8 vols)
Estimated Pressure: 10.2 PSI	Kegging Temperature: 34.0 F
Pressure Used: -	Age for: 2.0 Weeks
Storage Temperature: 34.0 F

Blonde Ale Extract

Brew Type: Extract	Date: 12/21/2007
Style: Blonde Ale	Brewer: Jimmy
Batch Size: 6.00 gal	Assistant Brewer:
Boil Volume: 8.53 gal	Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: Brew Pot (10 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal)

Taste Rating (50 possible points): 35.0

Amount	Item	Type	% or IBU
7.00 lb	Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM)	Dry Extract	87.50 %
1.00 lb	Caramel/Crystal Malt – 10L (CaraHell) (10.0 SRM)	Grain	12.50 %
2.00 oz	Styrian Goldings [3.50 %] (60 min)	Hops	26.1 IBU
1 Pkgs	American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) [Starter 2000 ml]	Yeast-Ale

Estimated Original Gravity: 1.052 SG (1.038-1.054 SG)	Measured Original Gravity: 1.053 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.013 SG (1.008-1.013 SG)	Measured Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Color: 4.6 SRM (3.0-6.0 SRM)	Color [Color]
Bitterness: 26.1 IBU (15.0-28.0 IBU)	Alpha Acid Units: 7.0 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 5.06 % (3.80-5.50 %)	Actual Alcohol by Volume: 5.21 %
Actual Calories: 236 cal/pint

Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar	Carbonation Volumes: 2.6 (2.4-2.8 vols)
Estimated Priming Weight: 5.7 oz	Temperature at Bottling: 70.0 F
Primer Used: -	Age for: 2.0 Weeks
Storage Temperature: 34.0 F

Tagged as: ale, blonde, brew, recipe