Blonde Ale Recipe help ....

[adm]

For all your water volume calculation needs, may I present to you the "Batch Sparge Calculator":

http://www.jimsbeerkit.com/batch_calculator.html

[yogester]

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Coming back to yeast - i'd like the finish product to be smooth in the mouth, a very easy session type drink (that sort of smoothness), I noticed a poster suggested switching yeast from WLP002, anymore comment on this would be great, again though, emphasis on the smooth side - not to yeasty.

Good luck with your first brew! I would definitely go with the dried yeast option for this one. Nottingham would be a great choice - rehydrate two packs in 35 degree water an hour before pitching. You will have enough to worry about on your first AG brew than adding all the things that could go wrong with a wet yeast to your list of worries, (potentially underpitching is a big one)... and things won't go according to plan on your first one, you can bet on it!

Nottingham is a great choice, attenuates well, neutral in flavor and flocculates extremely well leaving no clarity issues - I used it well on a blonde ale for my wife recently (very similar in profile to the beer you are making except I used First gold and Elderflower for hopping and aroma). Two packs will ensure you have the required cells/ml for a quick ferment.

Just my 2c...

[leewink]

Ah so you use 2 packets per brew ? any probs with doubling up, and is the prime reason to fast ferment only ? just to clarify if its only a speed thing.

Also I see first gold described as - "Well balanced bitterness with fruity, slightly spicy and orangy/citrus notes"

Not sure on the elderflower whether to add, would you substitute one of my hops with the first's - centennial or willamette ?

centennial - "quite floral qualities similar to Cascade."

willamette - "Delicate estery/blackcurrant/herbal aroma"

Maybe swap out the centennial and stick with the fruity side ?

I can understand your worry on my first brew bit, to me, its serious but moreso fun and a hobby at the same time, no worries.

[Barley Water]

It's not the speed of fermentation, although it will likely go faster, it's complete fermentation you are looking for and doing it while not stressing the yeast. Dried yeast is actually a pretty good idea if you are fairly new to this game and from what I understand, folks are getting good results. It is easier, cheaper and you can easily get proper pitching volume without growing up starters. If you underpitch, the yeast will spend all it's energy reproducing and at the same time they will also be throwing off alot of esters and phenols. To avoid this and get good attenuation, make sure to always pitch plenty of viable yeast. The only time I don't follow this advice is when I make German wheat beers and that's because I want to get all those nice fermentaton by-products. Making German wheat beers, lagers and some of the Belgian beers will teach you about yeast handling quick or you will end up making some pretty nasty swill. I agree with the great Jamil, running good fermentations is everything when it comes to making really good beer, check out the Mr. Malty website to learn more.

If you are trying to make an American Blonde ale, you really don't want sweet beer. Generally speaking, I try to get almost every style I brew to dry out as much as possible, the beer just tastes so much better when you do. Remember, a malty beer need not be sweet and a dryer beer is always easier to drink in quanity. Mr. Mysterio is correct, that style is very close to a mainstream American lager although it is usually not made with adjuncts. To tell you the truth, I would be hard pressed to acurately differentiate between American Blonde ale, Kolsh and Cream Ale in a taste test, all are very similar.

[leewink]

As for the calculator - looks like I can add about 30% to my final needed figure.

wort required for boil = 25.6 ltr
first mash water = 17 ltr
second sparge = 12.8 ltr
top up with = 6.75 ltr (sorry for this, but top up with what? does this mean just a further sparge rinse)

My simple understanding reads, 17 ltr start mash, and then sparge to 25.6 ltr to roughly end up with 20 ltr ? (could push this to 26 ltr to be on the safeside)

Also, i will be C/C chilling so all my trub will be in the first ferment, obviously no trub in the boiler as such, so i have to account for the space in the primary as a total of over 20 ltr probably.

Lastly, what hydrometer reads start and finish should i expect to see ?

These fermenters - http://www.hopshopuk.com/products/view/ ... with-a-tap

do they allow headroom, could i just use two of these ? (in other words, are they 25 ltr to the brim)

Cheers, lee

[leewink]

ok, so you'd stick to my suggested recipe ?

4 lb of maris
4 lb of lager malt
1 lb of wheat malt

and the centennial and willamette ?

Also for cost base, wheres the best shop / place to source malts / yeasts (malts per pound / kilo) - note, I have email and pm buttons

[Barley Water]

Sure, go for it. In my system I could expect 5 gallons into the corni keg at O.G. 1.043 or so. Figure the hop rate so that you get say 20 IBU or so and just a smidge of hop flavor. By the way, I would rack the cooled wort off the trub, especially with a light beer like this. You have very little to hide behind in a light ale like this so any process errors are going to be tasted in the glass. Good luck and as they say over here "don't worry, have a homebrew".

[yogester]

As for the calculator - looks like I can add about 30% to my final needed figure.

wort required for boil = 25.6 ltr
first mash water = 17 ltr
second sparge = 12.8 ltr
top up with = 6.75 ltr (sorry for this, but top up with what? does this mean just a further sparge rinse)

My simple understanding reads, 17 ltr start mash, and then sparge to 25.6 ltr to roughly end up with 20 ltr ? (could push this to 26 ltr to be on the safeside)

Also, i will be C/C chilling so all my trub will be in the first ferment, obviously no trub in the boiler as such, so i have to account for the space in the primary as a total of over 20 ltr probably.

Lastly, what hydrometer reads start and finish should i expect to see ?

These fermenters - http://www.hopshopuk.com/products/view/ ... with-a-tap

do they allow headroom, could i just use two of these ? (in other words, are they 25 ltr to the brim)

Cheers, lee

I top up with prepared water at the end of the boil as until you know your evaporation loss/trub loss etc you won't know what original gravity you'll end up with - I am still getting used to new equipment (bought Gurgeh's old mash tun and boiler) and I top up after the boil until my hydrometer reads the original gravity I was shooting for even if it means I have a 16L brew rather than a 19L one. I stop sparging at 1010 so as to not extract any astringent elements from the grain - not worth the extra few points of efficiency IMHO.

My recipe for the wife's blonde ale (turned out well, easy drinking session ale with a floral aroma from the elderflower):-

Recipe Overview

Wort Volume Before Boil: 26.00 l Wort Volume After Boil: 23.00 l
Volume Transferred: 23.00 l Water Added To Fermenter: 0.00 l
Volume At Pitching: 23.00 l Volume Of Finished Beer: 22.00 l
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.034 SG Expected OG: 1.039 SG
Expected FG: 1.011 SG Apparent Attenuation: 71.5 %
Expected ABV: 3.7 % Expected ABW: 2.9 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 21.6 IBU Expected Color (using Morey): 9.7 EBC
BU:GU ratio: 0.56

Mash Efficiency: 75.0 %
Mash temperature: 67 degC
Boil Duration: 90.0 mins
Fermentation Temperature: 18 degC


Fermentables
Ingredient Amount % MCU When
Barley Bottom Maris Otter Malt 3.560 kg 92.2 % 2.7 In Mash/Steeped
Barley Bottom Light Crystal Malt 0.200 kg 5.2 % 1.7 In Mash/Steeped
UK Torrified Wheat 0.100 kg 2.6 % 0.1 In Mash/Steeped

Hops
Variety Alpha Amount IBU Form When
UK First Gold 8.0 % 10 g 9.9 Loose Whole Hops First Wort Hopped
UK First Gold 8.0 % 10 g 9.9 Loose Whole Hops All Of Boil
UK First Gold 8.0 % 5 g 1.7 Loose Whole Hops 10 Min From End
UK First Gold 8.0 % 5 g 0.2 Loose Whole Hops 1 Min From End


Other Ingredients
Ingredient Amount When
Dried Elderflower 28 g In Boil 10 min From End
Protafloc 1 Tablet In Boil 20 mins from the end


Yeast
Danstar-Nottingham x 2

Those fermenters do have extra room at the top. I use one as my secondary (rather than primary as it is too tall to put in my keggerator/fermentation fridge).

For ingredients I have been a big fan of BarleyBottom - always had great service.

[pantsmachine]

Ah so you use 2 packets per brew ? any probs with doubling up, and is the prime reason to fast ferment only ? just to clarify if its only a speed thing.

Also I see first gold described as - "Well balanced bitterness with fruity, slightly spicy and orangy/citrus notes"

Not sure on the elderflower whether to add, would you substitute one of my hops with the first's - centennial or willamette ?

centennial - "quite floral qualities similar to Cascade."

willamette - "Delicate estery/blackcurrant/herbal aroma"

Maybe swap out the centennial and stick with the fruity side ?

I can understand your worry on my first brew bit, to me, its serious but moreso fun and a hobby at the same time, no worries.

Welcome onboard. How may packets of yeast you use depends on the SG of the brew. If the sugar content is too high the yeast in one packet will not be able to get through it all so you will be left with a higher FG with more body. 2 packets generally takes care of this in higher gravity beers. A calculator shortcut for you to check out.
http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

Don't get too hung up on the American descriptions in the book. It will be easier and cheaper for you to get a few brews under your belt using UK ingredients and then branch out into the further flung ingredients.

A previous poster said you can go a lot worse than paul at Barley bottom for your initial ingredients purchase
Hops description, not the best but its a start.
http://brupaks.com/BRUPAKS%20HOP%20GUIDE%20%202005.htm

For recipe development i use beersmith.There's a free trial link below
http://www.beersmith.com/

[leewink]

Cool, thanks for all the replies guys, jusy waiting for my first bitta kit to come any day, my nice igloo max cold 50

I'll probably run into april to get all mi bits, ordered some measuring spoons and syringes for solid and liquid measuring, and now got 3 metal proper taps and connectors for mi maxcold, boiler when i order, and primary fermenter.

Gonna nip to wickes over the next week or so, grab me a household tap connector, the ones that have the braid on them, to make mi mash filter, thats an easy bit of the project.

Have fun all, any further views, bung them in

lee

[pantsmachine]

I made and used a stainless braided mash tun filter with my first AG build. It was rubbish and blocked a fair bit. Binned it after 3 uses and made my own out of 15mm copper tubing which i slotted using a hacksaw. (Advice from this site so cheers to whomever it was back then). A stuck runoff is a pain in the backside! I then recirculated the first runnings(jug) back through the grain bed which acts as another filter and had a clear wort with no bits. I think you'll find most people(but not all) on here go the slotted copper route for their mash filters.

Photo of my latest tun filter. Moved on from the jug recirc and now go with a speck plump. Doesn't matter of course as the principal remains the same recirc's recirc. if you do decide to go the copper route remember to size your filter so that it as a few inches in from all sides of your tun. This will reduce the risk of the water channeling straight down the sides of the tun and into the filter when sparging.
http://www.diynot.com/network/pantsmach ... 3294/15147

[leewink]

Hi pants, just spotted your link to your pics, thats some gear right there

Spotted the igloo maxcold there, looks like i may have made my first decent choice

Whats your brew period in the year too, i see you do bitters, im a little worried over ordering my gear and being a bit close to it warming up, completion of gear should be about early to mid april time, I have no cellar as such or cool area, what sort of temps are acceptable for fermentation at max ? (liquid or air temp)

I'm out for fun, so the learn curve will be took as such, fun and learning cheers, lee

[pantsmachine]

I brew most of the year. Might miss out on a couple of the summer months. My garage stays pretty cool. Basically i will brew from 6 deg C to 20 deg C and adjust what i am brewing depending on the weather. I don't get too hung up. 16 to 20 is my real happy zone!

[Shadoxhurst]

I brewed over the summer in my shed that got very hot ... but I have an insulated wooden box for my FV and during my summer brews I put 2l bottles of ice ontop of the FV each morning and that seemed to keep the temperature down to an acceptable level.

[leewink]

Cool