Summer blonde

[Marley's Brewing]

Getting ready to brew a Blonde for the summer. Was hoping for kind of a citrusy summer feel. Thoughts on this recipe??

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1550934/sun-kissed-blonde

 

[Dave Y]

if you want a little more citrusy, but not IPA levels, you might try a belgian saison or similar yeast, or Voss Kveik. The former will be a little more towards an orange, the latter a little more toward a grapefruit. We’re talking subtle citrus, not over the top.

 

[Marley's Brewing]

So a Belgian saison yeast would give more orange tones? That sounds like something I would be into!

 

[Dave Y]

Yeah, I just did 2 Belgian themed beers; and by that I mean, I used Belgian yeast strains.
First was a Tripel and the 2nd was a remake of my ‘farmhouse’, Funky Robot. I did it before with Voss Kveik and it was definitely grapefruity on the nose and the palate wasn’t as complex. This year the only changes were 1) the honey used. Same place, different season and going from Voss to Belle Saison.

Both the Triple and late ’24 Funky Robot have a nice mandarin orange aroma and hints of it in the flavor.

 

[J A]

I doubt that you want 10% Dextrin malt in many beers, especially not a blonde ale. I'd swap the amounts of Vienna and Dextrin. And if you want more orange/citrus flavor, give it a pretty good whirlpool addition with the Mandarina. I think that, along with a basic Chico yeast will give you a nice flavor. Good looking recipe, overall. There's a local German Pale that I like a lot that at uses Mandarina. By the looks of this recipe, I bet it would be similar.

 

[Marley's Brewing]

I doubt that you want 10% Dextrin malt in many beers, especially not a blonde ale. I'd swap the amounts of Vienna and Dextrin. And if you want more orange/citrus flavor, give it a pretty good whirlpool addition with the Mandarina. I think that, along with a basic Chico yeast will give you a nice flavor. Good looking recipe, overall. There's a local German Pale that I like a lot that at uses Mandarina. By the looks of this recipe, I bet it would be similar.

I actually was going to up the final addition of the mandarina. I was looking at the omega west coast ale yesterday and thought it would be a good choice as well , so thanks for that tip. Makes the choice easier. What do you think the difference would be if i swapped the amounts of the dextrin and vienna?

 

[Craigerrr]

VOSS at lower temperatures does give a citrus tangy flavor, it does settle out over time though.
I used it in a Porter once, didn't like it at first, but the citrus tang settled out after a few months.
It ferments much cleaner at higher temps, I ferment it around 29-30C, even for juicy IPA's

 

[Bigbre04]

Voss is very forgiving and i would highly recommend it. All Kviek yeasts are great for beginners(imo) you can make lots of styles with them when you have temp control.

#Vossgang!

 

[Bigbre04]

Getting ready to brew a Blonde for the summer. Was hoping for kind of a citrusy summer feel. Thoughts on this recipe??

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1550934/sun-kissed-blonde

Dont really need 10% dextrin malt, it wont hurt, but you really only need about 3-5% for it to help with head retention.

Here is a kolsch that just went off draft. nice clean golden ale. dont worry about weights just look at percentages.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/embed/1540299

I would shift all of your hops from the 20min mark up by 5 mins. So 20->15min and up your 0min addition by a bit.

ditching the 20 min addition and adding a 0 min and whirlpool addition will help alot with fruity flavors while...shoot for about 25 ibus.

I can post more examples if you would like to see different hop schedules.

 

[Marley's Brewing]

Dont really need 10% dextrin malt, it wont hurt, but you really only need about 3-5% for it to help with head retention.

Here is a kolsch that just went off draft. nice clean golden ale. dont worry about weights just look at percentages.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/embed/1540299

I would shift all of your hops from the 20min mark up by 5 mins. So 20->15min and up your 0min addition by a bit.

ditching the 20 min addition and adding a 0 min and whirlpool addition will help alot with fruity flavors while...shoot for about 25 ibus.

I can post more examples if you would like to see different hop schedules.

I adjusted the recipe, what do you think about it now?

 

[Bigbre04]

I adjusted the recipe, what do you think about it now?

I would drop the dextrin down to 4-5% and add the difference to the 2row.

how familiar are you with hop scheduling?

I would shift the centenial to 5 mins
the 15 min man bav i would would shift to 10 mins
the 0 min i might consider tossing into the whirlpool at 185f

Depending on what your final goal is you could possibly ditch or reduce the bittering hop addition and just rely on your 10-wp hops. this will yeild low bitterness but will help a lot with the "fruity" character.

I generally consider centennial to be more dank or piney then fruity. Do you have other hop options?

So this is obviously A LOT hoppier, but this started life as a juicy session IPA, i ditched the Dryhop and now its technically a pale ale, but i dont really call it that. its very juicy with not a lot of bitterness. I am using cryo hops, so you have to double them if you are using t90s. but the percentages and timing are what i am showing you.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/embed/1552588

 

[Marley's Brewing]

I would drop the dextrin down to 4-5% and add the difference to the 2row.

how familiar are you with hop scheduling?

I would shift the centenial to 5 mins
the 15 min man bav i would would shift to 10 mins
the 0 min i might consider tossing into the whirlpool at 185f

Depending on what your final goal is you could possibly ditch or reduce the bittering hop addition and just rely on your 10-wp hops. this will yeild low bitterness but will help a lot with the "fruity" character.

I generally consider centennial to be more dank or piney then fruity. Do you have other hop options?

So this is obviously A LOT hoppier, but this started life as a juicy session IPA, i ditched the Dryhop and now its technically a pale ale, but i dont really call it that. its very juicy with not a lot of bitterness. I am using cryo hops, so you have to double them if you are using t90s. but the percentages and timing are what i am showing you.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/embed/1552588

I'm not familiar with hop scheduling at all really. I usually just follow recipes. this is one I'm trying to do a little more on my own. I have pretty much whatever kind of hops available. My LHBS is pretty good!

 

[J A]

I actually was going to up the final addition of the mandarina. I was looking at the omega west coast ale yesterday and thought it would be a good choice as well , so thanks for that tip. Makes the choice easier. What do you think the difference would be if i swapped the amounts of the dextrin and vienna?

The carapils/dextrin just adds some body and head retention but can produce a heaviness or cloying character. Any cara malt, and even the Vienna to some extent, does some of what the dextrin malt does. I'd leave it out altogether unless you find that you're lacking head retention or keep the pecentage below 5%. Depending on your mash temp and schedule, all the grain you're using will produce plenty of dextrins. A lot of brewers who use a single infusion mash will use a relatively low temp (more fermentable sugar, less dextrin) and make up the difference with a small addition of Carapils or similar.

I agree with @Bigbre04 about the hops. I happen to like Centennial and use it a lot in hop-forward American styles. You would get a smoother bitterness from Magnum or Warrior. And, yeah...not too many reasons for a 20 minute addition in a blonde. I use a 20 minute addition of Simcoe in IPAs and Pales because that hop produces really different flavors depending on when it's added. I like to layer it up to get some depth. Moving everything to a 10 minute addition allows you to get more of the citrus/fruit flavors without adding unduly to the bitterness. If you want citrus/tropical/floral/sweet notes in the aroma and flavor, whirlpool or hopstand is your friend. You get some isomerization at 180 but from there down to 170 or so, you're extracting a lot of the lighter, more volatile oils that contribute to those flavors.

 

[Bigbre04]

The carapils/dextrin just adds some body and head retention but can produce a heaviness or cloying character. Any cara malt, and even the Vienna to some extent, does some of what the dextrin malt does. I'd leave it out altogether unless you find that you're lacking head retention or keep the pecentage below 5%. Depending on your mash temp and schedule, all the grain you're using will produce plenty of dextrins. A lot of brewers who use a single infusion mash will use a relatively low temp (more fermentable sugar, less dextrin) and make up the difference with a small addition of Carapils or similar.

I toss Dextrin in most recipes, its cheap insurance to get good lacing on the glass, but im generally in the 3-4% range with it. It is probably not needed, its just what i have always done!

@Marley's Brewing
Hops wise, i would look for the more tropical hops: azacca, el dorado, mosaic, citra, etc. I really like Sabro as well. There are tons of really cool hops out there!

You really need to define what you want your final flavor to be: Tropical, citrusy, hoppy, etc. From there you can start to hone in on what flavors you are looking for.

quick hop scheduling run down:
60-20 mins are bittering
15-10 bitter, flavor, lower aroma
10-5 flavor, aroma
5-0 flavor lots of aroma
0-wp 180 aroma and tropical flavor

You can blend the hops and pick flavors that compliment each other.

 

[Marley's Brewing]

I toss Dextrin in most recipes, its cheap insurance to get good lacing on the glass, but im generally in the 3-4% range with it. It is probably not needed, its just what i have always done!

@Marley's Brewing
Hops wise, i would look for the more tropical hops: azacca, el dorado, mosaic, citra, etc. I really like Sabro as well. There are tons of really cool hops out there!

You really need to define what you want your final flavor to be: Tropical, citrusy, hoppy, etc. From there you can start to hone in on what flavors you are looking for.

quick hop scheduling run down:
60-20 mins are bittering
15-10 bitter, flavor, lower aroma
10-5 flavor, aroma
5-0 flavor lots of aroma
0-wp 180 aroma and tropical flavor

You can blend the hops and pick flavors that compliment each other.

I definitely want more tropical/citrusy over hoppy. I was looking at el Dorado and mosaic as well. Possibly some New Zealand hops.
Would I use these to replace the Centennial?

 

[Bigbre04]

I definitely want more tropical/citrusy over hoppy. I was looking at el Dorado and mosaic as well. Possibly some New Zealand hops.
Would I use these to replace the Centennial?

when im building a recipe, i start by googling the hop i want to work with and looking at hops that compliment it. I also read what the primary flavors are from that hop. if i wanted to use El Dorado, i would google the flavor and then look at what is often used with it. I might do El Dorado, and mosaic, with a touch of sabro in the whirlpool.

Dont do a bittering hop. move all of your hops to 15 and lower.

do a small amount of both el dorado and mosaic at 15. this will give you flavor and aroma with a small amount of "hoppy" flavor.

maybe alternate eldorado at 10 and 5(this will give a small amount of bitter while being mostly flavor and aroma)

then go heavier with mosaic, sabro and eldorado at 0, (flavor and aroma)

at WP 185 i would do a heavy dose.(aroma and flavor)

This is essentially what i do for a juicy IPA or Pale ale, but if you keep the total ibus <30 it will just be juicy and fruity. even that one that i posted above at 44ibu is not bitter, its actually very fruity.



all of that being said, i would get more input from others! lots of people do their beers differently!

 

[Marley's Brewing]

when im building a recipe, i start by googling the hop i want to work with and looking at hops that compliment it. I also read what the primary flavors are from that hop. if i wanted to use El Dorado, i would google the flavor and then look at what is often used with it. I might do El Dorado, and mosaic, with a touch of sabro in the whirlpool.

Dont do a bittering hop. move all of your hops to 15 and lower.

do a small amount of both el dorado and mosaic at 15. this will give you flavor and aroma with a small amount of "hoppy" flavor.

maybe alternate eldorado at 10 and 5(this will give a small amount of bitter while being mostly flavor and aroma)

then go heavier with mosaic, sabro and eldorado at 0, (flavor and aroma)

at WP 185 i would do a heavy dose.(aroma and flavor)

This is essentially what i do for a juicy IPA or Pale ale, but if you keep the total ibus <30 it will just be juicy and fruity. even that one that i posted above at 44ibu is not bitter, its actually very fruity.



all of that being said, i would get more input from others! lots of people do their beers differently!

Check my updated recipe

 

[Craigerrr]

Question for the experienced
I haven't ever brewed a "Blonde", is it normal to have whirlpool and dry hops on this style?

Question for @Marley's Brewing
What temperature are you planning to whirlpool at? Higher temperatures will extract some bitterness, flavor and aroma in descending amounts in that order. Cooler temperatures will extract aroma, flavor and bitterness in descending amounts in that order. Dry hops i.part almost entirely aroma, but also some flavor as well.

 

[Marley's Brewing]

Question for the experienced
I haven't ever brewed a "Blonde", is it normal to have whirlpool and dry hops on this style?

Question for @Marley's Brewing
What temperature are you planning to whirlpool at? Higher temperatures will extract some bitterness, flavor and aroma in descending amounts in that order. Cooler temperatures will extract aroma, flavor and bitterness in descending amounts in that order. Dry hops i.part almost entirely aroma, but also some flavor as well.

168 was the plan

 

[Bigbre04]

Question for the experienced
I haven't ever brewed a "Blonde", is it normal to have whirlpool and dry hops on this style?

No not normal but trying to accomplish the stated goals. Plus what's in a style anyway???

but honestly blonde, kolsch, pale ale, thry are sort of blanket styles. They can be whatever you want to them to be!

Question for @Marley's Brewing
What temperature are you planning to whirlpool at? Higher temperatures will extract some bitterness, flavor and aroma in descending amounts in that order. Cooler temperatures will extract aroma, flavor and bitterness in descending amounts in that order. Dry hops i.part almost entirely aroma, but also some flavor as well.

Target for the whirlpool hops should be 180-185 IMO.