This Belgian Blonde tastes as if it were brewed by an all-grain method.
Extract brewing can be simple and rewarding! Note that while the equipment costs far less than the equivalent all-grain systems, the cost to let someone else create your extract over extracting the sugars from grains yourself is more expensive by about 20-50%.
The bottles are on Amazon. Search Plastic Beer Bottles.
You may use tap water and/or modify the water profile.
Additional costs include:
$24.57 An inexpensive Amazon stainless kettle from India
$26.97 A 6.5 Gallon Bottling & Siphonless Fermentation Bucket from Northern Brewer with the Spigot: Fermenter's Favorites Bottling Spigot for Bottling Bucket and with the Lid: Grommeted Lid (Drilled)
$8.99 20ft 3/8" ID Siphon Hose
$4.99 Fermenter's Favorites® Spring Tip Bottle Filler
$16.00 Five Star - Star San - 16 Ounce - Brew Sanitizer High Foaming Acid Anionic
A yeast starter is advisable for this beer as it needs about 160B yeast cells and the White Labs yeast packets come with about 100B yeast cells. If you don't want to make a yeast starter, it is advisable to pitch two White Labs yeast packets.
For a fermentation airlock, run a section of the 3/8" ID Siphon Hose from the grommet on the lid to the bottom of one of the gallon jugs filled with sanitizer solution in tap water, and place the gallon jug and the fermentation bucket at the same height. It is best to elevate the beer at the beginning of the fermentation cycle with the spigot facing the area where you will be bottling so that the trub is not disturbed during the bottling process. In other words, try not to move the bucket just before bottling. Primary fermentation ambient temperature is about 68f. Allow the yeast to ferment up to whatever temperature it prefers.
To bottle your beer, precondition each sanitized 16oz bottle with 1 Northern Brewer Fizz Drop. Attach a 5-8 foot section of the 3/8" ID Siphon Hose to the Fermenter's Favorites Bottling Spigot and the other end of the hose to the Fermenter's Favorites® Spring Tip Bottle Filler. Slowly open the spigot until it is fully open. Place the spring tip filler into the bottle and press the tip inward on the bottom of the bottle. Fill the bottle until the liquid reaches the top. Remove the filler and the bottle will be filled to the optimal height.
Secondary fermentation in bottles takes between 14 and 21 days. 17.5 is usually a safe number of days to allow carbonation to build.
To add a bit of perceived sweetness and rounded maltiness to the finished product try to get your PPM of Calcium and sodium to about 50. CaCl and non-iodized table salt or sea salt are fine for reaching this water chemistry. Your local municipal water company should have posted your water mineral content. If you are on well water, you can start with distilled/reverse osmosis water and build the water chemistry from there. Just use a PPM calculator.
Don't forget to sanitize everything including the outside rims of the brewing equipment and even the outside of the yeast packet.
