Blonde Ale Golden Showers (Centennial Blonde with a little kick)

[Fett]

Recipe Type

All Grain

Yeast

WLP090

Yeast Starter

1L

Batch Size (Gallons)

5.5

Original Gravity

1.043

Final Gravity

1.020

Boiling Time (Minutes)

60

IBU

24.5

Color

7.6

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

12-14

Tasting Notes

Tastes like Centennial Blonde but with just a little more malt and hop character.

This is my take on the Centennial Blonde recipe. I really like Centennial Blonde but I wanted something with just a little bit more flavor, in both the malt, and the hop department. The addition of the 60L does make the beer a tad darker, becoming more golden than blonde.

7.00 lb Maris Otter
0.75 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
0.50 lb Vienna Malt

0.38 oz Centennial (60 min)

0.25 oz Centennial (15 min)
0.25 oz Cascade (15 min)

0.25 oz Centennial (5 min)
0.25 oz Cascade (5 min)

0.25 oz Centennial (flameout)
0.25 oz Cascade (flameout)

Mash at 156.
Ferment at 65F

I've also done this recipe with chico. I only tasted minor differences in flavor between chico, and WLP090 when using them.

I'm not a big fan of IPAs and hoppy beers, but I like to still know the hops are there. I also tend towards lighter beers for my everyday drinkers. This has become my go to recipe for this.

I also increased the mash temperature from the Centennial Blonde recipe as I prefer the more sweeter/mouthfeel character that comes with it.

 

[TheHappyHopper]

Looks like a good recipe to me.

I have always wondered about the point of doing several identical hop additions at different times. Rather than doing 3 separate additions of 0.25 oz Cascade and Centennial, couldn't you get the same profile from doing 1 addition of 0.75 oz Cascade and Centennial at approximately the 5-10 minute mark?

 

[Fett]

Looks like a good recipe to me.

I have always wondered about the point of doing several identical hop additions at different times. Rather than doing 3 separate additions of 0.25 oz Cascade and Centennial, couldn't you get the same profile from doing 1 addition of 0.75 oz Cascade and Centennial at approximately the 5-10 minute mark?

I would still consider myself a fairly noobish brewer, but the way I understand it is if you want to add more bitterness from the hops, it goes at the beginning of the boil, if you want to add more flavor from the hops, they go around the 15 minutes remaining mark, and if you want to add more aroma from the hops they need to go around 5 minutes (and flameout).
Assuming this is correct you are gaining different qualities by adding the hops at the different times.

 

[hanuswalrus]

Mash at 164? Seems a bit high.. Do you mean 154?

 

[Fett]

Mash at 164? Seems a bit high.. Do you mean 154?

I'm not sure how I even put 164 as I actually meant 156! Sorry about that, I'll change it now.

 

[jeremy0209]

Mash at 164? Seems a bit high.. Do you mean 154?

If it's finishing at 1.020, I'd say he means 164. That's scary territory, for me.

 

[TheHappyHopper]

I would still consider myself a fairly noobish brewer, but the way I understand it is if you want to add more bitterness from the hops, it goes at the beginning of the boil, if you want to add more flavor from the hops, they go around the 15 minutes remaining mark, and if you want to add more aroma from the hops they need to go around 5 minutes (and flameout).
Assuming this is correct you are gaining different qualities by adding the hops at the different times.

Right - that would make sense to me if they were different hops, but since it is all the same hops, I would think you could find a point in the boil that you could throw in that last 0.75 oz of the Centennials and Cascade (say with 10 minutes left in the boil) and it would average out to being the same thing (in regards to bitterness and aroma) as a separate 15 minute, 5 minute, and flameout addition.

It's just a thought - if this method works for you then by all means, stick with it. I just bring it up because I am sometimes bad about remembering to do multiple additions.

 

[Fett]

Right - that would make sense to me if they were different hops, but since it is all the same hops, I would think you could find a point in the boil that you could throw in that last 0.75 oz of the Centennials and Cascade (say with 10 minutes left in the boil) and it would average out to being the same thing (in regards to bitterness and aroma) as a separate 15 minute, 5 minute, and flameout addition.

It's just a thought - if this method works for you then by all means, stick with it. I just bring it up because I am sometimes bad about remembering to do multiple additions.

I have never experimented enough with hop additions and the same recipe to tell if it would matter, but this is certainly a decent recipe to experiment on (This is actually my 4th or so iteration of the recipe). I'll have to think about giving it a try next time to see if it makes a difference.