Centennial Blonde

Looking for a Famous Blonde?

Break out the sunglasses and hot pants, the heat of summer is in full effect. When you're sweating like a mad cow in pasture and staring at your brew equipment with strong anticipation of your next brew day there are a few styles that immediately tear into mind. I needed a cold, light, refreshing brew that was better at quenching thirst than inspiring daring tales of taste exploration. Upon researching recipes for just such a brew I settled on an overwhelmingly popular recipe on HomeBrewTalk.com for a Centennial Blonde ale. As we all know Centennial hops are clearly the best hop out there for every occasion so I needed little convincing.

• Greatest Country: U.S.A.
• Greatest Planet: Planet Earth
• Greatest Hop: Centennial, of course!

Here's the recipe for this little blonde thirst quencher.

Brew Recipe
Brew Date: 6/22/2013
Style: American Blonde
Batch Volume: 4.5 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: 3.9 SRM
Target Bitterness: 21.6 IBU
Target OG: 1.039
Estimated FG: 1.008

Grist
5.5 lb. American Two-Row
10 oz. CaraPils
6 oz. Crystal 10L
6 oz. Vienna

0.25 oz. Centennial Pellet Hops (55 min.)
0.25 oz. Centennial Pellet Hops (35 min.)
0.25 oz. Cascade Leaf Hops (20 min.)
0.25 oz. Cascade Leaf Hops (5 min.)

1 pkg. Safale US-05 Ale Yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 150 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Pre-Mash Volume: 5.5 gal.
Post-Boil Volume: 4.5 gal.
Mash Efficiency: 71%
Measured OG: 1.040
Measured FG: 1.004
ABV: 4.8%
Calories: 129

Brewed this one with my friends Rob and Beth, their dog Bo (as in "Bo knows beer"), and the inlaws Dave and Ann. It was hot outside like last time but decided to brew this one on the flagstones in the shade of our north yard. This turned out to be a MUCH better idea than brewing in the sun stricken heat of the south yard. We also discovered our new go-to outdoor lounge location. Six people drinking around the brew kettle in camping chairs is one of the most relaxing environments I can imagine.

Despite being a little cooler today than the last batch the wort chiller couldn't get the brew below 90 degrees. Finished cooling in an ice bath in the sink. The OG for this batch ended up spot on the recipe target. I may be delusional but I think I'm getting better at this.

Update 7/27/13 - Bottling day. This time I'll try shooting for a specific carbonation level. The carbonation level in a bottle of beer is measured in a simplified unit called 'volumes.' One volume is equal to one liter of CO2 at 20C at 1 atmosphere in 1 liter of beer. With a blonde ale like this I'll be shooting for 2.5 volumes of CO2 as a good amount of carbonation for this style.

According to this priming sugar calculator we should be using about 100 grams of corn sugar with our 4.0 gallons of beer. So I guess a good rule of thumb is 25 grams of corn sugar per gallon. Boiled 100g of priming sugar in 1 cup of water. Added to 4.0 gallons of beer while racking into the bottling bucket. Stirred a little with the wine thief. Yielded 40 bottles even. Carbonation on the Willamette Pale is a little low still. Hope this one carbs ok.

Willamette APA

For lucky brew number thirteen I decided to tackle a more experimental recipe. I had a bunch of Willamette hops laying around after my Guinness clone brew. Since the aroma and flavor isn't really detectable in a stout I decided to brew a Willamette-forward beer to get a sense of what these little buggers can do. You don't see a lot of all-Willamette beers out there and there may be a reason for it. We're about to find out. I emphasize "experimental."

I was also able to test the limits of my wort chiller with this brew day. I somehow decided it would be a good idea to start brewing outdoors at 2pm in 90 degree heat. After a very hot but enjoyable brew session my wort chiller was not able to bring temperatures down below 82. After pumping 10 gallons of cold water through the chiller I decided to give up and bring the show inside. The yeast was pitched after wort temp fell below 80. All the plants in the yard got a few large drinks of water after distributing all the hose water pumped through the chiller.

Brew Recipe
Brew Date: 6/1/2013
Style: American Pale
Batch Volume: 4.0 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: 7.4 SRM
Target Bitterness: 39.2 IBU
Target OG: 1.045
Estimated FG: 1.011

Grist
5.5 lb. American Two-Row Malt
1.0 lb. Pilsner Malt
0.5 lb. Crystal 60L Malt

1.0 oz. Willamette Pellet Hops (60 min.)
1.0 oz. Willamette Pellet Hops (15 min.)
1.0 oz. Willamette Pellet Hops (5 min.)
1.0 oz. Willamette Pellet Hops (1 min.)

1 pkg. Safale US-05 Ale Yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 154 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Pre-Mash Volume: 5.5 gal.
Post-Boil Volume: 4.5 gal.
Mash Efficiency: 71.4%
Measured OG: 1.041
Measured FG: 1.005
ABV: 4.7%
Calories: 132

Update 6/10/13 - Racked to secondary today with Julie. Julie had her first successful 1 gal. rack. It went by so fast! Pulled a gravity sample - 1.006. She's gonna be an easy drinker. Sitting at 4.7% ABV right now. It smells a little pungent so I don't think I'm a huge fan of the Willamette aroma but it tastes pretty good. May or may not dry hop with 1 oz. Willamette a few days before bottling.

Update 6/29/13 - Decided to pass on the dry hopping. Last couple of brews were hop monsters so I decided to settle things down a bit. Julie and I pulled off a joint bottling day with her first one-gallon batch yielding nine bottles and this batch yielding 37. FG was a low 1.005 so we should the crisp finish I'm looking for.